DiderotsGhost
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What a crazy game. I'm happy we got the win, but I've definitely had to readjust my expectations for the season after the past 2 weeks. Here are my thoughts.
#1 Defense in the Country. I legitimately think we have the #1 D in America right now. This isn't simply Vol "homerism". We have been ranked #1 in defensive efficiency by FPI for almost the entire season. The D gave us a shot last week and the D won the game yesterday.
Negative yardage plays on D. The most amazing thing about this D is that I knew we had the advantage going into overtime, because we create so many negative yardage plays. Not many defenses can do that, but when you start in OT in medium-long FG range (42 yarder), a D that can push the other team back a few yards has a huge advantage. Big difference between 48 yard FG and 40 yard FG. As it turns out, we would've won regardless with the touchdown, but pushing Florida back and lowering their odds for a FG are huge in OT.
#47 in Offensive Efficiency. We're #1 in defensive efficiency but only #47 on offense. That's 11th in the SEC, behind Florida and Mizzou, but ahead of Miss State and Kentucky. It's obvious this is where we have to get better down the stretch to have a shot at the playoffs.
Offensive playcalling. Everyone blames play calling when the offense struggles. I agree to some extent last week against Arkansas. I don't agree about the playcalling against Florida. It was much improved. It was execution that sucked. Nico missed 2 wide open WRs that could have been TD passes. We had our usual miscues as well. So I agree we didn't necessarily have the right game plan against Arky, but I thought Heupel and staff did a great job preparing for this one. If we executed well, this could've easily been a 38-17 win. I felt like we were the better team throughout the game; just too many miscues.
Nico is slumping, but he'll get better. I'm not down on Nico, but he's definitely in a bit of a slump right now. I think what's happened is that his first few games, defenses didn't have any footage on him and he could kinda do what he did by default without many issues. Now that teams are able to study him on film, his mistakes are getting magnified. We all saw it with the INT that resulted from starring down his WR and throwing into basically quadruple coverage. Easy to be frustrated with Nico right now, but he's still basically a 1st year QB and learning. He'll get better. We're frustrated he hasn't turned into Peyton Manning into 7 games, but Peyton Manning didn't turn into "Peyton Manning" in 7 games either. He clearly has the arm talent and when he's in a rhythm, he looks as good as any QB in America. Even with his mistakes, he's made several spectacular plays!
Nico looked much better after getting into a rhythm. While Nico did struggle, he looks so much better once he gets into a rhythm. The incomplete long shot late in the game was beautiful (even if we didn't come down with it) and the sideline pass to Squirrel was spectacular (and insane how good Squirrel is at staying in bounds). Coaches may need to find ways to make things a bit easier for Nico early on till he can get into a groove.
Bye-week after Bama. We get a bye week after Bama and before Kentucky. We desperately need it. Hoping we can start figuring things out on offense and with the exception of UTEP and maybe Miss State, none of the rest of the games on the schedule look like freebies any more. Vandy is actually pretty good this year.
Readjusting expectations. Admit this was the most optimistic I've been pre-season in a long time. I thought we had an elite D heading into the season (and it's even better than I thought), but I thought offense would at least be top-half of the SEC and thus far it's not. We have an outside shot at a 10-2 season, but right now, I'm adjusting my expectations a bit and thinking 9-3 would be a success and 8-4 is the expectation. Every game is winnable, but we also have 2 very tough matchups with Bama and Georgia and 2 games that could be tougher than expected against Kentucky and Vandy.
BEAT BAMA! All that said, we'll come out ready to play versus Bama. If we play like we did this week, we'll lose, but frankly if Bama plays like they did this week, they'd lose, too. Both teams will be better on Saturday.
That's all for my completely unimportant thoughts!
BEAT BAMA and GBO!!!
#1 Defense in the Country. I legitimately think we have the #1 D in America right now. This isn't simply Vol "homerism". We have been ranked #1 in defensive efficiency by FPI for almost the entire season. The D gave us a shot last week and the D won the game yesterday.
Negative yardage plays on D. The most amazing thing about this D is that I knew we had the advantage going into overtime, because we create so many negative yardage plays. Not many defenses can do that, but when you start in OT in medium-long FG range (42 yarder), a D that can push the other team back a few yards has a huge advantage. Big difference between 48 yard FG and 40 yard FG. As it turns out, we would've won regardless with the touchdown, but pushing Florida back and lowering their odds for a FG are huge in OT.
#47 in Offensive Efficiency. We're #1 in defensive efficiency but only #47 on offense. That's 11th in the SEC, behind Florida and Mizzou, but ahead of Miss State and Kentucky. It's obvious this is where we have to get better down the stretch to have a shot at the playoffs.
Offensive playcalling. Everyone blames play calling when the offense struggles. I agree to some extent last week against Arkansas. I don't agree about the playcalling against Florida. It was much improved. It was execution that sucked. Nico missed 2 wide open WRs that could have been TD passes. We had our usual miscues as well. So I agree we didn't necessarily have the right game plan against Arky, but I thought Heupel and staff did a great job preparing for this one. If we executed well, this could've easily been a 38-17 win. I felt like we were the better team throughout the game; just too many miscues.
Nico is slumping, but he'll get better. I'm not down on Nico, but he's definitely in a bit of a slump right now. I think what's happened is that his first few games, defenses didn't have any footage on him and he could kinda do what he did by default without many issues. Now that teams are able to study him on film, his mistakes are getting magnified. We all saw it with the INT that resulted from starring down his WR and throwing into basically quadruple coverage. Easy to be frustrated with Nico right now, but he's still basically a 1st year QB and learning. He'll get better. We're frustrated he hasn't turned into Peyton Manning into 7 games, but Peyton Manning didn't turn into "Peyton Manning" in 7 games either. He clearly has the arm talent and when he's in a rhythm, he looks as good as any QB in America. Even with his mistakes, he's made several spectacular plays!
Nico looked much better after getting into a rhythm. While Nico did struggle, he looks so much better once he gets into a rhythm. The incomplete long shot late in the game was beautiful (even if we didn't come down with it) and the sideline pass to Squirrel was spectacular (and insane how good Squirrel is at staying in bounds). Coaches may need to find ways to make things a bit easier for Nico early on till he can get into a groove.
Bye-week after Bama. We get a bye week after Bama and before Kentucky. We desperately need it. Hoping we can start figuring things out on offense and with the exception of UTEP and maybe Miss State, none of the rest of the games on the schedule look like freebies any more. Vandy is actually pretty good this year.
Readjusting expectations. Admit this was the most optimistic I've been pre-season in a long time. I thought we had an elite D heading into the season (and it's even better than I thought), but I thought offense would at least be top-half of the SEC and thus far it's not. We have an outside shot at a 10-2 season, but right now, I'm adjusting my expectations a bit and thinking 9-3 would be a success and 8-4 is the expectation. Every game is winnable, but we also have 2 very tough matchups with Bama and Georgia and 2 games that could be tougher than expected against Kentucky and Vandy.
BEAT BAMA! All that said, we'll come out ready to play versus Bama. If we play like we did this week, we'll lose, but frankly if Bama plays like they did this week, they'd lose, too. Both teams will be better on Saturday.
That's all for my completely unimportant thoughts!
BEAT BAMA and GBO!!!
