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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Tom1111

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.

jamboogie

Understatement that we have not been real good on short yardage plays when needed

BubbaBill

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.

GBAL

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.

Noah_Ezzell

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

BoulderDawg

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

DaGherk

Point is moot now....

RGB

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

Henddawg

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.

Billy21

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.

SAVY

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.

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ugachris

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.

natejaws

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...

RxDawg

I agreed with the call, but I would of been fine with him going for it too. Reasons I agree.

1. Our defense was playing great (so every point matters that much more)
2. Their defense was playing great (so we might not get a yard)
3. A FG took away the ability of ND to tie the game with their own drive and FG. It forced them to pretty much score a TD. See point #1 for why this was key.