The Sunday Blog, week four

[News Bot]

The Sunday Blog is under the weather this morning in Lexington but Bloggies need their Sunday fix before the NFL games so we press on.
A special shout-out to Bryant Moniz of Hawaii who tied an NCAA record with seven touchdown passes in the first half late Saturday night. Among the holders of the record are Doug Johnson and Terry Dean. You remember those days? So does Steve Spurrier.
And while we sometimes question where we are as a society because of the advanced technology, it was great to be able to watch so many games in the Kentucky press box on my laptop. Tired, ill, but full of college football knowledge.
Well, full of something.
THE NOT-READY-FOR-PRIME-TIME
COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOP 25
1. LSU: Won a neutral site game against Oregon, won at Mississippi State, won at West Virginia. The Tigers deserve the top spot.
2. Oklahoma: Sooners trailed at home for first time since 2007 but Landry Jones (448 passing yards) rallied Okie.
3. Alabama: When Bobby Petrino says his team was beaten in all three phases of the game, he wasn’t kidding.
4. Stanford: After an open date, Stanford gets the next best thing — UCLA,
5. Boise State: The beat goes on.
6. Wisconsin: Badgers look like Russell Wilson has been in the system for four years.
7. Oklahoma State: Great rally by the Cowboys against Texas A&M.
8. Nebraska: Struggled with Wyoming early before pulling sway.
9. Oregon: Good news for Ducks — no more SEC defenses.
10. South Carolina: Gamies are winning ugly but it beats not winning ugly.
11. Florida: Titanic duel with Alabama this week.
12. Texas A&M: Couldn’t hold first-half lead but that’s still a good team.
13. Virginia Tech: Hokies have been less than impressive but Clemson in next.
14. Arkansas: ‘Backs won’t be the last team to get destroyed by Tide.
15. South Florida: We’ve seen great Septembers by Bulls before. Can they sustain it?
16. Baylor: Kind of under the radar since the first week but putting up numbers.
17. Texas: We’re about to find out if the Longhorns are any good.
18. Clemson: One caveat — those two big wins were at home against a shell of the national champs and a team without its starting quarterback.
19. TCU: Horned Frogs still have defensive questions.
20. Michigan: Denard Robinson should be moved to tailback.
21. Illinois: In typical Ron Zook fashion, the Illlini struggled a week after a big win.
22. Georgia Tech: Paul Johnson has the Wreck humming.
23. Florida State: Now the schedule gets really easy for the Seminoles.
24. Michigan State: Spartans can still have a big season.
25. West Virginia: No couches were burned in the making of this poll.
THE SEC FOUR-PACK
1. Kentucky is really bad. You saw how bad Saturday night. It was a nice performance for the Gators but the Wildcats are really bad. They’re so bad that two columnists in Kentucky questioned Sunday morning whether or not Kentucky should try to make a jump to another conference where it could be competitive. Mark Story of the Lexington Herald Leader pointed out that Kentucky is one of four BCS schools without a nine-win season since 1984 (Duke, Vandy and Indiana are the others). Next up for the Wildcats — at LSU. What’s the over/under on first downs in Baton Rouge for Kentucky?
2. Steve Spurrier must feel like he’s finally arrived at South Carolina. His team beat an unbeaten team Saturday night to go to 4-0 … and the Gamecocks got booed by the home crowd. South Carolina’s offense was described by the head ball coach as “putrid.” Which made it the second most smelly offense on the field. Vandy may have some new life under James Franklin but the offense still looks awful. By the way, can the Sunday Blog get the Melvin Ingram for Heisman movement going?
3. In the off-season, I thought Arkansas had a shot to win the national title. The one thing I didn’t like about their schedule was that they had to go to Alabama early. Bobby Petrino may want to rethink playing cupcakes for three weeks to prepare for a game like that because his team looked overwhelmed on the big stage. Gator fans could not have been encouraged by watching the Tide steamroll Arkansas, but every game is its own game.
4. Remember Jordan Jefferson? I didn’t think so. Man, when was the last time you even heard his name. Jarrett Lee has been very efficient as the LSU quarterback and he’s the opposite of the guy who threw seven pick-sixes two years ago. He threw three touchdown passes against West Virginia. Sometimes it just takes time to grow an SEC quarterback.

Source: GatorSports.com - Dooley's Desk

 

[Escambia94]

Gator fans could not have been encouraged by watching the Tide steamroll Arkansas, but every game is its own game.

I am actually encouraged by the Alabama-Arkansas game. I knew beforehand that Arky was over-rated. They are all offense, no defense. That sounds like Big 12 football, not SEC football. Perhaps Arkansas is forgetting its SEC roots and it trying to look like its former SWC/ soon-to-be-defunct Big 12 brethren. Florida should take its first step in reclaiming the Swamp next week. Maybe they won't beat Bama, but I like our chances in the upset.

 

[CaliZona_Gator]

I'll admit that Bama looks a lot better after last week. Kentucky was pretty effective with their RB screens, and Bama is great with those. I know Saban took notice.

 

[DRU2012]

Don't mean to beat this into the ground, but it seems simple enough when you clear away all the reasons and rationales:
To win this game we will HAVE to throw the ball effectively. Everything else turns on that. Saban's defense will do everything possible to take away our running game. Our dreams and goals and the practical expectations for the remainder of this season rest on the arm of John Brantley, the skill and preparation of our receivers and the readiness of an effective overall passing game. Do it and we break their "press", take the lead and keep them guessing, keep our defense relatively rested and able to shut down THEIR running game somewhat--make them play catch-up in the 2nd half, on the road and running out of time.
If we DON'T have that dynamic medium-to-long range passing game (and there is no sign that we do, thus far), then we probably can't score enough to win, they get a lead and wear us down in the 2nd half despite a heroic effort by our defense. That's the short version, minus the details and possibilities I cover elsewhere (eg. I respond to BOTH E-'s and CaliZ' comments on this subject thoroughly on pages 5 and 6 of the "Official Gameday Thread: Florida @ Kentucky": when you lay it all out, it comes down to honestly facing certain realities--and how optimistic you are about the outcome in SPITE of them, I suppose).
I am of course split between "what I want" and "what reason tells me is going to happen".

 

[Escambia94]

LAST year, our sorry defense slowed down Richardson and Ingram. I think Richardson got 80 yards and Ingram got 50 yards. What hurt is is that Ingram got two TDs because we could stuff them, but not when backed up into the end zone. Our Red Zone offense and defense were bad. We are much better this year, so we have a chance.

 

[DRU2012]

LAST year, our sorry defense slowed down Richardson and Ingram. I think Richardson got 80 yards and Ingram got 50 yards. What hurt is is that Ingram got two TDs because we could stuff them, but not when backed up into the end zone. Our Red Zone offense and defense were bad. We are much better this year, so we have a chance.

With our lack of depth though, E-, the only way to keep our "D" fresh enough to do the fine job they are obviously capable of (I am totally impressed with how far we've come, how good we are, our steady continued improvement and how GREAT we are going to be) is to keep them fairly well-rested throughout the game--by in turn depending on our offense not only to score (already a tough road without unveiling a passing game, as I've argued), but to keep the time-of-possession reasonably close to even.
We ARE much better this year, on BOTH sides of the ball, but so is Alabama--I believe our improvement is so pronounced across-the-board that there is hope, but it requires bold plans and little room for error.
What are your thoughts on this? I believe that Weis anticipates the Tide's defensive strategy and has a plan to beat them. Are we up to it? More to the point, are Brantley and the receivers up to it?

 

[Escambia94]

Same story as last year. If we can win in the trenches, we can beat Alabama. If we let Alabama hold their offensive line and move the X, Y, or Z receivers around behind the line of scrimmage or shift Richardson or the fullback around behind the line, they will win the game. Our defensive line needs to crash the box so they have to run Richardson up the gut where he can be stopped. We do not need to hit the QB as much as we need to bend their offensive line and take away their back door for creating mismatches. Keep their offense going north-south and we got 'em. Our offense has shown that it does not go deep, but it goes up the middle or to the edges. Against an over pursuing defense, we can dink it over the top with 5-yard passes. What we have not shown all season is an 11-year outlet pass, other than the flag route to Hammond or Thompson. A simple bullet to the 10-yard down marker thrown high will be there against Alabama, but not the post pattern down the middle. Against LSU, I probably would not bother throwing anything to the cornerbacks. If anything, we have to beat LSU by running a play that Tyler Murphy ran to perfection in the Orange and Blue Debut--roll the quarterback away from the collapsing pocket to his strong side and throw on the run. This takes away the weak side cornerback from LSU and creates a one-one-one for the strong side cornerback Mathieu. As long as you keep the ball low, keep making Mathieu chase the X receiver with the Z receiver in trailing position as a flanker screen or in tight formation, we can beat LSU throwing.

The problem is that I have seen these plays in the Orange and Blue Debut, in the "New England Offense" playbook, and on TV. I have not seen these plays in actual games in the season.

I am either delusional or hopeful that Charlie Weis has practiced plays like this out of his own playbook to use against the high power defenses at Alabama and LSU.

 

[DRU2012]

Well considered. As for that last line, there it is: the path to my present torn state-of-mind. Too ultra-rational to be delusional (as far as I know--how do we know we've crossed the line into "crazy", if we're crazy by then?), I am left on that razor's edge, between hopeful and cynical...one makes life livable, the other protects from crushing disappointment.
At least that's the theory.

 

[CaliZona_Gator]

I read a stat that last year Bama scored 21 against us on turnovers. So we need to not turn the ball over!

Our D-line and Backers don't have a lot of numbers, but the depth chart is filled with quality players, so we will be able to keep things fresh. Our secondary is the opposite. Plenty of numbers but a lot of inexperience.

And Like E said, the game is won in the trenches. That's just how the SEC works. We need to dominate the line on both sides of the ball.

 

[DRU2012]

Gotta win the turnover battle, that's a given.
BTW, that "...trenches"-truism is probably the closest thing to a logical reason I feel we have a better chance of beating LSU than Alabama: We match up about even with Bama in the trenches as far as talent, but they have more depth and without our mounting a successful offense they'll be able to keep our "D"-line on the field and wear 'em down...but none of that is as likely on LSU's part, and if we can get ahead we may be able to dominate THEM.