Florida Game Notes and Thoughts...

What a game! Auburn looked like a completely different team. I'm happy to say that both of my pregame questions were answered "yes". Auburn stopped Florida on their opening drive, and Auburn converted 6 out of 14 for 42.8%. That's still not great, but it's better than 33.3% they had coming into the game.

Borges's third down play calling was about the same as it has been. However, Stewart had his first attempt and conversion on the ground this year. Also, Auburn did throw the ball on a third and three, and ran a draw play on a third and eleven. The pass worked, but the draw didn't. There is a definite pattern in Auburn's first and second down, which I mention in the following game notes:

Good

• Florida didn’t score on the opening drive!
• I like the play calling on Auburn’s first drive. The offense is playing with intensity.
• Auburn’s defense is swarming tonight.
• Billings just caught one across the middle and was crushed. I don’t see how he held onto that ball. (The emphasis here is that he held onto the ball.)
• Other than the late hit, Savage is having a great game. He just made another stop on third down.
• Cox is looking good. It helps when his receivers actually catch the ball!
• Wow, Billings was wide open on that play. It looks like Borges has been working on some zone-buster plays.
• Fannin is running like a madman on this drive.
• Ziemba is looking impressive. He just helped Fannin gain an extra 4 or 5 yards by pushing him from behind.
• Thompson has been in the backfield a good bit tonight. He hasn’t been able to connect back there yet, but he’s definitely breathing down Tebow’s neck.
• Horrible call on the punt. Tuberville is livid, and gets flagged too. I think his reaction will light a fire under his defense. (It's good to see him so emotional.)
• Wow, Byrum doing the gator chop after making that. He earned it!

Bad

• Kickoff coverage needs some work.
• UF has a late hit, and Bosley can’t keep his cool. You can’t blame him, but even so…that’s a 15 yard gift that he just handed back to UF.
• Cox just scrambled. Borges could backpedal faster than that.
• It’s obvious. Auburn’s going to run on this first down. They do, and Tate is dropped for a loss.
• Cox has another ball batted down, and throws into coverage the next play. This doesn’t look like the same team that was out there during the first half. Just as I typed that, Cox was sacked.
• Borges needs to mix things up when Burns is in the game. It’s pretty obvious that he’s going to run the ball, and it’s pretty obvious that the defense knows this.
• Bad call by Mushcamp going after Tebow. Bad coverage by Etheridge.
• 2nd and 1, and it couldn’t be more obvious what Florida’s going to do. Tebow still makes 12 or so yards.
• Will it hurt Borges to throw the ball on first down? I’m starting to see a pattern here. Auburn runs on first down. If they gain anything, they run on second down. If they don’t, they pass it the second down.

Here are a few things that I find interesting:

• Florida came into the game averaging over 500 YPG on offense. Auburn held them to 312.
• The last team to shut out Florida in the first half was South Carolina...in 1992.
• The last five times Auburn has beaten Florida (including Saturday), the gators were ranked in the top four.
  

Overall, I'm very happy with how Auburn played. I'd like to know what they're doing different for away games. I know they stay in a hotel, and all of that. Teams used to do that for home games as well, but I'm not sure if they still do. If not, maybe that might help things for Auburn at home.