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Kirby Smart: Georgia football controversial fourth-and-1 decision 'tough call'
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Kirby Smart: Georgia football controversial fourth-and-1 decision 'tough call'
Georgia coach Kirby Smart talks about how the Bulldogs wear down opponents, but he passed on the opportunity to go for a fourth-and-1 at the Notre Dame 26 on Saturday
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We should have been practicing picking up a yard since the Fla game last year. If we have the # 1 offensive line in the nation and the # 1 rb’s in the nation we should be able to pick up a yard against the # 120 team against the run.
Understatement that we have not been real good on short yardage plays when needed
I agree it was a tough decision. If we had gone for the first down and got stuffed then ND would have only needed a FG on that last drive for a tie. Don’t forget ND started their last drive at midfield thanks to our hideous punt. Now I’m thankful Kirby went for 3......and Specs made the big kick.
I understand the second guessers BUT taking the 3 forced ND to have to score two TD's to get the WIN. If we go for the 1st down and dont get it, a TD and FG sends it to OT; ND is playng for a field goal on that last drive of theirs to Tie and send the game to OT.
UGA had run on 1st and 2nd downs for NO Gain, the 2 plays prior to From picking up the 9 yards to put us in 4th and 1.
I dont think there is a wrong choice there. But it worked out as called.
i agree with kirby tough call but right call the defense was great all night there was no reason to thing that would change GO DAWGS
The play did raise eyebrows......also after the ND TD in the forth, with 3 minutes to go, Kirby played it as conservative as it gets...there was too much time on the clock to do that
Point is moot now....
I was disappointed when we got the ball back with under 4 minutes to go. All we needed was 2 first downs to ice the game. Kirby needs to let Fromm do his thing like running the 2 minute offense. Punting back to them was not good......but hey, I sell lumber, go figure
The biggest concern to me is the conservative offensive plan in general. When there was a clear need to help clear the box for the run game, there was no deep attempts, Cook was non-existent (he should touch the ball no less than 10 times each game), and virtually no TE use. On that last drive that resulted in the terrible punt, the play calling was so predictable and wasn't designed to put the game away and almost proved costly. There are too many weapons on this team to be so limited. We saw how effective good use of the TE can be, and we have 2 that are better than the one we faced. Time to stretch the play book a bit.
Kirby will always have the defense out there to finish the game, in my opinion. He'd rather play conservatively on offense and not turn the ball over (int/fumble) because he has too much pride and confidence in his defense. (THAT HAS TO CHANGE). Part of being a great coach (leader) is trusting your staff to make calls, which he may do at times, but we (fans) all are a little frustrated with the fact that they tried to continue to run the ball when it wasn't working.
Kirby isn't going any where and we are lucky to have him. He is still a young head coach and I bet he is still learning a lot about himself at his position (not many other coordinators have had his success). Hoping this bye week is a key time for players and coaches to make adjustments and be more explosive on both sides of the ball throughout the remainder of the season.
Offense: working on not being so predictable and establishing the vertical passing game.
Defense: working on finding ways to get a hand on the QB (not just making him feel pressure)
Special Teams: Camarda to play at a more consistent level.
Coaching: Trusting each other to do what their being paid to do.
Imagine a scenario where they go for the 1st down and get stuffed (again). Then ND ties the game with a field goal (after that TD drive). Then we’d all be reading articles about how Kirby hasn’t learned his lesson about the short yardage plays, and why they can’t seem to get it done. I think he made a good decision. Like @DaGherk said, the point is moot.
In the middle of UGA's last scoring drive, Swift was taken out for a few plays. Herrien went in, and the drive stalled. I know we all love Herrien because he's a DGD, but let's stop pretending that he can run the ball as well as Swift.
I understand that we have a long season ahead of us, and the coaches want to keep Swift fresh, so they don't want him to average 30 carries per game. But when we're in a close game against a Top Ten opponent, isn't is reasonable to give Swift more than 18 carries?!?
If we had kept Swift on the field for every play of that final scoring drive, I don't think we would've found ourselves in a fourth-and-1 situation.
Maybe it's time to value a lead blocker again. Seems like we haven't been able to pick anything up since we stopped using a fullback. Just pointing out the obvious...
I agreed with the call, but I would of been fine with him going for it too. Reasons I agree.
A few points of worry for me 1) UGA players celebrate above avg plays too much for my liking. Nearly every tackle, catch, or normal football play is met with king kong level chest thumping. 2) That side running motion and little circle around the QB looks little league-ish to me and serves no distinct advantage (noticeable to me). 3) They need to play the playmakers and let that seniority stuff go, Tyler Simmons, Herrian, Landers are decent, but Pickens, D Rob, Blaylock, Zeus, Cook, are more dangerous to me.
It's easy to question the call, but imagine if you go for it and don't make it - the game winds up becoming a 3 point game (FG) instead of a 6 point game (TD). That's HUGE! Some additional reasons to kick the FG:
1) Rodrigo - You have an all-star kicker that you know is going to have a VERY high chance of getting it in. If you have an "average" kicker, it might not make sense
2) OL - Yes, our Oline was/is the best in the country, but that hadn't stopped ND from chasing Fromm all game and handing us lots of short runs and runs for 0 or less yards.
3) Our Defense was looking better - You go for it when you know that the other team (ie: Bama, etc) is going to score a TD on you pretty quickly
I think the odds (based on the two teams performance) would likely agree with a FG.
I disagree with a lot of what you said. During the game I was actually really impressed with Herrien and thought he did a good job pushing forward. The stats of the game seem to agree. He averaged 5.3 yards while Swift averaged 5.4 yards.
Had we tried to run it every play, we would've lost. Those days of running Herschel every play are long gone. If the D is ready for your RB, they WILL stop him. We ran Chubb 18 times in the NC game vs Bama and only averaged 1.4 yards. Fromm was the key to our victory from the very beginning, not Swift.
If you win, you made the right call.
Kirby needs to loosen up and let the offense play. Jake knows how to call the best play for each situation. Let him call his own plays at Tenn. and see what happens. I bet we will blow them off the field. Also play your talent regardless who it is. Several players sat on the bench that could have broken the game open against N.D. Let the offense play ball. SEE WHAT HAPPENS.