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WATCH: Why Kirby Smart rejects ‘pity,’ demands better execution in wake of Clemson win
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WATCH: Why Kirby Smart rejects ‘pity,’ demands better execution in wake of Clemson win
ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart publicly put the 10-3 win over Clemson behind his program with a tone that was hardly celebratory.
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Probably pretty harsh for the players to hear……..at first. But they Know. They know that to be a national championship contender their gonna have to get better, Much Better. I’m talking the Offense here just as Kirby was. To me that’s what you want to hear from the HC. No excuses, and the admission that things are no where near where they need to be on the Offense. That’s the very first step in getting better. I’m confident that this Dawgs team will in fact get better week to week. I believe their hungry it’s just a matter of practice, practice, practice and even more important real game experience. Allot of smoothing out the rough spots in this weeks practice and game. I’m just happy the Dawgs got that W on Clemson. The Defense deserves a Big salute ( and a steak dinner to !!). The O will get better. Fortunately the schedule is very favorable for the Dawgs to do just that over the next few games. Go Dawgs !!
If Georgia gets better blocking on the edges with the receivers and tackles on swing passes and screens they would have accumulated explosive plays. Clemson DBs dominated them on the outside when it came to plays like that which would have been key for Georgia in that game. Considering how deep Clemson was playing to prevent big plays down field. Maybe Georgia needs to look at through more slants and crossing routes with receivers to create separation and allow for yards after the catch since blocking on the outside was a none factor.
I've been pretty vocal in putting the offensive struggles into perspective, what with the significant losses in personnel looming as large as they have. But I have to say, I was glad to read that "harsh film grades have been delivered to players, deficiencies and areas exposed by a top Tigers team addressed." It's one thing for us fans to be understanding of a situation, but having a coach who isn't satisfied, no matter how reasonable an explanation there may be, is going to be important in getting this team to where they want to be.
With all the talk of no offensive TD's, remember this: Georgia's offensive line had worn down Clemson's D line before that last drive. Had the scoreboard been different, the offense would have pushed it in, not played "guard the ball" and run the clock.
On the one sack we gave up the receiver on the right side was wide open for a TD if JT been given 2-3 more seconds to make the read.
I find it interesting that for the past few years, Smart has been criticized and questioned for placing a priority on having receivers who can block. In that time, he's gone out and recruited high quality receivers, known for their play making abilities with the ball in their hands. Now, when the offense sputters against an elite defense, there are comments coming out that we need to get better blocking from these receivers.
I've noticed a similar trend with respect to the offensive philosophy more generally. For years there were complaints that the offense is too run heavy. Immediately following the Clemson game, there were multiple comments under multiple articles saying why didn't we run the ball more? This isn't the first time I've noticed it, only the most recent.
Collectively, we don't seem to have any idea what we want. It'll always be something.
Is this really the “why”? Or something else?
One thing I noticed was that Daniels was under center, particularly on short-yardage, much more than the last few seasons. That helps the run game, but requires prolonged protection for a three or five step drop back. We might see less of that going forward to give the receivers a bit more time for separation.
Saw mostly dive plays and WR/RB screen plays. I know UGA was breaking in a new C and were down starting WR's but how about a traditional screen or jet sweep or deeper TE route with Bowers? Sent Arians on a fly route and just throw it deep down the sideline? I am surprised we haven't heard Mike Griffin say we should've just handed the ball of to Kendall Milton every time. Also Sweeney and his QB fly to a game 2 hrs away in a private jet? I wonder what the rest of the team thinks about that? I wish I had pictures of Dabo and Venables faces in the 4th Q. I think Venables developed a facial tick realizing they are now chasing UGA as a football program.
Good to hear it coming from Kirby. You'd probably get the same kind of talk and belief from Saban. You don't simply recruit 4 and 5 star studs to make excuses.
" You're either elite or you're not"....that goes for the offense too.
I think Kirby should look at the fact our players were put in a situation where Clemson's defense only had to defend around 15 yards from the LOS. The routes didn't stretch the defense at all. It's not like our OL was getting beaten on every play either. I counted 6 plays out of 8 or so where JT held the ball long enough to count where he had from 4 to 6 seconds just in our first 2 drives, yet the ball was never thrown downfield.
I don't understand how you can expect to be explosive when you're dumping the ball 5 yards downfield to players who are not running.
I didn't see where the called plays gave receivers much opportunity to be explosive. It's asking a lot of a receiver to take the ball near the LOS while almost standing still and turn it into a big play. That is especially true given Clemson's defense saw we were not going to throw long.
Exactly. The fact of the matter is teams that don't recruit nearly as well as UGA at the WR skill positions have gotten more production from the passing game. The idea that we didn't have the weapons is just excuse making. Maybe we didn't have the weapons better than Bama and Clemson out wide, but the fact of the matter is we weren't matching the production of an Ole Miss, etc.
I'm actually not upset over the WR play from this past game. Clemson has a good defense and clearly the coaches didn't want to take many risks. But the scapegoating of the WRs is beyond old from some. They didn't drop passes and when they threw downfield they most often got penalties. Most of the game they weren't even looking to go downfield so don't want to hear anyone talking about them not getting open to defend the QB (who I think is the best of the starters in the Kirby era).
Well to be fair he did try to take the shine off of Zeus by making a deal of his fumble, which he recovered and hyping up Milton. even though Zeus looked like the best offensive player on the field for the dawgs and led in yards per carry by a good margin. So hopefully Mike will stop pretending Zeus is holding this team back like he tried all last year. And that's not a shot at Milton, I like all our backs, I just don't like running obvious PR because you have a relationship with the Milton family.
My only real complaint is it looked like they had a little too much respect for Clemson's D at times. What I mean is is while the plan was to get the ball out of JT's hands, obviously, there were multiple times where there was plenty of time to let the play develop and we took the safe route. You could almost hear the coaches in JTs ear from practice telling him to not take chances. It is what it is but there were opportunities there. The funny thing is penalty yardage doesn't count but I believe they had at least 3 pass interference calls when they did go downfield so it's not like Clemson was closing things off.
That's football. Generally players have something and give up something else. There's a reason Julio Jones is considered such an elite prospect. That's why I've been pointing out for years that it's not size or speed it's good football players. Everyone talking about speed for Bama and LSU last few years have forgotten that Clemson did it w/ size and not speed. You have to tailor the offense to the skill of the players and if you want elite pass catchers with speed they usually aren't great blockers. That's just the reality.