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Comments
I sort of beg to differ. We had a generational defense last year and we dang near got passed to death, as great as our defense was in the SECC. The football gods smiled on us as the Old Ball Coach predicted they might. BAMA lost Metchie and then Williams.
Sure we made some adjustments and played much better on defense in the NC. BUt let's not be naive, and think that if they didn't have Metchie and Williams they couldn't have won the NC. I'm not saying they would or wouldn't. No one will ever know for sure. BUt we weren't playing the same offense that passed it willy-nilly against us in the SECC.
Now let me throw this out there. What if BAMA had a 3rd great receiver, say a TE along the lines of a BRock Bowers? See where I'm going with this? THey would have been nearly impossible to stop if that were the case. I don't care if you had a generational defense where you had 3-4 defensive players go in the1st round like we might.
So, count me all in for having as dynamic an offense as you can possibly have. One that can run and throw with the best of them. Our defense this year will have great talent, but we just lost the best defense the school has ever seen. Can we reload and be nearly as good? I hope so. I don't see anyone challenging us til the SECC .
Tell all that to AUB, A&M, LSU, ARK and FLA...all of whom, either beat em, tied em or almost beat em. With this elaborate passing game you speak of. LOL. On the other hand, nobody came close to beating UGA all season, including 3 of the teams I I mentioned, with regards to BAMA.
And....UGA had a generational defensive front that was plain worn down and a thin inexperienced defensive backfield that led to BAMA moving the ball the way they did for 2 qtrs in the SECC. It cost UGA and the God's smiled on BAMA.
I'll also mention the fact that the offensive line that later beat BAMA in the Natty wasn't the same offensive line that lost to BAMA in the SECC. Once Salyer was moved to RG and Jones was installed at LT, UGA moved the ball at will. It opened up the running attack.
BTW...I reread your post and realized you made one of my points for me. LOL
If the sum total of offensive production relys solely on the success of 3-4 players, including the QB, it leaves you vulnerable and exposed when you lose one or two of those players. Especially if it's the QB.
BAMA lost 2 of the 3 legs of their offense and couldn't score in the Red Zone...cause they had no running game to provide backup support. The only TD they had was due to a late game fumble in their Red Zone. If passing is your default mode of offense, then you better darned well have more than 2 or 3 guys that can execute at the elite level. If you lose one of them, you're now average. Just sayin'.
UGA lost half their projected offensive production before the season started and played with multiple Freshmen throughout the year. They didn't rely on the pass or the run in particular...just solid offense. And.... They managed to average 1 point less per game than the mighty BAMA's vaunted passing game. And it could have been much more if they wanted to run up the score like BAMA. LOL
Bama got beat by Texas A&M when they took them lightly. Texas had lost to arkansas, and to MIss.St and had barely beaten Colorado by3 points I believe. Texas beat them by throwing for 3 TD's and playing more physical than BAMA. Fisher is a master motivator against BAMA. IF you watch the highlights the Texas receivers were wide open. Everyone kew BAMA's weakness was their secondary. A&M also had a kickoff return for a TD. How often does that happen against BAMA?
LSU almost beat them or played them tough because they limited BAMA to 6 net runnng yards, but BAMA still won, because they had the better skill players. A team without the quality of BAMA's would have definitely gotten beat.
Forida should have beaten BAMA, but they didn't, Florida outphysicaled them, but again Bama still managed 31 points becasue Young threw for 3 TD's. BAMA had only 80 yards on the ground.
Auburn played BAMA tough, they usually do being a rivalry game/instate. Auburn put on an awesome dislplay on defense, sacked Young 8 times, Williams got ejected for the 2nd half and yet Young and company still found a way to beat them. Auburn lost becasue they didn't have the skill guys BAMA had. Basically any other team that gets sacked 8 times loses. Period! BUt not BAMA. WHy? Because of their Heisman winner.
Teams should lose when they get out physicaled and you shut down their run game. However, if you have a dynamic passing attack you are always in the ballgame. You're just 1 or 2 big throws away from a victory.
For as great as our defense played against BAMA in the NC game, the game wasn't a done deal until the pick 6. And that was without Metchie and Williams. Just sayin. Great defense and great offense, both throwing and running is the formula.
Let's face it. BAMA didn't have a BAMA type defense last year and still made it to the NC, because of their skill guys. THen they lost 2 of their best skill guys against us. We had a generational defense and with a few minutes left in the game, It was still anyone's ballgame, even without their top 2 receivers.
LOL...I'm not sure how, what I said, did differed much from what you said.
You didn't point out, that LSU was playing with an enormous amount of backups and 3rd stringers because of injury and the coaching situation. Orgeron was a lame duck coach and still almost beat BAMA. How many TD passes did they have?
AUB didn't beat BAMA for one simple reason...coaching and a bone headed play by Tank Bigsby with less than 2 minutes to play in the game. If Bigsby stays in bounds,, game over...if the coach calls a more conservative play, game over. BAMA's prolific passing attack had NOTHING to do with it. They should never have gotten the opportunity to drive the length of the field at the end of the game....and tie it up.
In the NATTY, it wasn't Bryce Young throwing to Elite receivers all over the field, that won the day. It was Stetson Bennett throwing to Freshmen at the end of the game combined with a powerful rushing attack.
And, the interception by Ringo was icing on the cake. The defense was in control at that point. UGA front 7 is the best I've ever seen. They didn't give Young time to breath, much less, set up to pass.....and, that is an absolute requirement for a "prolific passing attack", no matter who is on the receiving end. The only thing that would have slowed down UGA's relentless rush, ironically, was a running game...and BAMA didn't have that. UGA did.
In the SECC Game, UGA tried some things on defense that did not work out. They didn't have the personnel all year to run out of the dime defense. Instead of attacking Young, for whatever reason, they decided to defend the backend. I don't know if that was a Lanning decision, a Smart decision, a Muschamp decision or a necessary decision...due to a battered and weakened (by illness) front 7. I don't know about you, but, after I've had the flu, I'm not the same for 2-3 weeks. It drains you and it takes time to recover fully and get your strength and energy back. I suspect that had a lot to do with the approach UGA took, defensively, in the SECC. I know they had a flu outbreak at the end of the regular season that effected a lot of guys on both sides of the ball. I think it's safe to say, the team we saw play BAMA in the SECC was not the same team we saw throughout the season or the one we saw destroy Michigan or BAMA in the 4th qtr of the NC.
The point you seem to miss is that BAMA nearly got beat several times, but even when they couldn't get the run game going, they had play makers at the skill positions the other teams simply didn't have and it saved their bacon and they made it to the NC game and were in it til just a few minutes left even without their top 2 receivers, why? becasue they had the best QB in the country. Thems the facts. Even with our "generational defense."
We won't have that "generational defense" this year and it will behoove us to have an even better offense than last year, If we won't to get back to the NC game. Now I don't see us really being challenged intil the SECC game. So, unless we just take someone for granted ala BAMA-Texas Tech, then we cake walk in.
I believe we have the skill players if everyone is healthy to be an unstoppable force on offense. That plus a good defense(probably not generational) should be enough or close to it.
Well said; however, I still disagree with you regarding BAMA's QB. While he is very good, I've seen much better. I'm not convinced he's the second coming...yet. I may be wrong about him. I need to see a larger sample size before I throw him in with the likes of J Montana, M Vick, S Young, J Elway, J Burrow, etal..
A big part of BAMA's and Young's success, or lack of failure, last year....was, luck and favorable officiating. For instance...the Young fumble, at the end of the 2nd qtr of the SECC, that Nolan Smith failed to pick up or recover while the ball bounced back to Young as he was trapped under Wyatt on the ground. Had the ball bounced in any other direction, UGA gets the ball back, and Bama doesn't score at the end of the half which would have changed the complexion of the second half completely.. Plain and simple, luck.. LOL.
Lady luck has smiled on BAMA many times over the years, along with favorable officiating. The tide has turned, (excuse the pun). They ran out of luck in Indianapolis and UGA's dominance in the 4th qtr precluded any interference by BAMA-friendly officials (not that they didn't try).
Some might say, "Well, BAMA makes their own luck and they have the skill players to take advantage". To a small extent that is true. But, unless Saban has a telekinetic ability that hasn't been revealed, they can't control the bounce of an untimely fumble or the trajectory of an opposing RB (Bigsby). LOL...if he did, he probably would have used it on A&M's winning field goal...another game where BAMA's luck ran out.