Official Game Thread: Week 5, #9 Florida Gators 38, Towson Tigers 0 9/28/19

[DRU2012]

Alright, my friends. Lets see: Trask, 12-for-12. Running game starting to finally get untracked. Defense pitching a shutout against a competent and determined frontline QB. 17-to-nothing midway through the 2nd quarter. Finish the half in similar fashion, get Emory and running backs in there to burn yards and minutes, pull away and call it "another GOOD one"!
(I'm not even getting that superstitious, "careful what you say" feelings that I might have just jinxed us; more and more, I am becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea that we will rise or fall, win or lose based on the actual MERITS OF OUR PLAY in any given week, on any given Saturday. I see it as a function of good, honest COACHING. Game by game, season by season, we are getting better and better. We aren't there yet, but we do seem to indeed be HEADED "THERE".

 

[DRU2012]

THIS Towson team does keep plugging away on offense. We can't turn our backs on this one yet.
And they keep RUNNING on us--and WE keep missing tackles! I wish to HELL we could start wrapping up on first tackler, damnit!
Gotta stop them here; otherwise, they are still close AND have momentum beginning the 3rd quarter.
One more stop here, D.

 

[DRU2012]

Nice. OK, we'll take it. 3 score lead on a decent team at the half?
"Don't get cocky, kid!"
(Always a "win" when you can get in a "Star Wars" quote!)

 

[DRU2012]

Bah! That's what you get for pushing it at this point. If they had the running game it might have been different; as it is, you take the 3 score lead and redraw the DEFENSIVE gameplan at the half.
Gotta feeling Grantham will have an answer; "WILL IT WORK?" is the big Q.
These halftime announcers are making the obvious point: With Auburn coming in NEXT week, we have GOT to find our running game. That and good D, MUCH BETTER TACKLING, will make the difference after this--between say, 9-and-4 and maybe 11-and-2 or BETTER???
I AM saying that though we aren't YET that good, we ARE that close: Find the running game, tighten up and regularly field a more consistent defense and our possibilities go WAY up...and we have the talent (if a portion of it currently SITTING) over there to potentially GET THIS DONE.
Like the coaches, I am HOPING that they WILL be healthy after this week--question is, will they be READY? Seems to me we might be OUT-"thinking" ourselves by sitting them all out completely. Unless they really NEEDED this additional healing time, that it is uncertain as to whether they'll be fully healthy even NOW, in retrospect this could end up being a case of OVERcaution.

 

[DRU2012]

(Aw, what do I know anyway? I'm not a Coach--and I have great respect for ours, the staff Mullens has assembled here now. And I don't have the details, knowledge OR experience that they bring to the table, by any means. So I have to trust them, and in the end be comfortable with their decisions. But DAMN! The line between "Champion" and "near miss" can be SO FINE...)

 

[DRU2012]

HERE COMES THE 2ND HALF:
I'm not too worried about our getting the win here--and I LOVE that Mullens seems so PISSED at the overall performance thus far, especially on defense!
Lets see how this 2nd half goes; It WON'T just be about winning. We wanna see a certain DOMINANCE asserted by our guys here--on BOTH sides of the ball.
INT--really a punt delivered by ARM rather than foot! (Lol)

 

[DRU2012]

Yeah--more and more Kyle Trask looks a whole lot like the "2nd coming of Chris Leak"--similarly decisive and accurate, generally safe with the ball (maybe a tad TOO "safe", careful back there--squandered that INT's gift field position, did NOTHING WITH IT).
I'M probably being TOO picky, critical of him--but that may well BE the one flaw in his game regularly on display...You've got a strong, accurate arm there, Kyle: You had your tight end breaking free coming back towards you... THROW IT TO HIM!

 

[DRU2012]

I just wanna see us put this one away. We are more or less holding them UP now...
THERE IT IS--INT DOWN IN THEIR RED ZONE! YES! 1st and goal...

 

[DRU2012]

Yikes. Trask's 1st incompletion almost an INT in the endzone. Receivers did NOT help him in the slightest. Whole offense seemed to be confused.
Where is Jones today? Considering the weakness of our running game, I'm surprised we haven't seen him AT ALL so far, it seems.
They DAMN WELL better score here. This is their simple, free pass to put this one away. Anything else is a waste that gives them life and hope...

 

[DRU2012]

Now THAT was a nice play, great pass AND catch.
(But the one thing I DON'T like from TE Pitts is how fast he ditches the football after he catches it in the endzone... Time will come when he juggles it a little, then squeezes it but does that quick throw-away routine and a backjudge rules it an incomplete! TWICE now he has gotten it right AND gotten the call--but why show off, RISKING a miss? It's all about showing off, sure--and our Coaches need to have a TALK with him about it...It's bush league, and dangerous to the TEAM and its chances in a close game.)
We do have this one well in hand now, however.

 

[DRU2012]

Will we NOW see Jones?
Did Mullens want Trask to see more than a whole half, experience the strain and presures, ups and downs and just plain draining nature of a long, hot afternoon in an SEC stadium?
Made his point by now, if so.
We all know there is "ANOTHER game-WITHIN-the-game" being played out there in the course of this season, after all--the one that hopes to develop, keep and eventially PLAY, BE LED BY young Emory Jones eventually as the most talented teue "duel threat" QB on our roster who has exactly the tools and talents necessary to ideally operate Mullens version of a modern spread option offense one day--one that he is meanwhile collecting more and more of the components necessaryin order to properly RUN IT.

 

[DRU2012]

It's weird to say this, but I suppose we gotta give Flaco credit for it:
Here it is 31-0, Gators, but it sure FEELS as if Towson has played us pretty damn close--especially their offense on our DEfense! Hate to say it, but Flaco looks like EXACTLY the kind of talent Mullens could have used HERE AND NOW to RUN that aforementioned "spread". In fact he MIGHT have been a star "here and NOW", putting us in striking distance of playing in the FFF.
I know, I know: There are likely those who would argue that we are there now--or perhaps that we WOULD be, MIGHT be if it weren't for Franks' injury... but not me: If we are NOT really threatening to bust into that group at the top now, it ISN'T due to losing Filiepe. Think about it: Trask has done EVERYTHING ANYONE COULD HAVE ASKED OF HIM, and MORE since stepping in and STEPPING UP.
No--if we aren't quite "there" yet it is because of certain missing pieces, certain "lacks" at certain positions. We need not only to get the "right guy", but get them all working smoothly TOGETHER.

 

[DRU2012]

Was gonna say more above--but Emory Jones is in now and it is worth noting hos play: Aside ftom being a heck if a strong and shifty runner, he supposedly can make "all the throws"--and he is showing it here. Now he runs the ball to the endzone. Aw, they screwed up the whole deal at the goalline... That was a complete clusterf*ck down there--but then we get the PI in the endzone, and NOW we get that TD finally. OK Ok...
Lets just get out of this one without any further damage of ANY kind.

 

[DRU2012]

Oh--and BTW:
I think we just caught a TRUE "glimpse of our future" with Emory Jones--and it IS a promising one, to say the LEAST--even "ROSY"!
Has the look, when everyone is executing smoothly together, of a sort of "Tebow-era Gator Offense on Steroids"!!! Which is a scary thought, when you think about it--"Scary" to the rest of the SEC, or should be...So Trask runs it like Leak or (to others more like) Wuerfel, and Jones like "Tebow-offense on Steroids"...And Franks wants to come BACK next year...UM, it's NOT the worst problem we could have, but the future is ON ITS WAY, and there just WON'T be room for everyone...We WON'T talk about it now (no point), but it is hard to see how all this has a happy-ending for EVERYONE, ya know?
Aw F*ck it: MULLENS will make whatever decisions have to be made, he will make them based on what is best for the success and long term health of the team and prpgram, and eventually I think we will once again find ourselves at the TOP OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL--and it just isn't that far away!

 

[DRU2012]

Now we are just bumbling around, showing the consequences of new guys who've had few reps and little time with the first unit...and yet we STILL find ways to break loose here and there.
Thing is, this lack of efficiency AND consistency, especially in our running game, is likely to cost us against the best in the SEC--and we are ABOUT to face several of them next few weeks.
Like to see Malik Davis come around, add to the running game. We have a FEW RBs with skills, just STARTING to get time on the field.
Copeland drops ANOTHER TD pass right in his hands. This kid has great moves, gets open long--but so far hasn't managed to finish, hold onto the BALL, GET IT DONE. OH WELL--I think maybe he somehow got seriously poked in the eye by a defender as the ball arrived. You coukdn't quite tell where or WHAT happened on the replay--only that another "sure TD" got away from him. He's gonna get SICK of having to review at least one of THOSE each week in the film room!

 

[DRU2012]

Well, Coach Dan said it ALL here on the field after the gun. If you heard him, you KNOW: We got some work ahead--especially in the running game AND getting off the field on Defense.
Are we ready for Auburn?
We better be--'cause ready or not, here they come! You know, more than EVER, I think we match up: Maybe not so much against Alabama etc (though after Clemsen's near bust today, after looking vulnerable LAST week, havta say maybe NOT as much distance between us and the "very top" as we fear), but I truly think we can reasonably face Auburn with the knowledge, even CERTAINTY that we are capable of BEATING them.
It'll take our best game so far, by far--but we could be building towards just that.

 

[DRU2012]

Me, I'm about to move over and scout NEXT week's opponent: MSU is at Auburn, and the Bulldogs are already tryong to give this one away early...If you're watching, you know. Doesn't look like they're gonna get much of a game from the Bulldogs. PeeeeYoooooo! Nope--the only POSSIBLE benefit THIS game could bestow upon US is PERHAPS to give the Tigers a false sense of confidence in their own competence? I don't think I'LL be watching though...

 

[DRU2012]

Yeah--It's a bust: MSU is gift-wrapping a voluntary self-immoliation for them. Geez, talk about the difference a couple of years and a COACHING change can make (really, just a season and a BIT since Mullens moved on to Gainesville): THIS regime has somehow converted winners into self-loathing LOSERS who can surrender in this way...we can only hope that the same staff can indeed work it the other way.
Mmmmmm...Guess it's time for a move over to "Postgame"...Lets see, I notice that the game replay for OUR game is available for streaming now. I've got a hunch about the 4th quarter...

 

[Escambia94]