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Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:13 pm
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:13 pm
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Once the shock wears off, it’s tempting to write off South Carolina’s out-of-nowhere, double-overtime upset at Georgia as a fluke. A one-off. A glitch in the system. The final score itself made no sense — the Bulldogs kicked off as 21-point favorites riding a 16-game winning streak in Athens and a 15-game streak vs. SEC East opponents — and the specifics only made the result look more random, not less.
Consider the quarterbacks. Opposite Jake Fromm, the SEC’s most experienced and unflappable signal-caller, Carolina started a struggling true freshman, Ryan Hilinski, who was injured in the second half and replaced by another freshman, 3rd-stringer Dakereon Joyner. Yet somehow it was Fromm who looked out of sync, throwing 3 interceptions (not all of them his fault) in the course of 51 attempts, the most out-of-character performance of his career on each count. In Georgia’s first 5 games this season he’d yet to throw a pick; in all of 2018 he threw just 6.
Consider Rodrigo Blankenship, the SEC’s most experienced and unflappable kicker. Until Saturday, he was a perfect 11-of-11 on field goal attempts this season and 26 for his past 27 dating to early last year. Against South Carolina, Blankenship saw consecutive attempts go awry, getting a 53-yarder blocked just before halftime and pushing the would-be equalizer wide left in the second overtime.
Consider that outside of those 5 plays, the box score looked pretty much exactly the way it was expected to look: On a down-by-down basis, UGA outgained South Carolina by 171 yards of total offense, averaged 4.5 yards per play to SC’s 4.0, and earned 30 first downs to the Gamecocks’ 16. The Bulldogs’ other offensive headliner, RB D’Andre Swift, eclipsed 100 yards on the ground for just the second time this season on a career-high 23 carries. In regulation, Carolina’s offense managed 1 touchdown, on a 46-yard bomb from Hilinski to Bryan Edwards in the 1st quarter, and 1 field goal early in the 2nd; otherwise, zilch. After halftime, Georgia’s defense forced 5 consecutive punts and a doomed 57-yard field goal attempt in the final minute.
That’s hardly a portrait of a team in dire straits. And assuming the usually steady Fromm isn’t about to start throwing multiple picks on a weekly basis, the Bulldogs’ big-picture outlook has not changed: The 2017 and ’18 teams went on to play for a Playoff bid in the SEC Championship Game despite red-alert losses in the regular season — Saturday’s loss was exactly 364 days removed from last year’s mid-season wake-up call at LSU — and for now the current edition is still a favorite to play its way into the same position. The margin of error that might have existed for a team that arrived in Atlanta at 12-0 is reduced; in most other ways, it’s still possible to chalk up the lapse as just one of those days.
So why — in spite of the numbers, in contrast with the past 2 years — does a single, apparently random loss feel like a symptom of a much deeper problem?
The fact is, for the abundance of talent surrounding Fromm on offense, the Bulldogs look stale. Scratch that: Compared to the league’s other standard bearers, they are stale.
The biggest on-field story in college football over the past few seasons is the abrupt transformation of Alabama and now LSU from conservative, ball-control attacks into full-fledged spread passing juggernauts: Halfway through the 2019 season, the Tigers and Tide rank No. 1 and No. 2 nationally in scoring offense behind a pair of prolific, Heisman-worthy passers, an incredible turn of events for the same programs that defined SEC football at the beginning of the decade as a weekly rock fight to the death. At the end of the decade, they’re leading an historic offensive bender.
Georgia has the same caliber of athletes (including at quarterback, if you ask me) but has not made the same philosophic leap. If there is one genuinely alarming trend from Saturday’s loss, it’s the ongoing lack of the kind of explosive plays that Bama and LSU are thriving on — emphasis on ongoing:
(*Utah State is not a Power 5 opponent but is included in LSU’s total to balance out the number of games; at 41st nationally in Defensive SP+ the Aggies are roughly the equivalent of an average Power 5 defense.)
Thirteen plays of 20 yards or more in 4 games is downright pedestrian, and not just compared to the most explosive offenses in the country: It ranks next-to-last in the SEC vs. Power 5 opponents, ahead of only Texas A&M. The Bulldogs aren’t challenging secondaries deep and aren’t creating run-after-catch opportunities for their wideouts with anywhere near the frequency of their blue-chip peers.
Against South Carolina, Fromm averaged just 5.7 yards per attempt and connected on just one downfield ball, a 33-yard strike to freshman George Pickens late in the 3rd quarter. (That drive was thwarted by a fumbled snap on the first play of the 4th.) The story was the same in Georgia’s hard-fought, 23-17 win over Notre Dame, when he finally ventured downfield to hit Lawrence Cager for a 36-yarder that set up a crucial touchdown late in that game. When that’s the full extent of your big-play prowess, efficiency and workmanlike efforts between the tackles can only go so far. Sustaining drives and scoring points means those elements must function perfectly on a consistent basis.
When any part of that equation fails, you get what happened on Saturday: A perfectly solid outing by the defense and ground game, the supposed lynchpins of the team, undermined by a handful of chaos plays that swung the outcome. By the old rules, the defense-and-line-of-scrimmage rules, the Bulldogs are arguably the most fundamentally sound outfit in the conference — Bama and LSU are lagging well behind in the salt-of-the-earth categories — and potentially in the nation. As long as they continue to impose their will on those terms, they’re going to be very difficult for anyone to beat without an outbreak of chaos. But the best teams in college football right now are the ones operating at such a furious pace the chaos barely registers.
Edit** this is interesting as well LINK
Once the shock wears off, it’s tempting to write off South Carolina’s out-of-nowhere, double-overtime upset at Georgia as a fluke. A one-off. A glitch in the system. The final score itself made no sense — the Bulldogs kicked off as 21-point favorites riding a 16-game winning streak in Athens and a 15-game streak vs. SEC East opponents — and the specifics only made the result look more random, not less.
Consider the quarterbacks. Opposite Jake Fromm, the SEC’s most experienced and unflappable signal-caller, Carolina started a struggling true freshman, Ryan Hilinski, who was injured in the second half and replaced by another freshman, 3rd-stringer Dakereon Joyner. Yet somehow it was Fromm who looked out of sync, throwing 3 interceptions (not all of them his fault) in the course of 51 attempts, the most out-of-character performance of his career on each count. In Georgia’s first 5 games this season he’d yet to throw a pick; in all of 2018 he threw just 6.
Consider Rodrigo Blankenship, the SEC’s most experienced and unflappable kicker. Until Saturday, he was a perfect 11-of-11 on field goal attempts this season and 26 for his past 27 dating to early last year. Against South Carolina, Blankenship saw consecutive attempts go awry, getting a 53-yarder blocked just before halftime and pushing the would-be equalizer wide left in the second overtime.
Consider that outside of those 5 plays, the box score looked pretty much exactly the way it was expected to look: On a down-by-down basis, UGA outgained South Carolina by 171 yards of total offense, averaged 4.5 yards per play to SC’s 4.0, and earned 30 first downs to the Gamecocks’ 16. The Bulldogs’ other offensive headliner, RB D’Andre Swift, eclipsed 100 yards on the ground for just the second time this season on a career-high 23 carries. In regulation, Carolina’s offense managed 1 touchdown, on a 46-yard bomb from Hilinski to Bryan Edwards in the 1st quarter, and 1 field goal early in the 2nd; otherwise, zilch. After halftime, Georgia’s defense forced 5 consecutive punts and a doomed 57-yard field goal attempt in the final minute.
That’s hardly a portrait of a team in dire straits. And assuming the usually steady Fromm isn’t about to start throwing multiple picks on a weekly basis, the Bulldogs’ big-picture outlook has not changed: The 2017 and ’18 teams went on to play for a Playoff bid in the SEC Championship Game despite red-alert losses in the regular season — Saturday’s loss was exactly 364 days removed from last year’s mid-season wake-up call at LSU — and for now the current edition is still a favorite to play its way into the same position. The margin of error that might have existed for a team that arrived in Atlanta at 12-0 is reduced; in most other ways, it’s still possible to chalk up the lapse as just one of those days.
So why — in spite of the numbers, in contrast with the past 2 years — does a single, apparently random loss feel like a symptom of a much deeper problem?
The fact is, for the abundance of talent surrounding Fromm on offense, the Bulldogs look stale. Scratch that: Compared to the league’s other standard bearers, they are stale.
The biggest on-field story in college football over the past few seasons is the abrupt transformation of Alabama and now LSU from conservative, ball-control attacks into full-fledged spread passing juggernauts: Halfway through the 2019 season, the Tigers and Tide rank No. 1 and No. 2 nationally in scoring offense behind a pair of prolific, Heisman-worthy passers, an incredible turn of events for the same programs that defined SEC football at the beginning of the decade as a weekly rock fight to the death. At the end of the decade, they’re leading an historic offensive bender.
Georgia has the same caliber of athletes (including at quarterback, if you ask me) but has not made the same philosophic leap. If there is one genuinely alarming trend from Saturday’s loss, it’s the ongoing lack of the kind of explosive plays that Bama and LSU are thriving on — emphasis on ongoing:
(*Utah State is not a Power 5 opponent but is included in LSU’s total to balance out the number of games; at 41st nationally in Defensive SP+ the Aggies are roughly the equivalent of an average Power 5 defense.)
Thirteen plays of 20 yards or more in 4 games is downright pedestrian, and not just compared to the most explosive offenses in the country: It ranks next-to-last in the SEC vs. Power 5 opponents, ahead of only Texas A&M. The Bulldogs aren’t challenging secondaries deep and aren’t creating run-after-catch opportunities for their wideouts with anywhere near the frequency of their blue-chip peers.
Against South Carolina, Fromm averaged just 5.7 yards per attempt and connected on just one downfield ball, a 33-yard strike to freshman George Pickens late in the 3rd quarter. (That drive was thwarted by a fumbled snap on the first play of the 4th.) The story was the same in Georgia’s hard-fought, 23-17 win over Notre Dame, when he finally ventured downfield to hit Lawrence Cager for a 36-yarder that set up a crucial touchdown late in that game. When that’s the full extent of your big-play prowess, efficiency and workmanlike efforts between the tackles can only go so far. Sustaining drives and scoring points means those elements must function perfectly on a consistent basis.
When any part of that equation fails, you get what happened on Saturday: A perfectly solid outing by the defense and ground game, the supposed lynchpins of the team, undermined by a handful of chaos plays that swung the outcome. By the old rules, the defense-and-line-of-scrimmage rules, the Bulldogs are arguably the most fundamentally sound outfit in the conference — Bama and LSU are lagging well behind in the salt-of-the-earth categories — and potentially in the nation. As long as they continue to impose their will on those terms, they’re going to be very difficult for anyone to beat without an outbreak of chaos. But the best teams in college football right now are the ones operating at such a furious pace the chaos barely registers.
Edit** this is interesting as well LINK
This post was edited on 10/17/19 at 4:27 pm
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:16 pm to FlexDawg
Not reading all of that but it was a fluke, which the author attempts to discredit.
and therein lies the rub. When we weren't able to just run up the middle at will, and when our passing plan of just running go routes didn't work, we needed to do something, anythign different. But we didn't. We kept doing what didn't work hoping it would work.
quote:
As long as they continue to impose their will on those terms, they’re going to be very difficult for anyone to beat without an outbreak of chaos.
and therein lies the rub. When we weren't able to just run up the middle at will, and when our passing plan of just running go routes didn't work, we needed to do something, anythign different. But we didn't. We kept doing what didn't work hoping it would work.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:19 pm to FlexDawg
quote:
it’s the ongoing lack of the kind of explosive plays that Bama and LSU are thriving on
quote:
Thirteen plays of 20 yards or more in 4 games is downright pedestrian, and not just compared to the most explosive offenses in the country:
This wasn't a problem until this year. Late in the season last year we were 1 or 2 in the nation for plays over 20 yards. I'm not sure what's going on this year but it looks like injuries might be catching up with us, especially on the OL. Those guys getting to the second and thirds level are what helps us get those 20 plus yard run plays. I can't speak much for the passing game. I feel like we've taken more shots down field than in years past but we aren't connecting on them.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:24 pm to Porter Osborne Jr
quote:
This wasn't a problem until this year. Late in the season last year we were 1 or 2 in the nation for plays over 20 yards. I'm not sure what's going on this year but it looks like injuries might be catching up with us
I think that's undoubtedly it. We lost Nauta, Godwin, Hardman, Ridley, and Holloman from last year ot this year. I don't care who you are you dont' replace your top 5 receiving threats and expect to not miss a beat. Cager has been a pleasant surprise and is now going to be out for a while. We've already missed kearis for several weeks as well.
You aren't going to win a title with matt landers and tyler simmons as starters.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:36 pm to WG_Dawg
I don’t think it had anything to do with injuries.
Every team is injured and Georgia will never have more talent than they currently have.
Every team is injured and Georgia will never have more talent than they currently have.
This post was edited on 10/17/19 at 3:59 pm
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:42 pm to FlexDawg
quote:
Thoughts?
Your first birthday is actually your 2nd birthday technically
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:52 pm to FlexDawg
quote:
Every team is injured and Georgia will never have more talent than the currently have.
What? Our most effective WR and TE are grad transfers.We're also down to 6 OL in our rotation.
"Never have more talent" How do you even know this?
Posted on 10/17/19 at 2:54 pm to FlexDawg
I didn't click the blind link.
I underestimated the loss of our 2018 receivers. In terms of athleticism and catching the ball, I think I was spot on for our young receivers.
But I didn't expect landers to run a route wrong.
I didn't expect tight ends to go 0 receptions with 8 pass attempts.
I didn't expect our WR downfield blocking to dry up eliminating the chance for breakout runs from Swift and company.
I also overestimated the football IQ of our offensive line. There are missed assignments and whiffs which we didn't see last season. I'm not even talking about the occasion of getting beat which happens. But a double-team at the point of attack should not give the defender a free release at the line of scrimmage to make a play for no gain.
Our OL, WR, and TE dont seem to hold their blocks as well as the past 2 seasons. We dont "strain" as kirby has identified after the Notre Dame game.
We play like underclassmen despite having so many upperclassmen. The team is failing in their attention to detail. It isnt the playcalling. The coaches are failing to get these players ready to execute. It is a very very difficult job to prepare 18-22 year olds. We arent there yet. The player leadership team is going to need to get the players to invest more time because the coaches arent getting the job done in the time that they have.
I underestimated the loss of our 2018 receivers. In terms of athleticism and catching the ball, I think I was spot on for our young receivers.
But I didn't expect landers to run a route wrong.
I didn't expect tight ends to go 0 receptions with 8 pass attempts.
I didn't expect our WR downfield blocking to dry up eliminating the chance for breakout runs from Swift and company.
I also overestimated the football IQ of our offensive line. There are missed assignments and whiffs which we didn't see last season. I'm not even talking about the occasion of getting beat which happens. But a double-team at the point of attack should not give the defender a free release at the line of scrimmage to make a play for no gain.
Our OL, WR, and TE dont seem to hold their blocks as well as the past 2 seasons. We dont "strain" as kirby has identified after the Notre Dame game.
We play like underclassmen despite having so many upperclassmen. The team is failing in their attention to detail. It isnt the playcalling. The coaches are failing to get these players ready to execute. It is a very very difficult job to prepare 18-22 year olds. We arent there yet. The player leadership team is going to need to get the players to invest more time because the coaches arent getting the job done in the time that they have.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 4:02 pm to WG_Dawg
quote:
and therein lies the rub. When we weren't able to just run up the middle at will, and when our passing plan of just running go routes didn't work, we needed to do something, anythign different. But we didn't. We kept doing what didn't work hoping it would work.
And this had been a year long problem. We simply won't throw over the middle when there are acre's of green grass there for the taking. If you cover the go route, and run safety's downhill for either the run or short pass to the outside, you're safe 90%+ of the time. If I see it, you know a DC making $1M/ year sees it.
And we need to use a fullback or H-back imo. If our WR's can't take advantage of man coverage, we're running into the same box with one less blocker. It's a mess honestly.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 4:37 pm to FlexDawg
quote:There's a huge difference between the WRs that Bama and LSU have and what we have. Maybe when our young guys get some more experience, coaching, and have some more time in the S&C program that will change, but Bama has multiple high draft picks at WR and they can do some pretty nasty stuff to get open and to get YAC.
The biggest on-field story in college football over the past few seasons is the abrupt transformation of Alabama and now LSU from conservative, ball-control attacks into full-fledged spread passing juggernauts: Halfway through the 2019 season, the Tigers and Tide rank No. 1 and No. 2 nationally in scoring offense behind a pair of prolific, Heisman-worthy passers, an incredible turn of events for the same programs that defined SEC football at the beginning of the decade as a weekly rock fight to the death. At the end of the decade, they’re leading an historic offensive bender.
Georgia has the same caliber of athletes (including at quarterback, if you ask me) but has not made the same philosophic leap. If there is one genuinely alarming trend from Saturday’s loss, it’s the ongoing lack of the kind of explosive plays that Bama and LSU are thriving on — emphasis on ongoing:
Our receivers were manhandled by South Carolina and they haven't been a huge threat all season outside of a few flashes. When I look at LSU, Alabama, and even Ohio State, they frequently have receivers wide open, and not just in the middle of the field as people are complaining about from us. Fields, for instance, has about a 3rd of his big plays to receivers that don't have anyone within 5 yards of them (estimate based on his highlights from this season). From what I've seen, Tua is the same way. He hits slants like no one's business and the receivers are gone. They go up for balls and usually come down with them. They are bigger, faster, and quicker that most of the defenders they go up against and they know how to use their bodies to get leverage on the ball.
Our receivers just aren't playing at the same level right now, which is why I think it's silly to try to copy and paste those offenses onto ours right now. We currently don't have the personnel at WR to mimic those top offensive teams even if we completely changed how our offense works. We hit the out routes and come backs because that's the only way our receivers can consistently get a little separation. That also requires near-perfect accuracy from Fromm in order to get the ball to our receivers where only they can catch it and not lose the physical match ups.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 4:39 pm to FooManChoo
It also doesn’t help how often we run 1 or 2 TE sets IMO. Those guys just aren’t as likely to be wide open.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 5:05 pm to FlexDawg
quote:
Thoughts?
When it comes to stewed prunes, are three enough, or are four too many?
Posted on 10/17/19 at 5:15 pm to FlexDawg
Moved on but the memory of this game is SCU gave us two chances to break their will and Kirby and the team lacked the killer instinct to get it done.
NC teams find ways, we did with Lindsey Scott, TN did on the fumble, and Clemson found ways to win.
That's on Kirby.
NC teams find ways, we did with Lindsey Scott, TN did on the fumble, and Clemson found ways to win.
That's on Kirby.
Posted on 10/17/19 at 5:37 pm to lewis and herschel
What are y’alls thoughts on these guys:
Dominick Blaylock
Freshman, 4 star
Trey Blount
Junior, 4 star
Tommy Bush
Freshman, 4 star
Lawrence Cager
Senior, 3 star
Kearis Jackson
Freshman, 4 star
Matt Landers
Sophomore, 3 star
George Pickens
Freshman, 5 star
Demetris Robertson
Junior, 5 star
Tyler Simmons
Senior, 3 star
Makiya Tongue
Freshman, 4 star
Dominick Blaylock
Freshman, 4 star
Trey Blount
Junior, 4 star
Tommy Bush
Freshman, 4 star
Lawrence Cager
Senior, 3 star
Kearis Jackson
Freshman, 4 star
Matt Landers
Sophomore, 3 star
George Pickens
Freshman, 5 star
Demetris Robertson
Junior, 5 star
Tyler Simmons
Senior, 3 star
Makiya Tongue
Freshman, 4 star
Posted on 10/17/19 at 8:29 pm to FlexDawg
Watch Alabama sat. night. They'll fire out of the blocks for a 21-0 1st qtr lead. Meanwhile, our 1st qtr will be spent trying to 'gain control the line of scrimmage'
Posted on 10/17/19 at 10:03 pm to superdawg
I just hate it because I honestly feel that we have the best defense in the SEC this year but we can’t put it together on offense. If we could then this would be a good year because Alabama and LSU have very shaky defenses.
Posted on 10/18/19 at 6:42 am to FlexDawg
quote:
I don’t think it had anything to do with injuries.
It does when you're talking about an OL and continuity. It causes issues with blocking assignments.
Posted on 10/18/19 at 6:46 am to FlexDawg
Who the hell blames Blankenship for that dude blowing up the line and blocking the kick? A 53 yard FG can’t have a lot of height on it.
Posted on 10/18/19 at 7:12 am to FooManChoo
Why are Bama and Clemson receivers able to dominate as true freshmen but ours need at least a year to make a difference?
Posted on 10/18/19 at 8:11 am to Whiznot
quote:
Why are Bama and Clemson receivers able to dominate as true freshmen but ours need at least a year to make a difference?
Have you watched Pickens this year? And it's also a lot easier for them when they can't bracket or double cover them.
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