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Official Game Thread, Week 5: Florida Gators 13 at #23 Mississippi St Bulldogs 6, September 29, 2018

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Escambia94

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Sept. 29th, 2018 6:00 P.M. ET.
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Florida Gators (3-1, 1-1) SEC East @ #23 Mississippi State Bulldogs (3-1, 0-1) SEC West


LINE: Mississippi State -9 (53) over Florida

Gators Lead the Series 33-19-2.

First game: Nov. 24, 1923. UF 13 MS 13 Tie.

Last game: Oct. 10, 2010. UF 7 MS 10. Dan Mullen defeats Urban Meyer at the Swamp.

Welcome to the Mullen Bowl! Both teams have insider knowledge on each other. The Gators have four coaches from last year's Mississippi State team. The Bulldogs have over 50 players recruited by those coaches. The last time Dan Mullen played against his former team at their stadium, he drained the Swamp and walked out of his former home with a victory. If the Gators can silence the cowbells, maybe he can pull off the upset in Starksville.

This week leading into the heart of SEC play might mean this is the statistical peak, so here is how the Gators rank in stats before the game:
  • #1 in blocked kicks
  • #7 in blocked punts
  • #7 in punt return average
  • #1 in forced turnovers
  • #17 in Red Zone offense
  • #29 in passing efficiency
  • #24 in yards per completion
  • #26 in scoring
  • #7 in passing touchdowns (Feleipe Franks, tied with Tua Tagovailoa)
  • #1 in player forced fumbles (Jachai Polite)
  • #9 in player forced fumbles (tied between C.J. Henderson and James Houston IV)
The Bulldogs are quite formidable on both sides of the ball:
  • #8 in total defense (269 yards allowed, 148 passing and 121 rushing, 13 points per game)
  • #25 in total offense (491 yards per game, 243 passing, 248 rushing, 39.3 points per game)
In terms of talent, the Gators have a slight edge on offense against the Bulldog defense. With both lines of scrimmage probably neutralizing one another, this game might come down to the quarterbacks. MSU's Nick Fitzgerald is not as talented as UF's Feleipe Franks in terms of arm talent, but Fitzgerald and the MSU coaches will note how Florida has problems defending running quarterbacks.

Fearless prediction: Fightin' Gators 17, Fightin' Cowbells 20.

i-need-more-cowbell.jpg
 
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DRU2012

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I really don't have the foggiest "feel" for how this one turns out... As Yoda put it, "Much influence and confusion from the dark side is emotion..."
Best I can do is to take your (somewhat surprising) data on "the story so far" and play off YOUR prediction, E--:
If we keep it THAT close, I think we take this one at the very end in a stirring, season high point.
Of course, that ALSO means we could just as easily wilt late and crawl away.
REALLY wanna see this team begin to establish a certain fighting toughness here, regardless. THAT is what'll serve us longterm, begin to establish a new Gator Identity that young potential recruits wanna be a part of--and SEC foes eventually come to fear.
 

DRU2012

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(Oh, and one other side note: Much rather be involved in the rather "good clean fun" of "The Mullens Bowl" than EVER find ourselves embroiled in ANYTHING as tainted as "The Hypocrisy Bowl" up in State College this weekend. Between Paterno & Co.'s twisted legacy of darkness and Meyer's current "you can tell I'm lying when my lips are moving" descent, there is just a pervasive "dirtiness" around and through that one that no "White Out" can purify--or sports media can cover over, by the way. Yeah, like most Gators I'll be rooting for PSU--but only for this week, and I gotta hold my nose to do so...As my dad used to say about such games, "I hope they BOTH lose...")
 

DRU2012

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...and maybe THIS is the place for a particular "late breaking NON-story":
Adarius Lemons was arrested in Gainesville a day or two back...Once a promising 4-star running back, Lemmons troubled career at UF came to an end earlier this season when, after the UK game he quit the team (had a tantrum regarding his scant playing time--earned by a plethora of "locker room poison" moves--on a team with a plethora of good RBs) and announced his intention to finish the semester and seek a scholarship "with another SEC team"...He might GET such an offer, even after this (though a felony assault charge is at the very least a pretty damn serious sign of exactly the reason WE are better off WITHOUT him--See the G-ville Sun news column for the details of the charges AND the back story regarding his time, especially last days with the Florida program)...Point for OUR purposes here is how finally, one by one, the last of the worst of the "talented-but-net-detrimental" guys have or soon will be culled from what is more and more a different "culture", a whole different attitude and MINDSET here...and he was\IS "talented", which is why he'll get a shot SOMEWHERE if he makes the slightest effort to "mouth the words" of contrition, etc...Lots more could be said, but really better for US just to see it, note it and MOVE ON.
 

DRU2012

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No backtalk from y'all this week, can't help but notice...COULD be I'm just not being insightful (or provacative?) enough--but NAW! GOTTA be something else.
Maybe everyone is so uncertain about this one, has so little a bead on who we are and/or where we are at in our slow, "retrench, restock and rebuild" process that when we come up against an opponent like this one--NO! This opponent IN PARTICULAR: one we used to generally have an edge on but now find ourselves going to their place, led by their old Coach, probably a bit light on relative talent (a hard truth) AND suspecting THEY have the emotional, something-to-PROVE advantage, all that and some "intangibles" too--and, well, we can all be forgiven if we have "mixed feelings" about our readiness to "go in and dominate"...But I'll say this much in response, if so:
We go in, weather the first emotional onslought of crowd and Bulldog TEAM, hold our own, show toughness and determination, slowly assert ourselves and at least play them close, and I will feel a WHOLE lot better about the whole question this team, game and season comes down to posing--"Where ARE we at, and where ARE we headed, right here right now???!!!"
 

DRU2012

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This is weird:
I feel like the guy in an episode of "The Twilight Zone", where he awakens to find himself alone and walking the deserted, silent streets of a town.
Come to think of it, this could be the opening to any NUMBER of episodes.
Ok ok ok... I am going BACK to bed (I woke up, having crashed early last night, and thought to "take a peak" here--hoping for some activity of SOME kind, but NO...)
M O S: More Of the Same.
Alright: gonna crash again, figure on that corny plot device where, one way or another--whether the guy woulda found it all "happ'nin' " if he just walked another half block and turned the corner, or he'd wandered onto a movie set, or WHATEVER--there WAS no problem. Or the "problem" was something in timing, something he'd unwittingly wandered into the middle of somehow.
I will wake up and check in round noon Saturday and the frozen, silent humans (otherwise known as "Gator fans" LOL) had meanwhile started walking, talking again the moment I'd signed out that last time (NOW)...Anyway, I'll SEE you, be talking to you in the runup to kickoff in Starkville.
=What we sometimes call "an article of faith".
(Rising crane shot slowly higher and higher, looking down on sun-baked empty streets in Black'n'White...Cue Good/Bad/ & Ugly theme over it all)
 

DRU2012

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Yeah--saw this and was thinking: Remember those god-awful actual "Alligator-motif", basically GREEN uniforms that were introduced in the off-season? Like a lot of folks I thought they were a mistake--a "modern update" that was SUPPOSED to "appeal to a young, hip crowd from among which prospective recruits came", but really a surrender to "news for NEWS' sake" mentality, and am not even sure now if they were a Nike, "pre-Jordons" switch to the current ("so far so good") set of designs, but IF they ARE available to us, it occurred to me that a game like THIS one, where we might wanna "shake things up" a bit emotionally going INTO a potentially "turning point" game for BOTH teams, we could do that here almost effortlessly, just by putting on a different uniform...and once on their bodies, the effect would be minimal for our guys but maybe NOT for the opposition. More or less a "disruptive curve" thrown at 'em outta left field, maybe, a "cheap trick", even--but perhaps an unexpected angle that could offset their early emotion JUST ENOUGH, and just LONG enough, to get us all to the point (mid-1st-quarter or so) where all the rest falls away and its more or less all about the players, schemes and EXECUTION.
We get THERE without getting bitten or swamped (Gator-images intentional), I think we CAN win this one...But otherwise, we could find ourselves down the eventual "final deficit" BY that "mid-1st-quarter".
 

DRU2012

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(Lets face it: at this point I'm grasping at straws--both in reading the game on the field AND our approach to it HERE. Been TRYING to get a rise, some sorta reaction (let alone an actual discussion) from our admittedly small core of "THINKING Gators"--as is our supposed reputation "out there", by the way: Yep--we apparently have a "reputation" to live up or DOWN to, one of being "a thinking person's Gator site"...maybe that's why we have more "guests" who just drop by and READ us than regular members who join in. A LOT more...I don't WANT to light some "troll-bomb", here or elsewhere, that radically changes that somehow, but I do miss our own exchanges when they're missing: "saying what needs to be said, SOMEWHERE, week in/week out"--Missing IN ACTION now, seems like.
OK: we're nervous...unsure of EVERYTHING at this point. But at least it's still INTERESTING. Still a "season" for us, where we can see progress being made. Until this now, we had year after year of false hopes eventually dashed, then more years of not-even-THAT: The long slow SLIDE. Can you FEEL the difference now? The Change? It ISN'T imaginary, and it AIN'T self-delusional (for a change).
 

DRU2012

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...Oh well, carrying on...
Been watching the early games here today (purposefully took advantage of circumstances to clear away all obligations; might not be able to DO this again for awhile either) and more'n'more seeing a trend that I don't like:
These officials are applying that "targeting" rule pretty damn liberally--it is at the very least distorting the rhythm of the games, and in a lot of cases does NOT look at all valid--even when (I believe oft-times WRONGLY) upheld by these "officials upstairs" (or their GUIDE-DOGS) on replay. So often the intent or supposed "spirit" of the rule is being circumvented: You can SEE the defender doing all he can to pull up, drop his head and body DOWN to hit at the opposing player's chest or side, but the guy being tackled drops his head and body similarly (it's called "flinching", ref--and if you'd ever actually PLAYED the sport you'd know it's a natural self-defensive, reflexive response to an anticipated blow). Like the NFL and its asinine-in-its-open-to-interpretation-vagueness "protect the QB" rule currently being ridiculously, inconsistently called, with the offender's being ejected for a total of a whole game (in other words, often into the NEXT game as well), it is quietly influencing teams' whole seasons in its repercussions...and the way these things tend to work in our "Gator Experience", can't help getting the dread feeling that sooner or later, eventually it's gonna bite OUR butts BADLY, somehow.
Get ready for THE OUTRAGE, Gators...
 

DRU2012

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Weird: We look "off"--WAY off, on offense.
Don't know if I can watch this... The noise there us really affecting us.
I mean, had to KNOW we were going to face this.
 

DRU2012

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That is total BULLSHIT. HE MUFFED IT--OK. Now we're getting the homer-calls, right from the start. I will not watch a stupid, unfairly called game. This turns out to be tge way of thibgs, we take our loss and split. Man, that wasn't illegal in any way--and theze idiout announcers are talking "targeting"???
 

DRU2012

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I can't believe it. Now missing one of our last key defenders in the middle.
This one may be a done deal from the start here, folks. I begin to suspect y'all FELT THIS COMING--and that's why no one's here.
Well, held 'em to 3, anyway.
 

Escambia94

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I recognize the head referee as one that likes to call BS penalties on Florida. Every time.
 

DRU2012

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Well, way it started, guess we are fortunate to (1) weather the first quarter, get out of it only down 3-0, and (2) get outta the shadow of the goalpists in time to start the 2nd quarter near midfield--rather than deep in tge enclosed end of that madhouse, cowbells and all (and Gator section down at OTHER end)...
Still, our 2nd best of VERY THIN middle of defense suspended for that bullshit targeting call, and gonna take some BIG PLAYS, both offense AND defense, to stay in this one. (And the calls are gonna go against us, obviously: here's another one...we'll be getting lots of those today, you just KNOW it, at this place).
 

DRU2012

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We have put together a nice, shut-up-the-ctowd drive here, though...Some nice run play creativity...
 

DRU2012

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Should be used to the noise by now...we are getting flagged to death here: Now just GOTTA get these 3 points.
 

DRU2012

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Good. Stay close.
Guys, I am not liking ANYTHING about where this game is trending--yes, we are still close, but now they are starting to get going. Gotta somehow stop them NOW.
CANNOT let them drive DESPITE good coverage. We can't try and trade scores with them here.
Sigh. So far this one is showing all the potential thinness, holes and talent deficit currently "just a fact" with our squad. I knew and understand it coming INTO tge season--but with the exception of the 2nd half of the UK game, this is the first time I've seen it "early and often".
So we "bend" again, give up another 3...but I'm THINKING that MULLENS sees it too--and understands: We can "lose slow", or go for in-your-face victory. How bout he sends his team a message? Goes for a LONG ONE, soon...
 
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