In watching the game I feel like we are the better team. But the better team doesn't always win. When you play just good enough to lose in every aspect. I give Fla. credit they played as well as they could and were prepared. They wanted it more. Notes 1. Ensminger never did totally make the adjustments needed to their blitzing. They confused the hell out of our qb and oline. He didn't put us in positions to succeed against the blitzes. 1 screen pass that I saw. That should have been called numerous times with the all out blitzes. Short crossing routes and quick throws. Not slow developing play action with a qb who had his back to line of scrimmage. Very few back out of backfield as outlet. QB held ball too long and didn't have pocket awareness. That is done in practice and should have been covered. in prep work . On running wide plays our runners have no idea when to cut. They let the play go too wide and it is stopped when their was a seam inside. 2.) Defensive game plan and tackling was worst ive seen in a long time. Our defense didn't have the it factor and sat back and were passive most of the day. I cant tell you how many missed tackles I saw. That is just effort and doing your job. Battle and number 23 were as inept at tackling as anyone ive ever seen. Numerous plays where they nosedived and had the runner dead to rights. Aranda should have been blitzing Franks in a lot of the same ways they were doing burrow. We simply got outcoached as well on both sides of the ball. In my view a total team breakdown and when you are on the road in the SEC you better bring it. We didn't. These are SEC refs and they suck but they are not the reason we lost. We lost this game in every facet. 3. Special teams other than field goals were subpar. Piss poor punt return decisions and on the last kickoff Helaire was too shallow has to go back and get the ball and then decides to run sideways. Who the hell is coaching these guys. Giles fields 2 punts on 5 yard line. Not football smart. This team relaxed and didn't have the spirit today that they have played with in other games. Fla. just seemed to want it more and were at home with a good crowd behind them. Oh well it hurts but still a great season can be had and lets get those damn Georgia bulldogs next week and get the bad taste out. I think we found out as a team you have to play hard for 60 minutes in the SEC. Geaux Tigers You can do it. Buckle down and show us your heart and bounce back against a good Georgia team.
This team has just been too flaky all year long. I’ll chalk it up to youth and inexperience but good teams find ways to win games and we couldn’t. A ton of that has to fall on coaching. The 2nd drive fumble hurt! Our offense could not take advantage of good field position when the defense gave it to them and that was just flat out poor play calling at times and poor execution at other times. And the way our defense responded in a few situations by giving up 3 long TD drives (especially the last one) to a below average Florida offense truly just exposed this LSU team as the pretender the media’s been screaming they are. Is what it is. You can look at our upcoming schedule two ways. Either, “uh oh”. Or that we have a chance to build off this loss and respond with a statement. I’m hopeful for the latter but think the former is more what’s going to happen.
I don’t think we’re far and away more talented. FU looks about on par with AU, which probably has a lot to do with coaching. Aranda didn’t seem to have his A game, like you said there was an epidemic of missed tackles. Our run D got destroyed, I guess we have to somewhat credit their run blocking - their line came to play and their RBs wouldn’t go down. Pretty shocking. Our pass D benefitted from Franks kinda sucking, but mostly handled the passing game. On the other hand, our run blocking and RBs seemed to mostly lose their battles. Is our RB coach symbolic for recruiting like our WR coach - can’t recall. WRs dropped too many, Burrow had trouble feeling pressure (like the SLU game). I think E eventually adjusted to the rush, but it took too long. STs is solid, except for the return game. Kicking is worlds better than last year, but our return game sucks. But, the structure of the game is basically eliminating the return game, so minimizing mistakes is key and we weren’t too bad there. I kinda felt like that one time we almost fumbled the punt we weren’t given the opportunity to catch the punt, but FU refs only call that against LSU. UGA should be another war, if we can split that game and Bama I’d be pretty thrilled.
We certainly didn’t look like #5, but I’m more in the latter group. I still think O has his best days ahead of him.
Really hit the nail on the head on D. The game plan was very vanilla and tackling between battle and 23 was horrific. 23 fell down in the hole with a one on one on the running back so many times I lost count.
This team just got smacked in the mouth by a team that wanted it more and that was evident. Orgeron has now lost 2 games against UF that we had zero business losing. I hope that was enough to get this team motivated to at least compete next week. This is going to be on the most brutal meaty part of a schedule we have seen in a long time. Still a lot to play for, and crazier things have happened. Geaux Tigers
One more thing, I feel like I need to point out that while Coach O has lost some games we shouldn’t have lost, he has also won some games he probably should have lost. I’m interested in seeing how this team bounces back. I hate Florida, I hate losing to those future whopper floppers and cell block 6 residents, but it is what it is.
I am anxious to see how much improvement is made from now till the end of the season. Looks to be a good bit left to be worked on.
Honest to god, I think if we have Phillips, there’s a shot we would have won the game. Phillips and an actual strong safety, it probably becomes more likely than not. Other teams will see the blue print until Phillips comes back: just run away from white.
