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3 takeaways from Georgia’s 49-21 win over UAB: Feeding the monster
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3 takeaways from Georgia’s 49-21 win over UAB: Feeding the monster
ATHENS — Coach Kirby Smart is all about the positivity, even while he knows this version of Georgia football has yet to match the level of play the past two seasons.
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Williams. Bullard, McConkey back....now that will boost UGA performance. Bowers has to be banged up more....but is a beast. Auburn will target Bowers! Count on it. UGA is better than Auburn...but will have to prove it on the field of play. At home, they will be up and ready for UGA. Not hoping for a repeat SC game. Execution and precision..keys. Beck will have to deliver another 300+ yarder. Daijun E. will be looked to to continue opening the defense. Special teams...just catch the kicks guys, don't fumble. No turnovers against Auburn. You know the drill.
Past history says that I’d bet a large sum of money Ladd, Javon, and Mykel will not ALL THREE be back for the Auburn game next week.
Mykel, sure, he just had the flu, but all three? Yeah, ain’t buying it for a second.
Word on the beat street is Ladd may not play again this season with the back “issue”.
Having Bullard back would be the biggest plus for this team, because he is the leader of that defense, not just in the secondary. His backups got lit up 3 or 4 times each against UAB and Spencer Rattler in the first half against SC.
I'm with you @Gibroni88. I'll have to see Ladd McConkey play before I believe he plays. So far, he hasn't even LOOKED like he's ready for competition. Hard to believe his mysterious back ailment is going to just as mysteriously be healed in what is not less than a week. On the other hand, I saw another report that said that both Lawson Luckie and Blaske returned last night. Don't know how true that is but anyway, Go Dawgs!
No sarcasm but Who exactly is the “beat street” ?? How reliable of a source are They ?? I can see that Probably Ladd won’t be in the Auburn game, that’s reasonable for the type injury he had. But out All season ?? Nah. Kirby said he’s been out running and even making cuts. I read that the type injury he has can last up to six weeks. So that would fit right in with his injury time line. Unless it’s someone with Direct and Reliable knowledge I’d advise not to put to much faith in it. Bullard Might be ready by Auburn. But I wouldn’t be shocked if they held him out one more time as a precaution. Williams will probably play. Just my humble opinions.
I just looked through allot of the major CFB sports sites specifically on McConkey. None of them list him as our for the season or a Probability of him being out for the season. None of them list him as being scheduled for surgery.
When Kirby first come out with Ladd’s injury report he said it was a deep back muscle strain accompanied by muscle spasms. A very aggravating and Yes some what lingering injury. BUT I also went to Two different medical sites, and they both said can take up to six weeks to resolve this. With Rest being the primary way to treat it. Avoiding picking up heavy objects or intensive exercise etc.
So that would run right along with his injury time line. He’s probably getting deep massage, whirlpool, and just good ole rest. In my humble opinion he Will be back pretty soon. Probably for game six. I doubt he will be available for Auburn. But I certainly doubt he’s out for the season to. If this is realistic and accurate Insider info. I’d sure like to know the Source and Exactly what’s being said, other wise my opinion is just as good. No sarcasm just being real.
"Feed the monster" is easy to say until BB's gets hurt being overused in a meaningless, early season, non-conference game. Bower's was clearly not 100% early in the season. But he gutted through it because UGA was already down 2 TE's. He seems to have turned the corner and more resembles the player of the last 2 seasons.
THE most important player to have for the SEC games (TN, FL, KY) and the SECCG and the playoffs is 19 (then 15). To overuse him now and risk injury would be foolish.
As for 11, 9 and 5, ASmith does not adjust well to tracking long balls. Especially when closely covered. Missed a well thrown deep ball vs UAB. Seemingly shied away from contact and didn't go aggressively after the ball. Meeks is the biggest AND slowest UGA WR. His forte is not the deep post. His route tree is possession/1st down patterns. He should not have been in the game when a deep post was called for his position. RThomas seems to still be learning the O and has not proven he has reliable hands yet. Not sure why he would be targeted on 4th down. Makes me wonder if Bobo ( in the press box) knows who the offensive assistants, on the sideline, are constantly shuttling into and out of the game.
Ham string pulls, high ankle sprains, turf toe, and many other injuries can take weeks plural to come back from. Yet countless times we’ve seen guys miss the early part of the season and come back. When Rob Courson tells Kirby and then Kirby in turn tells media and then media in turn tells Us as fans that Ladd is out for the season. Then I’ll accept that Terrible news.
But not until then. Anything now is purely speculation and Negative speculation at that. Like allot of injuries Kirby just reported that Ladd has been running And ( more importantly) making cuts. To Me that indicates progress with the nature of this injury as I read on medical sites on the internet, Not out for the season.
Not trying to be sarcastic or Bull headed about this but Ladd McConkey is one of my favorite players, has been since they first recruited him. I’m not gonna give up the hope of seeing him play, based on some guys getting together talking and speculating. As I said my more positive Opinion is just as good as that. Go Dawgs !!
@navydawg and anyone else that questioned my comments about Ladd today and last weekend:
No disrespect or sarcasm taken nor meant in this response: Do you question Mike Griffith or Connor when they post statements in their articles about where they got their information from?
How many times have we read this site over the last 5+ years and then come Saturday game day 90% of the statements about who is injured & who is out & who is actually dressed out and playing does not match up with the players we see on the field?
Do not worry about how I got my information; I know from simply using my eyes and ears and brain that this site is wildly inaccurate when it comes to projecting injuries or getting any information that is even close to what is actually the reality of Dawg football players during the regular season and post/bowl season. I know some people close to the program and a booster or two that have shared information with me over the last several seasons and guess what: their information and hit or miss rate (accuracy) has been better than 50% when compared to the players I see able to actually play on any given Saturday.
That is a much more efficient percentage than I get from the information on this site based solely on that specific topic.
one more thing: Did you read the article to the end of Mike G? I ask this because you posted:
”I can see that Probably Ladd won’t be in the Auburn game, that’s reasonable for the type injury he had. But out All season ?? Nah.”
Yet Mike G’s article states this:
“Receiver Ladd McConkey has yet to play this season but targeted Auburn for his return from the back injury that has kept him sidelined.”
so my questions for you are this: which is it? And where did that information come from? Is it accurate? Does it even pass the smell test?
I trust the information I have much more than the nonsense in this article from that specific paragraph.
And being a YUGE Dawg fan, I am simply sharing it with what I hope are other Dawg fans like @DalladDawg, etc.
Yep. Agree. The WRs coach needs to work harder on Arian Smith. If he Can’t or Won’t be coached up, heck give a backup a try. I mean it’s no worse than having him get deep and drop the ball right ?
I have Nothing at all against Arian. But something is bad wrong and it needs fixing Quick !! I suppose at the moment outside of Bowers our best deep threat is Rosemy-JackSaint and Lovett. RaRa might be if he can as you said get the playbook down better. Bell Might have been but he’s as you know over with the RBs. Am I missing anyone as far as Deep routes ?? We’re pretty thin there.
Gotta be Able to throw deep else rivals are gonna keep crowding the box. A. Smith is So frustrating he Can get deep due to his speed but then have the ball hit him in the hands and drop it !! He’s done that quite often. Hopefully it’s something that can be coached up. I just don’t know.
Targets the Auburn game and WILL be in the Auburn game are totally different. YES Mike, Connor, Brandon, others do often cite their opinions here. And Yes sometimes their opinions are wrong.
But Often times they cite Directly from Kirby. So if THAT info. is wrong I guess Kirby just lied to us. You said that Your sources are right by better than 50%. Well that must mean their wrong by close to 50%.
I didn’t go in read every single site about CFB and Ladd McConkey but I did a speed read on quite a few on the most recent as I could find and None of them offered speculation that McConkey is out for the season. And having watched and listened a tad myself like over 60 years plus, I’ve seen Numerous, Numerous times when players with aggravating type injuries: Ham strings, high ankle sprains, severe turf toe etc. etc. were Yes out allot of games but Did return.
I looked up what the medical sites say about this type of injury. Six weeks. So I did my due diligence and researched it best I could. Lastly and again with all due respect and no sarcasm, when I hear an Official report from Kirby that he’s out for the season then Ill have no other option but accept that To Me, Terrible News.
But I’ve seen with My eyes to many players come back and play from aggravating injuries to let rumor and speculation put a Huge dent in my enjoyment of the season. Each to their own. I’m Believing he’ll be back.
Oh and certainly no disrespect or sarcasm on this, but I’m curious to see if @DallasDawg as a retired Journalist himself will come forward to defend the DN writers like Mike, Connor, Brandon, etc. as DallasDawg has done in the past. And I’d also like to ask DallasDawg how much faith should we put into the speculation and opinions of “people close to the program” and boosters ??
Because even though their VIP fans in the end their just fans with better seats, season tickets, and probably Kirby’s and some of the players autographs on a Georgia helmet. But their Not Ron Courson the person responsible for Clearing injured players.
And because of a law called the HIPPA Law and the Privacy Act I doubt seriously that Ron will or would release that player injury info. to anyone that doesn’t have the Authority to know about it.
Which even if it is a VIP fan puts Them square in the same box as Me, just your typical rank and file but Loyal and Devoted fan. Meaning all they can offer on injury matters is Just Like Me, speculation, opinion, and innuendo. The final say will Have to come from Ron then communicated to Kirby who I suppose will tell us the fans, both white collar and blue collar alike.
To me it isn’t just the # out with injuries, but they are key players all across the different units which makes consistency a big challenge. I really like Thomas and Lovett and what they have brought. Thomas was open on that 4th down play and that was key so he is becoming more reliable in regards to route running - remember he came from MSU which had about 5 offensive plays under the run and gun and basically ran routes that weren’t exactly clean. It does look like Bowers is back healthy and just in time. Would love to see them go a bit more to Delp to give Bowers some rest. I don’t foresee Mims or Ladd at Auburn but would love to see Ladd back. I think Williams and Bullard will be back. My early Christmas wish is for a healthy RB room (if Edwards goes down, there will be some trouble) and some semblance of consistency from the O line. Not sure if the UAB D line was just tired or our O line got much better after the half, but there was some strong push in Q4 especially.
Money games coming up now. Not sure if the DAWGs aren’t quite as good as past 2-3 seasons, just haven’t aligned around a solid game plan, too many injuries, or lack of consistency with communication and assignments, but we will get a better sense in next few weeks.
Go DAWGS
Everyone is so down in Smith (not just on this site), and the criticism doesn't seem to align with what I've observed.
"He doesn't make contested catches." Yeah, he does. We've all seen it. It hasn't come up much this year, but he's made big catches with defenders on him in the past.
"He doesn't catch the ball when it hits his hands." Again, yes he does. People (again, not just here) are pointing to this one missed catch as though it's a pattern. But as far as I can recall, he's caught a lot more than he's dropped. It's not like he's Matt Landers out there. And this one instance from Saturday isn't really a good example to begin with. The ball didn't "hit him in the hands." It grazed the outside of his right hand, looked like it hit his thumb and index finger. He could have done a better job of adjusting to it in the air so that he could have actually gotten his hands on it; that's a fair criticism on that play. It's also true that the placement of the ball itself was slightly off; the missed connection was an issue on both ends of the pass. If either Beck or Smith had done a little better, it probably would have been caught.
Anyway, I'm not getting down on Smith just yet. It looks to me like the rhythm between Beck and the receivers in general is still a work in progress. I was glad to see a number of deep attempts in this game, even if they didn't all connect. They just need to keep working at it and I think it'll come.
Agree with all you’ve said here but just want to add a smidgen. This in my humble opinion is in addition to the players ramping it up, a time for the Coaches to better earn Their pay. In particular the O line and to a lesser extent but Still the WRs Coach.
The O line needs much more Consistency from the Start of the game all the way to the End of the game. The WRs Coach needs to help Diagnose and Fix the Why of Arian Smith dropping so many deep passes. IF it Can be fixed. We need him.
I know it’s light years easier for me to comment on these things here as a fan than it is for them as Coaches and Players, but if they want to 3Peat they need to All ramp it up big time !!
Hey you could very well be right. And I sure Hope for him, the Dawgs, and us that you Are right. But he Did drop some last year deep that appeared to be right on him. However in fairness to him he was a year younger and more inexperienced last year.
I’m All for giving him opportunities and as I said I sure Hope he capitalizes on them. But and If he doesn’t, Might and I stress Might need to look on the roster. Hopefully he can be coached up.Let’s all hope his and our Dawgs future is brighter.