It's hard to pin point how a team can lose after holding a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter. But the defense could not get a stop, and the offense had two turnovers late.
And it pains me to say this, but UF was outcoached by Les Miles in the second half. He gambled with a challenge (how they showed James was out, I have no idea), and he got two 4&1s in the final drive. Meyer could have called a time out earlier in LSU's final drive, but I don't know if that makes a difference. (According to the drive chart the difference in the clock was about 30 seconds.) LSU was able to build drives in the fourth while UF ran five offensive plays.
It makes me sick to my stomach that they couldn't hold on to win because they did a lot of things right. Haden and Wright looked fantastic, and Moore (12 rush for 79 yds) ran well and made two great catches. It wasn't Tebow's best performance (12-27 158 yds passing, 15 for 68 yds on the ground) but the three TDs were fantastic.
By the way, watching Meyer's press conference on Sun Sports sucks. But there were two good things to come from it;
- Meyer TWICE said, "I guarantee the Florida Gators will be back." Of course he doesn't say when, but he later mentioned the fact that two losses don't eliminate them from the SEC East race.
- Again, Meyer talked about the players response and the soul of a team. We should never use youth as an excuse, but Meyer knows the kids played hard. There aren't any confused looks any more.
One more note because I enjoy the little things; when Meyer sat down at the postgame press conference he opened up his Gatorade bottle and took a sip. He then put the lid back on it and looked at the flavor to figure out what the hell he just tasted. It was grape. The worst Gatorade flavor ever. It was that kind of day.
We'll have more Sunday morning.