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Two Georgia football strengths ultimately led to season-ending loss to Ole Miss
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Two Georgia football strengths ultimately led to season-ending loss to Ole Miss
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We should have brought in a heavy package with McCray at RB on 2nd and 3 on the goal line IMO. Instead we lined up in a spread formation with an open end on the left side, Ole Miss had two up on that side which eliminated any chance of a keep by GS on the zone read we ran and they blew up the play knowing he had to give the ball. I would have liked our chance of getting three yards in three downs with straight power runs ,especially with a FB in front of McCRay.
Yeah that play blew up the second it started. OM had four guys in the backfield and the O-line is blocking air. This and the 4th down debacle is where Bobo was missed. Also, we had three timeouts with a little over a minute to go. Take a timeout to get the right personnel and play in. The third down play was a dud as well. Should have been the game winning drive instead of a field goal.
three T U S H pushes and we woulda been in and hardly anytime left on clock
the only way I’d given McCray the nod would be if he refused to go outside. Bro, is a Mike Allstot type. Straight ahead
That's what I had in mind, he won the first Ole Miss game by braking 3 tackles on a two yard first down run with zero blocking.
Unless you are talking about the literal last play or at least drive of the game, remember the butterfly effect. Meaning that even if UGA does convert those plays, there's a chance that Ole Miss responds and Trinidad Chambliss ends up with 425 yards and 3 TDs instead of 360 yards and 2 TDs and Ole Miss still wins. Or he could have overextended himself and thrown a pick-6 and turned the whole thing into a UGA rout. Who knows.
What we do know: in order to win races, you need horses. Zachariah Branch, who at the very minimum is a strong slot WR, qualifies. But Dillon Bell, who in 4 years at UGA including 2 as a full time starter had under 1300 yards, less than Jeremiah Williams had last year in a single season, doesn't. Neither does London Humphreys, who does a lot better than Bell's low career yards per catch but doesn't get open to catch the ball nearly enough for it to matter. Colbie Young would have made a difference but after his injury UGA had to develop their offense without him. Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie are good TEs, but except in the rare cases when they have Brock Bowers, Mark Andrews or Kyle Pitts ability, TEs are complimentary players. (The time guys with big time ability get moved to OT, WR, RB or DE/LB just as Nick Saban convinced his high school All-American TE Marcus Spears to switch to DE). And Nate Frazier is the only reliable RB. (Though in retrospect, giving Chauncey Bowens more than 2 carries in a game where Stockton had 46 total touches - 31 passes, 13 runs and 2 sacks - is an actual point to consider. Stockton is a good player but not exactly a Tim Tebow or Joe Burrow when it comes to ability and if UGA tries to treat him like a player of their caliber this will be the result against superior competition.)
UGA 2021-2022 had the horses. Bowers. McConkey. Cook. Washington. Mitchell and Pickens when healthy. Zamir White. McIntosh, who had feature back ability, with Edwards and Milton in committee. UGA in 2017 did too: 3876 rushing yards at 6 ypc as compared to 2550 at 4.5 ypc this year, plus Javon Wims and Terry Godwin were quite honestly as good as any WR who played for UGA this year but were held back by a true freshman at QB. But even with 17 year old Jake Fromm pulling the trigger, that UGA edition had the downfield passing game that this team lacks. Where Bell and Branch averaged 10 yards per catch in 2022, Wims, Godwin and Hardman all had over 16 yards per catch in 2022. Riley Ridley? 15.6 ypc. The TEs Nauta and Woerner had more yards per catch with 13 and 11 yards than did UGA's X and Z WRs. (Young's injury and the coaching staff's unwillingness to rely on Noah Thomas or the rookies meant that UGA effectively had no Y WR for most of the season.)
Coulda woulda shoulda doesn't change any of that. Even had UGA pulled it out against an Ole Miss team that is in chaos, was constructed from the portal and contains almost no blue chip recruits, they would have been hard-pressed to repeat it the next 2 games.
Yeah, like I’ve said on numerous posts after that embarrassing loss, coaching lost this game. Period. If you’re going to kick a FG regardless of whether you convert or not on 3rd down, run the stinking ball!!!!!!! Max protection or 13 alignment would have made more sense. I would say most high school coaches would know that, but I can’t because I know and have seen some very idiotic high school coaches.
I hope Kirby seeks out advisement on clock management at the end of each halves for next season, because it **** overall this season, reaching head scratching moments from his rookie head coaching season.
"From a statistical standpoint, the two things Georgia did best were convert on fourth down and score touchdowns in the redzone."____DN
IMO....that's low hanging fruit...and the secondary issue. The primary issue, is on the defensive side of the ball. They failed to Tackle, Contain & Effect the quarterback....and DB's don't know when or how, to play the ball and not the receiver.. End of story.
The defense couldn't get off the field on 3rd down....and, it prevented the offense from finding their rhythm. That's why they lost. They lost the battle for "momentum" due to an inconsistent defense. Talk to Coach Schumann....maybe he can explain. Lol
Imo....you and others are getting in too big a twist over statistics and numbers. Those have never applied under Kirby Smart. He doesn't play a single player, with statistics in mind. The only concern is matchups.
That's why you won't see many players, playing every single down, for Kirby. One of the biggest examples of that, is Trayvon Walker. #1 overall in the Draft....but, statistically average.
Same for Davis and Carter.….and, many other UGA 1st rounders under the Smart regime. Statistically...."average". Forget statistics, when evaluating the Dawgs, individually. Too many uber-talented platoon players.
Besides....imo....statistical evaluation is lazy....and, useless, if you don't apply the context of the players actual contributions. In other words...."The rest of the story". Lol
say what you want but the play calling lost that game and why the defense let the receivers get behind them is beyond my thoughts process. The game was winnable in the end but the goal line play calling and leaving time on the clock was just dumb. KS is not the best coach in college football, just like Dabo he is stuck in his ways. Still can’t believe we lost that game.
Oh no you can’t be blaming the coaches, they had the team prepared to play. This is on the player… said no one
Nice article Connor and valid points.
What upset me more than anything was the last 2 minutes of the 1st half when we had the ball and all of our time outs. Instead of being aggressive we went ultra-conservative and ran the ball. We wasted clock, but we got off the field with too much time remaining after a 3-and-out. We kicked to Ole Miss who moved aggressively down the field and almost scored but ran short of time.
Did Kirby not trust Gunner enough to throw the ball down the field and try to at least get a FG? What the heck were we thinking in those final 2 minutes that we WASTED?
Another poor coaching decision among several that game.
Yet another best selling novel 🤣Why is everything you post contain this sentence?... " he had more receiving yards LAST YEAR than their entire WR corp had" or something to that extent. Why not post current stats if you're going to do it? A bunch of outdated, worthless numbers, and stats from a year ago, posted just to voice a simple opinion…last time I checked, the only stat that matters is the final score on the scoreboard. Lot of woulda, could, shoulda in your post also..
Funny how KS went for it on the goal line in a regular game against bama and don’t in a win or go home game against OM
listen to his press conferences during the year. KS seems to have lost his passion. $13 mill a year plus bonuses to win certain games ( which should be part of his $13 mill salary) seems to have made him settle. As long as he keeps his OC and DC the dawgs will not win a Natty. Should have hire Muschamp as DC