1 The more I think about how unprepared the defense looked, the more concerned I get 2 I’m still not willing to put all the blame at Milton’s feet for the offensive issues 3 That said it’s obvious the staff is holding back for some reason 4 If Cooper Mays is still injured enough he couldn’t go last night I’m not sure he needs to play before the BYE at minimum if at all this year. 5 I love Heupels overall philosophy but the stupid penalties have got to be fixed. 6 Congrats to Kamal Hadden for passing Teddy Gaines as the worst DB to wear orange in my lifetime. Can be argued his missed tackle “attempt” (I use that word very loosely) is what got Florida rolling when we had them in the ropes early. I will cheer at his senior day only because I’ll not have to see him on the field again. 7 Our RBs are running harder than any we’ve had since the 90s. 8 I do enjoy watching DBs try to tackle Bru 1 on 1 9 The officials. Oh boy the officials. Would love to see an alternate reality ending of what happens if that idiot doesn’t trip over the football on 4th and short. That’s unacceptable in every sense of the world. But it’s a reminder college officiating is nothing but a good ol boy system and that crew won’t face any punishment for that performance last night. If nothing else they’ll all have a good laugh about it. 10 Dreading watching us struggle with a not nearly as good as predicted UTSA team next week. We’re probably about to make Bama effort yesterday look noble.
Pretty much all of this. I really have no idea what to expect from the rest of the season, because the whole SEC looks terrible, and so many of our wounds against Florida were self-inflicted. But at the same time…giving up third and long has been a problem for a while, and that’s three games in a row with a lot of self-inflicted wounds. I think Heupel goes back to running to set up the pass, which should be enough against UTSA, but our line isn’t where it needs to be. 9-3 seems like a pipe dream the way we played last night, but at the same time, is it that unrealistic to expect to beat Missouri, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Texas A&M? If the secondary can’t get fixed, maybe—A&M and South Carolina can throw. But none of those teams have really proven to be good. This has all the hallmarks of being our annual worst game of the season, and hopefully it is. But some of the red flags are things I’m getting increasingly worried won’t get fixed this season.
I don't want to get started on Hadden and I'm not saying last night was all on him but I've always thought he was a big liability back there and last night he's continues to confirm my belief. Any OC worth a damn tells his QB to look for his side of the field and attack there. You'll either get a penalty or a completion. Bottom line for this team as I see it, they're not on the same page and I don't know if that can be corrected.
I’m beyond tired of Banks. People on Milton and others but his philosophy is soft and sucks. Bend but don’t break passive make the other team make a mistake bullshit. We don’t get turnovers, we don’t break up passes. We don’t anticipate. We don’t watch and learn from film or our lbs wouldn’t still be confused in q3 on the same [uck fay]ing motion and plays. Cbs suck. Safeties playing 15 yards behind Wrs. DL can’t figure out qb exits right every time. D lost that game in the first half giving up 6/7 3rd downs.
Banks is John Chavis’ love child. I’m tired of him, too. He’s not good enough and neither is Martinez. You can’t have multiple games where the opponent marched down the field on every possession in the first half. He’s been protected by the offense the past couple of years, but his incompetence shines now.
When we do blitz, we still give cushion. If we are sending pressure, get tf up on the Wrs or bait a throw and break. Sending pressure and giving Wrs the sticks with cushion is just dumb coaching and playing. Having a freshman lb matched up in the flat with Peirsol is dumb coaching. Dropping 30 and 27 into coverage is dumb coaching. We gave up 10+ ypc I believe. Forcing the opponent to make bad throws on 5-10 yard throws instead of forcing them to make a play downfield is damn soft and you can’t tell me as a defender the call doesn’t affect my play if I’m supposed to drop 15 yards and “keep it in front of me” where we plan to tighten up and limit them to fgs. Stupid ass nfl philosophy in a different ballgame in college. Pili woulda helped. 44 got abused most of the night by letting himself get blocked and multiple horrible angles.
We made "good adjustments" coming out of half, but I think most of that was the fact that they threw almost no passes and relied on clock management to win. Florida threw the ball 4 times in the 2nd Half. This game overall felt just like the Georgia game last year. We were completely out schemed, out coached and the box score ended up not looking so bad despite a completely one-sided 1st Half. Team just looked like it didn't give a shit. And while the Defense played terribly, it wasn't helped by the Offense at all. Our D was bad last year but overall we were competitive in -most- games by our Offense. After the TD, our offense ran 5 plays for 19 yards, 2 plays for -2 yards and an INT, 3 plays for -5 yards and 6 plays for 24 yards. That horrible performance has just as much to do with us being down 26-7 instead of 19-14 at the half. The INT was particularly back-breaking as it gave them a [uck fay]ing 9 yard field. Overall the team was not prepared. Mentally, emotionally, schematically, etc. I'm worried about the direction of the program for the first time under Heupel. The UGA and USC games from last year look less and less like one-offs and more and more like they're a new normal under Heupel. His teams just get [uck fay]ing shellshocked on the road it seems.
We gave up 8.7 on the night. You're not wrong though, the defensive scheme was bad. We tried to be cute and rely on a 4-man front for pressure and it's clear we cannot do to them what they and it seems most other programs can do to us.
thing is Mertz wasn’t taking big drops and throwing it downfield. He was rolling (he’s going right guys! Just fyi. Maybe push him left, once!!”) or just dumping it, or hitting soft spots in zone.
Florida seemed perfectly content to just not throw it. That strategy worked, but it shouldn't have. Milking the clock up 16 early in the 3rd Quarter is pretty stupid, but it worked because our Offense is inept with Milton. Right. We didn't adjust to it until after half. By that point it was way too damned late.
We looked listless in the first quarter. Joe didn’t look like he even cared at points. The penalties we actually committed were atrocious. The refs sprinkled in their own bs to make it a full on catastrophe. The offensive line is not good and we have no depth. That may be a long term issue looking at recruiting, but with the transfer portal I realize this could be fixed quickly. How old is Hadden? Anybody who’s ever “bumped” a ball carrier and not even tried to wrap up is immediately yanked at every level of football I’ve ever seen. I watched him do that twice last night and I’m sure there were more instances, that’s below peewee level shit. these are the bones I had to pick
Joe ain't it. He can't run an offense, he has no control or just doesn't grasp what he needs to do. Banks' defense has no identity. They were a physical, attacking defense against Clemson, UVA and APSU. Last night, they played a soft zone and let Florida gain 6 yards a carry. Do something good and stick with it. Hadden should never play another snap here Go full youth movement. If anyone on the team feels it's unjust, they can leave. Napier, tell your qb to take a knee The officials were awful but on the 4th down, if Milton has any awareness, he can snap the ball with approximately 17 gators on the field.
This O cannot work if we don’t have qb buying time and running for first downs. That said, in the past if you told me we would throw for 285 and 2 tds at the swamp and have 3 Wrs avg near 20 yards/catch and go 8/15 on 3rd downs I assume we win.
I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, but this team has a lot of issues to sort out. The defense, while better, is still shreddable. Add the much weaker offensive performance, penalties, etc., and this is a slightly above average team. Manage your expectations because we can easily lose to any of those teams. There won't be many (any?) blowouts this year.
We look bad. Everyone else looks bad. We could win 10 or lose 7 just as easily. If you made me guess today, I’d probably say 7-5. But if this was really an “everything goes wrong at once” game, I think 8-4 is reasonable, and 9-3 isn’t out of the question. If this is what we can expect all season…well, we’ll probably make a bowl. Probably.
