UGA vs. Vanderbilt Recap: Defensive Stats / Thoughts

I spent some time tinkering with the box score and drive charts. Some interesting stats jumped off the page at me.

Did You Know:

• UGA held Vandy 45.8 yards below their rushing average for the season. The Dores were averaging 158.9 yards rushing per game. Georgia held them to 114 yards rushing.
  
  
• Georgia gave up 40.7 more yards passing than Vandy had averaged. That sounds bad until you realize that they were only averaging 90.3 yards passing prior to this match-up.
  
  
• The Dawgs held Vandy more than 10 points below their average for the season (24.5). South Carolina's highly touted defense gave up 24 points to the 'Dores while Auburn's strong D gave up 14 just like we did. (AU's D is good. Unlike their wretched O).
  
  
• No Big Plays. UGA didn't surrender a play over 20 yards to Vanderbilt. Against Tennessee, the Dawgs gave up 4 plays over 25 yards (which accounted for around 52% of the entire Vol offensive yardage). In this game, the longest Vandy play was 18 yards.
  

Drive Chart: Vandy had 13 Drives on Offense:

• 2 ended in touchdowns
  
• 7 ended in punts
  
• 2 ended in downs or end of game
  
• 2 ended in turnovers
  
• Average # of plays / drive was only 4.5
  
• Only 4 drives lasted longer than 5 plays
  
• Vandy only had 1 sustained drive over 40 yards, and there were 2 pass interference calls (one was questionable) that kept that drive alive.
  
• Vandy's 2nd TD was a 26 yard / 4 play drive that was started by a UGA turnover.

In other words, Vanderbilt could sustain nothing offensively.

The biggest legitimate defensive complains about our performance in this game would be:

• Pass Rush - We really didn't pressure Adams at all. However, there was no consequence in this game for that action. Why blitz when there's no punishment for not blitzing?
  
• Hands of Stone - The inability to catch passes thrown directly to the defenders. Over the past 2 games, we've probably dropped 8-10 interceptions.

The pass rush is a concern. But otherwise, they did what they were supposed to do on defense. Greater defensive pressure will be required to rattle LSU's young QB, and I would assume we'd get a different game plan. We'll see. Next week will be interesting to watch.

PWD

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