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Report card: Georgia delivers Grade A comeback victory in Peach Bowl
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Posts: 10,487 admin
Report card: Georgia delivers Grade A comeback victory in Peach Bowl
Georgia football hung tough in the clutch, coming from behind to beat Cincinnati 24-21 in a hotly contested Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
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Lets focus on getting our performance on the field up to the level of our recruiting rating hype. Let's focus on maximizing our individual production. Georgia has the opportunity to be really special next year but we are going to have to really up our level of production in the secondary and offensive line. Next seasons preparation starts today. The next few weeks is the time to go back and watch tape of your performance against all teams but especially Alabama, Florida and Cincinnati and see what you need to do in order to dominate your competition on every play as an individual next season.
Next year Georgia will have the best receiving core its ever had at Georgia on the field at the same time. JT needs to get that knee fully heeled, rehabilitated to full strength so he don't under throw so many passes.
A bit generous across the board, but nobody will remember individual grades next year after hanging the "W". Frankly, for those with the option, I think they could all use an extra year of development and sharpening before turning pro. Go Dawgs!
Had Podlesny NOT made the LAST MINTUE record 53 yard FG to win the game, would the grades be this high??? Personally, I was predicting that UGA would win by a couple of TDs. Cinncy had not played anyone all year and UGAs roster is 5x that of theirs (including the opt outs). Do the Bearcats even have (1) 5 star player on their squad??? This game should not have been close. Had Alabama, Clemson, OSU been matched up against them, the game probably would have been over by halftime. If we want to be in the championship conversation, then we need to be playing like one. And with our roster comparable to the aforementioned 3, there is no reason we shouldn't.
I think many fans undervalue just how hard it is to replace so many starters.
Yes, GA has better talent than Cincinnati. But teams like that aren't losing 6-8 juniors to the draft every year. Cincinnati didnt have opt-outs. Teams like that usually have more 5th year starters. Talent is good. Having players who've been in the system for 5 years is good as well. The value of experienced depth should not be overlooked.
Florida lost 3 starting receivers and they failed to adjust. Ga lost 2 on O-line and it also had a negative effect, but the Dawgs over came their loses.
Georgia was playing a top 10 team. Cincinnati was playing for NC rings. Georgia was playing for a Peach Bowl trophy. The Dawgs got it done. Under the circumstances, I'll take the result
Agree with the grades. D-line was the best part of the team yesterday. Tremendous effort. We've got lots of work to do in the off-season and Spring to get the offense humming and the QB-receiver corps in sync.
I know folks will not agree with me, but I'm still not 100% convinced JT is our answer to getting back to the playoffs. He's a work in progress and has more learning to do. He had numerous underthrown and inaccurate passes. He also threw several deep balls into double and triple coverage that were almost intercepted. I saw him stare down his receivers at times and so did the Bearcats. It really wasn't until the final drive that he used his check down receivers and backs to dump short passes to at the last second. He did really play well then and was cool on that final drive. He did great. I'm also concerned about what I perceive as his lack of scrambling ability. I'm wondering if his knee is still bothering him or if he is still tentative with it. All I'm saying is if Daniels is our guy then he's got much more work to do to develop and understand the offense in order to make better decisions next season.
Let's take this momentum into next Spring and summer to fine tune the offense, defense, and special teams to seriously make a run at the National Championship. We've never had better talent to work with in Kirby's tenure. Now is the time.
GO DAWGS!!
MontanaDawg, just wondering who you think will be the answer at QB if it’s not JTD? Bennett? He won vs bad teams. Beck? He’ll wind up transferring. Vandagriff, a true freshman from a single A private school with 0 experience?
UGA's main problems(not the only) is the O-Line. We all know it, against the best competition we struggled to win in the trench. Never seen so many plays this season where our RB get's hit in the backfield.
JT was cool as a cucumber yesterday but that doesn't mean he wasn't frazzled by their pass rush. Bennet or Beck or MAthis or whomever would of lost their mind. JT give him credit stood tall and got the win.
Kirby is right on one thing, "You have to be able to run the ball". Watching Ohio State last night proved it. THey have some mashers on their O-line.
No way Fields throws for 6 TD"s without Sermons running the ball down their throats.
Coach Smart needs counciling on controlling his emotions. What an awful look for a strength coach to be assigned to pull on Smarts belt to keep him off the field. Don't pull him back and let him get a 15 yard penalty.
Offensive line performed poorly this year. Is Coach Luke a good O-Line coach? Why not just replace Ben Cleveland's spot yesterday instead of 3 position changes, that made no sense.
Good question. I don't have an answer for you right now. And I'm not trying to discount JT, but I am specifically looking at what kind of QB we need to take us to a National Championship. That's Kirby's goal. And honestly, the Dawgs could even pick up another QB from the transfer portal. You never know what could happen. Daniels is a good QB, but he is not a great or elite QB at this point. All the issues I mentioned below are the reasons. He certainly doesn't have the crisp touch, arm strength, or accuracy of a Mac Jones or Trevor Lawrence (or even a Justin Fields). His scrambling ability is questionable, and his decision making needs improvement. He will have a great corp of receivers and TEs next season, so I expect his game to improve if he starts. It's impossible to compare JT to Beck or Vandergriff at this point, but I expect Kirby to allow all the QBs to compete for the starting job. Don't just discount a competing QB like Beck or Vandergriff who has no experience. Look at what Justin Fields did in his first year at Ohio State after very little playing time at UGA and under a completely new offensive scheme and new HC at Ohio State. He was lights out.
Clemson is first up next season and after last night's beat down by Ohio State, Dabo will be hungry to make a statement. If Daniels starts against Clemson then we'll really see what a full Spring and summer under the Monken umbrella has done to improve his game.
The overall "A" is too generous. If you averaged the 9 categories, you'd get a "B-". The big thing that gave us the win was "GRIT". They never gave up. I hope from now on we treat opt-outs like the pariahs they are and that the NCAA does something to protect the colleges and universities from them.
JT has one of the biggest arms in college football. People need to get a grip. They were rusty. George went the wrong way in the end zone - that's not on Daniels. Kearis dropped a key 4th down pass right in his belly (a far too frequent problem for UGA receivers). And UCinn is far better than many here gave them credit for. You don't like JT? How about that killer run game huh? Look, lousy game, until the big comeback (who was playing QB then, by the way ?).
Let's go get it in 2021 and celebrate a tough bunch of DAWGS (not including the members of the "Quit Squad" who I suppose watched the game on the sofa while munching some snacks - you know "preparing" for the NFL draft end of April).
The comeback win elevated the overall rating. I have no problem with any of the ratings, including the overall "A". One of your better columns Mike, in my opinion.
I know your question was for Montana but I'll share my thoughts. I truly do not believe JT will get the grade he thinks he'll need in order to declare. He is smart and I think he knows he needs another year to of healing and reps to get back to his full potential. However, if he does declare then I certainly do not think Beck will transfer until he feels out where he stacks up once he competes with Vandagriff. So I don't think Beck would enter the transfer portal unless or until he feels he has been out dueled by Vandagriff and at earliest that would be end of spring or more likely next fall. My thought is if JT was to leave (I don't think he will) then Beck will better Stetson and Brock for opening day starter. Brock is super talented but also very raw, especially for College ball in the SEC. From small high school single A private PAC to power 5 is a huge jump in talent level. Sure football is football but stats are heavily influenced by quality of opponents.
JT is still a work in progress? They were a bit rusty with all that time off..plus..as I warned...Cincy is tough! They have a very good QB and offense. Good thing that 53-yarder split the uprights. That is part of the game. UGA was missing 10 players!! Cincy...none. Camarda's shank? What? First one I've seen. Missed catches. Under throws. Overt penalties. Sounds like UGA. BUT...JT came through when it counted. Cincy is now 9-1.
No JT is not championship material....yet. Vandagriff is IMO. Do not discount him as being young and raw. Look at Fields.. now ..he destroyed Clemson. JT is definitely not in a league with Mac and Trevor. He clutches the ball when defense penetrates. Three sacks.
Mike said it best....so will leave it at that. On to 2021 season. A Trevor-less Clemson is next.
The story of this game was simply the line of scrimmage. Had Ben Cleveland not opted-out, we win by two touchdowns, no dramatic last second finish. I hope we find a creative way to get the second string(s) more reps in the future. I understand the impact one player can make at any position, especially QB, but losing one or two starters on the O-Line, for example, should not result in such a stark contrast of play. That is on Matt Luke.
You cannot judged the running backs or the QB when the O-Line is as porous as it was. I hope Clay Webb, Van Prann, Mims can step-up next year. If Webb doesn't improve to starter status he will be a huge 5-star bust. And, while on the subject of 5-stars, I wish someone would sit down with Nolan Smith and explain to him that he needs to actually sack the QB and NOT just run full speed past the QB. Flushing the QB is good but it isn't great. Slow down young man, learn a couple new moves and become the special player we all know you can be!
Jordan Davis announcing he will be staying for one more year will be the most important news we get in the coming future unless Korey Foreman commits to the G, which isn't happening. Zero chance JT declares...stop talking about it!
Truss struggled, but lay off with the penalty comment. That was one of many pathetic calls by the officials.
I think an "A" is too high as others have mentioned: we miss the FG then it's probably a "C" overall.
Only idiots criticize JT. The ONLY thing missing with him is just better awareness of the pass rush (throw. It. Away.) Beyond that, he nailed pretty much everything.
Our rush D was good, but that 79 yard TD was unacceptable, as was allowing the kicker to run for a 1st down and I get that it's just one play but that bad punt was the worst kick I've seen in a long time. Our Pass D seemed unable to stop them from getting the same type of passes over and over again.
I don't often criticize Smart, but kicking a punt on a 4th and 3 in our 43 with 3 minutes left and 2 timeouts was questionable. Don't forget that if Cincy made a 1st down from their 3rd and 2, the game is over. We had to make our drive from our own 20 with 83 seconds left. I would like to see the odds breakdown in that: I understand the reasoning but I think it was the wrong call.
Yes, we were understaffed, but come on - we've had a Top 5 class every year while they got leftover 3 stars. Our backups were rated might higher than their starters I'm sure.