- Pass Rush -- We're missing Marcus Howard in a very, very big way. The scheme from Willie Martinez was pretty sound...ugly but sound. He basically looks to have said, "let's force South Carolina's half assed QBs to beat us." The run defense surrendered 18 yards on 16 attempts, and the passing game of SC wasn't able to deliver when it mattered most. That means that his plan was unquestionably a success. However, the lack of a pass rush was exposed. More accurate passers will have a field day against UGA if we don't find a way to get pressure. I say "may be unfixable" because Marcus Howard ain't "walking through that door."
- Kick Coverage -- This SHOULD be fixable, but we will apparently need a televised A&E Network Intervention to sort it out. To execute the directional kickoffs you need a kicker that can kick the ball inside the 5 yard line...in the corner...very high...and a coverage unit that can contain the returner. We are doing none of that. We gave SC starting field position at the 35, 38, and 30. Our kicks traveled 51, 57 and 58 yards. That means that the SC return actually caught a ball on the 19 yardline. That's ridiculous. By comparison, SC's kickoffs traveled 69 and 70 yards resulting in starting position of the 20 and 25 yard lines. This is not working. It has never worked, and it looks like we're not going to fix it in my lifetime.
- YMCA Ball -- Some of our substitution patterns drive me nutty. Over the past few years, we have had the tendency to put a less productive player in the game and ask him to make a big play when a more experienced player is sitting on the sidelines. Sometimes it works (See: Henderson, Mikey vs. Bama) But many times it doesn't. AJ Green and Mohamed Massaquoi are performing at elite levels. They need to be the guys running the biggest routes in the biggest moments. Along the same lines, what is with this Logan Gray experiment. There is no way that he's our best option at punt returner, gunner or kickoff coverage. It makes positively no sense to me why he's in there. That's not to speak negatively of him. He's giving 100% and he's a good kid. But it begs the question of the coaching staff? WHY is he in there. There are bigger, faster, more physical guys who are trained and exposed to high impact / collision plays more often.
I'm very pleased with the game. I was expecting / hoping that our nail biter days against SC were over. They aren't, but so what. We won, and this is mostly fixable issues.
The Miscues (Penalties, Drops, Screw-ups Etc.)
I'm currently charting the miscues from the game. Overall, I feel better the more I watch. The next post will be the 1st half offensive miscues. When you look at them, you can see how close we really were to pulling away. As I finish sections of the game I'll post some thoughts.
BTW -- Quinton is right. Stafford made some great audibles in this game and a few throws that saved our bacon. Yes, he also blew some plays, but there aren't 5 QBs who can hit that pass to AJ Green, and there aren't 10 QBs who have the autonomy to check out of bad plays as much as Matthew does. I like what we have there.
The drive chart / miscue comments are coming shortly.
PWD
