Missing: Entire UGA football team, who never showed up for their scheduled game in Jacksonville. If found, please return to Athens.
Well, that was a disaster. I can't say I expected to win (I didn't. I even turned down 4 tickets because of my now-justified pessimism), but I definitely didn't expect to look so bad losing. This team looked incredibly sloppy and unenthusiastic the entire game. Even when they were ahead, they didn't seem to be playing with much fire. When they FINALLY started to look even slightly motivated, it was too late. The damage was already done.
My observations are going to be brief-ish tonight, because I just want to move on from this one and not think about it anymore:
We can win without Gurley, but apparently we can't win without David Andrews. That guy is the brains of our offense (now that Murray is gone), and after his injury things went south. When he was in the game, he couldn't effectively do the physical aspect of his job (heck, he could barely walk...), but when he was out of the game, it was clear how important to the offense he actually was.
Our defense was embarrassing. Florida ran the same play 50 times, and we didn't stop it until the last minutes of the game. We gave up over 400 rushing yards. With our secondary woes, I never thought I would be wishing for the other team to pass against us, but that's where I found myself all day today. Our greatest defensive strengths are Leonard Floyd and Jordan Jenkins (in my opinion) and their pass rushing abilities. And our secondary had really been improving over the last few weeks. But since we never forced them to pass, we couldn't utilize those strengths. If we could have gotten that field goal that we "missed" in the 1st half, Florida likely would have had to start passing a bit, and we could have probably forced some mistakes. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
Verne and Gary. My mama taught me if I can't say anything nice not to say anything at all. But I have no filter, so that doesn't really work out for me. The least Verne could do would be to just eat a few more cupcakes, get diabetes, and quit his job. Or at least learn the names of the players in the games he's calling. I learned today that we have a player named Malcom Bennett. Who knew. I thought Rodd Furley was our only new player.
Also, the two of them referred to Florida as "we" a few too many times for my liking. But my favorite Verne and Gary facepalm moment of the day had to be when they were talking about the wind in the first quarter, and the cameraman zoomed way in on the American flag in the stadium. Gary said something about how if you look at the flag you can see just how hard the wind is blowing, and they circled the flag for us. Thanks guys, because I have never seen a flag before, and would not have been able to correctly identify one without your assistance.
I now just genuinely feel bad for Hutson Mason. But not bad enough to stop pointing out facts about him. I mean, he's been patient, yes. Never complained about having to wait his turn behind Murray, or having the coaches put Brice Ramsey in for "practice" in real games, or having to deal with at-times undeserved criticism. But he's just not a good quarterback in tight situations. When we're ahead, he's great. He can hand the ball off to a number of capable running backs, or complete some short passes to keep the game moving. But in a clutch situation where we need points in a short amount of time, he can't deliver. For example, when we got the ball back just before halftime, we had time to drive down the field and tie the game with a more capable QB. Richt didn't even try, for obvious reasons. The cameras at Everbank Field also gave great replay views, and showed TONS of times today when Mason held the ball FOREVER while Conley/Bennett/Mitchell were wide open down the field. But Mason just threw it away or got sacked or dumped it off for a short gain. I have no clue why he can't pull the trigger on passes down field to open receivers. It baffles me. So when I saw he passed for 319 yards today, I thought it was a typo. Also, someone needs to tell him for next time, when you are down by multiple touchdowns with not much time on the clock and you're in the red zone, GO FOR THE ENDZONE EVERY TIME. DON'T THROW ANYTHING SHORT OF THE ENDZONE.
The refs today were even more questionable than usual. I don't remember a single holding call (when at times you could hear our defense literally screaming for one). No review on that last attempt at a touchdown that was ruled incomplete (but looked like the ball was stripped after he was down)? And our "missed" field goal? I think they're probably BFFs with Bryan Allen.
In closing, I can't even be disappointed about the loss today, because we played terribly and I think we deserved it. All I will say is, I'd much rather be a fan of a team that loses a couple of games every season but plays with integrity, than cheer for a team that has bad character.
Speaking of bad character...
My observations are going to be brief-ish tonight, because I just want to move on from this one and not think about it anymore:
We can win without Gurley, but apparently we can't win without David Andrews. That guy is the brains of our offense (now that Murray is gone), and after his injury things went south. When he was in the game, he couldn't effectively do the physical aspect of his job (heck, he could barely walk...), but when he was out of the game, it was clear how important to the offense he actually was.
Our defense was embarrassing. Florida ran the same play 50 times, and we didn't stop it until the last minutes of the game. We gave up over 400 rushing yards. With our secondary woes, I never thought I would be wishing for the other team to pass against us, but that's where I found myself all day today. Our greatest defensive strengths are Leonard Floyd and Jordan Jenkins (in my opinion) and their pass rushing abilities. And our secondary had really been improving over the last few weeks. But since we never forced them to pass, we couldn't utilize those strengths. If we could have gotten that field goal that we "missed" in the 1st half, Florida likely would have had to start passing a bit, and we could have probably forced some mistakes. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
Verne and Gary. My mama taught me if I can't say anything nice not to say anything at all. But I have no filter, so that doesn't really work out for me. The least Verne could do would be to just eat a few more cupcakes, get diabetes, and quit his job. Or at least learn the names of the players in the games he's calling. I learned today that we have a player named Malcom Bennett. Who knew. I thought Rodd Furley was our only new player.
I now just genuinely feel bad for Hutson Mason. But not bad enough to stop pointing out facts about him. I mean, he's been patient, yes. Never complained about having to wait his turn behind Murray, or having the coaches put Brice Ramsey in for "practice" in real games, or having to deal with at-times undeserved criticism. But he's just not a good quarterback in tight situations. When we're ahead, he's great. He can hand the ball off to a number of capable running backs, or complete some short passes to keep the game moving. But in a clutch situation where we need points in a short amount of time, he can't deliver. For example, when we got the ball back just before halftime, we had time to drive down the field and tie the game with a more capable QB. Richt didn't even try, for obvious reasons. The cameras at Everbank Field also gave great replay views, and showed TONS of times today when Mason held the ball FOREVER while Conley/Bennett/Mitchell were wide open down the field. But Mason just threw it away or got sacked or dumped it off for a short gain. I have no clue why he can't pull the trigger on passes down field to open receivers. It baffles me. So when I saw he passed for 319 yards today, I thought it was a typo. Also, someone needs to tell him for next time, when you are down by multiple touchdowns with not much time on the clock and you're in the red zone, GO FOR THE ENDZONE EVERY TIME. DON'T THROW ANYTHING SHORT OF THE ENDZONE.
The refs today were even more questionable than usual. I don't remember a single holding call (when at times you could hear our defense literally screaming for one). No review on that last attempt at a touchdown that was ruled incomplete (but looked like the ball was stripped after he was down)? And our "missed" field goal? I think they're probably BFFs with Bryan Allen.
In closing, I can't even be disappointed about the loss today, because we played terribly and I think we deserved it. All I will say is, I'd much rather be a fan of a team that loses a couple of games every season but plays with integrity, than cheer for a team that has bad character.
Speaking of bad character...
