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mat1992

No. 9 Florida shuts out Tigers, 38-0

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Impressions from the front row...

1.  It's incredibly frustrating to have moved the ball on all 3 drives in the first half but then get the gun out and shoot ourselves in the foot with it.  A dropped snap, a missed FG, a missed blocking assignment...all these things cause fans to pound the bleachers in agony.  It would be nice if when we get into these 1-A games that we stop doing stupid stuff to ourselves that caused missed opportunities.

2.  I thought the O-line was outstanding in that first half.  We're not leading TOP by them being swivel doors.  While they weren't opening up massive holes, they were at least winning the LOS long enough to get the necessary yardage to move down the field.  They just ran out of gas in the 2nd half and Florida's got too many athletes and speed, plus they were bringing a couple extra guys knowing they could limit Flacco's time in the pocket.

3.  Special teams was awful.  This is something I come to expect from Towson teams.  I know Aiden is a decent kicker but it just seems like whenever we get into one of these games, the special teams lets us down and missing a pretty simple kick and then getting a kick blocked (not the kicker's fault in that case, the rush was immense) just furthers the bias in this fan's mind that our special teams will never be fully reliable.  Also, will someone teach the kick returners that they can call a fair catch inside the field of play and get the ball at the 25?  Every time we tried a return, I don't think we made it past the 20.

4.  The defense.  I'm sorry but this is unacceptable.  Whatever we did in the 2nd half against Maine hasn't carried over.  Nova had an insanely high percentage in 3rd/4th down conversions and Florida had zero problem making things work on those downs today.  Mullen preaches that his QB will take what the defense gives him.  Trask completed 18 in a row because all he had to do was dink and dunk down the field since we give up an incredible amount of cushion.  Ya know what, let's see if the QB can hit a deep ball.  Stop giving a 7-yard cushion when it's 3rd and 5.  Whatever other passing teams that are on our schedule have to be salivating at the opportunities available after watching film of these last 2 games.  We had Florida in a number of 3rd down situations today and all but twice in the first 3 quarters, they succeeded.  Today, who cares...but a league game and it kills your season.

5.  Proud of the way the guys fought today.  They didn't give up.  They belonged on the field with Florida for the first half.  I wish we could have put some points on the board on those first 2 drives of the game and I wish that we'd have been a little bit more urgent with Stover in the game in the last 2 1/2 minutes (never know when he may have to run a 2-minute drill).  But the biggest thing as said here is no injuries and hopefully we can use this bye week to get ourselves right and start smoking teams like we're capable of.

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I'll disagree about point No. 3. Special teams was outstanding last year with a great kicker and returner. Take away Simpson and the return game is just ok. But you can't really just judge D'Ago Hunter returning against a super-fast Florida team. Our punter is pretty damn good and is excellent on kickoffs. I don't know has happened to O'Neill this year. The blocked kick was probably not his fault. In the past, special teams play has haunted us, no doubt. I think we turned the corner when we started offering ships to a long snapper.

On the fourth point, no f-ing way are we giving that kind of cushion against the rest of the schedule. We also lost our best corner Brandon Shuman for most of the game (cramps?), which didn't help but I do agree that we have to play closer on third down. That's the entire problem with the defense. Third down. But against Florida, we were not going to give up the long ball. I had no problem with that because it could have been 70-0. Playing not to lose or not to lose by 70? I think in some ways, we were trying to just get through this game without a major injury issue. The key is to get more pressure on the quarterback and that's going to be the issue the rest of the season. Forget today, at least we're forcing turnovers, even against Nova so that's a start.

 

 

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Living in Atlanta, the heart of SEC country, it was easy to find a Gator Alumni bar to watch the game.  Like a record scratching, I walked in to a bunch of awkward looks from most of the patrons while wearing my Towson shirt.  It was fun seeing a lot of nervous and surprised faces around the bar for the first half of that game.  Really wish we could have found a way to put some points on the board.....I know "moral victories" don't amount to much but it would have been a feather in our cap....and would have helped with regard to the Vegas spread.  I know it's a great pay-day for us to play Florida and also great exposure for the Towson brand but would maybe prefer to see us play some lesser FBS teams......maybe ones closer to #90 rather than #9.

GO TIGERS!!

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I'm on Twitter a lot, probably too much and I'll start posting some of the good and bad from the day from Florida's perspective.

 

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