So I've made a chocolate milk shake and I am drowning my sorrow in calories.
Seriously, though, This game was a disappointment. It was disappointing that we were able to move the ball effortlessly and failed to win. We outgained the Gators, we played hard, good football. We just somehow managed to come up on the short end of the score.
We lost because the Gators were able to keep us out of the end zone a couple of times, and we simply weren't able to do the same thing to them. Florida made big plays on special teams, and we just could not get them off the field. It's tough, but we have to face reality -- Florida played better football, and as a result, they won. We made some mistakes on special teams, and it arguably cost us two touchdowns.
I would like to have a do-over on that one, no question, with both teams coming off a game instead of one coming off a bye. But that's football, and there are no do-overs. We were a little more dinged up than they were, and it showed in the fact that we really wouldn't commit to the ground game like we should have, because if Little had been available, I think that would have been different. I am a bit frustrated with Joker Phillips for throwing so many passes. You beat a defense up on the ground, and once you have ground them down a bit, you throw the ball. We allowed Woodson to be sacked six times (although Florida's excellent front line had an awful lot to do with that), and those sacks really hurt. But by running the ball more, it is likely that Florida would have come with less pressure. But alas, for whatever reason, we didn't.
Florida executed their offense almost flawlessly. If they hadn't, I think we may have won. We didn't execute flawlessly, and if we had, we might have pulled it out. This game is interesting in the fact that it turned out exactly true to form, and the team that had the least empty possessions won -- a shootout, as it were. Florida was just better and more efficient on offense, and got the football into the end zone.
Congratulations to the Gators. They could hardly have played a better game offensively. Congrats to Kentucky as well -- we played great football and just ran into a team that played better. We didn't give it away, we didn't make foolish mistakes -- we just failed to execute at the level required to win. Both teams executed very well, Florida just executed a little bit better.
No reason to hang our heads, we played good football. If I had told you at the beginning of the season we would beat LSU in overtime and lose in a shootout to Florida by one touchdown, most of you (and me as well) would have taken it. No, this isn't the outcome we hoped for, and there is no such thing as a "moral victory", especially when you are ranked higher, playing at home, and the team in question has beaten you 20 times in a row previous to this. I won't lie -- this one hurts, and it hurts a lot. We had a chance to repay a very old debt as well as take the lead in the East. We failed. Now we have to regroup, lick our wounds, and win some more games.
Kudos to the Gators for a well-played game. Tough loss for the Cats -- we have work to do.
