...I watched the second quarter again. This whole “8-fumble game” is going to turn into mythical excuse during the next 365 days. I’m sure people in Knoxville are already saying “they” were the better team, but “gave” away this football game to a lesser-talented team. All I have to say is, “Watch the game again.” In the first half of the football game, the Vols had only one drive that could have scored any points at all and it was the missed field goal. The entire first half, Tennessee was being smacked around the line of scrimmage by the Gator-D, who were putting 8 men in the box and daring UT to throw. Despite having single-coverage match-ups and more than enough time to set up throws, Tennessee’s receivers were blanketed and their running backs were stuffed. Three of the fumbled in the second quarter were washes; meaning, the Gators did not capitalize on them from a points-perspective. The kick-off fumble could have spelled disaster for UT, but Grossman threw an INT that cost them the drive. In my mind, that was almost a wash. They lost 15 yards and I’m sure many of them were glad to have traded those yards for the fumble. Two fumbles on the goal line were examples of bad execution, but considering that the Vols offense, particularly their rushing attack, had been anemic for much of the 25 minutes before that, does anyone actually believe they could have driven 99 yards to score? Sure their punt gave up bad field position, but with a 10 yard block-in-the-back penalty on the return, the Gators started their offense 12 yards into their own territory with less than a minute left in the half. They drove more than 60 yards in less than a minute and I’ll go into the details of that drive… Twice Grossman was pressured and threw the ball to the dump-off man while in the process of being sacked. In fact, on all, but one passing plays during that drive, including the touchdown, one or more of our offensive linemen got beat and a defender was in Grossman’s face milliseconds before the ball went off. On the play that Ran should have gotten tackled in the backfield by two guys, he only made 4-5 yards from it and shouldn’t have been the deciding factor in the success of that drive. The first Gator scoring drives went 84 yards, 24 yards and the third went 62. With the exception of the field goal, every single scoring drive faced a third-and-long during some point that the Gators over-came. The UT defense was far from easy to over-come too because their DB’s had some of the best coverage’s I’ve seen and they had the kind of QB pressure you dream about. Sure they were quick points, but they weren’t easy points. It wasn’t like Clausen fumbled one of those balls in the end-zone that were recovered by a defensive end for a quick six. The Vols had their chances many times during the game to stop the Gators or to capitalize on defensive mistakes. The bottom line is, they didn’t. There were mistackles, but the Vols kept our best running back to a 2.8 yard average. There is no excuse. After watching the game over, without the emotion I had the first time, it’s plain to see. The Gators were fired up and ready to play and Grossman zipped balls into tight coverage’s that no one else would have made and eluded pressure from guys who were like supped-up Mustangs. Tennessee wasn’t the better team. They got smoked and are using the rain as an excuse. And I’m sure we’re going to hear that excuse over and over… And over… And over… And over… And over…