Russ at work (Image: Hipple)So that was a bit unexpected huh? Raise your hand if you thought our tailbacks would rush for 340+ yards and average 9.2 yards per carry. I'm thrilled for the seniors and the entire team to get the stink of losing to Tech off them.
A game like that makes you ask yourself..."What if?" What if we had ran the ball like that all year? What if we had played defense like that all season? What if we don't turn the ball over +17 times on the season? What if we could've made it through 10 of our games with 5 or fewer penalties like we did Saturday?
Some of those are legit questions. Some aren't completely fair. It's important to remember:
- Caleb King and Washaun Ealey - King and Ealey missed almost the entire Fall camp due to injuries. King didn't return until Week 3, and he broke his jaw against LSU in Week 5. Ealey didn't debut until Week 5 from his injuries and lost practice time. Maybe Ealey could've arrived a week earlier, but he was legitimately behind. Our top running backs from the first two games haven't gotten a carry since Tennessee Tech.
- The Offensive Line - Josh Davis is a guy that I had little optimism for when he was signed. I believe it was one his HS coaches that disparaged the kid's upside so that wasn't a good sign. The past few weeks, he's played really well and shored up the revolving door at one of the tackle positions since Sturdivant went down. However, he's not the only reason the OL looked so much better. In the early season, the running backs couldn't find a 10 foot wide cut-back lane with the help of Garmin, Mapquest and Sacajawea. The vision, patience and aggressiveness was a total mess. The OL looked better versus GT because they are playing better, yes. But also because their holes weren't missed.
- Offensive Play Calling - This has been a puzzler for most of the year. As Blutarsky has said many times this year, we faced a crisis of confidence as a program. The play calling suggested that Richt and Bobo didn't believe our kids could make certain plays. In fairness, I didn't either. And the stats suggested that maybe we couldn't. But here's a stat to put your head around (borrowed and enhanced from a commenter on DawgPost.com)...We averaged 27.7 points per game this season. That's with a kid at QB whose only other scholarship offer was Duke. A kid that wouldn't be starting at Duke now. Yet, Bobo's guys in '09 averaged more points than the 2003 unit that won the SEC East and within 0.2 points from our loaded 2004 squad. It's possible that Bobo doesn't need to be run off...he needs a damn hug for working a miracle with the talent gap at QB, late blooming RBs and inconsistent OL. As for the turnovers, I point back towards the early season issues at Running Back as the QB situation.
- The Defense - John Wooden said that there's no such thing as "overachieving." If you do something, that's the level for which you can consistently achieve. In other words, it's physically impossible to do more than you can do. What we saw on Saturday defensively was what the UGA defense can do. It's what the UGA defense should've done all year. The DTs played to their ability. The LBs took the violence to the ball carriers instead of absorbing collisions, and Reshad Jones continued what was quietly a nice season. I realize Justin Houston didn't arrive until the Arkansas game, but that doesn't explain all the issues at DL this season. It doesn't explain why Rambo sat while Evans struggled, and it doesn't explain why so much talent took so long to come together. That's the reason Richt is off soul searching right now. And answering that question of himself and his coaches is the key to the future of the program.
PWD
24 comments:
kudos, good post. Searels and Bobo earned their titles and paychecks as depleted as we were early in the year. We lost 2 first rounders and a second rounder and still put up 41 and 52 in our first two league games. Granted, their were some times of offensive anemia, but we all expected to see that with all of the ?s on that side of the ball.
conversely, Willie had a full cupboard on defense: talent, experience, leadership. strides weren't made and Tech burned us in the one area we had been getting burned all year: the passing game. Willie is signing the thank you card to Demariyus Thomas as I write this. We stuffed their run very well, but why shouldn't we have? That's our strength.
Reshad Jones played well this year, but I still have a feeling that we could have seen more from him throughout his career. Just seemed to coast too much for my taste. He finally cared about a game and it showed.
Bobo and Searels get a collective B+ for their bang up job this season. Willie gets a D- since we still had a winning record. Otherwise, it's an F.
It just seems that it took 12 weeks for the team to find its identity.
I hope that the lessons learned from the 2nd half UK debacle and the Gtu win carry over to next season.
We are going to have a RsFR under center. We are returning the entire offensive line, except Vince Vance. We have 2 very good RB's. We have the best WR in the country.
Murray needs to throw 14-18 passes a game next year for us to be successful. We need to remember that when we churn the clock and run the ball, our offensive line enjoys playing a lot more, we do not turn over the ball and our defense gets to rest.
We will also have the benefit of the best punter and kicker in the country. I hope that Saturday's gameplan is photocopied and used for 12 Saturdays next fall.
What if GT was so undersized on DL???
I know, I know... But that's a huge factor in us running for 340 yards against them.
What if GT was so undersized on DL???
I know, I know... But that's a huge factor in us running for 340 yards against them.
Yes, Gtu fields a 1AA DL. However, we ran the ball decently against UF, one of the great defenses we have seen in the last two decades.
I do not think there are any illusions that we are going to turn into '95 Nebraska, but we should be able to pound anyone we play enough to get AJ Green single coverage.
It was a great win, but I need to study a little more. My first impression is that a lot of our defense's success was due to the fact that our offense had the ball an unusually significant amount of time in the first half. I don't remember how many possessions tech had, but that had to be low. I am proud of how the kids play and I am comfortable that our offense is moving in a good direction. Let's be reminded, though, that tech (nor UGS for that metter) never punted. They completed a wide open key 4th down and 9 in the first half. They should have completed a wide open 4th and 10 in the 4th qtr. We won a game playing smash mouth, but don't fool yourself, the defense's issues are not gone. Had they completed that 4th down pass and gotten to the end zone later, we would be miserable. THEY DIDN'T!! WE WON, but change is still necessay. Great win by the team and at a time where they could have clocked out. GO DAWGS!
Aladawg
Montez R. pinched for underage possession by Keystones . . .
Other than the turnovers the Dawgs D never even forced a punt. Thankfully Tech dropped the ball on the 4th down play. We didn't play that well on defense.
What if we played defense like that all year?
You mean giving up 20+ points and never forcing a single punt?
That's pretty much how we played defense all year, except half the time we gave up 30+ instead of 20+.
I'm sorry, but when you fail to force a single punt, your defense did not play lights out.
Imagine if our offense had not played so well and controlled the clock?
We didn't force a punt, but then we didn't necessarily need to.
Tech only had nine possessions, four in the first half, five in the second. In the first half, they had a missed FG, a FG (after our only turnover), an INT and ran out of time because we forced a sack. So that's basically three stops and a turnover.
In the second half, they had three TDs, a fumble lost and the game-ending drive.
Yeah, the three second-half TDs were bad. But let's be real here: If someone had offered us 24 points allowed before the game, with the way that offense can generate yards and points, and with the way we've self-destructed all year, we'd have taken it.
But the best offense in the world can't score points if it doesn't have the ball, and that's why our gameplan was so effective.
Also, 27.7 ppg is good, but throw out the 52 and 41 early in the year and all of a sudden it's not *that* good.
If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Demariyus Thomas.
I think Bobo is finally starting to realize that you can be a smart offensive coordinator and still run the damn ball. I saw more misdirections and traps than I've seen all year out of Georgia. For the first time since Bobo took over, our run game was actually complex. It didn't feel like an afterthought.
I really hope Willie coached his last regular season game for Georgia but at least Georgia's defenders didn't look confused for once. When Georgia got burned, the defense was where they were supposed to be. They just didn't make the play and didn't have out-of-the-box backup.
And is just me or did Tech have a harder time passing once Evans left the game?
"Also, 27.7 ppg is good, but throw out the 52 and 41 early in the year and all of a sudden it's not *that* good."
Maybe, but you don't do that when tallying stats. Those points were against SEC teams, including SC's solid defense. We had an inexperienced, physically limited QB, a banged up OL, and young RBs with little or no game experience.
Bobo's playcalling has puzzled me at times too, but I think he's done a pretty solid job given the circumstances.
I disagree that Bobo should get a medal or award or hug or anything for his offensive playcalling this season. I think we called games scared to death we would make a mistake. Against Tech, we just played balls out. I think if we had adopted this offensive attitute earlier, we'd all be a lot happier right now.
NO MORE SCREEN PASSES FROM COX - EVER.
"Also, 27.7 ppg is good, but throw out the 52 and 41 early in the year and all of a sudden it's not *that* good."
It's funny how if you take out the good and leave the bad the end result is always bad.
1) It helps that Tech had probably the smallest O and D lines in 1A football (okay, the service academies might be in competition for that honor).
2) Avg is deceiving. As IrishDawg pointed out, 52 and 41 skew it.
3) Tech does not punt much anyway so holding them to 0 punts looks nice, but I bet PJ goes for it on 4th down more than any coach in America (or any other country).
4) I have not really been on the "Fire Bobo" wagon. He can make great calls and if Cox does not execute or the line does not block, it creates a problem. That said, a coordinator needs to adjust the scheme to fit the talent available. I am fine with Bobo returning. Partly because if a new OC comes it, there will likely be a new scheme, new language to learn. That might not be helpful with the lack of experience at QB. I am not that concerned with a R-FR QB. Other teams have started true freshmen or R-FR and done just fine (USC started a true freshman and its offense did well enough--the D let it down surprisingly).
5) Turnovers. Cutting down on those will really help. Not sure there is a lot you can do to create more turnovers. While stripping the ball is great, there is still an element of chance in that the ball will bounce in such a way as to recover it. In the Tech game it happened both ways. The ball bounced our way a couple of times (I include the UGA fumble that went out of bounds as bouncing our way) and Tech's way a couple of times. INTs are a bit different to me. The DBs need to be in the same zipcode as the received to have a chance. This team just was poor in pass coverage all season including the Tech game. (Thank you Thomas for dropping that 4th down pass).
6) Good to see a little fire from Richt. Jumping in the team huddle. Giving them the 4th quarter pep talk (had he done that before?). I even liked his getting upset when the team dumped the Gatorade on him. (Really guys, it would have looked really stupid if Tech wins that game and Richt is doused in Gatorade). Not that I am even a fan of the silly Gatorade dousing. It, like the wave, should go away.
7) Good finish. I am not 100% how finishing strong carries over to 2010, but I like it better than limping in.
8) It will be interesting to see what bowl and what opponent UGA "draws". With some teams with little to no BCS tradition being in BCS bowls and some name programs being down, there could be some interesting match ups. I think it is CBS sports that has us in the Papajohns against FSU. Despite FSU being mediocre, it is a name program in the casual fans eyes and with the mentor v mentee angle, it gives a storyline to the game that will garner media attention (add in that it could be Bowden's last game--although I doubt it).
@ Sam:
"Not sure there is a lot you can do to create more turnovers."
I disagree nearly 100%.
More pressure from the D-line/D-ends on the QB to force hurried/poor throws or knock the ball from the QB.
D-Backs playing the ball and not the WR. It wasn't that they weren't in the same zip code as receivers all the time.
Fundamentally sound form tackling instead of this high arm tackling business places a higher likelyhood of striking the ball carrier where he is carrying the ball.
Take out the 10 points on the road at Okie State and 13 against LSU (which equally skew the season scoring average) and we scored 30.9 points per game. Quit playing with numbers and just take what the team gave you. Did they score 41 against SC? Yes. Did they score 52 against Arkansas? Yes. You can contort the numbers to say whatever you want but the fact remains that the games against SC and Ark were games, Bobo was calling the plays then too, and we averaged 27.7 points per game. You could also say that over the last 6 games of the season, Georgia averaged 29.5 points which by my recollection means Georgia averaged LESS in the first half of the season when those "statistical outliers" occurred.
My point was more that the 'average' is a little bit deceiving, because we weren't scoring somewhere around 27 points a game. We scored a bunch more than that a few times (incl. 38 against Tenn. Tech, FWIW), but we also got held under 20 four times, all losses. And those 19 against Tennessee? One field goal produced by the offense.
So yeah, the scoring average is decent, but what about scoring on the opening drive against Okie State, then abandoning an effective strategy for the rest of the game? What about scoring one TD against LSU? What about that one field goal against Tennessee?
I'd rather have more consistency. But I'm not on board with firing Bobo. The talent developed as the year went on, and there's some promise for the future -- though we'll have to break in ANOTHER new starting QB next year.
The "new" quarterback next year will have two damned good and well seasoned running backs behind him and an offensive line that brought tears to my eyes on Saturday night.
Ben Jones has been my favorite UGA player since he snapped his first football there and he was a man possessed Saturday night.
My biggest beefs about Saturday night are that either somebody is going to have to teach Cuff how to tackle or we are going to have to teach other guys how to take a proper angle in order to clean up the mess he makes.
Bobo just couldn't stand it...he just had to throw a screen pass on that 3rd down that led to the missed 55 yarder from Walsh even though we were averaging over 9 yards a carry. What a jerk.
As always Paul, thoughtful post. I do agree that the D must improve and play with a passion. I also agree that the offense has put this D in some bad spots. Our kick return team makes me want to scream! But we need changes in the D coaching. Bobo has to stop thinking balance for balances sake and take what the D will give. Stop the screen for all of our sake.
Anon 12:22, I accept your argument re: turnovers. All are good points.
Anon: 4:52.
So a bad play call (or perhaps bad decision by Cox or poor execution by the team) makes Bobo a "jerk". Wow.
I guess when you mix up and give me a small fry rather than the large fry at the drive through, you are a jerk.
WE WERE HELD UNDER 20 PTS 3 TIMES IN 1980.AND TWICE 1N 2002. AND AN AVG. OF PROBABLY 4-5 TIMES A YEAR THROUGHOUT DOOLEY'S CAREER. I KNOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED, BUT THERE ARE STILL GONNA BE GAMES LIKE THAT IN THE SEC. AND WE LIKELY WOULD'VE BEAT LSU IF NOT FOR THE BOGUS CELEBRATION CALL. JUST THINK, IF WE COULD HAVE MADE A PLAY IN THE 2ND HALF AGAINST KY. WE'D BE RIDING A 4-GAME WIN STREAK AND MIGHT BE HEADED TO A DECENT BOWL.
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