The young man with the longest arms I've ever seen, proportionally speaking, might reach over and snag an int. or two. Just got a feeling that Milton could be a little sloppy with ball placement if we can get some pressure on him. He tore it up behind the line of scrimmage last week - but only completed one pass beyond the LOS. According to a clearly concerned Vol podcaster, Milton connected on a twenty yarder that was so poorly thrown the receiver had to dive to snag it. Some are actually wondering out loud if it should be Niko time in TN.
I really like our DC. We are playing fundamental football, setting the edge, tackling, actually covering wr's tight. I believe the foundation is set for putting the D back in Gator football.
One thing I noticed in Saturday's game was the DL was well off the LOS, getting caught off sides at the snap shouldn't be a problem this year.
Me too. But I am happy that we did well vs an FCS team. When against Eastern Washington last year we were poor, USF abysmal and two years ago FcS Samford was a total embarrassment.
That’s a very good perspective. Those who mock Saturday’s performance as being against an FCS team maybe forget that even against FCS teams performance was not so good in the past few years.
This years D with the Trask team = National Championship Heck even this years D with last years team would be a near top 10 team
Hell this year's team both sides of the ball may surprise you. Through the 1st two games Mertz is completing 76% of his passes , one of those games against a decently stout defensive top 15 ranked team. That's spectacular thus far. Hope he can keep it up this Saturday.
The defense has been the best we have seen in what feels like over a decade. LBs scraping and filling gaps and the secondary covering well. Even playing sound when in zone. The LB core is still a little weak in pass coverage and the DL isn't getting as much push upfront, but I will take the huge improvements we have seen.
And we were on a 4 game losing streak leading up to the game, so this win, in this manner, at this time was much needed.
Sample size is still relatively small. Utah shut things down after the INT/score early in the third, and McNeese St wasn't very good. But generally speaking we look strong. I've been pretty impressed by the play of the corners. Not a lot of open receivers anywhere in the back third. Linebackers have tackled much better. The big DTs have solidified our run defense. Think 2.7 per rush, IIRC. Take away the big run by Utah's Johnson and it would look even better. Lots of bodies rotating through that front four, too. My primary concerns are a lack of big plays. No turnovers forced and only 2 sacks so far. We desperately need more impact from that side of the ball. Safeties are playing cautiously, which has definitely helped avoid big plays. And the upfield pass rush misses Boone. But we need more playmaking on that side of the ball.
Completion percentage can be misleading, especially if you dink and dunk. So far the 2022 offense is better than the 2023 version.
Utahs offense is bad right now and McNeese state is terrible. We’ll have a much better idea on real progress by the defense by end of next week. The signs are promising though. Especially third down defense.
Mertz through 1st 2 games. (Passing) CMP/ATT CMP% YDS AVG TD INT LNG RTG 45 / 61 73.8. 526. 8.6 2 1 50. 153.7 AR passing stats through his 1st 3 games DateOpp. Cmp. Att. Yds. TDs. Int9/3/2022Utah. 17. 24. 168. 0. 09/10/2022Kty. 14. 35. 143. 0. 29/17/2022USF. 10. 18. 112. 0. 2Avg 5.7 yards per comp with a 40% completion rate with 0 TD's 4 INTs and 423 yards in 3 games. So Mertz through the air so far is 3 yards more per completion , 33% better completion rate, a qtr of the interceptions, and 2 TD's and 103 more yards through only 2 games. So The completion percentage is not deceiving when you compare directly to AR's last season. Not sure how you can say they are all dink and dunk passes when he's throwing for nearly a 1st down on every completion on avg. (8.6) which is 3 yards more then AR did. Now AR is an athletic freak and Mertz (or anyone) can't compare physically, but Mertz is waaay more of a polished passer than AR was, and with as many Times AR came up limping gingerly on his legs after a scramble his unpolished/ less catchable passing skills hamstrung us more than it didn't, because when he couldn't run he was much more ineffective. And For the record I believe that was do to his inexperience as he has all the tools to have been great for us but didn't get there in his lone season with any significant playing time at the helm.
Wait for what? We needed a win in the worst way, and we got one. No one here is over the moon because of a victory over an FCS team. Some of us are moderately happy however, because we looked like we did some good work during the week and made undeniable improvement in game two. Unlike the woeful and world weary among us, I'll enjoy this little victory and hope for more impressive ones in the not-too-distant future - as the spirit moves me. Thanks in advance for your indulgence.
