Brandon James will tear us apart if we don’t do something. OTS, what do you see as the problem? Missing assignments, leaving lanes, poor execution, wrong personnel, bad coaching? I’d just like to know what the problem is so we can discuss its solution

It seems that we’re truly becoming the team we were earlier in the year: Better offense with more vertical passing, and really terrible kick coverage. I prefer it to the middle of the year team, but I’d like it better if we took care of that problem.

And I agree about the lack of vertical throws. We ought to give more opportunities to McElroy to make big plays. It was especially annoying when we were up 17-0, and we seemed to be trying to run the clock out for one of the drives in the 3rd quarter. I realize we have a very good defense, and MSU was not going to overcome that score, but I was pretty aggravated we weren’t trying to bury them until they made it 17-3.

…..Bama wins with a solid performance on both offense and defense, and….
      Auburn loses,
            Tennesse loses big (got the crap kicked out of them)
                    Notre Dame loses…….
It doesn’t get any better than that!
Roll Tide!!!!!!!!

is that we came out really flat (looked slow to react, slow off the snap, quiet on the sidelines, etc.), survived their charge and still managed to win by 28 points. This had all the makings of a letdown performance considering we just beat LSU, clinched the West, and had to go on the road for a night game at MSU. They were coming off a Bye, had this one circled as OTS mentioned, and had a raucous, record crowd.

To be a little flat (as any team would probably naturally be in these circumstances) and still win by 28 while gaining over 400 and holding the opponent under 225 is spectacular. Hopefully we can put UTC away early and get ready for Auburn. Last night was just one more step in the road and we managed it safely.

…had a very bad game. He did not show any effort in trying to tackle Anthony Dixon. I saw at least two times where he just tried to lean a should into Dixon to tackle him, and Dixon ran right through that. Also, Marquis Johnson saved him a few times. Woodall was supped to be the deep help on a few of those passes and took horrible angles, but was fortunately saved by some great plays by Johnson.

you are dead right. We had 4 big plays that were largely busted assignements on MSU’s part. All four lead to either a TD or (Maze run) a FG. Take these away and our offense would have probably put up around 13 points and not 31.

The problem is I just can’t see the Gators missing assignments and leaving Julio or Hanks wide open, just not tackling Maze, or in the case of Ingram having no safety in the picture.

The point is we were basically afraid or unbable to take what MSU was giving us…the 15 yard pass. UF is going to probably give us the same thing as they will crowd the line to stop Ingram. If we can’t consistantly strech the field vertically we are going to have to win with a tough D, Tiffin FGs, and some turnover/penalty/ref luck.

We really do need to play better. We can not line up and run smash mouth against UF. We are going to need a down the field passing game to open up the Ingram 10 yard runs. If all our passes are little underneath routes their DB’s don’t have to back up at all.

The best thing for me last night was how we did get in the end zone in the 2nd QT when we got inside the 20. Richardson had some very powerful inside runs down there and Ingram’s short TD run was very good.

a baseball team that lives by the long ball will die by the long ball- see this years Phillies. And a baseball team that lives by solid pitching, solid defense, sound base running, and consistant hitting will win- see this years Yankees.

All I’m saying is if we are counting on UF leaving Julio wide open or Ingram going up the middle untouched for 70 yards we are going to lose. We can’ t count on those things. I think we can count on the same things SC used to move the ball against UF, 10-20 yard passes. SC gained almost 200 yards passing against UF but did not have a throw over 24 yards—but they had very few 3 yard pass plays. On the ground SC had less than 100 and no long runs.

Now Ingram may be a few 10-15 yard runs but I would be surprised to see him go 30-50 yards on UF. Likewise our 3 big receivers- Julio, Mays, and Hanks could get a lot of 10-15 yard passes, but we would be lucky to hit 1 30+ pass play and we had 3 of those 30+ against MSU which was a big chunk of our pass yards.

So, UF’s offense is not the beat down machine it was last year, but we are going to have to step up our offense if we are going to score more than the 14 pts. SC put on them. Anyway, we have a better chance than last year, but we will still need to be better than are right now.