My Main Thought On The Game.....Ainge Cost Us The Game

#26
#26
It's always easy to pick out a play or two and say that those plays "cost you the game", therefore, the player with the ball (or who could have caught the ball) who didn't perform to perfection on those plays "cost you the game".

By that logic, since the players from both lines (O & D) do not touch the ball, they can never be at fault, right?

There were a few plays throughout the evening where the Florida Defense were behind the UT linesmen before Ainge could've even thought of getting his feet set. Can you honestly blame that on Ainge?

I thought Ainge did a good job with decision-making most of the night. Did he make the exact best decision on every play all night? Absolutely not. Neither did any other player on either team. It's just magnified when a player with the ball makes his error, that's all.

Whoever said "Win as a team, Lose as a team" had it right.
 
#27
#27
Florida 4th and Looonnngggg yardage on their last scoring drive I believe. 1st down! I had a few people over that night and when they were getting ready to run this play I told everyone that last year we would have allowed a first down in this situation. Lo and behold, 1st down! If our D would have held on this down, we probably would have won the game.
 
#28
#28
OS is way off the mark. You win as a team and lose as a team. You can always assess individual performance on each play of a game, but is the cumulative actions of all that will determine the outcome. With that said the play that stood out in my mind was the play where Ainge was sacked and called for intentally grounding. Did not anyone else notice the florida player ran strait up the middle by our center who did not touch him. Then our center jumps around acting like he is looking for someone to block. The guy he should have blocked just ran by him untouched. This was hardly Ainges fault.
 
#29
#29
OrangeSquare said:
I knew it would happen this season, but I really was wishing I was gonna be wrong.

I know the defense let Florida score, and I know the line didn't block, and I know that people will not agree and will throw all their opinions at this, so I will say I'm not going to debate it.

However, going back and watching the game, on the final drive, Ainge's poor decisions cost us a chance at a FG and the win.

Tennessee had the ball on the 40 yard line, needing only 7 yards or so to give Wilhoit a very good chance at giving Tennessee the lead.

1st Down- Ainge gets pressured and instead of slinging the ball downfield, out of bounds, he backpeddles 14 yards and tosses the ball to the ground exactly the same way he did in the endzone at LSU.

2nd down, he completes a slant to Smith. I actually think the out-route at the top of the field would have been a better choice, but it appeard the play call was a slant pass, as the receiver at the top never looked to be running a pass catching route.

3rd Down- Ainge, for whatever reason decided that there was no other player on the field that he could go to other than Robert Meachem. As the ball crossed the 40 yardline in the air, on it's way to tripple coverage and Robert Meachem, Lucas Taylor was at the 40, without a defender within 11 yards of him. He would have ATLEAST made it to the 33 yardline (50-51 yard FG if 3rd and 3rd and 4 would have netted nothing.). Ainge even said in the press after watching the tape that he should have thrown it to Taylor here, and I commend him for that comment. It's not one he would have made last season.

4th Down- Again, Ainge decides to only look at Robert Meachem, whom he underthrows again into double to triple coverage. Had he gone deeper the receiver at the bottom of the formation, and over that players shoulder, he would have had first and goal or six.

Now, all of that said, I am not calling for Ainge to be pulled, or am I saying that he is back to his old ways.

I merely wanted to make one post this week and let my feelings be known. I'm not even reading all the negative threads, and I don't want this to be one. I want everyone to take up for him and I want this to be the last time I ever notice that he has made such costly mistakes. I truly think he will learn from them.

Again, I'm not going to turn this into an arguement back and forth, I just wanted to share this, and let others respond or not as they see fit.

GO VOLS!!!!!!

KILL MARSHALL!!!!!!
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OS for once we agree in theory. While I don't think Ainge cost UT the game, I also think he underthrew balls when he had protection .

The negative: he did not find open receivers quickly enough, and was not composed under intense pressure. (Not entirely his fault)

The positive: he played just well enough to keep UT in the ballgame. That is a huge positive.

The Georgia game is now the one to circle on this schedule. If UGA can run the football, the Vols may be in for a long night. I would say their defense is a notch below what we saw from the Gators, but it will be a better D than Cal and Airforce played. It is imperative that we stop the rebuilding GA offense, and put points on the board.
 
#30
#30
Ainge was in a tough situation. You had negative rushing yardage, the gator defensive line was owning your o-line, and Ainge was running for his life.

Granted he could have stepped up and become a superstar by carrying the team on his shoulders, but that is a bit unrealistic.
 
#31
#31
IMHO, Ainge carried the offense on his back. As has been stated already, without him (and the improved receiving corps) the game would have been out of reach.
 
#32
#32
Not sure I agree totally. Agree on finding open receivers. Agree with Lexvol that Ainge played good enough to keep us in game but not to win in the end.

But, did Ainge said he screwed up last throw to Meachem. Orangesquare thinks Ainge under threw but to me it looks like he may have been throwing to a spot and Meachem didn't turn. If he was throwing to Meachem on the long route then it was a screw up. He was double teamed and covered. If he should have turned then its on Meachem.

Don't forget the D gave up a late drive to the Gators for a TD also. You can't put it all on Ainge. He played a good game. Not a great game. But a good game.
 
#33
#33
in lurking some Gator message boards I saw several comments on that play to Meachum. All were under the impression had Meachum curled under and run his route correctly,(implying Ainge was throwing to a spot), that it wouldve been a big play.
 
#34
#34
Ainge did not loose the game for us. Going back to our old concervitive ways is what did us in at the end. We got the freakin' 10 point led and decided that we were in good enough shape to try to start to establish a damn non existant running game for two or three drives in a row. and for what reason? keep doing what was working.

It looked a lot like last year, 1st down run, 2nd down run, 3rd and long Pass. WTF?:furious3:
 
#35
#35
Umm... -11 rushing yards cost us the game, plain and simple. If we had been able to run the ball with any success, we would have been up by more than 10 and we wouldn't be talking about this drive.

Ainge provided us with most of the limited offensive production we did have.

Singling him out is short-sighted and pretty ignorant, to be honest.
 
#37
#37
Urban Meyer is set up to do to the Vols and the SEC what Spurrier did. Bring in a new offense that will dominate SEC defenses for several years. Once he gets his players in house that run that spread offense the points will go up like pinball. I only hope our defense isnt as stubborn this time before it admits it cant stop the spread with that kind of speed. Run the ball...control the clock...force/eliminate turnovers or its deja vu all over again
 
#38
#38
all i can say is the majaroity of you morons, dont understand the concept of a TEAM. when someone is down, the next guy is suppose to pick that person up. im really sick of everyone assigning blame.
 
#39
#39
Considering that he was running for his life on many plays, EA performed admirably. I don't think EA bears sole responsibility for the loss, although he did state yesterday that he should've looked for other receivers on that final drive:

"I actually should have thrown the ball to Lucas Taylor on third down. He was wide open in the flat, and probably we would have had a chance to kick a field goal. Those are tough. You learn from them and when we get in that situation (again) we'll execute it better," Ainge said Monday.
Jackson Sun - www.jacksonsun.com - Jackson, TN

I'm just happy that someone wearing the orange is stepping up and admitting that they could've performed differently and maybe have achieved a different outcome. IMO the coaches could take a lesson from EA.
 
#40
#40
EA was the least of our problems in that game. If I had to pick our best asset in that game, it was EA and the receivers. The idea that EA cost us the game is absurd.
 
#41
#41
If you had to single out players for the loss, I would name Sears and Ligon. UT's 2 best offensive lineman. Not being able to run the ball on the left side was the biggest problem with the offense. Even during bad seasons, UT usually can run the ball with some success on at least one side.
 
#42
#42
volxfan said:
Urban Meyer is set up to do to the Vols and the SEC what Spurrier did. Bring in a new offense that will dominate SEC defenses for several years. Once he gets his players in house that run that spread offense the points will go up like pinball. I only hope our defense isnt as stubborn this time before it admits it cant stop the spread with that kind of speed. Run the ball...control the clock...force/eliminate turnovers or its deja vu all over again
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So far I'm not seeing it. Our defense was tired due to our inability to run, not because this offense was too much for us. We'll get a better assessment when Tebow controls the offense. Sure he can run, but did he even throw a pass?
 
#43
#43
rwemyss said:
Without Ainge the game would have been out of reach in the first place. You take away his offensive production, we've got like 50 yards thanks to the trick play. I say, we win as a team, and we lose as a team.
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Without Ainge...... this would of been a beating in our own woodshed.


:peace2:
 
#44
#44
I agree with everyone who says that EA was an asset agaisnt UF. I was only quoting his own words regarding looking for other receivers.
 
#45
#45
In keeping with what I originally said, I don't want to argue this point with anyone, but since it has generated a lot of interest, I am going to respond randomly to a few points.

1. I don't disagree with anyone that says we lost as a TEAM.

2. I don't disagree that the -11 yards rushing and the Defense cost us the game too.

3. My like of Crompton has nothing to do with what I posted, as I clearly stated, I am not calling for Ainge to be pulled, or for Crompton to see more time.

4. Regardless of the -11 yards and the D, had Ainge done what he said himself he should have, and simply get the ball to Taylor on third down, we wouldnt be having this conversation. The fact he threw into triple coverage on the two most important offensive snaps of the ballgame, causes me to really assign some blame to him, and that's what the first post of this thread was about.

5. For those of you coming into this thread late, please go back and read everything I posted in the first post. I'm not bashing Erik, I'm simply saying that had he played better on that last drive, that regardless of everything else, we would have been in a much better possition to win the game.
 
#46
#46
And we're saying that it's ridiculous of us to expect him to put the offense in a position like that when the line isn't blocking for him and the running game has simply not worked.

Yeah, he'll say there's more he should have done. What else would you expect him to say?
 
#47
#47
I think the reaction to this thread is due to the title. There's a big difference between saying "If Ainge had managed the last 4 plays better, we could have won" and saying "Ainge cost us the game."
 
#48
#48
GAVol said:
I think the reaction to this thread is due to the title. There's a big difference between saying "If Ainge had managed the last 4 plays better, we could have won" and saying "Ainge cost us the game."
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People seem to be getting defensive without actually reading other people's posts. It's funny to me that the people who have been regular posters since the end of last season seem to be able to read and respond to what one another are saying in a calm, rational manner even though we disagree while it seems like a lot of the people who are flying off the handle are the ones who are either new posters or people who just haven't been around in a while. Maybe they just haven't been exposed to different opinions than their own?
 
#49
#49
Ainge or any single person didn't cost UT the game. The blame does belong to three entities.

1. The O-line. They were completely manhandled and overmatched.
2. The offensive coaching staff for the decision to try to sit on the lead...(in the 3rd quarter!) using a non existant running game.
3. The defensive staff for not making enough substitutions during the game. The starters were exhausted by the 4th quarter. I know there's a drop off from the 1's to the 2's and 3's but a defensive breakdown in the first half isn't as critical as one in the 2nd.

2 and 3 can be remedied fairly easily. Number 1 is different. That wasn't just about inexperience; it was about talent differential which can only be solved through recruiting. At a bare minimum, we need at least 3 first day NFL draft quality guys starting on the line to get back to the top (the very top) in the SEC. It all begins in the trenches with great offensive lineman (and D-lineman). Right now we only have one great O-lineman in Sears.
 
#50
#50
VolunteerHillbilly said:
People seem to be getting defensive without actually reading other people's posts. It's funny to me that the people who have been regular posters since the end of last season seem to be able to read and respond to what one another are saying in a calm, rational manner even though we disagree while it seems like a lot of the people who are flying off the handle are the ones who are either new posters or people who just haven't been around in a while. Maybe they just haven't been exposed to different opinions than their own?
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interesting point hillbilly...very interesting.
 
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