Holy hell. If many other Mid-American Conference teams were on that field that day ... this would've been an upset. Northern Illinois should've been down there. Temple, Kent State, Maybe even OHIO ... but Miami's 1-11ness showed through as they had some touchdown chances but only materialized with four field goals.
UF's offense has speed, speed, and speed, but for a while they had fumbles, bad snaps, and confusion. Six fumbles, each one more incredulous than the last, basically disrupted UF's traditional opening-week slaughter. Once Jeffrey Demps ran for a 72-yard touchdown, everybody watching on TV could tell the game was done.
And it became a battle of how close MU could make it. Armand Robinson had a hell of a catch in the red zone, carrying some Gator defenders with him to the 1, but just a little kick turned into a 15-yard penalty, and a potential 4th-and-inches touchdown into another meh-inducing field goal.
There's some confidence to be had in Oxford, because they have winnable games for the next two weeks, and if they can hang with the No. 4-ranked team for three quarters, Eastern Michigan and Colorado State oughta be no big deal.
Also interesting, but for much a much shorter time span. At the onset I loved the fourth down call in the first quarter when Alex Carder zipped it to Juan Nunez for a tying touchdown. And Ben Armer had a hell of a punt that bounced at the 2-yard line and went vertical for excellent field position. Le'Veon Bell was not impressed by great special teams play. He and Edwin Baker put together 258 yards on the ground, and methodically they pushed the score out of reach by the third quarter.
Nonetheless, Carder looked decent -- great for a first start, too. But for all the cute tools they have on offense, it still looks like a 7-5 season at best for them.
We got four more games this evening. And we're so not done.