I don't have time for a full review b/c work is brutal still.
But suffice it to say that I think this was the single worst game plan of the Richt era. Every team that beat the Gators blitzed from the opening whistle til the final horn. They beat prissy little Leak into a pulp.
As Orson Swindle pointed out to me Saturday...."You held the Gators to 14 points and zero in the final 3 quarters. With all due respect, how can you be mad at the Defense?" The answer is field position. Because we played so soft and because we never put any pressure on Leak we seemed to start every drive inside our own 20. You can't expect a first time starting QB to march the team the length of the field every drive.
As for the offensive game plan...I can appreciate bringing back the toss sweep and using a FEW quarterback sweeps to throw the defense off. I knew going into this game, that Joe T could run. But you don't run QB sweeps on 3rd and 22 or whatever or 3rd and 10. Not after the surprise is already over.
It was a horribly called game. I love what Richt has done for UGA. In fact, I think he's the best thing to happen to UGA since Herschel signed his recruitment papers on Easter Sunday 1980. But this game plan was without a doubt his worst ever.
BTW -- as for Coutu's misses. The wind was brutal. I can't really fault him much. We lost b/c of coaching. Not player execution. UF outcoached us badly.
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8 comments:
I was disappointed to see the Dawgs suffer from the phrase "the more things change, the more they stay the same". UGA lost to UF and Spurrier beat my Vols.
I agree with DMO, the QB sweep on 3rd and 10 on the last drive of the game was Randy Sanders-level. I've always thought Richt really got QB's ready but in this instance, I'm not sure he gave the QB a chance. Plus, while the D didn't let UF score a bunch, it certainly didn't punish Chrissy as most teams have, thus not forcing him into making a bad play that UGA could've scored or gotten better FG position.
Finally, I hate UGA losing for two reasons- they gave teh SEC the best chance to slip into the Rose Bowl, and I liked all the doubt and uncertainly about the GREAT Urban Meyer that was bubbling to the surface. The "fireurbanmyth.com" website has now been put on hold - an unfortunate event.
It's a little early to proclaim the end of the Urban Myth. His vaunted "offense" was only successful during the first two drives, during which he pretty much abandoned the Utah-style abomination in favor of something more traditional--and effective.
This loss grates me because the players did everything the coaches' asked--but the coaches asked them to do some pretty lame things. Not blitzing is inexplicable. It's fine to be a less-aggressive defense if your offense is scoring points. The play calling for the last two drives was a complete meltdown. Using the Magic 8-ball to playcall would have been more successful. The 3rd and 10 QB keeper will live in infamy.
I'm glad Mark Richt is our coach, but he HAS GOT to hire an offensive coordinator, if for no other reason than to walk down the sideline and pull Richt's head out of his ass.
Biggest UGA fan on Earth here (or one of them) - if the DAWGS don't get an OC, they'll never win the national championship - or very many SEC championships for that matter. Richt has obviously brought UGA back from the near-dead of the Goff-Donnan era and I love him dearly for it. However, Richt's play calling was atrocious this weekend, against arkansas, against auburn a few years back (goal line run instead of pass with time running out - you remember) and in countless other scenarious. I know it is the one place where joe-fan can monday morning quarterback a phenomenal coach and that everybody has a bad day, but I'm damn tired of losing to florida (and others) because the team isn't given the chance to win.
I ragged on Tereshinski pretty good last week, like a lot folks, but he played his tail off. If you had told he would play as well as he did, I would have thought UGa won this by a TD or so.
What happened to the vaunted running attack by the way? UGa just looked flat and without any sort of direction most of the game (bits and pieces I caught on commercials during GT UGLYING out a win over CU) - and that surprised me.
Disagree with the criticism of CMR's play calling just a bit. It seemed to me that the coaching staff knew for some time (Arky game, early Saturday?) that Joe T couldn't be trusted throwing downfield. Maybe it was the pressure the Gators were bringing, but it looked to me as if there was no way Joe T was going to be trusted throwing anything other that screens and safe passes to the tight end. When the Gators doubled covered Pope and effectively took away the screens, it left very little for the offense. I like Joe T's effort and guts, but there's no way, in retrospect, that we were going to beat a stout defensive team like Fla with Joe T under center.
Dawg fans - be careful what you ask for. Vols have a OC and you see where that's gotten us. Charlie Weis isn't getting extensions because of his OC. FSU has a coaches sone as OC and they only do enough to get by with all the talent they have. Etc. etc.
Richt has this Highland Park stud coming in next year and he keeps lighting things up out here in Texas, if you cna keep him off the juice ( he was caught/suspended his Sophomore year for underage drinking) but he looks like the real deal.
BIG NEWS - just saw on UT chat board that Randy Sanders may be available after today's 3pm news conference.
I'm not sure the UGA play calling was at fault. We had a decent plan (with a few noted exceptions). As for the defense, I would have liked to have seen more blitzes, but FL ran a protection package pretty much every play (unlike the LSU and Bama games). Still we should've done something to disrupt Leak in the first two drives.
Joe T played well (especially considering the dropped passes), and his TD would've been the stuff of legend IF we had only won.
Here's my scenario on how the rest of the season plays out. I think we'll lose to Auburn (they've worried me for a while, esp. since they're under the radar), but in a strange twist, Steve "Evil Genius" Spurrier will send the Dawgs to the SEC Championship game by beating the Gators in Columbia.
Go Dawgs!
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