Awesome. Just awesome. Awesome game, and I'm enjoying reliving it with each article or analysis I read. I wish we had scheduled the cookout for THIS game instead of Ole Miss, but who would've thought??
Randy ----- Original Message ----- From: PCGator To: Gatornews Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 10:32 PM Subject: [gatornews] Grade the Gators - LSU Grading The Gators vs. LSU It is Monday Morning and the Armchair Quarterback grades the Gators on their performance vs. Louisiana State University. Florida's offense played up to expectations, while the Florida defense played to it's promise as the Gators humbled the defending National Champion LSU Tigers 51 - 21 before a raucous crowd in the SWAMP on Saturday night. The Gators scored on their first possession and built a 20 - 0 lead before allowing LSU to close the gap to 20 - 14 and then Florida broke the game open with back to back touchdown possessions in the third quarter followed by a interception returned for a touchdown to take a 41 - 14 lead and quash any hope the Tigers had for a rally. FIRST IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIVE: The offensive and defensive lines, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Jeffrey Demps, Brandon Spikes, The starting secondary (Janoris Jenkins Major Wright. Ahmad Black and Joe Haden) SOLID: Special Teams NEED WORK: How to bottle Saturday's performance so it can be used over and over again THE GRADES DEFENSIVE LINE: When you hold the SEC's leading rusher to 35 yards, 18 yards of which were gained on the very last play of the game you are having a pretty good day. Florida's defensive line completely dominated the much bigger and heralded offensive line of LSU, producing one sack and limiting the Tigers to just 80 yards total on the ground. GRADE A+ LINEBACKERS: MLB Brandon Spikes recorded his first interception as a Gator in the first quarter. At the start of the fourth quarter Spikes' returned his second career interception for a touchdown and essentially put an end to any chance LSU might have had. A J Jones picked a fumble recovery as the linebackers didn't get much credit for making tackles, but were effective nonetheless filling gaps and keeping LSU's vaunted running game from getting on track GRADE A DEFENSIVE BACKS: Despite giving up 241 yards through the air and two touchdown passes, the starting secondary was very impressive. Most impressive was the secondary's tackling and run support. Led by true freshman CB Janoris Jenkins (9 tackles, including a sack and 2 pass breakups) along with starters CD Joe Haden, S Major Wright and S Ahmad Black Florida's secondary recorded 25 tackles and several teeth rattling hits. GRADE A OFFENSIVE LINE: LSU's defensive line is considered one of the best in the country and until Saturday night had been allowing opponents slightly less than 70 yards per game on the ground. The Gators offensive line embarrassed the Tigers, rolling up 265 yards on the ground while allowing just three sacks. These guys were clearly the stars of the game. GRADE A+ RECEIVERS: WR/RB Percy Harvin recorded his first career game with more than one touchdown reception, leading the Gator receivers with 6 receptions for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns. His career long 70-yard touchdown reception on the third play of the game got the ball rolling for the Gators. Florida spread the ball around as no other receiver had more than 2 receptions yet all the starting receivers had at least one catch. Once again the receivers downfield blocking contributed mightily to Gators success on the ground. GRADE A RUNNING BACKS: True freshman running back Jeffrey Demps recorded his second consecutive 100-yard game, rushing 10 times for 129 yards. His 42-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was his fourth rushing touchdown this season over 30 yards. Chris Rainey looked just as impressive carrying 11 times for 66 yards, while Kestahn Moore scored a touchdown to close out the Gator scoring. Running back by committee had 25 carries, 218 yards, and 2 touchdowns GRADE A+ QUARTERBACK: Tim Tebow had modest statistics 14 for 21 passing, 210 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no interceptions. Tebow also ran 12 times for 22 yards and touchdown. More impressive was the way Tebow distributed the ball and displayed and played with the kind of emotion that endeared him to Gator Nation. Welcome back Tim. GRADE A KICKING/SPECIALTY: Kickoffs weren't very impressive but coverage units were, so that kind of evens out. The rest of the special teams were pretty much business as usual. GRADE B COACHING: Offensively, the only thing to quibble about is the Gators seemed to go a little conservative in the second quarter after building a 17-point lead. Otherwise the offense was very impressive. Defensively pretty much the same story, a very impressive performance except for a 49 second lapse to end the first half. Special teams were solid GRADE Offense A, Defense A, Special Teams A- FANS: In 2006 I wrote: "Now that is what I am talking about. The SWAMP hasn't rocked like that in several seasons!" In 2008 I was going to write "Now that is what I am talking about. The SWAMP hasn't rocked like that since LSU in 2006!" GRADE A+ FINAL THOUGHTS How about those line splits? At times it looked like Florida's offensive line was stretched from hash mark to hash mark. When was the last time the Gators had a freshman running back rush for 100-yardsin back-to-back games. Brandon Spikes is no threat to Chas Henry's punting job. Complete victory sets the standard for future games. Time to get some much needed rest and recovery, October 25th starts the second half of the season. Answer: Earnest Graham in 1999. OVERALL GRADE: A++ Randy Platt E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.383) Database version: 5.10880 http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
