Keys to Victory over Razorbacks

[Mr2Bits]

Each week AM 850 sports gives you our "Keys To Victory" for the Florida football team; this week, the Gators play at Arkansas. AM 850 has live coverage of the game starting at 9:30am with the First And Ten pregame show.

Here are this week's Keys To Victory.

** Limit Turnovers. Florida is better on paper than Arkansas and the last thing the Gators need to do is to give the Razorbacks any help with turnovers. Last week, the Gators uncharacteristically had three turnovers and that number must significantly improve both Saturday and over the course of the season. Florida's plan to win will not work most times with a turnover number that high.

** Good Secondary Play. The Gator defense has improved but last week it was victimized by three or four big plays. This week, Arkansas will probably throw the ball a lot with an experienced quarterback in Casey Dick but he has also been somewhat erratic and turnover prone. The Gators will probably play a lot of nickel coverage with three down lineman in this game so the secondary will have to cover well and hopefully some blitzes can get to Dick to make him make some mistakes.

** Special Teams Have To Be Special Again. Special teams play last week was not good. An extra point was blocked, a rusher was allowed to put pressure on Chaz Henry causing a bad punt, and Ole Miss was able to execute a nice fake punt that kept a scoring drive alive. Florida must simply get its mojo back on this unit. Also, the coverage by the kickoff team must improve dramatically. Many teams have been able to open running lanes on this unit that has allowed them to get good field position on their drives. Florida ranks next to last in the SEC in this category and it must improve.

** More Consistency On Offense. While the Gators did put up 30 points and 443 yards of offense last week, the performance of this group has been a bit uneven. It was not able to hit open receivers on four or five different occasions last week and the wide receivers also dropped a few balls. The running game, except for Percy Harvin, was sporadic as well. Against a defense that has given up 38 points a game, last in the SEC, perhaps this will be the week when the Gator offense clicks on all cylinders and it might be a good opportunity to get more people involved in touching the ball outside of quarterback Tim Tebow and Harvin.

 

[O-town Gator]

Limit Turnovers. Florida is better on paper than Arkansas and the last thing the Gators need to do is to give the Razorbacks any help with turnovers. Last week, the Gators uncharacteristically had three turnovers and that number must significantly improve both Saturday and over the course of the season. Florida's plan to win will not work most times with a turnover number that high.

Even though Florida is much better on paper than Arkansas, we've learned through trial-and-error that even a weaker team can't be taken lightly. Not just preventing turnovers is crucial to a win, but also keeping the penalties way down is as well.

Good Secondary Play. The Gator defense has improved but last week it was victimized by three or four big plays. This week, Arkansas will probably throw the ball a lot with an experienced quarterback in Casey Dick but he has also been somewhat erratic and turnover prone. The Gators will probably play a lot of nickel coverage with three down lineman in this game so the secondary will have to cover well and hopefully some blitzes can get to Dick to make him make some mistakes.

This in itself presents a great opportunity to force Arkansas to commit the turnovers that could work to our advantage. Our secondary can't get caught with their pants down or commit errors such as Major Wright's faux-pas late in the 4th quarter of the Ole Miss game that was the final nail in the coffin for us.

Special Teams Have To Be Special Again. Special teams play last week was not good. An extra point was blocked, a rusher was allowed to put pressure on Chaz Henry causing a bad punt, and Ole Miss was able to execute a nice fake punt that kept a scoring drive alive. Florida must simply get its mojo back on this unit. Also, the coverage by the kickoff team must improve dramatically. Many teams have been able to open running lanes on this unit that has allowed them to get good field position on their drives. Florida ranks next to last in the SEC in this category and it must improve.

You snooze, you lose - that's how our special teams played against Ole Miss last weekend. We gave away way too much yardage to the Rebs on kickoff/punt returns, and on our end the blocking was so inefficient that Brandon James couldn't gain his usual yardage when it was our turn to receive.

More Consistency On Offense. While the Gators did put up 30 points and 443 yards of offense last week, the performance of this group has been a bit uneven. It was not able to hit open receivers on four or five different occasions last week and the wide receivers also dropped a few balls. The running game, except for Percy Harvin, was sporadic as well. Against a defense that has given up 38 points a game, last in the SEC, perhaps this will be the week when the Gator offense clicks on all cylinders and it might be a good opportunity to get more people involved in touching the ball outside of quarterback Tim Tebow and Harvin.

Tim Tebow & Company - this means you. Pay attention out there, communicate, solidify and NUT UP on that O-line, and MAKE PLAYS. And Tim, for crying out loud LOOK for the open receivers out there - don't just fixate on that one dude wearing the "1" jersey! Spread the damn ball around!

Come on Gators - GET UP AND GO!!!!!!!! :gator::gator::gator: