A win is a win. but what the hell happened to the offense in the 2nd half? I understand the conservative play calling the last 2 possessions of the game. But what about the 3rd quarter? Seemed like we stopped doing everything that worked. And no reason etienne wasn’t in the game for the first possession in the 2nd half. He was the running back with the hot hand
Their freaking O-line held our D-line all game long and the refs just let them get away with it... all game long. This game should have been an even bigger beat-down... if the refs would have called some of those holds.
Really great timing Sparky, you really know how to read a room. Give it a rest, we already know. Sheesh.
Plenty to pick apart on a discussion board but a win is a win. The Gators proved that they won’t back down… literally.
Great morning in Gainesville!!! Stars: Etienne Pearsall/ so key when it counts Mertz- Kid is a gamer!!! Armstrong- what a hire by Billy!!! Scooby- stud!!! Castell- instincts are awesome for his age. D Line- shut it down last night. Hats off to Coach Napier-well deserved victory!!!!!
I was at the game so I could not hear announcers talking about it. That’s why I asked. Fans at stadium didn’t know.
Gotcha. So he got his non throwing hand smashed and he was in a lot of pain so they taped and gloved it up for protection. Then a few plays later he cut his throwing hand thumb, they never specifically said how, and it was bleeding a lot. It affected his throwing hence all the running in the second half. I can see that being frustrating to fans at the game not knowing that information.
Hopefully, we don’t want be so conservative on offense (second half) to not let teams grab the momentum and possible beat us. This coaching management of the game can wear down the defense and get players tired and hurt. Devon Moore looked like he was limping in the second half, Princley also looked banged up. Of course he ran down their QB Milton and held them out of the end zone in the fourth quarter. Both offense and defense were aggressive in the first half then we sat on the ball. CBN was dinged repeatedly by the announcers and the game wasn’t secured till late in the fourth quarter. Just one more touchdown would have caved the Vols.
I am not ready to "data dump" on this game, but I wanted to post something this morning. I stopped posting after the first half just because it was a game I felt needed to be watched and not spent posting whatever I thought at the moment (and also read others' emotional gyrations). To me, THE most important aspect to the game was that THE SWAMP is now alive and hungry. This game would have NOT looked the same without the crowd. That is likely going to be our signature this year: wake it up and feed it, we WILL win against the better teams. Don't and... Scooby to me WAS the MVG. I saw him against McNeese and I said he was going to be our playmaker this year. I was proven right. I hope this is the "coming out" game for Napier, although he knows he still has some significant holes in his system. It is what it is. IMO, this game showed me, again, that Napier has at least one (and likely two) too many hats he is wearing. Tennessee made adjustments in the second half and Napier had too many distractions to do the "second half OC" job. ST coach...again...needs remediation......NOW. And as I said after the Utah game, Mertz is more than capable. He will win some games. He just needs to get more experienced and comfortable throwing slants to the real WRs (not the slot guys) and the occasional bomb. Baby steps to this place. I like his poise.
This was a weird on for me... I was pretty confident in this game, and thought we had a better chance to win than them. In my mind it was 60/40 Gators... Then, once the game started we had: 1. False start on the first play 2. More special teams blunders 3. 0 Points on the first drive, UT then drives like 5 plays for a TD. I will have to admit, I lost it there for a minute or two. My confidence in the team was hanging by a thread. Then, ETN with that run... AMAZING! After that, it was all Gators! I didn't have too much of an issue with the conservative play in the 2nd half, perhaps because I was watching on TV, so I knew the Mertz injury situation. We were running pretty effectively and UT made a couple of great plays to stop 1st downs that I thought we should have gotten. Was a little more concerned about the lack of pressure on Milton from our D. No big deal though... I slept like a baby last night! GO GATORS!!!
