Florida Gators -- Week #7

That was bad. This week I'll quote my cousin who sent me a text: "Sucks to lose to a team that sucks..." I'll save the rest in case any of you have sensitive ears/eyes. I thought to win this game the Gators would have to be healthy. The Gators were far from healthy entering the game and are even worse off after the game. I do believe that with John Brantley at quarterback, the Gators could have won. But...

The offense was just pathetic. I would expect A LOT more from an offensive coordinator with the reputation Charlie Weis has. He used to score well into the 30s with Notre Dame and their talent never came close to matching what's on this team. I know he wasn't going against SEC defenses, but Auburn does not have a great defense. I nearly broke my ankle Saturday night jumping off of the "get Jordan Reed the ball" bandwagon. This was the first week I noticed a concerted effort to get him the ball. Unfortunately he dropped one pass in the end zone (tough catch but I'm sure he'd tell you he should've caught it), was overthrown on a flea flicker and he dropped another pass that may have been a touchdown though there were only four seconds left in the game. He also showed no field awareness when catching the ball near the sideline.

I don't have the roster in front of me, but are there any wide receivers on the team? Frankie Hammond caught a few and looked pretty good. Outside of that I can't remember any wide receivers making any plays or even being open.

And seriously, no one could catch an Auburn punt? I know those suckers were up there and the first Rainey muff may have been caused by interference but come on, catch the ball. I wasn't surprised that Rainey was in for the punt block on the last punt but I was surprised that Robert Clark was back to receive the punt. I would have strongly considered rushing 11 and not having anyone back.

The uncalled penalties were outrageous. I really think the Chris Rainey interference non-call could have gone either way. But not much later in the game there was as blatant a defensive holding as I've ever seen yet it was not called. Coincidentally (I think) it was a non-call against Chris Rainey. On a third-down on our third drive after two 3-and-outs, Jacoby Brisset strung together two first downs and was trying to hit Chris Rainey on a little screen that would have netted a first down. One of Auburn's defensive lineman just grabbed a jersey full of Rainey and didn't let go. There was another uncalled penalty later on, but my old mind doesn't remember the situation.

It was nice to see a new punter out there. Christy averaged about 46 yards per punt, which includes the shank job that he dropped. Silly mistake but I still think the Gators found a punter.

The defense played better but I have a sneaking suspicion a lot of that is due to playing a lesser team. Auburn dropped a lot of balls and committed a lot of penalties which helped out. The defensive line is still jumping offsides; one time leading to a free play for a touchdown. They are also still inconsistent against the run as there were several 8-15 yard running plays against them.

This'll be a nice week to have off and hopefully get healthy before the Cocktail Party. This is the game I think the Gators need to get to 7 wins.

I know I'm leaving plenty out. I usually forget stuff every week. I think Freud would call it a defense mechanism.

Just Joe

More Pet Peeves

Just another quick post for this week...

Watching football this weekend reminded me of 2 pet peeves I have when it comes to the announcers.

First, not all handoffs to wide receivers are reverses! The ball must be going in a direction before it can be reversed. After the quarterback takes his drop and hands it to a receiver, that's called an "end around." Now, if that receiver hands the ball to someone else running in the opposite direction THEN it is a reverse! So please, stop calling end arounds "reverses" and stop calling reverses "double reverses!"

Second, it is nearly impossible to catch a ball "at its highest point!" To be able to do that, at times a person would have to be able to jump 20 feet in the air; maybe even more depending on the throw. Certainly a receiver can catch the ball at his highest point of a jump but rarely can and receiver get the ball at the ball's highest point.

Thanks for letting me air that out.

Just Joe

Florida Gators -- Week #6

Ouch, take 2.

Let’s start with the good. Jacoby Brisset. I thought he looked incredibly smooth out there. Not just for a true freshman starting his first game, but as an overall athlete all of his movements were so coordinated and fluid. I’m thinking there’s going to be quite a battle for the starting quarterback position come spring and next fall. His first interception came on a route that Jordan Reed gave up on and his second interception will hopefully be a learning experience; put the ball where your guy gets it or no one gets it. I thought it was kind of funny that we were running so much option. I know Charlie Weis had to plan with the athletes he had available but it still made me chuckle at the irony. The sad part is that it looked better than it did last year under Urban!

The other good that stood out to me was Dominique Easley. No newsflash here but he’ll be playing on Sundays. He is so fast off of the ball! He is regularly the first lineman making contact with the opposing lineman. Sometimes he is so fast he seems to be across the line of scrimmage before the ball is even snapped, but never mind that part for now.

On to the bad. The defensive line was once again exposed. The only way to keep from getting worn out over 4 quarters is to make third-down stops early on. With LSU coming out so jacked up with the home crowd behind them, those early stops just weren’t happening. The “Mad Hatter” made a nice call on the second play of the game going deep when the Gators were surely selling out after a first play 13 yard run. Of course, the call was made to look all the better when Pop Saunders blew his deep middle coverage.

I have to call out the coaching here a little bit. This will sound like second-guessing but I promise you these were my thoughts before the outcomes of the plays:

On our third possession, down 14-0 on 4^th & 1. I loved the call to go for it even though it isn’t by the book. At the time it felt like 21-0 would not have felt any worse than 14-0. So no problems there. But later on in the same drive, faking the punt on 4^th & 6 did not seem necessary. I felt we had controlled the ball for a few minutes by making a couple of first downs and that things were calming down (at least from a fan’s point of view). It doesn’t matter that Burton probably should’ve made it, it was definitely not the right call.

The other coaching call I questioned was after the LSU punt after our failed fake punt. LSU pinned the Gators back at the 8 yard line but there was a procedure penalty against LSU. My thought was to add the 5 yards to the kick and take the ball at the 13 yard line. The best thing that could have happened by making them kick again was a touchback which would have been a 7 yard gain. Instead, LSU gets another chance and the punter ends up calling his own number and runs the ball into the end zone (which was subsequently called back to around the 25 yard line). I can’t say I knew that was going to happen, but from the television angle behind the punter, you could clearly see the entire left side of the special teams open up. Even though I was watching the game by myself, I said, “Uh-Oh,” out loud as I saw both guys who were covering the left gunner just turn and take off.

Here’s something that I wasn’t sure about. How did LSU get the ball to start the second half AND get fourth-quarter wind? LSU won the toss and deferred until the second half. In the second half they chose to receive the ball, of course. That left the Gators to decide direction. Shouldn’t they have chosen to go against the wind in the third quarter in hopes of having the wind at their backs should a last-second field goal be necessary? Maybe they just didn’t want to kick off into the wind to start the half? LSU made the same choice in the first half (chose to kick off with the wind) so maybe I’m way off on that strategy?

Penalties! Enough with the penalties! Do all of those encroachment/offsides penalties reflect on the coaching staff or the players? Whoever’s discipline problem it is, fix that shit!

And finally, shouldn’t a major Division I program have a better punter than what the Gators have? Can Chas Henry grow a 'stache and re-enroll for four years?

Just Joe

My Imaginary Friend

I'm sure that by reading the title you're probably thinking I'm going to discuss my imaginary friend from when I was a little kid. Surprise, surprise...

I was more than a little saddenned this past week when the trees and bushes in our yard were trimmed. It meant the death of my two week old imaginary friend. You see, when I sit up in bed and look out my bedroom doors, I see the reflection of a particular tree in the glass doors of the back patio. Well, the branches in one section of the tree began to look like a face. Not a human face though, more of a cartoony, caricaturey, monster face. Sort of a cross between Carol from Where the Wild Things Are and Junior Gorg from Fraggle Rock (If you get one of those references, we're cool. If you get them both, we are peeps). And although I never spoke to him and he never spoke to me, I did become accustomed to seeing him there. He wasn't quite a security blanket but he definitely became a friend. I just love it when I can share someone's company without having to talk all the time.

Godspeed, monster friend. I'll miss your puffy lips and kind eyes. But most of all I'll miss your comedically, bulbous nose. Who knows, maybe with a little luck you'll come back. I'd probably talk to you this time though so be sure to bring your ears!

Just Joe

Florida Gators -- Week #5

 OUCH! Unfortunately, that 38-10 loss to Alabama went about as I expected. Actually, it ended up worse since John Brantley was lost due to injury late in the second quarter. Going in I said I would be happy if we hung with Alabama for three quarters. And even though Alabama threatened to pull away in the second quarter, a scoreless third quarter meant we indeed did hang with them for three quarters. In fact, if the Gators could have put up a score in the third quarter the whole feel of the game would have been different.

Where to begin? I loved the call to open the game. With Alabama sure to play up to take away speedsters Chris Rainey and Jeffrey Demps, throwing deep to loosen things up and let everyone know that that is in the arsenal was a good call, and the result didn't stink either! The entire first quarter Brantley was given all kinds of time by the offensive line. This led to the Gators moving the ball steadily but only coming away with 3 points after the opening play. Quarters 2 through 4 were a different story. Alabama switched to a zone defense which seemed to completely stump the offense. And at no point was the offensive line able to open up any running holes.

Defensively I thought it was important to get early 3 and outs to keep from being worn down later in the game. Instead, the "bend but don't break" defense became the "bend and break" defense. The young guys just couldn't hold up to the relentless onslaught of Alabama's offensive line. Those bulldozers just kept coming and proved that big and fast beats fast every time. It will be nice to see some size in the Gators offensive backfield next year with running back recruit Matt Jones who measures in at 6''3", 215 pounds. Hopefully he can do some damage the way Trent Richardson does for Alabama this year.

The defense did have some success in the third quarter but I thought the same thing that the announcer mentioned, Alabama looked like they let off the gas. It seemed like many of their running plays in the third quarter were simple and straight ahead. But once they began pulling linemen again in the running game, it was over.

I suppose it's a good thing that the backup quarterback Jeff Driskel received some playing time against this nearly-professional level defense since next week he'll have to face one for an entire game (and on the road no less).

The special teams were hot and cold. Mostly hot on returns and mostly cold on coverage. After receiving the kickoff after Alabama's first score, Jeffrey Demps was one missed Mike Gillislee block away from scoring a touchdown. 14-3 may have been a little more interesting than 10-3 (Florida scored a field goal on that drive).

On the bright side, this only counts as one loss. With South Carolina losing this week, the Gators are still tied for first in the East and still have a chance to get to Atlanta for the SEC championship game. A win at either #1 LSU next week or at Auburn the week after is a must. At full strength I would hope we could hang with LSU for three quarters as we did with Alabama. But with a freshman quarterback getting his first start on the road, all bets are off and I have no idea what to expect. Well, I have an idea but I will remain hopeful!

Just Joe

The LFL

If you've been following along since May, you know that I'm a big fan of mixed martial arts. If there are 2 trained fighters going at it, I'm watching. Well, MTV2 broadcasts fights from a promotion called Bellator which is actually based up the road from me in Hollywood, Florida. A few months ago I was checking out MTV2 in hopes of seeing the week's fights. Unfortunately for me, there was no event that night.

Instead, the LFL All-Star Game was on. How ridiculous this must be! I've been shaking my head at the thought of this "league" for years now. "Well, as long as I'm here, I might as well watch a play or two," I convinced myself. I know, I know; sometimes I even disappoint myself. Anyway, after a couple of plays I realized that these players were really laying it all out there! Er, uh, so to speak. The quality of the football was -- I don't want to say "terrible" but it was probably 2 or 3 notches above some of my buddies and me playing in a field. There was one difference though, these players were really hitting! Their effort alone was impressive and I fear I may have underestimated these guys. Sure the quarterbacks threw like girls and some of the players even ran like girls, but what can you expect when you're watching The Lingerie Football League!

I know what you're thinking. Probably the same stuff I used to think. But these girls were WAY more athletic than I gave them credit for. And sure, they were in tiny outfits but they were more covered than you would see in an average 1980s beer commercial. And seriously, these girls were hitting hard! One team had a quarterback who was 6'2", 200 pounds. She was a running quarterback and when she got into the open field and had a full head of steam, yikes, I wouldn't jump in front of her with someone else's body! Yet along would come a tiny, little (relatively speaking) defensive back to take her head on and make the tackle. Sure, it looked more like the quarterback just got the smaller girl's corpse tangled in her feet, but she still went down.

So I ended up watching an entire half and came away with much more respect. I haven't watched a single down since then but I definitely encourage you to watch a few plays and see if you come away as impressed as I did. Who knows, maybe it will become your newest guilty pleasure.

Just Joe


NEXT WEEK:   Not Sure yet