LA ESQUINA

Welcome back to La Esquina folks…and I know you’re all happy to be back after last week’s performance. I think it’s safe to say that we officially OWN the Georgia puppies. Congrats to the boys for going all Michael Vick on the pups…it was great to watch.

Some of the bigger problem areas that we hit on last week were rectified. Timmy played a hell of a lot better, and in fact, probably played his way right back into the Heisman race. Did he heed La Esquina’s advice regarding the slumpbuster? Discuss amongst yourselves. Red Zone offense? Who needs it? We were scoring from outside the 20 on the reg…maybe that’s the answer the rest of the way. Killer instinct? Yup, that pick 6 by Spikes was a nice exclamation mark. More on Spikes and gouge-gate later. Way to twist the knife boys, hell of a job. And another healthy pat on the back for yours truly for the score prediction, La Esquina said 35-14 and it ended up being 41-17…not too shabby if I do say so myself. Maybe it’s time to think about quitting the day job? Maybe not.

Let’s address last week’s questions in detail:

· Can Joe and Janoris contain A.J. Green? Green had 3 catches for 50 yards. We’ll take that everyday of the week and twice on Saturday.

· Will we put up some points against the horrible Willie Martinez led Georgia defense? 41 points. Just lovely. Kudos to the offense in the first half and the defense in the second half with all the forced turnovers. Great team effort.

· Can we play the whole game turnover free (please just one game without a pick or fumble)? I think the boys are reading La Esquina. Zero turnovers in this game. It is rumored that one of our main female readers “knows” Marcus Gilbert and another has developed a healthy back and forth texting relationship with none other than Riley Cooper . She wants a slice of the Coop man and I don’t blame her, the dude is a pimp. Do what you gotta do girls…just keep the players happy. By the way, big shout out to Riley for his performance this week. He was lights out and has been our biggest and most consistent playmaker outside of Tebow. I think Hernandez and Demps are better players but Cooper seems to be the deep threat and has way more touchdowns this season. Ridoncoulous one handed catch in the corner of the end zone by Coop…if he keeps this up, he might just have to crap on that baseball contract and try his luck in the NFL. I see a lot of similarities between Coop and Louis Murphy (size, speed, playmaking ability on the edge)…and Murphy is starting for the Raiders.

· Will Caleb Sturgis miss anymore freaking kicks? Nope. In fact Caleb was uber-impressive with that 56 yard field goal which looked like it would have been good from 66. Second longest in UF history (the longest is 60yds). However, La Esquina has done some research and discovered that back in the 80s when that kick was made the place kickers were allowed to kick field goals off the tee (like they do during kickoffs). This is a huge advantage for the kickers as the ball is already elevated. Thus, I say Caleb holds the true record. The guy has an impressive leg, he just needs to be a little more accurate and consistent.

· Will any of the young receivers get in the game? Frankie Hammond anyone? Nope, but do give credit to the coaching staff for forcing Timmy to spread the ball around a lot more. Those wide throws in the flat to Deonte Thompson and David Nelson were great. It gets those guys involved early and into the game and more importantly, they worked. I like Nelson running the ball in a little bit of space, he is big and tough to bring down and moves pretty well for his size. They got him the ball creatively a few times too, had him in for max protect at the snap but then rolled him out wide and Timmy shoveled it to him. Lets give Addazio some credit, we were really doing a god job of spreading the ball and mixing up the play calling (i.e. limiting the dive plays) in the first half. Much better, looks like this guy is learning on the job. And frankly, he should be given the chance to…just like you were in your first job or after a promotion. These things take a little time and it looks like Addazio is starting to get it.

· How does Timmy respond after his worst game ever as a gator? Since Timmy is from Jacksonville I am sure he will be extra motivated (not that he needs any more motivation given last week’s performance). Timmy was the old Timmy. He was throwing darts and looked really fast in that run up the middle. He is playing so smart these days, he is trying to get wide and get out of bounds as opposed to running everybody over. But worry not, when he needs to, he is happy to lower the boom. I can’t help but notice how shifty Tim is in the open field. We all know he is not the fastest guy in the world but he seems to cut on a dime and make very subtle movements that help evade the tacklers (e.g. see the 3rd and 5 where he took off and juked Renie Curran out of his shoes to pick up the first down). If he keeps this up and we go undefeated while having a big game against Alabama in the SEC championship (or at least a better game than Mark Ingram) he should be sitting pretty for the Heisman.

· Does Brandon Spikes come back from injury and play like Brandon Spikes? He’s got to know his gator career is coming to an end. Go make the most of it Brandon. Brandon played great, he had 10 tackles and an interception that he took to the house but this game and Brandkon Spikes will forever go down in history as the eye gouge game. Let’s get into this because the issue seems to have caught the national media by storm this week. From listening to some of these commentators you would think B-Spikes should be executed. Some were saying this was worse than the LaGarrette Blount incident and that Meyer should have suspended him for the rest of the season. ARE YOU FUC*ING KIDDINE ME? It has since come out (in the blogs) that during the course of the game Georgia did the following (1) ripped Spikes Helmet off twice (one time drawing a personal foul penalty), (2) Spikes was similarly gouged in a previous pile and Ealy also spit on him during an altercation after a tackle, (3) and most egregious to me, watch the tape the second time he loses his helmet, #78 on Georgia sees Spikes helmet is off and then proceeds to accelerate and spear him in the face with his helmet (Spikes was woozy and had to come out of the game), lastly (4) did anyone see the cheap shot on Tebow…he handed the ball off and wasn’t looking and got clobbered by a Georgia DB and fell to the ground harshly. Bottom line, it was a chippy game and while Brandon should not have done what he did when you put it all in context it helps you understand why he did it. This kind of stuff goes on all the time in football, Brandon just had the misfortune of getting caught. Hell, even the Georgia running back said after the fact that Spikes should not have been suspended. Find something else to write and cry about ESPN…this is a non-issue and you have hurt your national credibility as a reputable sports news outlet with your childish reporting and vilifying of a great student athlete this week. Brandon Spikes came from Shelby, North Carolina (very poor area) and has a brother in death row and he has done nothing but work hard, study and do everything that was asked of him by the program since he got here. Never once has he been in off the field trouble. More impressive is that he gave up millions to come back to play for Florida in his senior season when he could have been a high pick in last year’s draft. You should be ashamed of yourselves for fixating on this issue…I am talking to you Pat Forde, Mike Golic and every other bozo out there with a platform spouting off and making a mountain out of a mole hill. You’re a joke, move on!


I said last week that we would either blow Georgia out or outright lose the game. Thankfully we blew them out and it made for a joyous Saturday around the gator nation. However, we here at La Esquina always provide an objective view of the game so let’s discuss a few things that we could have done better against the pups. Surprisingly, they were able to move the ball on us. Georgia had almost 300 yards of total offense and that is disturbing. Although, the big plays on Defense were everywhere and we turned them over like a wh*re at the bunny ranch….over and over again. The four picks were great but this defensive effort reminded me more of the 2008 defense that would bend but not break and make opportune turnovers than the 3 and out beast defense we have seen all this year. Georgia does have some talented players and had an extra week to prepare so we’ll cut the guys some slack…but lets tighten that up boys. I want to be #1 in scoring defense and total defense nationally by the time the year is over (and we are almost there). I would also like to see Brandon James make a couple more plays on special teams…he needs to step it up overall…that drop on a wide open pass from Tebow was just bad. He had the whole open field and one guy to beat if he catches that (i.e. he would have gone to the house). On a positive note, I thought the O-line did a good job of protecting Timmy this week.

We have Vandy next and for the first time all year I don’t have a fuc*ing worry in the world about this game. No questions for next week are needed…I just hope that we come out of that game injury free and that Timmy stays in long enough to pad those stats…he is going to need some stat boosting for the Heisman run. Gators 49-10.

Go get drunk as hell this Saturday,
Go enjoy an easy game,
Go Gators.

P.S. Keep a close eye on the LSU v. Alabama game…I think the Crimson Tide could go down this week.