FOUR BITS: Tebow’s protection, margin of victory, volleyball sweeps (again), Lacroix wins

By Adam Silverstein
November 9, 2009

1 » One reason for senior quarterback Tim Tebow’s struggles? A porous Florida Gators offensive line. Tebow has taken 21 sacks on the season, eight more than he did in 2007 and six more than 2008…and he still has five games left to play. Some of that can be blamed on Tebow holding on to the ball too long, but the majority of the fault falls on the men supposed to be protecting the Heisman Trophy winner. “We don’t take pride in giving up sacks,” redshirt junior left tackle Carl Johnson said. “We try our best to protect him, try our best to make sure he has time in the pocket. Teams are just blitzing a lot – sometimes they bring more than we actually can protect.” Could offensive line coach and new offensive coordinator Steve Addazio be in over his head? It is a common theme going around, even if players and coaches don’t admit it.

2 » While everyone is going seemingly off the deep end about Florida’s offensive struggles, I took a minute and checked out the nine wins so far this season. Here are the margins of victory: 59, 50, 10, 34, 10, 3, 10, 34, 24. Now look at the numbers through the first nine games in 2006: 27, 42, 1, 19, 15, 13, -10, 7, 6. Not counting the preseason non-conference games, the Gators are averaging a 17.4-point margin of victory in 2009 compared to 7.3 in 2006. Now obviously one team is coming off a National Championship season while another was trying to find its footing for much of the year. But in comparing the two teams, which has been done defensively all season, you see a group that has won by double digits in every game they have played except for the squeaker against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Not bad.

3 » No. 9/11 Florida volleyball (20-3, 14-2 SEC) continues to roll in Southeastern Conference play, sweeping the Auburn Tigers (14-12, 6-9 SEC) 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-13) on Sunday in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. Sophomore outside hitters Kristy Jaeckel and Colleen Ward combined for 22 kills and 15 digs as the Gators went on to score their 20th win of the season. It has swept eight straight SEC opponents and next faces the LSU Tigers on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. The match will air on Sun Sports.

4 » Gators tennis had a busy weekend, but nobody played better than junior Alexandre Lacroix, who won the singles consolation final at the ITA National Indoor Championships on Sunday. Lacroix, the No. 23 player in the nation, defeated No. 46 Ed Corrie of the Texas Longhorns in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. Now that the fall season is complete, tennis will next play in mid-January at the SEC Indoors.

6 Comments

  1. O-town Gator says:

    Adam, this Gator fan is happy with the win, even though it wasn’t the RUTS-type blowout some fans expected. I give Coach Meyer and our guys a LOT of props for staying impervious to all the negative press over the past week and not letting morale in the locker room go down.

  2. Mr2Bits says:

    Hell yes teams are blitzing allot but Adazzio’s sorry ass fails to make adjustments. Put Moody back there to help protect. Hell, why do we have an empty backfield when we only use 2 receivers anyhow. I hate Adazzio, damn he sucks at life

  3. O-town Gator says:

    2Bits, do you think you can do a better job than Steve Addazio at running this offense?

  4. Kelly says:

    Tebow has taken WAY too many hits! Not only does he need to learn how to give up the ball, but that OL needs to STEP UP. Switch’em out with some of the Defense. Maybe that’ll hit’em hard enough to turn for a change…

  5. Mr2Bits says:

    O-town – hell yes I can. I could draw up 15 plays and it would be 10 more than his entire play calling sheet. Must I remind you of the Tebow dive after Tebow dive on the goal lines or 3rd and one which is now being stopped on a weekly basis? The difference between he and I is that I can see the entire field of play and what the defenses are doing to scheme against us. This is the same view that he could share, but is to fucking stubborn to sit in a box and call the games from a full vantage point. This same stubbornness is the same faulty trait that drives him to stick to what he thinks will work instead of making adjustments throughout the game.

    So in short yes, I could call a better game than he could.

  6. Mr2Bits says:

    I could also use my freaking flag football play offensive play book and it would be more complex than his note card of plays

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