Report Card and Game Balls vs Florida

Just back from South Florida (came back on Monday) where I did attend the game on Saturday. Still ecstatic about the biggest win at the U since 2000, when we beat FSU in the OB that day. Couple of thoughts about the big win vs Florida.

Tackling was very good. The Defense came up big when it had to in key spots. The 5 turnovers we forced was just amazing. Of the 5 penalties for 58 yards we had in this game, only one was on the defense, and that was the PF on Luther in the 1st quarter. I thought we did a very good job shutting down their running game. Being out there a bit long for my taste (38:20). Guys were swarming and gang tackling. We forced them to punt 10 times in the game. They were 6-15 on 3rd Downs (40%), so I felt we did well on that regard. We did allow 413 yards total offense and sacked Driskel twice, both times causing fumbles, which the D recovered both times. We did have an effective pass rush in this game. We won the turnover battle in this game being a +5 in that regard. In the 4th quarter, we allowed the Gators just 2 yards rushing on 7 carries. The D bent, but didn't break. Grade: A-

Offensively, we did have some big time issues, especially after the 2nd TD pass from Stephen. Ereck Flowers gets called for two holding penalties and Allen commits a PF in the red zone, fortunately, that penalty didn't hurt us as we would score a TD four plays later. We had 143 yards in the 1st quarter, however, just 69 yards after that (68 of those total yards in the 2nd half). Also, we were 1-11 on 3rd Down conversions. That will not cut it down the road vs teams like FSU. Grade: D

Special Teams, we allowed the Blocked Punt. We had 71 yards of total returns (56 on KR yards by Duke, and the other 15 on PR yards by Dorsett). Patty had two punt for TB's, and that's not good, because that's 40 hidden yards allowed here. However he did have one of his 9 punts inside the 20. However, on the Kickoff, he had one go out of bounds, which gave UF the ball on their 35, more hidden yards allowed here. We need to be much better here and get this area of our game fixed going forward. Grade: D

Now to Game Balls. This week, there's only one game ball to hand out and it goes to the entire Defense for forcing 5 turnovers (2 INTs and 3 fumbles recovered). 

Overall, solid effort, especially by the Defense, however, we can and must get better and correct some of the ME's (Mental Errors) going forward. 

See you on Sept 18th for the Savannah State Preview.