At least that’s what Vern Lundquist, CBS analyst, said with just over six and a half minutes remaining in this year’s Florida-Georgia game.  Georgia had so quickly fallen apart, sputtered so hard in the second half and so thoroughly self-destructed that not even the CBS announcers tried to prop up any hope of this being a competitive game after that point.

Coach Richt had removed his starting quarterback and replaced him with backup Logan Gray.  With a commanding 17 point lead Florida smelled blood and teed off for the quarterback every play with devestating results.  In Tim Tebow’s final game he combined for 250 total yards with 85 of them coming on the ground.  Two of his four touchdowns came on the ground breaking his tie with Georgia running back Herschel Walker for career touchdowns in the SEC.  On a day where everything seemed to go Florida’s way, Georgia continued their season long knack of committing penalties and turnovers to allow the Gators to turn a 3 point game (14 to 10) into a 24 point rout.

While the Gators looked more like their 2008 selves than their recent 2009 version, this IS Georgia we are talking about.  A team who has come into the season seemingly determined to make every offense they face seem like the 2007 Patriots.  The offense came out spreading the ball around but seemed to revert to the more conservative performance as the game went along.  The reshuffling of the offensive line seemed to pay early dividends but the running game seemed to sputter in the second half.  There is more work to be done but Florida’s staff has definitely taken a step in the right direction in addressing some of the lingering problems that have hampered the offense thus far.

Despite the win, here are some philosophical suggestions for the future.

1) Use Emmanuel Moody more early in the game to wear down the defense.  This should allow Demps and Rainey to have an even greater advantage as a change of pace back with their quickness.  I don’t mean that Demps, Rainey and perhaps Gilisslee shouldn’t rotate in but let Moody who is the most physical Florida back pound on the defense before trying to hit them with the little guys.

2) Limit the use of Rainey and Demps inside, especially Rainey.  Both are small backs who can only take so much punishment.  Of the two Demps is the better inside runner with better straight ahead burst.  Rainey is a guy who likes to use his shiftiness and cut backs to create big plays.  His tendency to dance in the hole combined with his diminuitive size leaves him vulnerable to injuries.  Basically he spends too much time in one plays standing straight up.  In comparison Demps tends to always be moving foward and dives forward for positive yards making him the better inside runner of the two.  Brandon James is absolutely inequipped to run inside as the blast of air from a falling defensive lineman could knock him down.

3) Once we have a big lead we need to specifically move away from calling plays that involve Tebow running the ball.  There will always be the scramble and the play where Tebow will just try to make something happen with his legs but there is absolutely no reason to risk losing him here in the stretch run.  Think of it as something similar to a pitch count limiting how many hits Tebow takes in a game.  If necessary tell Tebow to GET RID OF THE BALL rather than absorb the extra pounding.

4) Similar to the way we started the game we need to make a concerted effort to spread the ball around and throw the ball in the second half as well as the first.  Granted with a lead like we had against Georgia the smart move is to run the ball and run the clock to shorten the game.  But in the process Tebow too way to many hits against a team that would love nothing more than to end his career.  Tim needs to be protected (even from himself) as much as we need to spread the ball around to best attack opposing defenses.  In an effort to promulgate this effect Tim needs to be encourages to get the ball to the short receivers who are open and look downfield when scrambling.  Currently Tim is reluctant to throw it short believing he can do better with his legs and thus is not looking down the field where we might hit a big play.

5) End the Brandon James experiment.  I’m not saying he shouldn’t play but he shouldn’t be part of the game plan.  You would think that BJ and Rainey would be terrifying weapons in space but we rarely put Rainey in space to take advantage of his ability (running him inside as much as we try and get him on the perimeter) and James has not proven he deserves such opportunities.  Not only has his special teams play declined with his additional offensive responsibilities but he tends to dance too much on sweeps instead of bursting upfield, his hands are not good in games (catching passes and holding onto the ball) and his diminuative size makes it hard for Tebow to get him the ball and means a high throw could easily turn into an interception.

Despite the big win I think we will see continued improvement offensively.  I hope Chris Rainey can recover from his shoulder injury because I believe he could be a big factor in the open field despite being ignored in that regard for much of the year.  Nelson proved he can be an integral part of the offense.  Deonte Thompson is not getting the ball enough.  He should be getting the same attention from Tebow that Cooper gets.  Cooper is Timmy’s main guy (which is fine) but Thompson has the same big play ability and can’t become the forgotten man.  Timmy significantly improved his play from the previous three games and if he can return to the level he played at the end of last year the sky is the limit for this team.

As always, Go Gators!