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3 things: What will determine Georgia football championship hopes leading into Alabama
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3 things: What will determine Georgia football championship hopes leading into Alabama
ATHENS — Georgia’s close call, 13-12 win at Kentucky on Saturday night is the best thing that could have happened for this particular group of Bulldogs.
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THe elephant in the room is the O-line. CB, the passing game, the run game is all predicated on the O-line. Brandon Adams and many others talk about we have the best O-line in the country or top 2-3 whatever, and yet we have RB's that can barely get a hand off without getting hit in the backfield. That's not indicative of a great offensive line, sorry.
Branson Robinson and Chauncey Bowens ran 10 times together for 18 yards total against Clemson. Yeh, Frazier had a great game becasue he was able to cutback when there was nothing there in the way the play was designed and he had a couple of big runs just purely off of his own athleticism., but not due to the O-line opening up holes and blowing people off the ball!
Against Kentucky we scraped together 87 yards from our RB's.. Frazier and Robinson ran 5 times combined for a grand total of 7 yards!
Against BAMA we were under 90 yards rushing. THis isn't a great offensive line! It's honestly mediocre at best as far as the run is concerned.
HEck even Kirby didn't trust the O-line enough to go for a 1st down with 4th and 1 around midfield when it would have been a possible momentum shifter for our offense! He said, no way! again that's not indicative of a great O-line or even a very good one!
We lost the line of scrimmage against KY. We gave up too many yards on the ground and couldn't effectively or consistently run the ball ourselves between the tackles. Bama will tell us finally how good our LOS play on both sides of the ball really is, because I do not consider Clemson to be a true test of going against an elite team. I'm hoping Brinson and Williams will be back for Bama to help on the D-line, but I'm not betting on getting both back.
Beck has got to do better. He looked shaky, unsettled, and very happy-feet nervous. When he is pressured his accuracy falls off considerably. He was pressured most of the night, and I expect some of that pressure as well against Bama. So, Bobo has got to call plays that get the ball out of his hands pretty quickly. I'm truly hoping that our TEs will step up to the plate and become consistently effective targets for Beck.
Our WRs and TEs are not particularly good blockers, yet we continue to try and run swing passes. It's not working most of the time. We either need to stop calling those plays or teach those receivers how to block. Let's face it, we do not have any elite receivers that Beck can turn to like a Bowers or McConkey. But, we do have guys that are certainly above average and very good.
Tackling. We were poor tacklers mostly in the latter part of the game Saturday. I'm assuming we were just gassed and exhausted, but that is no excuse.
Really want to commend MG for calling out CB's mentality here vs just talent and tactical things.
The problem, IMHO, is not only how precise he is with his deep ball, pressured or not, or his talent or that of others. It's that "do the necessary" that SBIV and other QBs beyond UGA seem to pull out when they absolutely MUST. We didn't see much of that from CB this past Saturday, nor did we see it in the SEC championship last year.
The "Miami Vice" attitude CB seems to exude has created a larger cultural issue that is reflected by the dead look in several players eyes when they got smacked around when there should be fire. I'd argue all the other players with fast car issues off the field is further evidence of this... it's not just NIL alone, or we'd be seeing this all over NCAAF across the country (and, yes, I know other teams have problems and their host towns may be more lenient... but the numbers are huge).
When you believe the hype and start celebrating your success long before you've actually had much, that's a form of entitlement that causes rot... while Kirby never says it explicitly (no good coach would... Saban aside), if you read between the lines, you'll see he's all over this complacency issue. It's also why he had to step in and fire up his team in Q4 when his QB obviously could not. Looking at that sideline Saturday, there was way too much fear and/or resignation on the faces of too many Dawgs, esp. 1s and 2s.
Is this actually addressable? I guess we'll see. Even Saturday's slugfest can't change the basic nature of an individual in a few weeks. However, if anybody can do it, CKS is the man. If we lose to 'Bama, I can guarantee he will shake up this team so hard that their great-great-grandchildren will hear stories about it long after all of us on this site are gone 🤣🤣🤣
Wishing CB the strength and grace to focus and grow (quickly), those injured the time to heal, and the whole team the courage to become like the unified, take-no-prisoners warriors we've seen in previous UGA seasons.
Go Dawgs!
This article is right on the money with Beck. Bad look to buy a Lamborghini, dress up like Deion Sanders, then proceed to play the game without much emotion like a robot. His fumble in the second half took me back to how we lost the SEC championship last year when he fumbled and lost the ball on our own goal line. It's time for Beck to stop posing, park his racer and pimp threads, and provide some good old fashioned spirited leadership while raising the collective energy to his teammates. Last weekend made me think that we should have kept Vandergriff who raised his whole team above their capabilities to almost knock off the #1 team in the country. UGA would have saved millions in NIL and would have a warrior quarterback instead of a NFL businessman intern.
@Beachwagon and @Kudzu…couldn't agree more. The leadership and fire is what is lacking with Beck (along with the deep ball). I don't know whether it's just a feeling of entitlement or what. And honestly I'm not seeing a leader on the defense like we've had in previous seasons to be the one to step up and get in people's faces. Complacency is the enemy. We cannot rest on our laurels.
I wouldn't even put Beck in the Top 5 Heisman candidates right now.
Complete agreement on the defensive leadership point, as well. I know a few folks were put off by JDJ's "emotional" displays when he was still a Dawg, but I absolutely thought it was great when needed... and it seemed to work!
Carson is not a clutch QB. I wish Brock had remained…that kid has true grit and fire in his belly. Carson does not. Carson needs the o-line to deflect the defense long enough for him to lock in his shot. He did rifle one to Lovett at the end to actually save the game. He is not a commanding presence to the linemen. In turn, the o-line does need to better protect him. Losing Tate Ratledge will prove to be big. Carson is not Stetson Bennett…crazy legs Bennett. Few are. I hope UGA can …gel…and bring some fire to Tuscaloosa in two weeks. I cannot solve this…Kirby must. Bama I would suspect is breathing much easier after viewing the KY game tapes. Georgia is not an offensive powerhouse. The o-line is Swiss cheese at times. Bama's front D line is big. Say no more. Pray for a miracle.
The Dawgs biggest concern is the health of the D-line. If they get 2-3 of the injured players back at something close to 100%, I like their chances against Bama. If they don't, GA will have to score 35 just to keep up.
Watching the game this past Saturday reminded me of when CB threw the interception against UAB and jogged after the player who caught his throw. I saw the same this past weekend. Ho, hum. It was the same dead look in his eyes after he fumbled in the SECCG, which basically lost the game against Bama. We have seen this time and time again, a talent-rich player that cannot put it all together on the field. CB has not shown ANYTHING to me to show that he is worth all the hype. 1st round pic? Really? What NFL team wants another player to give half efforts and a "What me care?" attitude. Heisman? Really? His numbers are crap. Dog Catcher? Perhaps. I love his back story of "waiting his turn", etc…But, man, we had high hopes that he would kill it on the field this year after the SECCG fiasco. Afterall, that is why he came back, right? Unfinished business? Or was it the car? The money? Maybe CB knows that once he leaves Georgia, he is back to the bench…IF and WHEN he gets to the NFL. If he keeps this up, he will be lucky to be drafted.
The BIG problem is the offense and the 3 and outs. THAT is what is killing our defense. Too much time on the field. CB and the OL need to wake up!
”The messaging will surely be on point….” Really? Constantly telling the team it’s next to impossible to win on the road is a bad psych job. Kirby used to say we don’t worry about the opposition we just worry about ourselves and “play to the ‘Georgia Standard.’” The team, especially Carson Beck, and Coach Bobo played and coached like they had never played or coached football before. Why? Seemed scared. And why not after being told all week how hard it is to win in Lexington. South Carolina didn’t seem to have any difficulty.
SO many things to comment on after UGA laid a giant egg @ KY. First being dropped from #1 on 9/15 means nothing. Being dropped may make CKS's coaching job a little easier. Too many players reading their press clippings. Other teams have scholarship players too. A LOT of young players that need to grow up fast.
Remember the Seinfeld episode "The Opposite"? The one where George thinks out what he wants to do and then does the opposite. That is what Mike Bobo should do. WAY too many counter trey's/delayed handoffs up the middle.
But all the blame doesn't go on CMB. THE single biggest problem with UGA is the OL. They are not very good as a unit. Now in their defense, Clemson's DL is good and KY's D played out of their mind. The OL may be in trouble IF TRat is out for too long. Truss is a weak link at OT. Move him back to OG if Calhoun is not ready. Need guys to step up all along the OL. Every OL got their lunch money taken by KY. W/Truss at OG then UGA back to 3-4 OG rotation. That puts Freeling at RT and UGA desperately needs a 3rd (and 4th ) OT to emerge.
Beck (like most QB's) is a different player in the face of pass rush pressure. IF the OL can't protect him it will not be a successful year for UGA. Beck has not looked like the same guy as last year since the '23 SECCG.
So much for the soothsayers about the UGA D being comparable to '21 & '22. Guys get hurt. Replacing them with freshmen means taking a step back. What I saw on saturday was KY repeatedly finding Chambliss and Jackson in the D and going at them. That's just smart coaching. KY also surprisingly picked on Everette early w/success. There is plenty of talent on D but it needs to get healthy and develop.
Speaking of coaching, KY looked like the far superiorly coached and prepared team. They didn't come ready, they came breathing fire. They executed. The no call for PI against Chambliss (ball uncatchable?) may have been the difference in this game between a W and an L.
I trust that we have heard the last BVG bashing in this forum. BVG used every bit of his experience practicing vs the UGA D and played a helluva game. He is a talent that will get better w/experience. Ask yourself, how bad did BVG want that game and how hard did he play to get it? How many UGA players matched that intensity?
I knew Bowers was great. I didn't think he would be missed this much. Doesn't look like the same O w/o him.
UGA OL play better improve fast or the playoffs are in jeopardy.
Need a lot of work to be labelled a Championship team.
Alabama's running backs are averaging over 9 yards a carry for Miller and over 8 yards a carry for Haynes. The Freshman receiver Williams is amazing. Milroe is a handful himself. I am glad we are getting 3 starters back on defense. KIrby and hos Offensive Coordinator needs win time of possession on Offense. This is a huge game and it doesn't get any easier. Go Dawgs yall have the talent. Go out there and kick Butt.
Biggest two problems for UGA are Bobo and Beck. Bobo seems to either have not learned or forgotten whatever Monken may have taught him and he has reverted to his former uncreative self who likes to run it up the middle for no gain ad nauseum. Doing that against Bama the entire first half cost us the NC last year and his offense at Lexington was very predictable and docile. Beck seems to have eaten all the rat poison he has been able to find since the big NIL money fell in his lap. He looks and acts like a ghetto pimp, posing for the public in his Lamborghini and gangsta culture threads instead of actively leading his offense to the goal line. If these two cogs in the UGA wheel do not get it together, recommit themselves to glory, and fast, then it is lights out for us this year and also the forseeable future. Once the dam breaks, everything gets flooded…. The elite college football player is a hot commodity these days, and the best ones want to play for championship rings, not Hollywood wannabes…