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Georgia football report card: Bulldogs fly by South Carolina 40-13
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Georgia football report card: Bulldogs fly by South Carolina 40-13
ATHENS — Kirby Smart said it’s “wheels up” for Georgia football, the team taking flight with a championship destination in mind.
Comments
B for coaching seems generous. Bringing in SBIV when we did was a real head scratcher turned cuss-fess after that rhythm killing pick.
I'd give a "C" for coaching. Bringing in Bennett while a fully-functioning J.T. Daniels is still available contradicts the age-old wisdom of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" And decisions to fix that which ain't broke are generally dumb decisions. And this would be true even if Bennett hadn't thrown the interception.
Yes, the Bennett decision and its initial timing was just wierd. So you have a good week of practice and Kirby tosses you in for one play, 3 plays? Argh. I'd give coaching a B- at best.
The secondary and O line continue to be our weakest links. However, having said that, I do see improvements with both groups. We ran the ball better against a good South Carolina front, and the secondary covered better than they have previously (despite getting burned a couple of times). We've just got to figure out how to be aggressive and challenge the opponent's receivers without getting penalized. We did have fewer penalties in the secondary this game. Again, I see improvements. The rubber will meet the road in October against a better-than-expected Arkansas, Auburn, and Florida.
So I’ve been mulling over why we don’t see more big rushing games out of our deep backfield and it got me wondering. It seems in the Gurley, Chubb, Swift eras we moreso had a feature back, a change of pace, and a young guy for depth. Whereas now we play 5 RBs every single game. I just wonder if we need to do more “riding the hot hand”. We go from those steady 5-8 yard gainers with Cook, Milton and White (plays that are often 1-2 blocks/missed tackles from being 6 points) to more of the 3 yards and a cloud of dust when the younger guys come in. I know we have to keep legs fresh; but wondering when we take 5-10 carries from guys with a 6-10 YPA and give them to the guys averaging 3-4 YPA max…. How many field goals, easy third downs, extended drives, overall offensive production, momentum etc is it costing us.
QB...JT Daniel A+ ...JT was in charge most of the time except when he came back in for Bennett. Secondary C. SC flat beat UGA many times. OL... C+. Still need to widen the gap for RBs....Cook, who had a good night, had to thread the needle twice to once score and gain yardage. No big flashy runs, just grinding it out as Smart says. RBs...B and Receivers B...I agree. Defense...A....yes. Coaching....barely B. JT on his 3rd and long tosses kept UGA alive! This could have been a very different game without JT Daniels. I went over my video of the game. He is that good. OL kept SC off his back just long enough to fire away. Overall ..B+. Addendum... (JT does have trouble throwing from his left side away from the pocket back across field. Missed on two occasions. Nearly intercepted.)
Well, I think pretty much every quarterback would tell you that's a very difficult throw.
Overall, hard to argue with these positional grades. I have to call "lazy take" on the "no explosive" running plays without a deeper dive. Again, Mike Griffin fails to do any analysis other than to throw something at the wall. There are MANY possibilities for this "presumed" cause/effect. I will list the obvious. 1) The 23 yard run is only a 23 yard run because Cook scored a TD. 2) Make shift OL. I believe you will see 2 "new" starting OG's and 2 new starting OT's by the 2nd half of the season. These guys have been shuffled around and have improved each week. 3) Different O. Ever think the run/pass ratio change, reducing the run opportunities, might mean fewer chances for break out runs? '21 UGA/SC R/P ration (%) 46/54. '20 UGA/SC R/P ratio (%) 74/26. 29 rushes in '21 to 45 rushes in '20. If you open up the O w/more passes you will have fewer runs. 4) Playing more RB's keeps RB's from getting into a rhythm. That is the price you pay to stockpile RB talent. If you don't play all these guys they're gonna leave. Gotta hope this is not Griffin pushing his subliminal agenda that the running game "struggles" are due to SR White starting over Soph Milton. Milton averaged 7 inches more per carry than White on saturday.
Absolutely...JT no exception.
I think Kirby had the same plan going in this game as last week with the QB1 going two series and QB2 getting one. Stetson’s quick INT upset that plan with him not seeing the field again until the 4th quarter. It was disappointing that we didn’t score in the 4th quarter with two drives in a row killed by turnovers. Beating the 30+ point spread would have been icing on the cake. I agree with your overall assessment and grade of a solid B. I expect the Dawgs will learn from their mistakes and not stop until they have scored 60+ against Vandy next week.
Also Chubb and Sony had some WR’s that were great blockers too. Chris Connelly was a beast down field blocking CB’s and safeties. These 4* and 5* WR’s we have been recruiting lately don’t seem to be such willing or effective blockers.
So, the interception JT threw, trying to hit the TE John whatshisname, our receiver(Blocker) proved he has no business trying to catch a ball 2o yards downfield, he has to have more self awareness of the safety that was coming over hard and he has to go after that ball. He was falling backwards and not in position to high point it and **** it away or break up the interception. Yeh, JT threw it late but the receiver has to have more aggression,.
Yeah, I think those grades are fair. I mean, things were looking great before we "took our foot off the throttle" and I'm sure a lot of that had to do with backups being put in (which was the right call). Solid performance overall, but some weakness in there.
The coach is gonna coach his way and I, for one, am very thankful for that. I will give my opinion on glaringly bad play calls (in my opinion) but as far as personnel, I have faith that the man who watches them practice and talks to his assistants will make the proper calls as to who plays and when.