Wear That Boy Out!

We had a very productive hineysight session following the Florida State game.  The primary participants were Goz, Jaybird, Smiley, Bill, Zork, my brother Mike, who was up from Jacksonville (but insisted he was not a fan of any of the Florida schools), and myself.  We all agreed that the most glaring truism from the last several games, and especially this one, is that Clemson needs to give the ball to number 9 more.

Goz’s exact words were, “Run him ’till his tongue is hangin out.”

Zork echoed that sentiment, insisting they should “Run him ’till he’s plum wore out.”

Of course, we’re all in agreement that Kelly Bryant remains our best option at quarterback, but he needs to throw the medium-to-long passes better.  He’s missing too many open receivers.  And the receivers, especially number 8, can help a lot by catching the ball when it is there.

I was especially proud of the play of our patched up defensive backs in the first half.  Fla State’s quarterback had no open receivers to throw the ball to.  The pressure that our defensive line was putting on him certainly helped in that regard.  Then in the second half, we had a couple of assignment breakdowns and a couple of crucial interference penalties that gave the Seminoles the notion that they were still in the game.

When all is said and done, though, it was a great win over a very talented team, much better than their record indicates.

After our game critique, we turned out attention to helping Miami destroy Notre Dame and put them out of the playoff picture, a position they had no business being in in the first place.  And with our encouragement and advice, we had Mississippi State in excellent position to upset Alabama.  Unfortunately, that game lasted well past our bedtime.  After we broke up to retire for the night, Bama came back and pulled out the win.

So now it’s The Citadel, the Gamecocks, and Miami to get us into the playoffs.  We need to win the state championship, then deal with a Miami team that because of their win over Notre Dame, has vaulted into the No. 2 spot in the  AP poll.   Methinks they may be a little overrated there, and I doubt that the CFP poll will have them that high.  They beat a Notre Dame team that lost to Georgia; the same Georgia team that just got destroyed by Auburn.  And how did Auburn do against Clemson?  All that aside, we’ve got to play well for five more games.

Jaybird was showing significant improvement on the TV remote; he was at least getting to the better commercials.  Our biggest concern, though, is that we have no reliable backup plan for the remote.    Anne is way too demanding of Jay’s time, requiring him to run to the kitchen every ten minutes or so, and we’re stuck with whatever commercial he left us with.  I believe that with some training, Goz could possibly handle the job, but Goz likes to put his pajamas on when we start watching TV, and he’s dead to the world when he gets those “soft pants” on.

This is what I have to work with. Goz, Zork, and Jay on the couch, Bill in the balcony.