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Former SEC coach: Georgia-Tennessee not as close as final score, fans worth 7 to 10 points
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Former SEC coach: Georgia-Tennessee not as close as final score, fans worth 7 to 10 points
ATHENS — Jeremy Pruitt has been in enough staff meetings and prowled enough sidelines to know what was at stake and what could make the difference in the game last Saturday.
Comments
We should of won going away, but the rains set in and I understand CKS just running clock and wanting to avoid a wet pass slipping out of SB's hand and being intercepted. Clock was in our favor when we got 3 scores up and fortunately the defense just kept bringing pressure instead of some kind of prevent crap. They never let up!
I was concerned that when the offense shut sown in the 2nd half that Old "Mo" would start swinging towards the Vols if they got a big play or two. Fortunately that didn't happen. Seen too many games where one team starts off like a firecracker and looks unbeatable only for the other team to catch fire later in the game and the momentum swings and whoever has Ole "Mo" last usually wins.
On the subject of score not being indicative of the dominance: I watched the game again. We threw only 4 passes in the 2nd half (3 of which were in 3rd quarter, and only 1 in the 4th quarter). Kirby knew Tennessee was not able to "take off" on us and it appeared that he wanted to run clock, and make our O Line and backs work on the run game. We didn't get much, because Tennessee's front 7 are very good against the run, and they pulled others in the box because they realized what our strategy was.
Of course it all worked out, we needed that run game work against a strong front for "down the road" business. But personally, I would have liked to see us run our regular offense throughout more of the 2nd half and have strategy to score more points. You can for sure bet that had the roles been reversed, Josh Heupel would have poured it on !
If we had run our regular offense more in the 2nd half and allowed Stetson to throw for another 150 yds in that half and perhaps another 2 TD throws, there would be no other player atop the Heisman conversation than Stetson pulling in those kind of stats in a game this large!
When your team is ahead, later in the game, one can keep up the pressure by continuing to score or continuing to keep the ball and control the clock. UGA was up three scores and all they needed to do was not leave Tennessee enough time to catch back up. Kirby has been burned a few times with the "playing not to lose" plan. But, this time, he had the athletes to do it, in the bad weather conditions.
Just an observation. These articles are always headlines "former SEC coach". AND it's usually Pruitt. His observations are as valid as the next (including the anonymous coaches who predicted TN blowing out UGa), but I wonder how many Dawg fans would skip the article if it was headlined "Jeremy Pruitt Sez".
Awesome job on both sides of the ball. The Defense set the tone from the first whistle. The Offense moved the ball and scored early and often, kept building the lead and the pressure. With the game in hand - up by 3-scores and the weather - Kirby went into burn the clock mode - you can do that with an elite defense.
When GA went up by 3-scores, it was game over.
All good. I just hope we don't have to play Tennessee again. They've had their bite at the apple and I'm hoping they want back door their way into the playoffs. (Also hope that we don't somehow screw up and fail to make it ourselves, which would also prevent us from playing the Vols a second time). Go Dawgs!
I do remember seeing their receivers got behind our defense 3 times. If we were to meet again in the playoff, I'm sure they will look at that and we will look at that also. I do agree that the rain affected us, otherwise, we probably score two more TDs and winning 38-13 (or even 38-6).
Without having to lean too hard on"what-ifs", there were 2 points taken from us by the non-safety call ( we would have also gotten the ball back afterwards, so I am not going to negate the ensuing TD after the punt), 4 points lost to bad clock management that forced the FG on 2nd and goal to end the half and 3 or 7 points abandoned by our victory kneel with 50+ seconds on the clock with a 1st down on their 25-yd line. So without having to manipulate the course of play significantly in this scenario, there were a demonstrable 9-13 points left on the field by UGA.
All of us MG followers know it will be Pruitt. Frankly, that is fine. Pruitt was Saban’s second best DC and he is the coach that recruited the players Tennessee is using for its surge this year. Pruitt is a good coach and his opinions are interesting to hear.
Sorta like when Alabama playing in Neyland stadium. Think there wasn’t noise there? You take that point difference you applied to UGA/UT, Alabama would have won.
Jeez
The pressure on Hooker was incredible. There are two parts to a completion. Yeah, the guys were open sometimes but the quarterback was big time pressured. It wasn't that he just happened to miss the throws. He missed the throws to these open receivers because of what our pass rushers did to his timing. He didn't have enough time to throw a great pass.
Hooker best pass of the game was caught by a Georgia receiver named K. Ringo.
If we play them over and over, the game plan doesn't need to change.
I agree. If the rain hadn't come along we might have put some air in it and scored more points. However, we didn't need any more points so why bother about it. Eating the clock and forcing Tennessee to eat the clock did the trick.
They got their touchdown only because of our facemask penalty. Not that their touchdown mattered at all. The game was long over by then.
The scoreboard doesn't begin to show what an epic beatdown this game was. Physical dominance at the highest level coupled with discipline, precision, coordination, communication, etc.
Go, Dawgs!
Tennessee players have been reported as saying they lost because of our crowd's noise.
I seriously doubt that. They lost because we beat them to death with our much more physical team. However, the noise was a factor in both our win over the Vols and Tennessee's victory over Alabama. Without that factor we still would have killed them. Without the noise, Alabama might have squeaked by 'em. See the difference.
Go, Dawgs!
Haha, good post @JimWallace. Many Volunteer and Duck fans are convinced that a rematch with the Dawgs will be different. I don't doubt they could be closer games, especially in a more neutral environment with more time to prepare, but it seems slightly delusional to be so confident. Anyway, one game at a time...hopefully all the focus right now is on playing a night game at MSU.