The good news is: I thought the defense played very well

...

 

Remediated. Fixing means somewhat less-than what needs to be done.

Fixing = more instruction.

Remediate = one less ST "coach". Signal sent!

 

My thoughts on the defense:

Secondary: better. Moten got roasted first play but overall looked improved. Had a perfect opp for INT wasted because both players went for the ball. That will improve with time.

Linebackers: Shemar awesome but the rest looked a bit pedestrian. Need to let the year play out.

DL: saw the flashes in Searcy and Collins. Expected a bit more from our DTs but only first game. Watson looked slower than last year. They need to do something about his weight, even if it is weight loss surgery.

 

Rewatching their first play, it should’ve been a pick. Just playing rattled.

Sapp also didn’t have a bad game.

 

One other thing that may work in the Gators favor- if we played Mcneese State first and then bombed
against Utah, the Gators would have only one week to work on issues. But since Utah was first,
it gives us an additional week to iron out some issues.

 

For all the hand wringing about play calling (and I’m one of them) … this is accurate. There WERE bright spots.
Oline will get better as the year moves on. 1st game jitters. Film improvement. On the road against a potential playoff team and we could’ve won that game if it weren’t for the special teams mistakes and drive killing Penalties. I think Mertz looked decent. He has fight and will to win. Team doesn’t quit.

 

If you have time to listen in the background, GNFP podcast pretty strongly agrees with the improvement of the D. If you have a weak stomach when it comes to discussion of the Offense and BN, might want to skip to 1:16:00 or so in.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/2023-utah-and-st-88769533

 

They did play better thank last year it seems, BUT let's not forget about a couple of huge drops they had that could have gone for big yards. We have a little luck on our side as well.

 

Usually watch a replay b4 commenting but passed on that this time. I will say that live , tackling looked a lot better, but disappointing pass rush.

 

No fan ever thinks of the misfortunes of their opponents. They probably left 14 points on the field. I wonder how many yards Cam Rising threw for? We have work to do. Billy and staff need to grind down on the fundamentals. All is not lost...

 

Maybe next week. This game should be played in the practice facility.

 

We got pressure at times and they didn’t seem to have all day. We also didn’t do our greased pig impression like we did at fsu last year to end the season. I’m not sure how much better they really are after only the one game but it’s is encouraging

 

Former Gator great Reidel Anthony didn’t have much good to say about the defense either. Says it all starts up front but the DL got pushed around all night and didn’t get pressure on the Utah QBs …

Former Florida Player Feedback: 10 Observations – Inside The Gator

 

Not all of them need to be excused by self made errors. Teams don't convert 100% of third downs.

 

Very true. Though it begs the question of exactly how many do need to be excused. If we were to excuse half of third down failures, that would put Florida at 1/6 on 3rd down. Extrapolating back to the original 13 attempts at that same rate would result in a total of 2 third down conversions, which doesn’t seem like a game-changing improvement.

 

Very well???

definitely weren’t watching the same game.

0 sacks

0 turnovers

guys streaking wide open way too often

horrible job containing the running qb on his brief stints and runs

dl got pushed around

all this against a 2nd and 3rd string qb

utah shut it down in the second half. They didn’t want their back up QBs giving the game away

Hard to judge off one game but I’m scared based on what I saw when this team plays talented QBs, WRs and OL. If Wrs are gonna be open with no one within 10 yards it’s gonna be a really long year.

 

Worth the listen IMO. I'm optimistic that we will continue to see improvement of the D throughout the year. Very pessimistic about the outlook for the O. Agree with their assessment that Napier should hire a highly competent OC after the season.

 

I'm not sure this math is indicative of anything. We can look at the actual plays and determine whether they were shots to our foot or not. I'm too lazy to actually do that but I'd guess that if we don't kill ourselves on third down we end up with a decent success rate.