Game Notes: Ole Miss Edition
Warning: The following is being written immediately following the conclusion of another UGA football victory. Upon further reflection, it will no doubt seem premature, irresponsible, ineffective and unlikely to lead to anything positive. As a result, this blog will probably start at either split end or flanker against the Tennessee Volunteers.
As I write this I am trying not to panic. However, it is simply impossible. I started the year saying that we have "an offense with a lot to prove". Then I said we are "not a very good offensive football team yet". Now, I have come to the conclusion that we are just a bad offensive football team. Putrid. Awful. We have scored a total of 10 first half points in 3 games against UAB, Colorado and Ole Miss. My thoughts, in no particular order:
When you have two quarterbacks, you might as well have none at all. And when you have three quarterbacks going into the fifth game of the year against a team like Tennessee you are on the verge of a train wreck. Neither Cox or Stafford has taken control of the job. Tereshinski will be back at practice as early as Monday. This has devolved into the worst of all possible scenarios, where the practice snaps that should be going to total preparation for Tennessee will continue to be devoted to figuring out which quarterback is least likely to lose the game in one brief blinding flash of stupidity. As a result I imagine we can expect another week of disjointed playcalling, 3rd and 12 half back draws and general craptacular performance. If we are not down by 17 at halftime I'll be shocked. The one good thing about the quarterbacks' performance was that they didn't turn it over once. I guess that's got to count for something. I'm really grasping at straws here.
Thank God someone reminded Coach Richt that the I-formation is not illegal in the state of Mississippi. Or anywhere else for that matter. I expected us to see a reprise of the 2002 Ole Miss Game in which Musa Smith ran the ball 37 times and Georgia just physically beat the Rebels. Instead we spent the first half in the shotgun. I assume this was to allow our young quarterbacks a better pre-snap view of the field. However, I don't think that's necessary if you just line up and take advantage of the 60 pound per man weight advantage on the line.
Coach Eason is not doing his job. The proof is in the pudding. Our receivers are, as a group, the most inconsistent I have ever seen. MoMass continues to look like he's completely forgotten what he's supposed to be doing on the football field. Demiko Goodman made a couple of good catches, but also had stupifying drops. I have never, in my recollection, ever called out one of our coaches on this blog, and I never planned to. But the simple facts cannot be ignored. Receivers are there to catch passes, and their coach is there to help them both physically and mentally do the things (good route running, sound coverage reads, etc. ) to make that possible. Right now that's just not happening, and someone has to be accountable. I imagine that Tennessee will play 7-8 men in the box and dare us to throw the ball. I am terrified of how that's going to work out.
Dear Lord forgive me. But I have to do it. I am officially questioning Coach Richt. The play selection in the fourth quarter nearly lost us the game. Against a better team it probably would have. Why, after absolutely running the ball down their throats we decided it was time to throw the ball is beyond me. By my count, we ran 13 plays after the second touchdown and before Oliver's interception. 8 were pass plays, 3 of which fell incomplete and one of which ended in a sack. That is a lot of time that could have been run off the clock, which is the thing to do when you've got an 11 point lead on the road in the SEC. It was just plain dumb. The thing I like about Coach Richt is that he'll probably admit as much.
God Bless the Defense, Every One: If our defense were evena little worse than advertised, we would be 3-2. The past two weeks have been far more impressive than the shutouts versus South Carolina and UAB. The reason is that our offense has managed to put the defense in every conceivable bad situation, and they've still recovered. You'll probably see a lot of whining about the defense on the DawgVent this week. The fact is they played all but 11:00 minutes of the first half. Two of our three second quarter drives lasted less than 1:15 seconds. The defense deserves serious credit for helping an offense that only gained 66 yards in the whole first half.
Kregg Lumpkin's the man. He's just running hard and smart right now. He finally looks like what we all expected before his knee injury. Hats off to him.
Mikey Henderson's OK Too. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I used to have a vague sense of dread every time we dropped back to field a punt. But with Mikey back there I feel like something good might happen, and at worst he won't do anything dumb. And in football (as with most of life's endeavors) the first step on the road to success is avoiding obvious acts of stupidity.
As I said at the outset, this was probably all a little harsh. I'm not a betting man, but I'm not sure how we're going to win next week. If you wanted me to take Georgia, you'd have to give me at least 9 points right now, and I never would have anticipated that three weeks ago.
Am I being overly pessimistic? Drop me a line in the comments if you think so. Feel free to ease my fears in any way possible. I'll be back on Monday with a more rational take on things.
As I write this I am trying not to panic. However, it is simply impossible. I started the year saying that we have "an offense with a lot to prove". Then I said we are "not a very good offensive football team yet". Now, I have come to the conclusion that we are just a bad offensive football team. Putrid. Awful. We have scored a total of 10 first half points in 3 games against UAB, Colorado and Ole Miss. My thoughts, in no particular order:
When you have two quarterbacks, you might as well have none at all. And when you have three quarterbacks going into the fifth game of the year against a team like Tennessee you are on the verge of a train wreck. Neither Cox or Stafford has taken control of the job. Tereshinski will be back at practice as early as Monday. This has devolved into the worst of all possible scenarios, where the practice snaps that should be going to total preparation for Tennessee will continue to be devoted to figuring out which quarterback is least likely to lose the game in one brief blinding flash of stupidity. As a result I imagine we can expect another week of disjointed playcalling, 3rd and 12 half back draws and general craptacular performance. If we are not down by 17 at halftime I'll be shocked. The one good thing about the quarterbacks' performance was that they didn't turn it over once. I guess that's got to count for something. I'm really grasping at straws here.
Thank God someone reminded Coach Richt that the I-formation is not illegal in the state of Mississippi. Or anywhere else for that matter. I expected us to see a reprise of the 2002 Ole Miss Game in which Musa Smith ran the ball 37 times and Georgia just physically beat the Rebels. Instead we spent the first half in the shotgun. I assume this was to allow our young quarterbacks a better pre-snap view of the field. However, I don't think that's necessary if you just line up and take advantage of the 60 pound per man weight advantage on the line.
Coach Eason is not doing his job. The proof is in the pudding. Our receivers are, as a group, the most inconsistent I have ever seen. MoMass continues to look like he's completely forgotten what he's supposed to be doing on the football field. Demiko Goodman made a couple of good catches, but also had stupifying drops. I have never, in my recollection, ever called out one of our coaches on this blog, and I never planned to. But the simple facts cannot be ignored. Receivers are there to catch passes, and their coach is there to help them both physically and mentally do the things (good route running, sound coverage reads, etc. ) to make that possible. Right now that's just not happening, and someone has to be accountable. I imagine that Tennessee will play 7-8 men in the box and dare us to throw the ball. I am terrified of how that's going to work out.
Dear Lord forgive me. But I have to do it. I am officially questioning Coach Richt. The play selection in the fourth quarter nearly lost us the game. Against a better team it probably would have. Why, after absolutely running the ball down their throats we decided it was time to throw the ball is beyond me. By my count, we ran 13 plays after the second touchdown and before Oliver's interception. 8 were pass plays, 3 of which fell incomplete and one of which ended in a sack. That is a lot of time that could have been run off the clock, which is the thing to do when you've got an 11 point lead on the road in the SEC. It was just plain dumb. The thing I like about Coach Richt is that he'll probably admit as much.
God Bless the Defense, Every One: If our defense were evena little worse than advertised, we would be 3-2. The past two weeks have been far more impressive than the shutouts versus South Carolina and UAB. The reason is that our offense has managed to put the defense in every conceivable bad situation, and they've still recovered. You'll probably see a lot of whining about the defense on the DawgVent this week. The fact is they played all but 11:00 minutes of the first half. Two of our three second quarter drives lasted less than 1:15 seconds. The defense deserves serious credit for helping an offense that only gained 66 yards in the whole first half.
Kregg Lumpkin's the man. He's just running hard and smart right now. He finally looks like what we all expected before his knee injury. Hats off to him.
Mikey Henderson's OK Too. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I used to have a vague sense of dread every time we dropped back to field a punt. But with Mikey back there I feel like something good might happen, and at worst he won't do anything dumb. And in football (as with most of life's endeavors) the first step on the road to success is avoiding obvious acts of stupidity.
As I said at the outset, this was probably all a little harsh. I'm not a betting man, but I'm not sure how we're going to win next week. If you wanted me to take Georgia, you'd have to give me at least 9 points right now, and I never would have anticipated that three weeks ago.
Am I being overly pessimistic? Drop me a line in the comments if you think so. Feel free to ease my fears in any way possible. I'll be back on Monday with a more rational take on things.
posted by MaconDawg at 11:29 PM
1 Comments:
I agree with all points but one. I think that Coach Richt was confident with the defense holding Ole Miss with a 2 score lead, enough so that he could get Stafford some more throws in the 4th quarter, even when running the ball would have been more effective in burning the clock. Also, at that time, Stafford audibled into passing plays when Ole Miss was putting 8-9 in the box.
As for the UT game, I've got friends coming down from UT and I'm already dreading the post-game. There's no doubt that UT will consistently put 8-9 in the box and play man coverage on our recievers. UT will not let us beat them solely with the running game. We will HAVE to have SOME completions to keep the safeties back and UT will give us plenty of opportunities against man coverage. The recievers are getting open, the QB is getting them the ball, they're simply NOT catching it. It's not a physical problem but a mental one. I'm hoping it's possible to fix a mental problem in one week. Otherwise, Sportscenter is going to have a segment sponsored by Butterfinger: UGA's recieving corp.
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