Oh No Dustin Doe
October 25, 2009 by Mat Houchens
Filed under Football
Last night, the #1 Florida Gators took on unranked Mississippi State in Starkville. The Gators hadn’t won in Starkville in over 20 years and looked to end that streak while keeping their winning streak going (longest in the nation). The Dan Mullen vs Urban Meyer matchup surprisingly wasn’t as hyped as I personally thought it would be.
At first glance, it looked like Florida was going to control the game tempo with their interception on Miss St opening drive. But after the missed FG from Sturgis, the game quickly began looking like the game last week. In fact, Miss St took pleasure in putting points on the board first.
Florida was first to step in the endzone with a 26 yard Tim Tebow run that tied the SEC rushing TD record at 49 TD’s. He will have to wait until next week to have the record all on his own. What better team to break the record on than the Georgia Bulldogs!
Florida manages to block a punt (Chris Rainey) and take over within the 10 yardline with about 1 minute to go in the 2nd quarter. On 3rd down, Tim Tebow throws a pass slightly behind the WR that gets tipped up and the corner snags it for an interception returning it for 100 yards and bringing the game to 10 – 13 Florida leading at halftime but taking the momentum from the Gators.
Now a game that could have been 20 – 3 Florida, we’re leading by 3 at half. Our redzone offense is struggling again and inside the 10 yard line we just can’t convert. Last week it was fumbles, this week our 3rd down conversions were just awful.
Miss St opens the 2nd half as strong as they ended the first by stopping Florida and returning down the field for a FG to tie the game up at 13 – 13. Florida’s offense struggling as well returns the 3 points with a Sturgis FG (16 – 13 Florida). Dan Mullen grabs hold of his cajones and decides to do a fake punt on his own 20 only down by 3 but fails to convert giving the ball to Florida in great position. This play right here could have very well been the point the game turned away.
Florida would take full advantage of this field position and Chris Rainey would run it in from 8 yards out for a touchdown (Jeff Demps left the game with an injury early on).
Before the controversial fumble
What is easily the most controversial play of the game, came on an interception by Dustin Doe. On his return he decides to prematurely celebrate with a Miss St defender behind him reaching to rip the ball does in fact rip the ball but it was ruled a TD on the field. After further review, the call stands but replays with 2 different camera angles at one time clearly show the ball is out before the ball breaks the plain.
Now before we go all crazy on these refs, the angle that we looked at, at home was not available to the refs. We took a picture from one angle and a different one and were able to conclude. The refs did not have that advantage and there was not enough indisputable evidence to overturn it as there was no clear line of sight to the ball and the endzone on this play.
The more important matter at hand is “What the hell were you doing Dustin Doe?”. I mean we’re friends and I know you’re going to see this on my Facebook status with a link so don’t hate me for calling you out buddy but come on… there is no excuse for this. You wait until you score to do this kind of thing. I’m sure you got your ass jumped by Meyer for this so I’ll just leave it at this.
And when you think the game is over, Florida goes for the jugular by throwing the ball on their own 2 yard line when the score is 29 – 13. Tim Tebow throws for another pick 6 but in the Gator defense, Riley Cooper was wide open and it would have been a TD but the offensive line failed once again and Tebow got hit as he threw but brought the game within reach again. The 2 pt conversion failed making it a 10 point game and this is how it would stay.
Another ugly, sloppy game but we came out as winners. This team doesn’t look like last years team and we definitely are seeing the effects of losing Louis Murphy and Percy Harvin as well as Dan Mullen. This team is going to be a lot like the team of 2006 where we barely scrape by opponents and if we make it, we go into the National Championship game as the underdog like we did against Ohio State.
Urban Meyer stated after the game that he put Tim in some bad situations and our offensive line miscues played a part in the 2nd pick 6. True, there were some bad play calls but there were also instances where Tim made bad judgment on his decisions. And I’m going to get crucified for saying this but the more I watch, the more I’m convinced he will not succeed in the pros.
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About Mat: Mat is the owner and founder of Title Town FL. He brings his web admin experience from several previous popular sports websites. With a fresh take on how websites should have news available, he makes it a fresh read on every page. |
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