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Kirby Smart expresses confidence in even better 2022 Georgia offense: ‘We’re in a good position’
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Kirby Smart expresses confidence in even better 2022 Georgia offense: ‘We’re in a good position’
Georgia football will need to be better offensively in 2022. And Kirby Smart is confident the group can do so.
Comments
I think the “total yardage and points scored” stats are a bit deceiving. UGA played conservatively with many back-up players last year for most of the 2nd halves against practically every opponent. Also, several teams like a Ohio State love to embarrass their opponents and impress the pollsters by running up the score. I’m not saying we had a prolific offense, but I think we could have easily been ranked higher statistically if we were ruthless in the 3rd and 4th quarters. It really doesn’t matter because statistics are for losers…..and we are #1. Go Dawgs!!!
Not mentioned but should have been: The offensive line.
Go, Dawgs!
We absolutely put the brakes on in the 4th quarter last year moreso than any other team out there that mixes up the run and pass. MAybe iit's been mentioned but if it hasn't , I 'd be willing to bet SB threw less passes in the 4th quarter than any other QB in the SEC last year. MAybe even in all of College Football.
Total yardage also was artificially low season last because the offense very often had a short field. We should have more yardage this season because we may not be getting the ball around midfield quite as often. Plus, I think we'll be more explosive AND consistent on offense.
On the other, good field position made scoring a bit easier. Plus we probably got more points from our defense than most. Those to factors sort of evened out the fact that we tapped the brakes with big leads, so we ended up ninth nationally in points per game -- which I think is about where we should have been.
When we talk about WRs being susceptible to injury, we have to account for the fact that Bowers, Gilbert, Washington and possibly Delp are all receiving threats. That's a big difference from other teams.
In other words, we go from thinking about it as having six WRs to having 10 WRs and TEs. That's a BUNCH of dangerous targets with a lot of different looks and plenty of guys who can fill in without a big drop off in case of an injury. Knock on wood that nothing happens to Bowers or any of the others, but we're not as totally dependent on just two WRs (which is part of what made Alabama the worse team last year).
I'm not sure any team in the country enjoys that many proven pass catchers. Plus, our OC happens to be great at scheming up deviously creative pass plays.
(I'm purposely not counting our freshmen receivers, because we don't have evidence yet that any of them will be significant contributors ... but there's always that chance, too.)
An interesting statistic would be to see the average “point differential” between teams at the end of the 3rd quarter. My bet is we were #1 in the country thanks to a fabulous defense and a very efficient offense.
Interesting point. I'm pretty sure that we did have the biggest margin after three quarters over the course of the season. Check my math:
Very cool….that’s what I thought, but didn’t have all the stats to back me up. Now, I want one of our great DawgNation writers to see if there has ever been a #1 pick in the NFL draft who was never named as an “All Conference” player or All American. I think this year was likely the first time anything like that has occurred. Maybe a great article idea for Connor since he’s all over cool things like that 😉
I don't see the WR group as being a big question mark. They are very good, imo. I'm more concerned about the LB room.
FYI....Defensive scores don't count toward offensive Pts/game scored, anymore than pick sixes or fumble returns for TDs counted against the defense in Pts/game allowed.
I don't think my man, Conner, is smart enough to pick that up. After all, he only pointed out that Bennett won MVP of the Orange Bowl....but somehow, failed to mention that Bennett won the CFP Championship Game MVP, 10 days later. LOL
Actually, BigDawg, the 38.6 "total scoring" figure that people are citing does include defensive points. If you total all final UGA scores and divide by 15, you get 38.6.
If you back out the four pick-sixes (and count them as sevens), "scoring by offensive" comes to 36.9. That actually wasn't a huge amount of defensive scoring so we aren't likely to drop off much from that this year.
I didn't realize that, until you said it. You gave me something to think about.
I remember a discussion about the Charleston Southern fumble return for TD, not counting against the defensive point total...even though, it was a double turnover. I.e., Sorey intercepted the ball and then the ball was taken from him by a CS player in a scrum during his return and returned 65 yds for a TD.
It didn't occur to me until just now, that if those points didn't go against the UGA defense, which offense, if any, got the credit and was either defense charged with the points. I'm going to check that out.
I'm not a big statistic guy...don't put a whole lot of stock in them. They provide just one angle of observation. I like to identify and analyze as many angles as possible before I formulate an opinion. STATS give you a pretty good first glance idea of a team or player's performance, but you have to do a little digging to put it all together.
For instance, I didn't realize how many defenders played against CS till I went back and looked at the game. Nakobe Dean barely played in the game and Bennett only played in 1 qtr, leaving after UGA was up 28-0. Burton only had 2 catches for 30 yds and 0 TDs and was 4th in receiving behind Seither, Bowers and McIntosh. Behind those guys, were Meeks, McConkey and Cook.
All that gives you a pretty good snapshot of what UGA's offense is going to look like next year. 2 RBs and 2 TEs were 4 of the top 6 receivers in the Charleston Southern game. Monkin intends to employ RBs and TEs in the Air-Raid game, with a couple of good blocking/catching receivers.
Mike Griffith keeps talking about UGA running a Spread with Air-Raid principles, only when Daniels was behind center. That's just not true. He doesn't know what that offense is or how it operates, otherwise, he wouldn't keep saying it. UGA doesn't line up with an "X", "Y", "Z", Flanker set and Daniels wasn't a prototype Air-Raid QB...i.e., he wasn't mobile and did not perform well under pressure. That's not an opinion...it's a statistic and fact. He was middle of the pack in that statistic. I read that in a West VA profile on Bennett. An honest critique of Daniels' abilities is something Dawg Nation never did. If their critique was honest, then it was incompetent.
WV is worried about Daniels taking too many sacks, his mobility and ability to throw on the run. That...by definition...is NOT an Air-Raid QB and lining up 1 or 2 TEs with a RB, as UGA has, is not a spread option with Air-Raid principles.,
IMO...Monkin and Smart are inventing a completly new offense using Air-Raid Principles. Nobody has approached the Air-Raid game using multiple TE/RB sets before. Defenses are going to be confused and tripping over themselves trying to decipher UGAs offense next year. Mismatches galore. It's gonna be fun to watch. LOL