The 9th ranked Gators traveled to Baton Rouge to take on the nations top ranked team after being upset the previous week by Auburn. A record crowd of 92,910 was on hand to witness what was to be a a wild and exciting game.
The Gators got the ball at the start of the game and orchastrated a nice 10 play, 47 yard drive that culminated in a Joey Ijjas 31 yard field goal. The best play of the drive was Kestahn Moore’s rush for 15 yards to the LSU 19 for a 1st down. Gator fans could not have asked for a better start to the game than a 3 point lead to silence the crowd a bit.
On the 3rd play of LSU’s opening drive, Matt Flynn’s pass was intercepted by Joe Haden at the Fla 45, and returned for 10 yards to the LSU 45. Things were looking really good for the Gators after scoring on their opening drive and then getting an interception on LSU’s opening drive. Gator fans everywhere were surely celebrating at this point in the game.
Points on turnovers is big in any level of football and the Gators did not do themselves a favor by gaining 1-yard on 3 plays and having to punt after the interception. Putting more points on the board after the interception would have been a huge for the Gators and would have been demoralizing for the LSU fans. Gotta give credit to the LSU defense for stepping up after the int and forcing the Gators to go 3 and out!
LSU get the ball back and drives 29 yards on 7 plays but the Gator D holds and LSU has to punt. The Gators D may be young but they are playing tough against LSU potent offense. The Gators get the ball back and put together a 12 plays 77 yard drive that ended with a Tim Tebow pass complete to Kestahn Moore for 2 yards for a TOUCHDOWN! Am I dreaming? Are the Gators up 10-0 in the 2nd quarter? I loved the camera shots of the shocked LSU fans throughout the stadium.
If there was a time that the Gators D needed to come up big and stop LSU it was LSU’s 1st drive of the 2nd quarter. LSU’s offense decides to come alive and they put together a 16 play 80 yard scoring drive where Ryan Perrilloux rushes for a 1 yard td. Now the Gators have a game on their hands. 10-7 sure does not feel as good as being up 10-0!
The Gator offense rises to the occassion and puts together a 10 plays 72 yard drive with Tebow scoring on a 9-yard td run. I’m fired up at how the Gators offense responds to the LSU scroing drive. Tebow and the offense seem to have forgot that they are playing in Baton Rouge and are surronded by 90,000 screaming LSU fans. I guess all of the nasty phone calls that the LSU fans made to Tebows cell phone during the week did not have the desired effect.
LSU gets the ball back and I was certain that they would respond with a touch down drive of their own. The Gators D held strong and forced LSU to attempt a 43-yard field goal by Colt David that was NO GOOD!
Im jacked up now! The Gators are going into halftime leading LSU by a score of 17-7. Who on earth would have thought we would be leading by 10 point going into halftime? I thought the game would be a lot closer at this point in the game. Gator Nation is partying like there’s no-tomorrow at halftime and LSU is saying “rut row” The college football gods are shining down on the Gators today. All we have to do is protect our 10-point lead for 2 more quarters and we beat the #1 team in the country.
LSU get the ball to start the 2nd half and all they do is put up a 15 play 70 yard scroing drive with Keiland Williams rushing for a 4 yard td. The Gators D does not rise to the occassion at the start of the 2nd half. I feel a big momentum shift now! The 90,000 LSU fans are now frothing at the mouth now that the score is 17-14.
Once again, Tebow and the offense sack up and put together a 5 play 75 yard scoring drive. Tebow hooked up with Cornelius Ingram for a nice 37 yard touchdown pass! Gators 24 LSU 14. Now i’m thinking that we have this game because Tebow and the offense can keep us ahead with scoring drives to match those of LSU. I now begin to wonder where the Gators will land in the rankings after this victory? I’m thinking 4 or 5?
LSU gets the ball and they are forced to punt after a 6 play 19 yard drive. The Gator D came up big in stopping this LSU drive. Now all we had to do was put up 7 more points and the victory would be ours!
The Gators get the ball and start their drive to victory. But wait, we fumble the ball after driving 30 yards to the 50 yard line! Where are the college football gods now? This was to be the drive to put the nail in the LSU coffin.
Remember what I said earlier about point on turnovers being crucial? LSU drives 31 yards on 6 plays and Colt David misses a 37-yard field goal. The Gators missed a bullet that time. I figure that LSU regains momentum if they put up some points after recovering the fumble. We were lucky that Colt David has not been accurate of late.
This is where I become a little upset. On the 2nd play of the drive Tebow throws an interception at our 27 yard-line. Tebow gave LSU an early christmas present with that int! LSU is now in good shape on our 27 yard line! The wheels seem to be falling off the Gator bus at this point.
LSU takes advantage of the turnover and goes 27 yards on 5 plays for the touchdown! Points on turnovers are crucial! especially in big time games! Gators 24 LSU 21. It seems ages ago that the Gators were winning 10-0 and then 17-7. I now have a sick feeling in my stomach and it was not from the chips and dip I was devouring.
We get the ball back and all is not lost because we are up by 3 points and we have the ball. All we have to do is move the ball and eat up some clock. So what do we do? We go 3 and out on 3 plays for 6 yards. What happened to Tebow and the offense that had responded with long drives earlier in the game? The LSU D was fired up and they had the momentum at this point. Defenses get fired up and motivated when their offense turns their turnovers into points. Points on turnovers has a positive effect on the entire team and this was evident now.
All is still not lost for the Gators. We are forced to punt but we still have the lead with 9:20 remaining in the game. Our defense needs to batten down the hatches and stop the LSU ship bearing down on them. This defensive series would be big for the Gators. Stop LSU and we probably win, let LSU score and we are Gator nuggets.
We punt the ball and LSU does what I had feared. They go on a 15 play 60 yard scoring drive that eats up 8:11 off the clock. Not only does LSU go ahead 28-24, but they also leave us with only 1:09 on the clock.
Now we have our backs against the wall. We have to drive down the field with 1:09 with 90,000 rabid LSU fans screaming and yelling. Things look bleak for Gator Nation. Could Tebow drive down the field in this hostile environment and bring victory to the Gators? We would soon find out!
After 1 complete pass, a pass interference call, and a Tebow 21-yard scramble, the Gators are at the LSU 46 with 00:12 on the clock. Not good! The Gators stop the clock with a time out and we need a good chunk of yardage on the next play to keep us alive. On the next play Tebow is sacked and called for intentional grounding. The Gators call a time out with 00:05 left on the clock. It’s now 2nd and 12 at the LSU 46 with 00:05 on the clock. Things could not be more futile for the Gators. The only hope is for Tebow to launch one into the end zone and hope for a Gator miracle. Tebow takes the snap and a few seconds later he muscles a deep pass into the endzone where the pass is broken up by LSU’s R J. Gillen. Gator’s lose.
I am in a daze! How did we blow a 10-point lead and lose this game? Turnovers and our young defense lost the game for us. Tebow and the offense did their part and had us up by 10 points but the defense could not stop the well oiled LSU machine. The Gators lose 2 games in a row and hopefully Myer can pull the team together and fix the defensive problems. I believe that when and if our defense gets it together we will be a tough team to beat.
