Game notes: UF vs Bama

UF vs Bama
First, congrats to the Bama players and coaches on this historic win. I don’t think any SEC team has won 11 SEC games in a single year. Great offensive game plan by Sark and pretty well carried out by the offense. I don’t know all the records broken last night, but I’m sure there were a few.

OFFFENSE: The offense put together 605 yards of total offense which included 418 passing and 187 rushing. As for negative plays, I have Bama with 3 tackles for losses, 2 sacks, and 1 interception which was given right back as Metchie made a huge hit on the FL safety. For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have Bama with 18 passing plays and 5 running plays. Bama got into the red zone 6 times and scored 5 touchdowns and kicked 1 field goal. It would have been a lot less stressful if Bama had converted on the red zone visit where they settled for a field goal after Bama recovered a fumble near the 10-yard line. Bama only had 1 three and out which came when they were trying to run out the clock at the end of the game. They were running the ball basically against 11 men in the box and it is also where they got one of their tackles for a loss. Bama did miss on a couple of screens that looked to be set up pretty well. On the first one, Harris didn’t get out clean, but if he did there looked to be plenty of blockers and running room. Also, on the other, it was a WR screen where the ball was tipped. Again, it looked like there were blockers and space for the play to be successful.

QB: Jones played a good game where he connected on 33 of 43 passes for 418 yards which is a 77% competition rate. In the beginning I did think he had what I call some happy feet, however, FL was doing a pretty good job with the pass rush, but not just quiet getting there. I do know he missed an open Metchie on the crossing route when Bama went for it on 4th down and threw to Smith who was tackled short of the line to get. On the interception the ball was sightly behind the receiver and it enabled the defensive player to make a play. I did think Mac settled down in the game, but he did miss a couple of throws to open receivers.

RB: This was Harris’s game as he had 178 rushing yards on 31 carries and 67 yards on 5 receptions. This is a total of 245 yards on 36 touches and averaged right at 8 yards per touch. He also did a great job on pass blocking when called upon. Robinson added 4 carries for 19 yards and ran hard when he got the chance. In my opinion, Harris was an outstanding choice for MVP. Harris also accounted for 5 touchdowns by receiving for 3 and rushing for 2.

Rec: Smith led all receivers with 15 catches for 184 yards and 2 touchdowns. Other than Smith, the ball was spread around to the other receivers as Metchie had 4 for 62, Bolden 2 for 40, Billingsley 2 for 29, Forristall 3 for 20, and Williams and Tennison each had 1 for 12 and 4 yards. I already mentioned Harris’s contribution above. One of the big plays by the receivers was Metchie’s tackle on the interception which caused a fumble with Bama recovered and went on to score on the very next play.

OL: The OL played well. Even though Jones felt a little pressure at times, the pocket was kept clean. At least one of the sacks was a coverage sack and watching it looked like all receivers were deep and there really wasn’t a check-down option. They got a great push on the defense which enabled Bama to run the ball so effectively. It was again a game where you could see OL getting to the second level. I am going to mention Billingsley here because he was one of the main blockers where Harris was able to make big yardage. I don't know the extent of the injury, but Dickerson will be a huge loss.

Def: I guess the best thing to say about the defense, is they got the needed stops to win the game. They made numerous mistakes with missed tackles, again losing the edge on the run to the backup QB, losing receivers when dropping in their zone, and not finding the ball on a couple of passing plays. They were also unlucky a couple of time when the defensive backs lost their footing on a couple of long completions. The defense gave up a total of 462 yards which included 408 passing and 54 rushing. For negative plays, I have Bama with 2 tackles for losses, 5 sacks, and 4 fumbles, one they recovered. I thought they had another, but I guess the FL took it away in the pile. There was another recovered fumble, but it was where Metchie caused the fumble after the interception and Smith recovered it. FL had no three and outs but did have a 1 and out when the sack caused a fumble which Bama recovered. For plays that covered 10+ yards, I have FL with 14 passing plays and 2 running plays. FL got into the red zone 3 times and scored 3 touchdowns while they scored 3 touchdowns and kicked 1 field goal from outside the red zone. I looked back and it seems that Bama only rushed more than 4 five times. Out of those 5 times 4 of the passes were complete and one was defended. I will say, FL did a great job with their offensive scheme against Bama as they put Moses out in coverage on the outside against a faster/quicker running back. I have said this before this is not a good matchup for Bama. They also used the empty sets to move the LB’s out of the box and allowed the QB to run the ball for positive gains.

DL: The DL did a great job, except for a couple of times stopping the running game. As for the pass rush most of the time they were outnumbered by the OL because Bama only rushed 3 or 4 men. The longest run was the 17-yard run by the backup QB. This should have never happened but did for 2 reasons. First, Anderson went inside and second, there was a missed tackle by the safety. If there was a stunt called then that would have been the reason for Anderson going inside but no one replaced him. I did think they did a good job going to the ball after it was thrown especially on the short passes.

LB: They we put in difficult situations with the FL offensive scheme. One of the biggest things I noticed was there drops to zones, but not seeing the receivers coming into their zone or allowing free access thru the zone. Anderson, considered an outside backer and Moses were the leading tacklers in the game.

DB: They didn’t make plays today. However, the lack of a pass rush didn’t help. There were a couple of times when they looked to be in position but didn’t make the play. On one touchdown, Sartain was in good shape until the ball was underthrown and the receiver slowed to get it and Sartain continued on. I will say again, I thought there were a couple of times where they looked to be in good position but stumbled as the ball was in the air. Also, it looked like a mistimed jump allowed the last touchdown to be scored.

Special teams: The highlight of the special teams to me was the last punt. It was put in the perfect spot with hang time that allowed the overage team to get down and make a play.

Penalties: Bama had 8 penalties for 72 yards. Seven of those penalties were in the 2nd half. The only 1st half penalty was a block in the back by Hellams on a kick-off return. There were 4 pass interference calls, 2 against Moses, which probably saved touchdowns, 1 by Jobe, and 1 by Branch. Jobe and Leatherwood both had holding calls. One of the biggest was the offsides by Jobe at the goal line where Bama had recovered a fumble. Six of the penalties were on the defense while the offense had special teams each had one.

Finally, Bama did what they had to do to win. Fortunately, they built up a lead in the first half as they were outscored 29 to 17 in the second half. There were huge plays all day by both teams. A few were the fumble caused by Metchie, the drive right before the half for the touchdown with 1:03 on the clock right after FL had scored to close the gap and the fumble on the sack after Bama and FL had exchanged touchdowns in the second half. I do think Bama is going to have to make some adjustment to how they play a couple of schemes. First, you can’t expect to get a pass rush very often when you are outnumbered at the LOS. Second, the LB out on the RB in the empty set is too much of a mismatch. Third, the QB run in the empty set when the LB is moved out of the middle, even though they weren’t huge runs they moved the chains.
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