Why'd we take our foot off the gas in second half?

Yea the new clock rules along with the strength of our offense will have us running the ball to keep the lead. I think that’s our identity right now.

 

This was the biggest driver in my opinion (and the score of course)...Very tall order for UT to get a W considering all circumstances. While it's not inspiring so to speak, the right call was to kill the clock in the 4th.

 

Between the clock rules, a QB with injuries to both hands, and a defense (!) that you can trust, Billy made the right moves on Saturday.

 

Billy made the calls to give the Gators the best chance at winning. And it worked. But playing this way, or playing not to lose rather than playing to win, will eventually catch up and bite Billy in the butt if he continues to manage games this way. I don't think the Gators have the roster and depth yet up to what Billy wants, and maybe in the future, Billy doesn't let up. But not with the current roster.

 

Its one game.
I was in knox when SOS did the same thing, ended up winning by 6

 

Probably because one pick six makes it an entirely different game.

We don't exactly have a high powered offensive track record at the moment.

 

UT didn't have the roster for a comeback. If we were up that much vs UGA, he would NOT let up in my opinion.

I shared your views during the game, but with a few days to reflect, he made the right calls in the 2nd half.

 

I don't think it's unacceptable to also give credit to UT defensive adjustments. We ran similar plays in the first half, but in the second half their tackling and gap control was improved.

 

Or last year's UT. I don't think out staff had much respect for Milton and Co. to score much. They were right we only needed 17. Milton is terrible under pressure and on the move.

 

When you have a defense, you can play a little more old school football. Field position, time of possession, running the ball. 1st downs burn an extra few minutes of clock. Unlike the last few years when we couldn't stop anybody. Had to go for it every 4th down just to try and stay in the game. I'm not a big fan of basketball on grass. I like when possessions mean something. Where scores feel like TDs and not just another basket on the court. I find the game more strategic and enjoyable. Now to get some play out of our special teams to be a complete team.

 

Unfortunately Napier is that rare type of coach who is comfortable with any lead and would rather try and play defense than run up the score.

 

This is the best answer. We can point out the best strategies employed by Spurrier, any “modern offense”, or any other offense on earth but the point is that Napier’s offense looks like this: get ahead, milk the lead, minimize risk. On rare occasion the Napier offense will gamble, hence the “Scared Money” thing—but Napier only gambled like that on a couple occasions in his career. The expectation should be to get a lead and milk the clock. It might not change with a dedicated OC if that happens next year, so prepare for that possibility.

 

Each game has its own dynamic. Tennessee has an explosive receiver group and a QB who can go over the top and score quickly. With that in mind you want to shorten the game and keep the ball out of his hands. Billy made the right call to let the air out of the game in the second half.
Going forward we will see different matchups and different game plans. I expect to see a more balanced game against Charlotte with Billy stretching the field with deep pass routes and using the running game to force Charlotte to stack the box. Very different from the Tennessee game.

 

Keep throwing passes and adding more possessions to the game will bite you in the ass also. Either way you’re taking a chance, but this was the way today.

 

Most of the posts on this thread are right on point, no pun intended. Plus, if the Gators had continued passing, and the game had become closer, I'm confident there would be fans posting things like, "Why was he calling pass plays!?!? Incompletions stop the clock, giving TN even more time. Plus, when you pass, there are 3 three things that can happen, and two of them are bad!" Coach Napier can literally not win with some fans, even after an impressive win like the coached the Gators to Saturday.

 

Sigh, if the goal of being conservative was to limit possessions, then it objectively failed. That does not inherently mean it was the wrong choice, BN could have believed his run game would continue to gash TN and bleed the clock. I mean ETN was average like 9 yards a carry or something at the time. There are other circumstances and nuances I'm not privy to that may also had factored into the decision making, so I'm not questioning him or his choice. He himself admitted to being too conservative, he did what he thought was right at the time but it didn't work out as planned, but I'm sure it will be thrown in my face that we won anyways.

 

Fear. Luckily, in this case, scared money made money.

 

"Goo goo g'joob".

 

I'm a firm believer that when you get a lead, you continue to play the way that got you the lead until the game is far out of reach. True, all games can change, but I had tickets to the NY Giants at the AZ Cards game yesterday. The Cards blew a 20-0 halftime and 28-7 third quarter lead by taking their foot off the gas on offense starting the middle of the third quarter. Sure, a pick-six or a couple of 3 and outs that only run 1 minute of clock time and the outcome might have been the same. But easier to live with a loss where you continued to play the way you got the lead, rather than play not to lose, and lose anyway.

Now, each game is different. And I don't think Billy has the roster to keep the pedal down for 60 minutes on O. Especially without a 100% Mertz. Some day, this will likely change. But I agree with Spurrier's attitude that he'll stop trying to score when his opponent agrees to stop trying to score too. One of Spurrier's contemporaries, Dick Tomey, coached at Arizona, and lost some huge games by playing not to lose. And decades later, blowing a 20-0 halftime lead to CAL in 1993 that cost Arizona a Rose Bowl appearance still stings like it was yesterday.

 

We had four pass attempts in the second half. That's not similar to what we did in the first half. We were conservative, and because our defense was playing very well, holding them to nine points in the half, it wasn't necessary to play differently than we did. It's not exciting, but it was damn sure effective.