I'll say this...that was the most surreal game day I can ever remember. It just feels weird to be at work knowing that it's game day, ya know? I don't know how the gnats do it all the time.
But it wasn't just the fact that I was at work on game day...it was also: 5:00 PM. On a MONDAY. Dec 28th. On ESPN2, live from Shreveport. With no Defensive Coordinator, and a defense run by two grad assistants, a d-line coach with no contract, and our head coach who has no experience coaching defense. Against a 6-6 Big 12 team. So....yeah. Just surreal in every way.
Despite all that, once the game started it was just football, for the last time this year. No matter what, I think all of us Dawg fans were happy to say good riddance to the 2009 season.
Let's break this one down old-school, shall we?
OFFENSE:
(OR: A Tale of Two Halves)
- Oof, that first half was bad. Especially for poor Vince Vance. I have no idea what was going on with him, but he looked totally helpless out there. My brother put it this way: "He looks like he's never even heard of this game called football." He was just blocking air most of the time.
David Hale said that Boling and Richt both said afterwards that the problem in the first half was scheme, that A&M were doing some things we had not seen on film and hadn't prepared for, but I don't know...if #55 wasn't Vince's responsibility on those plays when Caleb almost died in the first half, who did he think he WAS supposed to be blocking? There was nobody else out there...
Anyway, whatever problems they were having in the first half, they seemed to fix them in the second half. Which brings me to my next point...
- Great job by Bobo and the offensive staff making adjustments at halftime. Looked to me like we started running to the outside more, as A&M had obviously watched the tape of us against Tech and decided to take that away at all costs, as well as doubling A.J. everywhere he went on the field. So we started using A.J. as more of a decoy and attacked the edges with the running game, until the last drive when we had worn them down to the point where we could just ram it down their throat at will.
- Speaking of A.J., he seemed a bit rusty, which can be expected since he hadn't played in six weeks. Especially on a couple of those deep balls, his timing seemed off and he was having trouble picking up the ball. But he still had six catches, and the first Aron White touchdown was wide open because the deep safety rolled to A.J.'s side and left the middle wide open. A.J. changes the game without even having the ball thrown to him.
- Kudos to Clint Boling...he shut DOWN Von Miller, the nation's sack leader. Boling is one of the most under appreciated players in the country, in my opinion. Over the last few years he has played every position except center, and has been extremely effective everywhere we have lined him up.
- That second half game plan was just MANLY. The running game really opened up the more we were on the field, and it was especially satisfying to see Chapas and Munzenmaier get some love on that last drive.
- Overall, it was a pretty decent offensive performance. We were helped out a lot by the defense and special teams, but we did take advantage of those opportunities with touchdowns, not field goals. I would give the offense a solid B.
DEFENSE:
- The defensive line was DOMINANT. All night. Geno Atkins, Cornelius Washington, and Justin Houston were in the backfield all night, and if Jerrod Johnson wasn't such a great athlete they probably all would have had multiple sacks. Even Brandon Wood showed what he can do when healthy. A&M wasn't able to get a running game going all night, and both of the interceptions were a direct result of pressure being applied on the QB by defensive linemen...most of the time without the benefit of a blitz.
- The linebackers, on the other hand...oof. Poor tackling all night, and the poor pass coverage we have all come to know and loathe. Rennie missing the first quarter didn't help, but even he got into the missed tackle act when h did get in the game.
I will give Rennie credit, though...he made one of the biggest defensive plays of the game when he CREAMED Johnson a yard short of the first down on a third down play in the third quarter. At that time, we were up 24-14, but A&M was driving...Rennie's stop led to them going for it on 4th down, which turned out to be the Sanders Commings interception.
- The secondary was just OK...Reshad Jones continued his tremendous play with another great night. He has really bounced back to have a great year after being so disappointing in 2008. If that was the last time he dons the Red and Black, then kudos to him for going out on a high note.
Speaking of which, Prince Miller also had a nice night...some nice hits on run support and short passes into the flat, and he played nice coverage all night. The one long pass they hit on him was not his fault...he had great coverage and it took a perfect pass and tremendous catch to make the play.
- On the flip side to that...Bryan Evans. I try not to call guys out too much as individuals, but that was just a terrible performance. Missed tackles, blown coverages, etc...I still have no clue why Bacarri Rambo has not seen the field more in the last half of this season, and I'm just glad that I no longer have to try and figure it out.
- The game could have been even more of a blowout if we could have held on to a couple of those sure interceptions. Reshad and Branden Smith both dropped what were probably pick-sixes.
- Lots of talk, obviously, about who the new DC will be. Almost as important is who he will pick to fill out his staff. The secondary, especially, does not appear to be a particularly "coached up" group. It will be interesting to see how they respond to a new voice.
- Overall, the defense held a very high powered offense to only 14 points (I'm not counting the last touchdown...when you have linebackers on the field wearing numbers 64 and 65, it's safe to say you're emptying your bench). For a defense being coached by the D-line coach and two grad assistants, it was a very impressive performance.
Congrats to Coach Garner, Coach Mitch Doolittle, and Coach Todd Hartley. You guys definitely earned a little extra in your Christmas bonus.
SPECIAL TEAMS:
- Do I even need to say it? EVERY single aspect of special teams was dominant. Punt coverage, kick coverage, punt block/return, FG block, kick return...special teams really won that game for us.
- Congrats to Brandon Boykin for setting the SEC record with his third kickoff return for a TD this year. He is a gamechanger, and it's definitely exciting to look forward to what he is going to do to this league over the next couple of seasons.
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
- Boy, Ron Franklin was off, wasn't he? Washaun EARLY, Shaun Chapas playing tight end...he just sounded...old, I guess.
- Best part of the telecast? The Slam Energy Drink commercials. Has there ever been a sadder group of "celebrity" endorsers? Some kicker I never heard of, a female soccer player, Michael W. Smith...man, I'm kind of offended that I didn't get a call. After all, I write a blog that is read by literally TENS of people.
- Great stuff from Rodney Garner in Hale's blog today. He has handled himself with complete class during this whole scenario, and I truly hope he sticks around.
- A big thank you to all of the seniors who played their last game Monday night. They have bled, sweat, and basically worked their butts off for the last 4-5 years and given us hundreds of hours of entertainment. DGD's, every one of them, and I wish them all well in their future endeavors.
Goodbye and good riddance to the 2009 season...can't wait for 2010! When does spring practice start?
GO DAWGS!!!
Showing posts with label 2009 game reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2009 game reports. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Recap - Tennessee Tech
This should be short and sweet…I was actually at the game on Saturday, and I haven’t watched the CSS replay yet, so these are just some random thoughts from the game. Obviously, it’s hard to tell much about the team when the opposition is so blatantly overmatched, but it was still good to see the Dawgs come out and take care of business rather than let a lesser team hang around, as we have been known to do in the past.
- What a great day for football…you could not ask for better weather, the leaves are turning, cool crisp air. Felt great to be at Sanford again.
- The Battle Hymn still makes me tear up. Every. Single. Time. 8-0, 4-4, whatever…I’d still rather be a Dawg than anything else.
- I was pretty impressed with the crowd, actually. Decent turnout for the Dawg walk, and the stands filled in pretty impressively even before kickoff. It was obviously a MUCH quieter crowd than normal, but I didn’t expect anything different due to A) the disappointment of the last few weeks; and B) the opponent. But I was proud of the Dawg Nation for at least coming out and showing support.
- Although the fly-over was late, it was still doggone impressive.
- That was as dominant a first half as I can ever remember the Dawgs having, no matter the opponent. Up 28-0 before TTU even had a first down. Good to see the defense get after it…Montez Robinson and my man Cornelius Washington both had big games. Those guys are going to be the ones we are relying on next year to terrorize quarterbacks.
- The running game has actually looked much better the past few weeks, beginning with the Vandy game. Washaun and Caleb are a very nice 1-2 punch, and the revamped offensive line FINALLY seems to be jelling. (gelling? That always confuses me).
- Branden Smith is VERY fast. I know you knew that already, but…wow. From my seat in in 124, I knew as soon as he took the handoff on the end-around that he was gone…there was nobody on the corner, and I knew as soon as he got the corner there was not a Golden Eagle that was going to catch him.
- Very few times can I watch any college football player and say, “I could do that.” In the case of the Golden Eagles punter…I could do that. That was the worst punter I have ever seen. He had a SIX yard punt that actually went OVER the hedges to the right. Seriously…I could do that.
- First extended play for Logan Gray so far this season. I’m not going to blast the guy, but…I really hope Aaron Murray is as good as advertised.
- I’m not too concerned about the penalties. Most of them came after the game was well in hand (which was by the middle of the second quarter), and I imagine there was some breakdown in focus. I can’t blame them too much, considering the environment and the opposition. It was good to see the coaches holding people accountable, though.
This week will be the true test of our character. Can we come out and play Bulldawg football against a quality opponent when nothing is on the line except pride?
- What a great day for football…you could not ask for better weather, the leaves are turning, cool crisp air. Felt great to be at Sanford again.
- The Battle Hymn still makes me tear up. Every. Single. Time. 8-0, 4-4, whatever…I’d still rather be a Dawg than anything else.
- I was pretty impressed with the crowd, actually. Decent turnout for the Dawg walk, and the stands filled in pretty impressively even before kickoff. It was obviously a MUCH quieter crowd than normal, but I didn’t expect anything different due to A) the disappointment of the last few weeks; and B) the opponent. But I was proud of the Dawg Nation for at least coming out and showing support.
- Although the fly-over was late, it was still doggone impressive.
- That was as dominant a first half as I can ever remember the Dawgs having, no matter the opponent. Up 28-0 before TTU even had a first down. Good to see the defense get after it…Montez Robinson and my man Cornelius Washington both had big games. Those guys are going to be the ones we are relying on next year to terrorize quarterbacks.
- The running game has actually looked much better the past few weeks, beginning with the Vandy game. Washaun and Caleb are a very nice 1-2 punch, and the revamped offensive line FINALLY seems to be jelling. (gelling? That always confuses me).
- Branden Smith is VERY fast. I know you knew that already, but…wow. From my seat in in 124, I knew as soon as he took the handoff on the end-around that he was gone…there was nobody on the corner, and I knew as soon as he got the corner there was not a Golden Eagle that was going to catch him.
- Very few times can I watch any college football player and say, “I could do that.” In the case of the Golden Eagles punter…I could do that. That was the worst punter I have ever seen. He had a SIX yard punt that actually went OVER the hedges to the right. Seriously…I could do that.
- First extended play for Logan Gray so far this season. I’m not going to blast the guy, but…I really hope Aaron Murray is as good as advertised.
- I’m not too concerned about the penalties. Most of them came after the game was well in hand (which was by the middle of the second quarter), and I imagine there was some breakdown in focus. I can’t blame them too much, considering the environment and the opposition. It was good to see the coaches holding people accountable, though.
This week will be the true test of our character. Can we come out and play Bulldawg football against a quality opponent when nothing is on the line except pride?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
What passes for a Florida recap these days...
By now, I guess almost everything that can be said about the Cocktail Party last week has been said…this will probably be more like my take on the current state of the Dawgs program, and then an “announcement” regarding what you can expect to see in this space going forward…
Once more, into the breach…
- Joe Cox. What a great kid. Loves the Dawgs, bleeds red and black, takes great pride in wearing the G. His teammates love and respect him, the coaches talk about him in nothing but glowing terms.
Unfortunately, all of the admirable attributes that he possesses don’t cancel out some inherent weaknesses in his game. What we heard about Joe from the coaching staff coming out of camp was that he may not have great physical skills, but he makes good decisions with the ball and he is extremely accurate. I can’t tell you that they were lying, because I wasn’t invited to watch practice for some unknown reason, but I can tell you that these reported strengths have not translated to the field once real bullets started flying. Aron White said recently that mistakes are made during games that you don’t see during practice, and maybe that is what is happening with Joe. Whatever the case, he is throwing interceptions at an alarming rate, and for every one that you can point to and say may not be his fault (like a couple of them on Saturday), I’ll point to three more that were thrown into coverage and SHOULD have been picked off but weren’t, oftentimes because multiple defenders are going for the ball at the same time and manage to play effective defense against each other.
We are not the only team that recruited Joe when he was in high school…he was an Elite 11 quarterback, after all. Maybe if he had been in a situation that allowed him to get more playing time over the last four years he could have developed into a big time quarterback. But the weaknesses in his game…locking onto receivers with his eyes, throwing the ball late and high, failing to identify where defenders are in relation to the passing lanes…those are weaknesses you don’t expect to see out of a 5th year senior, until you are reminded that the 5th year senior is also a first year starter.
What I mean to say is that I don’t think it’s fair to label Joe a “bust”…but I think we can say at this point that at best he has been average this year, and at times he has been worse than that.
So, going forward, what do we do about the quarterback situation? Many fans are screaming for the staff to bench Joe and start looking to the future (I may have even been guilty of that myself during the Florida massacre…so much of that day is a red haze, so I can’t say for sure). Coach Richt came out this week and said that Joe is the starter, and I can’t argue with his reasoning.
See, we as fans have the option of chalking up this year as “rebuilding” and start looking to next year…Coach Richt, rightfully so, does not believe that to be an option, as it sends the message to THIS year’s group of Dawgs that we have given up on this season…the season that, for most of the seniors, will be the last time they ever don pads and play a competitive down of football. How can Coach Richt look guys like Jeff Owens, Michael Moore, Geno Atkins, Bryan Evans, Prince Miller, and Joe Cox in the eye and say, “Sorry, guys…I know you have busted your butts and sweat and bled for this team for the last 4 or 5 years. But even though there are 4 (hopefully 5) games left in your Dawg career, we’ve decided those games aren’t that important, so if you’ll step aside it’s time for these young guys to play.”
I couldn’t do that. Maybe if I’m an NFL head coach, but not to these kids. If that makes me some sort of pansy, or “too nice”, then so be it.
So what you’re left with is this: Joe Cox, despite his shortcomings, is the best chance this team has to win right now. Until somebody else earns that away from him, he should start.
And don’t start telling me about what we are losing by not playing Gray and Murray now…if this season had gone like we all hoped it would, they wouldn’t be getting playing time right now anyway, right? So their progress is not being stopped, or even slowed. They are all on the same schedule as they were when the season started.
- Having said all that…why is Bryan Evans still getting playing time over Bacarri Rambo? Again, Evans is a great guy, by all reports, and has willingly played anywhere the coaching staff has asked him to. But, at this point, can anybody give a reason why Bryan Evans gives this team a better chance to win right now than Bacarri Rambo? As physically gifted as he is, he has never shown the ability to cover anybody in man coverage, and is consistently out of position when we are in zone. Rambo is a playmaker…don’t we need those guys?
- Nice to see at least some semblance of a running game. And as good as Washaun has looked, I’m OK with Caleb being the starter, based on his effectiveness in the passing game. It's not like the Evans-Rambo situation where one player is obviously more effective and we are going with the less effective one for some unexplained reason. Caleb being the starter doesn’t mean that we are not going to see a heavy dose of Washaun.
An aside…Washaun has said that when Evans leaves, he is going to ask for his old HS number back. We’ve been trying to find a replacement for our last #34 for 25 years now…maybe a combination of #3 and #4 will be the secret next year?
- Let me get this straight…we have two weeks to prepare, and the best we can come up with against a struggling Gator offense is more of the same soft-zone-give-the-receiver-six-yards-of-space crap we serve up every week? Can we PLEASE find a way to utilize this abundance of talent we have on defense?
To me, what this team is missing on defense more than anything else is ATTITUDE. Any kind of edge or nastiness that is REAL, not contrived. This team is so far removed from the "Junkyard Dawgs" that Erk wouldn't even recognize it.
The defense wasn’t as bad as the 41 points may indicate…but we never showed a consistent ability to slow them down, and they were able to score EVERY time they needed to. Kind of like every other big game we have played the last two seasons.
- Stupid penalties. Turnovers. Continuing to bang our head against the directional kicking wall, when we have a kicker who has more than enough leg to boom the ball into the end zone. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Sometimes, I hate being right.
- So, who is the MVP of this team? Drew Butler or Blair Walsh?
- Brandon Spikes is a low-life, and his hypocritical, lying, sack-of-crap coach is even worse.
- I didn’t forget the stupid, gimmicky, circus-stunt, embarrassing, low-rent, bush-league, desperate, cringe-worthy decision to try and “Blackout” this game. I’m just trying REALLY hard to do so.
- The only thing that can salvage this season for me at this point is to beat the Gnats in Atlanta.
- Bottom line…14 months ago, this team was the number one team in the country. Now, I can’t tell any difference in where we currently are as a program and where we were in the Donnan years. Tremendously talented, but manages to find increasingly stupefying ways to mutilate itself on a consistent basis.
I love Coach Richt, and there is nobody I would rather have representing the University of Georgia. I don’t want him fired, and if you do, don’t bother telling me because I probably won’t even waste my time trying to convince you of what an idiot you are.
That being said, there have to be changes made. I’m glad I don’t have to be the one to make them. Here are two that, as a fan, I want to see:
o Coach Martinez should do the honorable thing and step down. Coach Richt obviously considers Willie to be a good friend. If he is as good a friend as Coach Richt thinks he is, he will not put his friend in the awkward position of having to continually defend why he has not fired the man who has been the overseer of a precipitous decline in output ever since he got the job.
o Coach Richt should at least get more involved in the play-calling, if not take it back completely. Coach Richt made his reputation calling plays for some of the most prolific offenses in NCAA history. I understand the advantages of not having that responsibility anymore when it comes to time management, etc, but I’m starting to think that it may have been too much too fast for Coach Bobo.
This program is not in shambles. There are still a lot of tools in the toolbox. But, without a doubt, there needs to be a change in mindset, and that ALWAYS starts at the top.
GO DAWGS!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, for the promised announcement: I don’t know how much “Dawg” blogging I am going to be doing in the near future. Don’t get me wrong…I still love this team, will be pulling like mad for 9-4, and I still live and die with this bunch.
That’s part of the reason why I haven’t blogged as much and may not blog as much in the future. I started this blog for one reason only…to have fun. I write about the things I enjoy. In doing so, I have been lucky enough to gain a (very small) audience and have had this blog added to blogrolls of Dawg fans and linked by the Benevolent Geniuses at Dawgbone. As flattering as that is, I feel like I put pressure on myself to be the type of writer that people who would get to my blog from those links would want to read, so I felt like I had to do a recap of every game, or try and weigh in on every Dawg-related issue, whether I wanted to or not, while at the same time maybe NOT post other things that interest me but may not interest somebody who got here through Dawgbone.
The point is, posting about the Dawgs started feeling like something I HAD to do, rather than something I WANT to do.
On top of all that, some things happened with my work schedule and environment that have kept me from posting as timely as I would have liked, so I felt like by the time I actually got a chance to weigh in on anything, it had already been said (and almost definitely better) by guys like Hale, Bernie, Doug, Mike, DawgSports, etc, etc.
I don’t want to post just to post. I also don’t want to post a lot about the Dawgs when I’m ticked off, because I don’t want to add to what has become a very negative atmosphere at times (not due to the guys mentioned above, btw).
So, here’s the deal…I’m still going to post about the Dawgs, when I feel like I have something to add to the conversation. But I’m probably also going to be posting about a bunch of other, non-Dawg stuff. I watch TONS of television. I read LOTS of books. I love ALL kinds of movies. I have WAY too much stupid, random stuff running around in my head. Hopefully, out of all that, there will be enough to keep you coming back. If not, I’ll just keep firing posts into the blogosphere for my mom to read.
Once more, into the breach…
- Joe Cox. What a great kid. Loves the Dawgs, bleeds red and black, takes great pride in wearing the G. His teammates love and respect him, the coaches talk about him in nothing but glowing terms.
Unfortunately, all of the admirable attributes that he possesses don’t cancel out some inherent weaknesses in his game. What we heard about Joe from the coaching staff coming out of camp was that he may not have great physical skills, but he makes good decisions with the ball and he is extremely accurate. I can’t tell you that they were lying, because I wasn’t invited to watch practice for some unknown reason, but I can tell you that these reported strengths have not translated to the field once real bullets started flying. Aron White said recently that mistakes are made during games that you don’t see during practice, and maybe that is what is happening with Joe. Whatever the case, he is throwing interceptions at an alarming rate, and for every one that you can point to and say may not be his fault (like a couple of them on Saturday), I’ll point to three more that were thrown into coverage and SHOULD have been picked off but weren’t, oftentimes because multiple defenders are going for the ball at the same time and manage to play effective defense against each other.
We are not the only team that recruited Joe when he was in high school…he was an Elite 11 quarterback, after all. Maybe if he had been in a situation that allowed him to get more playing time over the last four years he could have developed into a big time quarterback. But the weaknesses in his game…locking onto receivers with his eyes, throwing the ball late and high, failing to identify where defenders are in relation to the passing lanes…those are weaknesses you don’t expect to see out of a 5th year senior, until you are reminded that the 5th year senior is also a first year starter.
What I mean to say is that I don’t think it’s fair to label Joe a “bust”…but I think we can say at this point that at best he has been average this year, and at times he has been worse than that.
So, going forward, what do we do about the quarterback situation? Many fans are screaming for the staff to bench Joe and start looking to the future (I may have even been guilty of that myself during the Florida massacre…so much of that day is a red haze, so I can’t say for sure). Coach Richt came out this week and said that Joe is the starter, and I can’t argue with his reasoning.
See, we as fans have the option of chalking up this year as “rebuilding” and start looking to next year…Coach Richt, rightfully so, does not believe that to be an option, as it sends the message to THIS year’s group of Dawgs that we have given up on this season…the season that, for most of the seniors, will be the last time they ever don pads and play a competitive down of football. How can Coach Richt look guys like Jeff Owens, Michael Moore, Geno Atkins, Bryan Evans, Prince Miller, and Joe Cox in the eye and say, “Sorry, guys…I know you have busted your butts and sweat and bled for this team for the last 4 or 5 years. But even though there are 4 (hopefully 5) games left in your Dawg career, we’ve decided those games aren’t that important, so if you’ll step aside it’s time for these young guys to play.”
I couldn’t do that. Maybe if I’m an NFL head coach, but not to these kids. If that makes me some sort of pansy, or “too nice”, then so be it.
So what you’re left with is this: Joe Cox, despite his shortcomings, is the best chance this team has to win right now. Until somebody else earns that away from him, he should start.
And don’t start telling me about what we are losing by not playing Gray and Murray now…if this season had gone like we all hoped it would, they wouldn’t be getting playing time right now anyway, right? So their progress is not being stopped, or even slowed. They are all on the same schedule as they were when the season started.
- Having said all that…why is Bryan Evans still getting playing time over Bacarri Rambo? Again, Evans is a great guy, by all reports, and has willingly played anywhere the coaching staff has asked him to. But, at this point, can anybody give a reason why Bryan Evans gives this team a better chance to win right now than Bacarri Rambo? As physically gifted as he is, he has never shown the ability to cover anybody in man coverage, and is consistently out of position when we are in zone. Rambo is a playmaker…don’t we need those guys?
- Nice to see at least some semblance of a running game. And as good as Washaun has looked, I’m OK with Caleb being the starter, based on his effectiveness in the passing game. It's not like the Evans-Rambo situation where one player is obviously more effective and we are going with the less effective one for some unexplained reason. Caleb being the starter doesn’t mean that we are not going to see a heavy dose of Washaun.
An aside…Washaun has said that when Evans leaves, he is going to ask for his old HS number back. We’ve been trying to find a replacement for our last #34 for 25 years now…maybe a combination of #3 and #4 will be the secret next year?
- Let me get this straight…we have two weeks to prepare, and the best we can come up with against a struggling Gator offense is more of the same soft-zone-give-the-receiver-six-yards-of-space crap we serve up every week? Can we PLEASE find a way to utilize this abundance of talent we have on defense?
To me, what this team is missing on defense more than anything else is ATTITUDE. Any kind of edge or nastiness that is REAL, not contrived. This team is so far removed from the "Junkyard Dawgs" that Erk wouldn't even recognize it.
The defense wasn’t as bad as the 41 points may indicate…but we never showed a consistent ability to slow them down, and they were able to score EVERY time they needed to. Kind of like every other big game we have played the last two seasons.
- Stupid penalties. Turnovers. Continuing to bang our head against the directional kicking wall, when we have a kicker who has more than enough leg to boom the ball into the end zone. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Sometimes, I hate being right.
- So, who is the MVP of this team? Drew Butler or Blair Walsh?
- Brandon Spikes is a low-life, and his hypocritical, lying, sack-of-crap coach is even worse.
- I didn’t forget the stupid, gimmicky, circus-stunt, embarrassing, low-rent, bush-league, desperate, cringe-worthy decision to try and “Blackout” this game. I’m just trying REALLY hard to do so.
- The only thing that can salvage this season for me at this point is to beat the Gnats in Atlanta.
- Bottom line…14 months ago, this team was the number one team in the country. Now, I can’t tell any difference in where we currently are as a program and where we were in the Donnan years. Tremendously talented, but manages to find increasingly stupefying ways to mutilate itself on a consistent basis.
I love Coach Richt, and there is nobody I would rather have representing the University of Georgia. I don’t want him fired, and if you do, don’t bother telling me because I probably won’t even waste my time trying to convince you of what an idiot you are.
That being said, there have to be changes made. I’m glad I don’t have to be the one to make them. Here are two that, as a fan, I want to see:
o Coach Martinez should do the honorable thing and step down. Coach Richt obviously considers Willie to be a good friend. If he is as good a friend as Coach Richt thinks he is, he will not put his friend in the awkward position of having to continually defend why he has not fired the man who has been the overseer of a precipitous decline in output ever since he got the job.
o Coach Richt should at least get more involved in the play-calling, if not take it back completely. Coach Richt made his reputation calling plays for some of the most prolific offenses in NCAA history. I understand the advantages of not having that responsibility anymore when it comes to time management, etc, but I’m starting to think that it may have been too much too fast for Coach Bobo.
This program is not in shambles. There are still a lot of tools in the toolbox. But, without a doubt, there needs to be a change in mindset, and that ALWAYS starts at the top.
GO DAWGS!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, for the promised announcement: I don’t know how much “Dawg” blogging I am going to be doing in the near future. Don’t get me wrong…I still love this team, will be pulling like mad for 9-4, and I still live and die with this bunch.
That’s part of the reason why I haven’t blogged as much and may not blog as much in the future. I started this blog for one reason only…to have fun. I write about the things I enjoy. In doing so, I have been lucky enough to gain a (very small) audience and have had this blog added to blogrolls of Dawg fans and linked by the Benevolent Geniuses at Dawgbone. As flattering as that is, I feel like I put pressure on myself to be the type of writer that people who would get to my blog from those links would want to read, so I felt like I had to do a recap of every game, or try and weigh in on every Dawg-related issue, whether I wanted to or not, while at the same time maybe NOT post other things that interest me but may not interest somebody who got here through Dawgbone.
The point is, posting about the Dawgs started feeling like something I HAD to do, rather than something I WANT to do.
On top of all that, some things happened with my work schedule and environment that have kept me from posting as timely as I would have liked, so I felt like by the time I actually got a chance to weigh in on anything, it had already been said (and almost definitely better) by guys like Hale, Bernie, Doug, Mike, DawgSports, etc, etc.
I don’t want to post just to post. I also don’t want to post a lot about the Dawgs when I’m ticked off, because I don’t want to add to what has become a very negative atmosphere at times (not due to the guys mentioned above, btw).
So, here’s the deal…I’m still going to post about the Dawgs, when I feel like I have something to add to the conversation. But I’m probably also going to be posting about a bunch of other, non-Dawg stuff. I watch TONS of television. I read LOTS of books. I love ALL kinds of movies. I have WAY too much stupid, random stuff running around in my head. Hopefully, out of all that, there will be enough to keep you coming back. If not, I’ll just keep firing posts into the blogosphere for my mom to read.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Recap - Vanderbilt
I’ve decided I like a more free-flowing, stream-of-consciousness approach to my recaps rather than the “Great-Good-Bad-Ugly” thing I was doing earlier…unfortunately for you, that probably means I’ll be even more long-winded and rambling than normal.
My assorted thoughts from Saturday…
- I’m as guilty of the “it’s just Vandy” meme as anybody else, but regardless…that was a solid effort on both sides of the ball, and maybe the most complete game that the Dawgs have played in over a year. No matter the competition, it was exactly the kind of performance we HAD to have at this point in the season.
Can you imagine if, God forbid, we had lost that game, or even pulled out an ugly win a la ASU or South Carolina? This would have been a LONG two weeks leading up to Jacksonville. Instead, both the team and the fanbase get to feel a little better about things, which I think will help in the ramp-up to the Cocktail Party.
- Speaking of Jacksonville…the Gators sure looked beatable on Saturday, at least until the officiating crew decided to make it 11 on 16. They have not been able to establish any kind of consistent running game, and the only reliable receivers they have are Cooper and Hernandez. Call me crazy, but I ain’t skeered…more on that game coming in the next couple of weeks.
As for the officiating in that Gators-Hawgs game… I almost said “unbelievable” to describe that debacle, but the sad part is that it is all too believable. It’s like I have said for a while now...I’ve been watching SEC football in particular and football in general for most of my life. I don’t think SEC refs are crooked. I think they are too stupid to be crooked. I think that at least one or two times in every game they are going to COMPLETELY screw something up. You just hope that it doesn’t affect the outcome of the game, like it did to us against LSU or against the Hawgs on Saturday. The personal foul call against Arkansas during Florida’s last drive was just egregiously putrid. Basically, the Arky lineman was penalized 15 yards for being blocked, 25 yards away from the play.
The problem with incompetent officials is not that they are intentionally biased…it is that they are far too easily swayed by influences such as homefield advantage and which team is “supposed” to win.
One more point on the officials, and then I’ll move on...something has to be done about the “unsportsmanlike conduct/excessive celebration” rule before next year. If they are not going to take it out completely, then they have to find a way to make the rule less open for interpretation. Apparently, the Dawgs can’t even fart after a play without being called for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the Dores defensive lineman can rip Joe C’s towel off his waist and throw it in the air after a sack with no call. And don’t even get me started on Saint Timmy…if the rule is supposed to prevent players from calling attention to themselves after a play, why is Tebow allowed to stalk 8-10 yards away from everybody else and practically do a rain dance every time he runs the ball for a first down?
Moving on…
- It’s blatantly obvious what all of us have been saying for the past couple of years…a dominating defensive end is absolutely essential for a Willie Martinez defense to be effective. Justin Houston has been a difference maker ever since he came back from suspension, and he continued his great play on Saturday.
Tennessee was able to lessen his impact by rolling Crompton away from him, and we (of course) were either unable or uninterested in making any adjustments.
Other obvious observations (the only kind I’m really good at) about our defense:
- A.J. Green. Good grief. What is left to say? That 65 yard TD was a thing of beauty, and the amazing thing about was it didn’t even look like he was trying all that hard.
I’ve said it before…I think he is well on his way to becoming the 2nd greatest football player we have ever had. Feel free to give your own nominations in the comments, and maybe I’ll pull together a list we can go over during the bye week.
- Add me to the list of people who loved seeing Coach Bobo on the sideline. Even when I first heard about it, before we were able to see what effect, if any, it would have on the gameplan or playcalling, I loved the move for one simple reason: It was an acknowledgement that SOMETHING needed to change, that what had happened to this point was not acceptable and something needed to be done about it. Very comforting to see that the coaching staff is willing to change things up.
I have no idea if it helped the playcalling or not, but I do know that I loved seeing the energy that Bobo brought to the sidelines that we never get to see from him in the booth. I also think that it helped to be able to speak one-on-one with Joe and the other players when things weren’t going so well in the first half. Plus, I think it may have helped him get more of a “feel” for what was working and what wasn’t, being down there with the guys.
Whatever…I enjoyed seeing it, and the results seemed to follow, so I would definitely expect to see it again in Jacksonville.
- On the flip side, when it comes to coaching…the fake punt. Ugh. The reasons that was so disgusting:
Ugh.
- Blair Walsh is MONEY. Drew Butler is a MACHINE. Never thought I would say this, but thank God for our kickers.
- Prince Miller is a very good punt returner. Logan Gray is not. You would think that would factor into our personnel decisions on punt return. You would be incorrect.
- Brandon Boykin is a true weapon on kick return, and he continues to improve in pass coverage as well.
- Washaun Ealy and Caleb King should be our primary running backs, and we should continue to try and get the ball to Carlton Thomas IN SPACE (NOT BETWEEN THE TACKLES…HE IS BUILT LIKE A SMALL CHILD, FOR GOD’S SAKE! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL HIM?)
- Welcome back to the linebacker position, Richard Samuel.
I don’t honestly think that’s going to happen, but it’s what I would do. Yet another inexcusable fumble in this game, even though we did recover it. He wasn’t even hit that hard…the ball just came out.
Overall, this was exactly the kind of game we needed at exactly the right time.
My schedule is lightening up a little, so I may be posting a little more often. Try to contain your excitement.
Since it’s a bye week, I may even throw in a few thoughts on the fall TV season to date.
GO DAWGS!!
My assorted thoughts from Saturday…
- I’m as guilty of the “it’s just Vandy” meme as anybody else, but regardless…that was a solid effort on both sides of the ball, and maybe the most complete game that the Dawgs have played in over a year. No matter the competition, it was exactly the kind of performance we HAD to have at this point in the season.
Can you imagine if, God forbid, we had lost that game, or even pulled out an ugly win a la ASU or South Carolina? This would have been a LONG two weeks leading up to Jacksonville. Instead, both the team and the fanbase get to feel a little better about things, which I think will help in the ramp-up to the Cocktail Party.
- Speaking of Jacksonville…the Gators sure looked beatable on Saturday, at least until the officiating crew decided to make it 11 on 16. They have not been able to establish any kind of consistent running game, and the only reliable receivers they have are Cooper and Hernandez. Call me crazy, but I ain’t skeered…more on that game coming in the next couple of weeks.
As for the officiating in that Gators-Hawgs game… I almost said “unbelievable” to describe that debacle, but the sad part is that it is all too believable. It’s like I have said for a while now...I’ve been watching SEC football in particular and football in general for most of my life. I don’t think SEC refs are crooked. I think they are too stupid to be crooked. I think that at least one or two times in every game they are going to COMPLETELY screw something up. You just hope that it doesn’t affect the outcome of the game, like it did to us against LSU or against the Hawgs on Saturday. The personal foul call against Arkansas during Florida’s last drive was just egregiously putrid. Basically, the Arky lineman was penalized 15 yards for being blocked, 25 yards away from the play.
The problem with incompetent officials is not that they are intentionally biased…it is that they are far too easily swayed by influences such as homefield advantage and which team is “supposed” to win.
One more point on the officials, and then I’ll move on...something has to be done about the “unsportsmanlike conduct/excessive celebration” rule before next year. If they are not going to take it out completely, then they have to find a way to make the rule less open for interpretation. Apparently, the Dawgs can’t even fart after a play without being called for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the Dores defensive lineman can rip Joe C’s towel off his waist and throw it in the air after a sack with no call. And don’t even get me started on Saint Timmy…if the rule is supposed to prevent players from calling attention to themselves after a play, why is Tebow allowed to stalk 8-10 yards away from everybody else and practically do a rain dance every time he runs the ball for a first down?
Moving on…
- It’s blatantly obvious what all of us have been saying for the past couple of years…a dominating defensive end is absolutely essential for a Willie Martinez defense to be effective. Justin Houston has been a difference maker ever since he came back from suspension, and he continued his great play on Saturday.
Tennessee was able to lessen his impact by rolling Crompton away from him, and we (of course) were either unable or uninterested in making any adjustments.
Other obvious observations (the only kind I’m really good at) about our defense:
- Bryan Evans, God love him, should not be taking ANY playing time away from Bacarri Rambo. Rambo continues to make plays every time he is on the field, while Evans continues to show up on my television screen trying to chase somebody down from behind who has just burned him in pass coverage.
- For everything great about Rennie Curran (and there are TONS of great things), there is also this…his weakness is in pass coverage. Way too many of the open tight ends we have seen this year have been his responsibility, at least as best as I can tell…some of them have been so wide open that it is impossible to tell who had responsibility, if anybody.
- A.J. Green. Good grief. What is left to say? That 65 yard TD was a thing of beauty, and the amazing thing about was it didn’t even look like he was trying all that hard.
I’ve said it before…I think he is well on his way to becoming the 2nd greatest football player we have ever had. Feel free to give your own nominations in the comments, and maybe I’ll pull together a list we can go over during the bye week.
- Add me to the list of people who loved seeing Coach Bobo on the sideline. Even when I first heard about it, before we were able to see what effect, if any, it would have on the gameplan or playcalling, I loved the move for one simple reason: It was an acknowledgement that SOMETHING needed to change, that what had happened to this point was not acceptable and something needed to be done about it. Very comforting to see that the coaching staff is willing to change things up.
I have no idea if it helped the playcalling or not, but I do know that I loved seeing the energy that Bobo brought to the sidelines that we never get to see from him in the booth. I also think that it helped to be able to speak one-on-one with Joe and the other players when things weren’t going so well in the first half. Plus, I think it may have helped him get more of a “feel” for what was working and what wasn’t, being down there with the guys.
Whatever…I enjoyed seeing it, and the results seemed to follow, so I would definitely expect to see it again in Jacksonville.
- On the flip side, when it comes to coaching…the fake punt. Ugh. The reasons that was so disgusting:
- Down-and-distance and field position dictated that it was the perfect opportunity for the Dores to call the fake, and yet we were totally unprepared…AGAIN. I know it’s “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”…what about “Fool me a dozen times”? Is there a folksy little saying to describe that? How about “I’m so stupid I’m surprised I manage to walk upright”?
- Even worse…we called a timeout right before it happened. What exactly did our staff and players discuss during that timeout, if not the possibility of a fake?
Ugh.
- Blair Walsh is MONEY. Drew Butler is a MACHINE. Never thought I would say this, but thank God for our kickers.
- Prince Miller is a very good punt returner. Logan Gray is not. You would think that would factor into our personnel decisions on punt return. You would be incorrect.
- Brandon Boykin is a true weapon on kick return, and he continues to improve in pass coverage as well.
- Washaun Ealy and Caleb King should be our primary running backs, and we should continue to try and get the ball to Carlton Thomas IN SPACE (NOT BETWEEN THE TACKLES…HE IS BUILT LIKE A SMALL CHILD, FOR GOD’S SAKE! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL HIM?)
- Welcome back to the linebacker position, Richard Samuel.
I don’t honestly think that’s going to happen, but it’s what I would do. Yet another inexcusable fumble in this game, even though we did recover it. He wasn’t even hit that hard…the ball just came out.
Overall, this was exactly the kind of game we needed at exactly the right time.
My schedule is lightening up a little, so I may be posting a little more often. Try to contain your excitement.
Since it’s a bye week, I may even throw in a few thoughts on the fall TV season to date.
GO DAWGS!!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
LSU recap - sort of
OK, I've been putting this off for three days now...
I still can't really talk about this game rationally. Every time I try to discuss it, the conversation dissolves into a rambling, incoherent ranting session that ends with me in a borderline state of depression.
So, I still don't have it in me to do an organized "Great-good-bad-ugly" post...this will be more of a stream of consciousness thing.
And, yes, I know that I am probably plagiarizing about 50 other bloggers at this point, as surely everything that can be said about this game has been said by now. I apologize in advance.
Maybe it will be cathartic...
- A.J. Green is one of the top 5 players we have ever had, at least in my 30 years of watching this team. Joe Cox would probably have at least 3-4 more interceptions, including the touchdown catch at the end, were it not for AJ bailing him out. Thank God we have him for another year.
- The celebration penalty...oof. That was just absurd. Actually, the whole idea of being penalized for "excessively celebrating" is pretty stupid, especially in a case like that, when you've just scored a touchdown in the last minute of the game to take the lead over the #4 team in the country.
What's happening with things like this and the idiotic rule changes we are seeing at both the college and NFL level (regarding how hard you can hit people, and you can only hit people when they are expecting it, and you can only be happy under certain circumstances, etc...) is that these Rules Committees get together every year and so they feel like they have to do something in order to justify their existence. So every year we get a new rule or a new point of emphasis, whatever. They can't very well get together for a week and then come out and say afterwards, "We couldn't come up with anything...we decided the game is pretty good as it is."
Trust me, from personal experience (and many of you can testify to this as well)...there are few better factories for stupid than "committees".
However...that penalty is not why we lost the game. We lost the game when we managed 49 yards in the first half. And one first down.
- Coach Fabris is a great defensive ends coach. I don't think that can be argued.
But, good grief, we can't seriously consider keeping him on kickoff coverage, can we? Check this out if you haven't, from David Hale's blog. Two years worth of putrid kickoff coverage that just sucked momentum out of the team, either at the beginning of a half or following a Dawgs score.
And yet...we KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
(By the way...it's usually at this point that my discussion of last week's game dissolves into bitter, spittle-flying rage. Just a warning)
Take another look at that David Hale article...how is this acceptable? Why is this OK? We are supposedly a top tier team, right? How is it that we have one aspect of our team that is consistently, disgustingly awful, and rather than trying to fix it or hold anybody accountable, we get excuses and condescension and more of the same old crap?
Then we get former players that say Coach Fabris likes to do it this way because he likes the challenge.
COME AGAIN?!?!?!
Dude, if you want a challenge, take up sudoku. Learn a second language. Run a triathlon. STOP SCREWING WITH MY FOOTBALL TEAM.
OH!!! And THEN!!! On the MOST CRUCIAL kickoff of the season so far, we decide to get cute and run that stupid bunch formation kickoff, and then we not only fail to cover the kickoff properly (of freaking COURSE), but then we also get a penalty that puts the Tigers in field goal range because we didn't line up properly.
ARRRRGGGHHH.
I ask again....how is this OK? Is it me? Am I missing something?
Moving on...
- Joe Cox is not the problem, and even if he was there is nothing we can do about it right now.
- If you had told me two months ago that our offensive line would not be able to get guys off the line enough for us to have anything resembling a productive running game, I would have laughed at you.
I'm not laughing anymore.
- The difference in the defense now and the first three games is Justin Houston.
- Rennie Curran. There aren't enough words to talk about how much I love this guy.
- The missed tackles that led to Charles Scott's touchdown was probably a blessing in disguise. If we do stop him in the backfield, LSU probably runs the clock out and kicks a field goal to win and we don't even get the ball back. Not that it mattered, obviously.
- I am not counting the interception that Joe threw, since it was a desperation pass that he probably (hopefully) never would have thrown in a normal situation, so we basically had a turnover-free game. Progress.
- I know the reasons that Washaun is not playing more (pass blocking, lack of knowledge of the playbook)...but to me, he looked more like an SEC running back in his eight carries than anything we've seen all season.
Also, did you notice that Coach Richt called out the running backs a little after the game? I don't remember the exact quote, and I'm too lazy to go look it up, but he basically said that our running backs are only getting as far as the blocking and that our guys need to do a better job of doing like Charles Scott did, which is make somebody miss or break a tackle. Make a play, in other words.
Were it not for the broken jaw that Caleb King suffered last week, I would guess that quote would signify the possible end of the Richard Samuel era. As it is, we'll undoubtedly see more of Washaun this week.
And if somebody could put an APB out for Carlton Thomas, that would be nice, too.
- OK, I guess that's all for now. Bottom line is that we lost in the last minute to the #4 team in the country, and we should have a very good chance at being 5-2 going into the bye week before The Cocktail Party. Anybody remember what happened the last time we were in that situation?
I know that this is a totally different team...but I also remember how I felt after the disaster in Neyland in 2007. I'm not saying that the same thing is going to happen for this team, but at the same time I never could have foreseen what was to come the rest of that year...only the most enjoyable season of my lifetime.
GO DAWGS!!!
I still can't really talk about this game rationally. Every time I try to discuss it, the conversation dissolves into a rambling, incoherent ranting session that ends with me in a borderline state of depression.
So, I still don't have it in me to do an organized "Great-good-bad-ugly" post...this will be more of a stream of consciousness thing.
And, yes, I know that I am probably plagiarizing about 50 other bloggers at this point, as surely everything that can be said about this game has been said by now. I apologize in advance.
Maybe it will be cathartic...
- A.J. Green is one of the top 5 players we have ever had, at least in my 30 years of watching this team. Joe Cox would probably have at least 3-4 more interceptions, including the touchdown catch at the end, were it not for AJ bailing him out. Thank God we have him for another year.
- The celebration penalty...oof. That was just absurd. Actually, the whole idea of being penalized for "excessively celebrating" is pretty stupid, especially in a case like that, when you've just scored a touchdown in the last minute of the game to take the lead over the #4 team in the country.
What's happening with things like this and the idiotic rule changes we are seeing at both the college and NFL level (regarding how hard you can hit people, and you can only hit people when they are expecting it, and you can only be happy under certain circumstances, etc...) is that these Rules Committees get together every year and so they feel like they have to do something in order to justify their existence. So every year we get a new rule or a new point of emphasis, whatever. They can't very well get together for a week and then come out and say afterwards, "We couldn't come up with anything...we decided the game is pretty good as it is."
Trust me, from personal experience (and many of you can testify to this as well)...there are few better factories for stupid than "committees".
However...that penalty is not why we lost the game. We lost the game when we managed 49 yards in the first half. And one first down.
- Coach Fabris is a great defensive ends coach. I don't think that can be argued.
But, good grief, we can't seriously consider keeping him on kickoff coverage, can we? Check this out if you haven't, from David Hale's blog. Two years worth of putrid kickoff coverage that just sucked momentum out of the team, either at the beginning of a half or following a Dawgs score.
And yet...we KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
(By the way...it's usually at this point that my discussion of last week's game dissolves into bitter, spittle-flying rage. Just a warning)
Take another look at that David Hale article...how is this acceptable? Why is this OK? We are supposedly a top tier team, right? How is it that we have one aspect of our team that is consistently, disgustingly awful, and rather than trying to fix it or hold anybody accountable, we get excuses and condescension and more of the same old crap?
Then we get former players that say Coach Fabris likes to do it this way because he likes the challenge.
COME AGAIN?!?!?!
Dude, if you want a challenge, take up sudoku. Learn a second language. Run a triathlon. STOP SCREWING WITH MY FOOTBALL TEAM.
OH!!! And THEN!!! On the MOST CRUCIAL kickoff of the season so far, we decide to get cute and run that stupid bunch formation kickoff, and then we not only fail to cover the kickoff properly (of freaking COURSE), but then we also get a penalty that puts the Tigers in field goal range because we didn't line up properly.
ARRRRGGGHHH.
I ask again....how is this OK? Is it me? Am I missing something?
Moving on...
- Joe Cox is not the problem, and even if he was there is nothing we can do about it right now.
- If you had told me two months ago that our offensive line would not be able to get guys off the line enough for us to have anything resembling a productive running game, I would have laughed at you.
I'm not laughing anymore.
- The difference in the defense now and the first three games is Justin Houston.
- Rennie Curran. There aren't enough words to talk about how much I love this guy.
- The missed tackles that led to Charles Scott's touchdown was probably a blessing in disguise. If we do stop him in the backfield, LSU probably runs the clock out and kicks a field goal to win and we don't even get the ball back. Not that it mattered, obviously.
- I am not counting the interception that Joe threw, since it was a desperation pass that he probably (hopefully) never would have thrown in a normal situation, so we basically had a turnover-free game. Progress.
- I know the reasons that Washaun is not playing more (pass blocking, lack of knowledge of the playbook)...but to me, he looked more like an SEC running back in his eight carries than anything we've seen all season.
Also, did you notice that Coach Richt called out the running backs a little after the game? I don't remember the exact quote, and I'm too lazy to go look it up, but he basically said that our running backs are only getting as far as the blocking and that our guys need to do a better job of doing like Charles Scott did, which is make somebody miss or break a tackle. Make a play, in other words.
Were it not for the broken jaw that Caleb King suffered last week, I would guess that quote would signify the possible end of the Richard Samuel era. As it is, we'll undoubtedly see more of Washaun this week.
And if somebody could put an APB out for Carlton Thomas, that would be nice, too.
- OK, I guess that's all for now. Bottom line is that we lost in the last minute to the #4 team in the country, and we should have a very good chance at being 5-2 going into the bye week before The Cocktail Party. Anybody remember what happened the last time we were in that situation?
I know that this is a totally different team...but I also remember how I felt after the disaster in Neyland in 2007. I'm not saying that the same thing is going to happen for this team, but at the same time I never could have foreseen what was to come the rest of that year...only the most enjoyable season of my lifetime.
GO DAWGS!!!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Recap - Arizona State
Let me start by saying this...if you place any money on a UGA game this year (either to win or to lose), you're either much smarter than I am or you deserve to lose your money. Because I have given up trying to figure this team out.
What are we on offense? I have no idea. What are we on defense? No clue. Special teams? Great in some areas, mindblowingly awful in others.
Couple of things I do know about this team...
Number one: every single week, we are going to make costly mistakes by turning the ball over on our own side of the field, committing dumb penalties, etc. I have no faith that this is going to get better...there is too much evidence to the contrary.
Number two: there is no quit in this team. There have been UGA teams in the not too distant past that would currently be sitting at 0-4 if they had faced some of the (mostly self inflicted) adversity that this team has seen. Instead, we are 3-1, unbeaten in the conference, and all of our realistic preseason goals are still within our reach.
The weekly breakdown...
THE GREAT:
- A.J. Green, the receiver. Simply put, the greatest receiver we have ever had in the history of UGA football. Great routes, separation speed, fantastic hands, explosiveness after the catch, etc, etc...there is simply nothing about him as a receiver that is not superb.
And his best catch of the night didn't even count...in my opinion, the replays showed fairly convincingly that he dragged his right toe inbounds on the TD catch that was disallowed in the fourth quarter. To lay out and catch a ball that looked to be at least two yards out of bounds, and still have the presence of mind to drag the toe inbounds...just unbelievable.
- A.J. Green, the blocker. Watching him on downfield runs and plays around the corner, I think he may be the best blocking WR we've had since Hines. And he obviously enjoys it, which makes it even more awesome.
Really, all of our WR do a pretty good job of downfield blocking, but this is yet another instance where A.J. is leading by example.
- A.J. Green, the special teams player. May have saved the game with his Boss Bailey impersonation on the Devils last FG attempt.
My favorite part was his quote afterwards: "That's got to be my best play ever...that tops all the catches."
That is a team player, and a leader.
Thank God we have him for one more season.
- Blair Walsh and Drew Butler. I almost forgot the play of Drew, but he continues to be a huge asset, and has probably won a game or so for us already.
As for Blair, it looks like the late season struggles of last year are behind him...he's still perfect this year, and I have absolute confidence in him to go out and make kicks with the game on the line, just like last night.
THE GOOD:
- The defense. Maybe we are only going to show up against out of conference opponents (Lord, please don't let that be the case). But this looked a lot more like the defense we saw in the opener.
Even though we only got one sack, we were getting very consistent pressure all night, and made tons of plays in the backfield. Justin Houston and Geno Atkins, in particular, were making big plays all night, and Jeff Owens showed up a time or too, as well.
Bacarri Rambo responded to more playing time with a very good performance, including his first career INT...Bryan Evans has probably lost his starting job.
Take away the two turnovers that led to touchdowns (one of which the defense wasn't even on the field for), and the defense only gave up three points. The only thing that kept me from putting them in the "great"category was that we were gashed quite a bit by the "zone read" runs, especially early on, which kept the D on the field and the offense on the sideline for entirely too long.
But overall, a vast improvement...I guess we'll let Willie stick around another week?
- Caleb King. This guy should be our feature tailback. He's running hard, making people miss, and just generally looking like a big time running back.
That fumble, though...that can't happen.
- Rantavious Wootentheballcarrier. Not only was it nice to see him finally get some extended playing time, but he took advantage of it with two huge plays on third and long, including one on the game-winning drive. Not bad for a true freshman.
THE BAD:
- Joe Cox. You know I love The Assassin, but there were just way too many bad decisions in this game. The two interceptions were both horrible throws into coverage, and he was very lucky to not have a couple more...he seemed to be throwing into two or three white shirts all night.
I think this is what we are going to get from Joe all year, honestly...there will be games like last week where he makes all the right decisions and looks great, but there are also going to be nights like this one. He makes questionable decisions sometimes, and he doesn't have the cannon arm to overcome those decisions.
Speaking of which...
THE UGLY:
- TURNOVERS. How long do you think we can continue to be on the wrong end of the turnover margin by tons and still keep eking out wins? I guess we're going to find out, because this team continues to show absolutely zero desire to value the football. As bad as three turnovers are, it could have been much worse...Joe could have had a couple more INT's and we were extremely lucky on the punt that bounced off Prince Miller's chest.
And I guess it just tells you where we are as a team that seven penalties is considered enough to keep penalties off the "ugly" list.
Bottom line:
3-1 is 3-1. Honestly, most of us probably had us at 3-1 at this point of the season in our preseason prognostications.
But our margin for error goes away this week. If we continue to play as stupid as we have so far...costly turnovers, dumb penalties, etc...we can NOT win against LSU, or in Neyland, or against Auburn, the Gators, the trade school, etc.
However...if this is the week that we get smart, and let the talent on this team shine without self inflicted wounds...and if that change takes root, and carries on through the remainder of the season...then I truly believe that this team can still succeed far beyond our expectations.
GO DAWGS!!!
What are we on offense? I have no idea. What are we on defense? No clue. Special teams? Great in some areas, mindblowingly awful in others.
Couple of things I do know about this team...
Number one: every single week, we are going to make costly mistakes by turning the ball over on our own side of the field, committing dumb penalties, etc. I have no faith that this is going to get better...there is too much evidence to the contrary.
Number two: there is no quit in this team. There have been UGA teams in the not too distant past that would currently be sitting at 0-4 if they had faced some of the (mostly self inflicted) adversity that this team has seen. Instead, we are 3-1, unbeaten in the conference, and all of our realistic preseason goals are still within our reach.
The weekly breakdown...
THE GREAT:
- A.J. Green, the receiver. Simply put, the greatest receiver we have ever had in the history of UGA football. Great routes, separation speed, fantastic hands, explosiveness after the catch, etc, etc...there is simply nothing about him as a receiver that is not superb.
And his best catch of the night didn't even count...in my opinion, the replays showed fairly convincingly that he dragged his right toe inbounds on the TD catch that was disallowed in the fourth quarter. To lay out and catch a ball that looked to be at least two yards out of bounds, and still have the presence of mind to drag the toe inbounds...just unbelievable.
- A.J. Green, the blocker. Watching him on downfield runs and plays around the corner, I think he may be the best blocking WR we've had since Hines. And he obviously enjoys it, which makes it even more awesome.
Really, all of our WR do a pretty good job of downfield blocking, but this is yet another instance where A.J. is leading by example.
- A.J. Green, the special teams player. May have saved the game with his Boss Bailey impersonation on the Devils last FG attempt.
My favorite part was his quote afterwards: "That's got to be my best play ever...that tops all the catches."
That is a team player, and a leader.
Thank God we have him for one more season.
- Blair Walsh and Drew Butler. I almost forgot the play of Drew, but he continues to be a huge asset, and has probably won a game or so for us already.
As for Blair, it looks like the late season struggles of last year are behind him...he's still perfect this year, and I have absolute confidence in him to go out and make kicks with the game on the line, just like last night.
THE GOOD:
- The defense. Maybe we are only going to show up against out of conference opponents (Lord, please don't let that be the case). But this looked a lot more like the defense we saw in the opener.
Even though we only got one sack, we were getting very consistent pressure all night, and made tons of plays in the backfield. Justin Houston and Geno Atkins, in particular, were making big plays all night, and Jeff Owens showed up a time or too, as well.
Bacarri Rambo responded to more playing time with a very good performance, including his first career INT...Bryan Evans has probably lost his starting job.
Take away the two turnovers that led to touchdowns (one of which the defense wasn't even on the field for), and the defense only gave up three points. The only thing that kept me from putting them in the "great"category was that we were gashed quite a bit by the "zone read" runs, especially early on, which kept the D on the field and the offense on the sideline for entirely too long.
But overall, a vast improvement...I guess we'll let Willie stick around another week?
- Caleb King. This guy should be our feature tailback. He's running hard, making people miss, and just generally looking like a big time running back.
That fumble, though...that can't happen.
- Rantavious Wootentheballcarrier. Not only was it nice to see him finally get some extended playing time, but he took advantage of it with two huge plays on third and long, including one on the game-winning drive. Not bad for a true freshman.
THE BAD:
- Joe Cox. You know I love The Assassin, but there were just way too many bad decisions in this game. The two interceptions were both horrible throws into coverage, and he was very lucky to not have a couple more...he seemed to be throwing into two or three white shirts all night.
I think this is what we are going to get from Joe all year, honestly...there will be games like last week where he makes all the right decisions and looks great, but there are also going to be nights like this one. He makes questionable decisions sometimes, and he doesn't have the cannon arm to overcome those decisions.
Speaking of which...
THE UGLY:
- TURNOVERS. How long do you think we can continue to be on the wrong end of the turnover margin by tons and still keep eking out wins? I guess we're going to find out, because this team continues to show absolutely zero desire to value the football. As bad as three turnovers are, it could have been much worse...Joe could have had a couple more INT's and we were extremely lucky on the punt that bounced off Prince Miller's chest.
And I guess it just tells you where we are as a team that seven penalties is considered enough to keep penalties off the "ugly" list.
Bottom line:
3-1 is 3-1. Honestly, most of us probably had us at 3-1 at this point of the season in our preseason prognostications.
But our margin for error goes away this week. If we continue to play as stupid as we have so far...costly turnovers, dumb penalties, etc...we can NOT win against LSU, or in Neyland, or against Auburn, the Gators, the trade school, etc.
However...if this is the week that we get smart, and let the talent on this team shine without self inflicted wounds...and if that change takes root, and carries on through the remainder of the season...then I truly believe that this team can still succeed far beyond our expectations.
GO DAWGS!!!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Recap - Arkansas
Good grief...this team is taking years off my life.
Sorry about the lateness of this post...combo of some weekend traveling and being a bit under the weather today. And also keeping an eye out the window to make sure my truck doesn't float away.
Let's get to it, shall we? This game really didn't have a lot of "in-between"...the good parts were really really good, and the bad parts were putri-riffic.
THE GREAT:
- Joe Freakin' Cox. If not for The Ginger Assassin, we would be looking at disaster right now. Yeah, he's for real. Just huge throw after huge throw. Every one of the touchdown throws were perfect, and they all called for something different...on the Aron White TD, he made the throw to the outside shoulder, a little behind him on purpose, so that only Aron could get the ball in one-on-one coverage. The throw to Tavarres King was a rainmaker, a high arching 50 yard bomb. The 2nd TD to AJ was a laser, thrown high enough to allow his playmaker to go up and make the play. Etc, etc...
I'm just really happy for the guy, you know? He has waited patiently for his turn, even risking the possibility of never playing a down at QB while at UGA, consistently talks about his love for Georgia, is by all accounts a fantastic teammate and leader. Then, after ONE game as the starter, so many fans were ready to throw him on the trash heap and move on to someone else. So to see him accomplish what he has the last couple of games (including being named the Walter Camp Player of the week and SEC Offensive Player of the Week), well...it couldn't happen to a better guy, and it makes me proud to be a Dawg.
But besides all that sentimental stuff...we have ourselves a quarterback, Dawg fans.
- The WR/TE corps. I could give each of them their own bullet point, but AJ Green, Michael Moore, Tavarres King, Orson Charles, Aron White...we saw examples of every one of them being playmakers like we haven't had in this abundance since....well, ever, I guess. And that's BEFORE we work Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wootentheballcarrier into the mix.
AJ Green is a friggin beast...I'll take him over any other WR in the country right now, bar none. I love his aggression this year...he is playing with a bit of an attitude, but the right kind of attitude.
And Michael Moore is an extremely reliable #2 WR, the kind of guy you have to have on your roster to be consistently successful on 3rd and 7.
- Brandon Boykin on kick return. Better enjoy these plays while we can...I can't see opposing teams continuing to kick to him for very long. Even when it's not blocked well, he is consistently making guys miss and setting us off in great field position.
- Our kickers. Drew Butler bailed us out again with a huge kick with under 5 minutes to go, and Blair remains perfect. These guys are going to end up winning some games for us this year, if they haven't already.
THE GOOD:
- The running backs. Finally, we got to see what Richard Samuel can do when he breaks loose, and the results were no doubt impressive. However, outside of that big play, he wasn't all that productive, and the fumbled pitch was atrocious. On top of that, the fumble that he recovered could have been a game-changer.
It was great to see Caleb, and overall I think he was the more impressive back Saturday night. As he gets back into the groove, I get the feeling we are going to see why he was the number one back in camp before the hamstring injury held him back. If he can get back to that level, I think the offense is better off with him as the every-down guy and Samuel and Thomas as the change(s) of pace.
- The O-line. Good enough to roll up 50+ points and 500 yards of offense, but too many penalties to be considered "great".
THE UGLY:
Yeah, we skipped the bad...all of the bad in this game was UGLY.
- PENALTIES. FOURTEEN PENALTIES. FOUR. TEEN. PENALTIES. And I don't want to hear any more "penalties of aggression" crap. False starts, offsides, and holding calls are NOT penalties of aggression. They are penalties of laziness and poor focus, and they are not indicative of a championship team.
- TURNOVERS. We can't continue to be on the wrong end of the turnover margin in every single game and expect to keep gutting out wins. The Joe C interception didn't hurt too bad, as it was as good as a punt, and it was not as much a poor decision as it was a good play by the safety. But the Samuel fumble was inexcusable, and Boykin has to do a better job of knowing where he is on the field so as not to run into his own man trying to field a punt.
The Samuel fumble(s) are even more distressing, as they are a continuation of the problems he had last year. Maybe somebody needs to ask him how many feet are in a mile.
- The kickoff "coverage". Fine, Mssrs. Fabris and Richt. I give up. Kick it out of bounds. Refuse to field a unit that can consistently stop a returner before they reach the 40. Heck, even pooch kick to the 40 when the clock is our friend and we need the opponents to have to drive the length of the field. I just can't talk about it anymore.
- THE DEFENSE. Oh, Willie. Why do you despise me so? Why must you continue to destroy my heart a piece at a time?
OK, some credit first...I went back and watched it again, and honestly the first half performance by the defense was not that bad. They did get put in bad situations due to the aforementioned turnovers and piss-poor kick coverage. Two of the first three touchdowns (the first one and the third one) were actually covered very well...Mallett just made NFL-caliber throws, and his WR made a fantastic catch on the third one. We were even getting good pressure with a nice mix of blitzes and work from the D-line.
But that second half...that was an embarrassment. Opposing receivers running WIDE OPEN, over and over and over again...that can only be the result of either poor schemes or blown coverage. Just a pathetic display of pass "defense". (Just want to make mention of one exception...Reshad Jones is having a very good season, and really seems to have made an effort to improve his fundamentals and tackling).
Similar to what I said last week....regardless of any extenuating circumstances, 40+ points and over 400 yards of passing offense can not be considered anything but horrible.
But here's what REALLY makes it worse...nobody, not Coach Richt, not Coach Martinez, nobody...will come out and say, "This is NOT ACCEPTABLE. This WILL NOT STAND. We are EMBARRASSED by these performances and will not rest until the problems are FIXED." Instead we get excuses and condescension.
I do not call for people's jobs, at least not in a public forum, and I'm not gonna start now. But I can't believe that this poor level of play will be allowed to continue into next year. Something has to change.
So, to sum up...tremendous display by the offense, almost completely overshadowed by stupid penalties and turnovers, along with embarrassingly bad defensive play. For all the offseason talk about how last year's problems would not be this year's, that sure does seem a lot like 2008 to me.
That being said, it's still early in the season...we have a good opportunity to get better this week against ASU, and then we welcome an LSU team into Athens who we hung 50+ on last year. Hopefully, we won't need that many to pull out a win this year.
GO DAWGS!!!
Sorry about the lateness of this post...combo of some weekend traveling and being a bit under the weather today. And also keeping an eye out the window to make sure my truck doesn't float away.
Let's get to it, shall we? This game really didn't have a lot of "in-between"...the good parts were really really good, and the bad parts were putri-riffic.
THE GREAT:
- Joe Freakin' Cox. If not for The Ginger Assassin, we would be looking at disaster right now. Yeah, he's for real. Just huge throw after huge throw. Every one of the touchdown throws were perfect, and they all called for something different...on the Aron White TD, he made the throw to the outside shoulder, a little behind him on purpose, so that only Aron could get the ball in one-on-one coverage. The throw to Tavarres King was a rainmaker, a high arching 50 yard bomb. The 2nd TD to AJ was a laser, thrown high enough to allow his playmaker to go up and make the play. Etc, etc...
I'm just really happy for the guy, you know? He has waited patiently for his turn, even risking the possibility of never playing a down at QB while at UGA, consistently talks about his love for Georgia, is by all accounts a fantastic teammate and leader. Then, after ONE game as the starter, so many fans were ready to throw him on the trash heap and move on to someone else. So to see him accomplish what he has the last couple of games (including being named the Walter Camp Player of the week and SEC Offensive Player of the Week), well...it couldn't happen to a better guy, and it makes me proud to be a Dawg.
But besides all that sentimental stuff...we have ourselves a quarterback, Dawg fans.
- The WR/TE corps. I could give each of them their own bullet point, but AJ Green, Michael Moore, Tavarres King, Orson Charles, Aron White...we saw examples of every one of them being playmakers like we haven't had in this abundance since....well, ever, I guess. And that's BEFORE we work Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wootentheballcarrier into the mix.
AJ Green is a friggin beast...I'll take him over any other WR in the country right now, bar none. I love his aggression this year...he is playing with a bit of an attitude, but the right kind of attitude.
And Michael Moore is an extremely reliable #2 WR, the kind of guy you have to have on your roster to be consistently successful on 3rd and 7.
- Brandon Boykin on kick return. Better enjoy these plays while we can...I can't see opposing teams continuing to kick to him for very long. Even when it's not blocked well, he is consistently making guys miss and setting us off in great field position.
- Our kickers. Drew Butler bailed us out again with a huge kick with under 5 minutes to go, and Blair remains perfect. These guys are going to end up winning some games for us this year, if they haven't already.
THE GOOD:
- The running backs. Finally, we got to see what Richard Samuel can do when he breaks loose, and the results were no doubt impressive. However, outside of that big play, he wasn't all that productive, and the fumbled pitch was atrocious. On top of that, the fumble that he recovered could have been a game-changer.
It was great to see Caleb, and overall I think he was the more impressive back Saturday night. As he gets back into the groove, I get the feeling we are going to see why he was the number one back in camp before the hamstring injury held him back. If he can get back to that level, I think the offense is better off with him as the every-down guy and Samuel and Thomas as the change(s) of pace.
- The O-line. Good enough to roll up 50+ points and 500 yards of offense, but too many penalties to be considered "great".
THE UGLY:
Yeah, we skipped the bad...all of the bad in this game was UGLY.
- PENALTIES. FOURTEEN PENALTIES. FOUR. TEEN. PENALTIES. And I don't want to hear any more "penalties of aggression" crap. False starts, offsides, and holding calls are NOT penalties of aggression. They are penalties of laziness and poor focus, and they are not indicative of a championship team.
- TURNOVERS. We can't continue to be on the wrong end of the turnover margin in every single game and expect to keep gutting out wins. The Joe C interception didn't hurt too bad, as it was as good as a punt, and it was not as much a poor decision as it was a good play by the safety. But the Samuel fumble was inexcusable, and Boykin has to do a better job of knowing where he is on the field so as not to run into his own man trying to field a punt.
The Samuel fumble(s) are even more distressing, as they are a continuation of the problems he had last year. Maybe somebody needs to ask him how many feet are in a mile.
- The kickoff "coverage". Fine, Mssrs. Fabris and Richt. I give up. Kick it out of bounds. Refuse to field a unit that can consistently stop a returner before they reach the 40. Heck, even pooch kick to the 40 when the clock is our friend and we need the opponents to have to drive the length of the field. I just can't talk about it anymore.
- THE DEFENSE. Oh, Willie. Why do you despise me so? Why must you continue to destroy my heart a piece at a time?
OK, some credit first...I went back and watched it again, and honestly the first half performance by the defense was not that bad. They did get put in bad situations due to the aforementioned turnovers and piss-poor kick coverage. Two of the first three touchdowns (the first one and the third one) were actually covered very well...Mallett just made NFL-caliber throws, and his WR made a fantastic catch on the third one. We were even getting good pressure with a nice mix of blitzes and work from the D-line.
But that second half...that was an embarrassment. Opposing receivers running WIDE OPEN, over and over and over again...that can only be the result of either poor schemes or blown coverage. Just a pathetic display of pass "defense". (Just want to make mention of one exception...Reshad Jones is having a very good season, and really seems to have made an effort to improve his fundamentals and tackling).
Similar to what I said last week....regardless of any extenuating circumstances, 40+ points and over 400 yards of passing offense can not be considered anything but horrible.
But here's what REALLY makes it worse...nobody, not Coach Richt, not Coach Martinez, nobody...will come out and say, "This is NOT ACCEPTABLE. This WILL NOT STAND. We are EMBARRASSED by these performances and will not rest until the problems are FIXED." Instead we get excuses and condescension.
I do not call for people's jobs, at least not in a public forum, and I'm not gonna start now. But I can't believe that this poor level of play will be allowed to continue into next year. Something has to change.
So, to sum up...tremendous display by the offense, almost completely overshadowed by stupid penalties and turnovers, along with embarrassingly bad defensive play. For all the offseason talk about how last year's problems would not be this year's, that sure does seem a lot like 2008 to me.
That being said, it's still early in the season...we have a good opportunity to get better this week against ASU, and then we welcome an LSU team into Athens who we hung 50+ on last year. Hopefully, we won't need that many to pull out a win this year.
GO DAWGS!!!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Recap - South Carolina
Wow. That game was exhausting as a FAN. I can't imagine what it must have been like on the field. I don't remember a game with such WIDE swings of momentum and emotion. The Dawgs and Gamecocks always seem to play nail biters...this one was only an exception in that both teams put points up at a Big 12 level.
By the way...there is a reason why there are all of those big beautiful buildings in Las Vegas. Before the game I would have told you there was no safer bet on the board than the under on this game...it was at 39. We surpassed that about halfway through the second quarter.
THE GREAT:
- Rennie Curran. As if his on-the-field exploits were not enough, David Hale reports that Rennie gave his own version of "The Promise" in a pregame speech to his teammates, promising to give every ounce of energy and heart that he has. And, as usual, he delivered...15 tackles, flying around the field, and for the second year in a row he makes the game saving play at the goal line to beat the Gamecocks. This guy is rapidly moving into my Top 5 Favorite Dawgs of All Time list.
- A.J. Green. Wow. Thank God we played this guy as a true freshman last year, because that's the only reason we're getting three years out of him...he's ready for the Show right now. Last night he made at least three plays that just set him apart: the hang-in-the-air-5-feet-off-the-ground catch he made off the pass that Cox threw into double coverage early, the touchdown catch where he elevated over two guys, made a great catch and was able to tap the left foot before falling out of bounds, and the utter physicality of the play where he broke one tackle, stiff-armed another guy all the way to Winder, and almost took it to the house (and should have had more yards...how was THAT play not a penalty, but when Reshad does the exact same thing at the other end it gets called?). As a matter of fact, don't just take my word for it...
Awesome.
- Speed, speed, speed. I mentioned in my post the week of the opener that one of the things I liked about this team was that it may be the fastest we have ever had. Well, we got a couple of examples of that last night. Brandon Boykin and Branden Smith can FLY, and they are game changers. We are adding more playmakers every year, and it is incumbent on the coaching staff to find ways to take advantage of them.
- Special teams. I struggled with how to rank the special teams in this game...so I'm going to cheat a little and mention them a couple of times. But there is no doubt that the special teams made some huge plays in this game. The kickoff return team was so dominant that Spurrier eventually stopped kicking to them. Team records in total return yards, and the longest KO return in school history by Boykin, at a time when the team DESPERATELY needed something good to happen. Blair Walsh continues to put last year behind him and drilled yet another field goal of 50+. And, of course, DeAngelo Tyson made what may have been the most important play of the game by blocking the PAT after the pick-6....without that play, the Cocks only need a FG to tie on that last drive rather than having to go for the TD.
And FINALLY...we started kicking the ball deep on kickoffs, with mostly great results. The Cocks returned one for a long return, which means of course that Coach Richt had to mention after the game as an example of why kicking it deep is so dangerous. WHATEVER. I would buy that argument a lot more if the other strategy was actually working, but the numbers tell me that we are actually MORE likely to give up a big return on the short directional kick.
THE GOOD:
- Joe Cox. Joe was tons more effective this week, so maybe the flu was the problem after all...that or the fact that he was starting his first game in three years on the road against a quality opponent (well...sort of quality). But whatever the difference, I feel a lot more confident in Joe now than I did this time last week. Only the pick-6 (which was horrendous) and a costly fumble kept him from being qualified as "great" this week.
And the fumble was his fault...he has to recognize that blitz at the line of scrimmage (since we didn't have enough protection on that side to account for it), or at least do a better job of ball security.
- Richard Samuel. He showed just as much improvement over last week as Joe, in my opinion. He ran HARD, breaking tackles and running through guys. Still needs to show the ability to break the long run, and I think that's coming...hopefully soon.
As a side note, where was he in the second quarter? After running so effectively on the drive where he scored the touchdown, he basically disappeared until late in the half. Anybody hear any reason for that, or was that just another weird personnel decision by our coaching staff?
- The O-line. For most of the night, this group gave Cox plenty of time to throw and did a nice job opening running lanes against a very good defensive front 7. They did give up a couple of sacks, and they had WAY too many penalties (more on that later).
THE BAD:
- The Defense. Ugh...felt like late 2008 all over again. First of all, there were WAY too many missed tackles. I'm willing to cut them a LITTLE slack on that, since the problem seemed especially egregious late in both halves, when the D had been on the field for what seemed like hours. But...at least part of the blame for that goes on them, because if they could have made some stops they wouldn't have been out there so long.
We also struggled (again) getting to the quarterback. In this game, though, we actually got pretty consistent pressure...Garcia did a nice job escaping pressure, and there were a couple of times that guys just spun the wrong way and ended up missing him.
The biggest problem I had with the defense was this: the problems we had in the first half (middle of the field was WIDE OPEN all night, allowing Wesley Saunders to turn into Tony Gonzalez for a night) were the EXACT SAME problems we had in the second half. Now, I'm not enough of a football expert to tell you exactly what caused those problems...I can only tell you that we apparently did not make any adjustments at halftime to take away what was killing us in the first half.
My friends and I used to always say when VanGorder was here...whatever is working for the other team in the first half, they will need to find something else in the second half because VanGorder is going to shut that down. I have no such faith in this coaching staff.
- The Logan Gray experiment. If you're only going to bring him in for one random snap a game for him to run the QB zone read, don't bother. The only reason it makes sense is to give the opposing team something else to plan for. Right now, I don't think opposing defensive coaches are staying up late wondering how they are going to shut down Logan Gray for one snap a game.
Along the same lines...Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wooten made it on the field for a combined three snaps last night. Now that we have burned their redshirt years, we better find a way to get production out of them or those years are just wasted.
- Special Teams. Told you I was cheating with this one. For all the good that these units did, there was also this: fumbled kickoff return that led to a SC field goal, a botched snap over the punter's head for a safety, and a fake field goal by USC that brought back nightmares of the Sugar Bowl against West Virginia. So, yes, the special teams might very well be the reason we won this game...but they were also largely responsible for keeping the Cocks in the game at all.
By the way, I've decided Branden Smith is our own version of Forrest Gump...he's now returned THREE kicks from over 5 yards deep in the end zone, which suggests a possible mental deficiency...but, boy, when he does get to run he is FAST. Maybe we need one of those big STOP signs like they used for Forrest to use whenever he fields one deep in the end zone.
THE UGLY:
- PENALTIES. Speaking of 2008 flashbacks...13 penalties for 108 yards is absolutely unacceptable. This was a problem last year that manifested itself early on and just never got fixed. After all the talk in the offseason about how much more disciplined we were going to be, this was disheartening. Especially since so many of them were just penalties of stupidity...false starts, offsides, blatant holding. This has to stop NOW.
Bottom line:
This was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen, but it wasn't particularly well played by either side. But one of the aspects of this season that I was looking forward to the most was this...NO STYLE POINTS. I will enjoy every win this year, no matter the opponent or the margin of victory. We still have a long way to go, but if we can somehow combine last week's defense with this week's offense and cut out some of the stupidity, this could still be a surprisingly good year.
1-0 in the SEC...I'll take it.
GO DAWGS!!!
By the way...there is a reason why there are all of those big beautiful buildings in Las Vegas. Before the game I would have told you there was no safer bet on the board than the under on this game...it was at 39. We surpassed that about halfway through the second quarter.
THE GREAT:
- Rennie Curran. As if his on-the-field exploits were not enough, David Hale reports that Rennie gave his own version of "The Promise" in a pregame speech to his teammates, promising to give every ounce of energy and heart that he has. And, as usual, he delivered...15 tackles, flying around the field, and for the second year in a row he makes the game saving play at the goal line to beat the Gamecocks. This guy is rapidly moving into my Top 5 Favorite Dawgs of All Time list.
- A.J. Green. Wow. Thank God we played this guy as a true freshman last year, because that's the only reason we're getting three years out of him...he's ready for the Show right now. Last night he made at least three plays that just set him apart: the hang-in-the-air-5-feet-off-the-ground catch he made off the pass that Cox threw into double coverage early, the touchdown catch where he elevated over two guys, made a great catch and was able to tap the left foot before falling out of bounds, and the utter physicality of the play where he broke one tackle, stiff-armed another guy all the way to Winder, and almost took it to the house (and should have had more yards...how was THAT play not a penalty, but when Reshad does the exact same thing at the other end it gets called?). As a matter of fact, don't just take my word for it...
Awesome.
- Speed, speed, speed. I mentioned in my post the week of the opener that one of the things I liked about this team was that it may be the fastest we have ever had. Well, we got a couple of examples of that last night. Brandon Boykin and Branden Smith can FLY, and they are game changers. We are adding more playmakers every year, and it is incumbent on the coaching staff to find ways to take advantage of them.
- Special teams. I struggled with how to rank the special teams in this game...so I'm going to cheat a little and mention them a couple of times. But there is no doubt that the special teams made some huge plays in this game. The kickoff return team was so dominant that Spurrier eventually stopped kicking to them. Team records in total return yards, and the longest KO return in school history by Boykin, at a time when the team DESPERATELY needed something good to happen. Blair Walsh continues to put last year behind him and drilled yet another field goal of 50+. And, of course, DeAngelo Tyson made what may have been the most important play of the game by blocking the PAT after the pick-6....without that play, the Cocks only need a FG to tie on that last drive rather than having to go for the TD.
And FINALLY...we started kicking the ball deep on kickoffs, with mostly great results. The Cocks returned one for a long return, which means of course that Coach Richt had to mention after the game as an example of why kicking it deep is so dangerous. WHATEVER. I would buy that argument a lot more if the other strategy was actually working, but the numbers tell me that we are actually MORE likely to give up a big return on the short directional kick.
THE GOOD:
- Joe Cox. Joe was tons more effective this week, so maybe the flu was the problem after all...that or the fact that he was starting his first game in three years on the road against a quality opponent (well...sort of quality). But whatever the difference, I feel a lot more confident in Joe now than I did this time last week. Only the pick-6 (which was horrendous) and a costly fumble kept him from being qualified as "great" this week.
And the fumble was his fault...he has to recognize that blitz at the line of scrimmage (since we didn't have enough protection on that side to account for it), or at least do a better job of ball security.
- Richard Samuel. He showed just as much improvement over last week as Joe, in my opinion. He ran HARD, breaking tackles and running through guys. Still needs to show the ability to break the long run, and I think that's coming...hopefully soon.
As a side note, where was he in the second quarter? After running so effectively on the drive where he scored the touchdown, he basically disappeared until late in the half. Anybody hear any reason for that, or was that just another weird personnel decision by our coaching staff?
- The O-line. For most of the night, this group gave Cox plenty of time to throw and did a nice job opening running lanes against a very good defensive front 7. They did give up a couple of sacks, and they had WAY too many penalties (more on that later).
THE BAD:
- The Defense. Ugh...felt like late 2008 all over again. First of all, there were WAY too many missed tackles. I'm willing to cut them a LITTLE slack on that, since the problem seemed especially egregious late in both halves, when the D had been on the field for what seemed like hours. But...at least part of the blame for that goes on them, because if they could have made some stops they wouldn't have been out there so long.
We also struggled (again) getting to the quarterback. In this game, though, we actually got pretty consistent pressure...Garcia did a nice job escaping pressure, and there were a couple of times that guys just spun the wrong way and ended up missing him.
The biggest problem I had with the defense was this: the problems we had in the first half (middle of the field was WIDE OPEN all night, allowing Wesley Saunders to turn into Tony Gonzalez for a night) were the EXACT SAME problems we had in the second half. Now, I'm not enough of a football expert to tell you exactly what caused those problems...I can only tell you that we apparently did not make any adjustments at halftime to take away what was killing us in the first half.
My friends and I used to always say when VanGorder was here...whatever is working for the other team in the first half, they will need to find something else in the second half because VanGorder is going to shut that down. I have no such faith in this coaching staff.
- The Logan Gray experiment. If you're only going to bring him in for one random snap a game for him to run the QB zone read, don't bother. The only reason it makes sense is to give the opposing team something else to plan for. Right now, I don't think opposing defensive coaches are staying up late wondering how they are going to shut down Logan Gray for one snap a game.
Along the same lines...Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wooten made it on the field for a combined three snaps last night. Now that we have burned their redshirt years, we better find a way to get production out of them or those years are just wasted.
- Special Teams. Told you I was cheating with this one. For all the good that these units did, there was also this: fumbled kickoff return that led to a SC field goal, a botched snap over the punter's head for a safety, and a fake field goal by USC that brought back nightmares of the Sugar Bowl against West Virginia. So, yes, the special teams might very well be the reason we won this game...but they were also largely responsible for keeping the Cocks in the game at all.
By the way, I've decided Branden Smith is our own version of Forrest Gump...he's now returned THREE kicks from over 5 yards deep in the end zone, which suggests a possible mental deficiency...but, boy, when he does get to run he is FAST. Maybe we need one of those big STOP signs like they used for Forrest to use whenever he fields one deep in the end zone.
THE UGLY:
- PENALTIES. Speaking of 2008 flashbacks...13 penalties for 108 yards is absolutely unacceptable. This was a problem last year that manifested itself early on and just never got fixed. After all the talk in the offseason about how much more disciplined we were going to be, this was disheartening. Especially since so many of them were just penalties of stupidity...false starts, offsides, blatant holding. This has to stop NOW.
Bottom line:
This was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen, but it wasn't particularly well played by either side. But one of the aspects of this season that I was looking forward to the most was this...NO STYLE POINTS. I will enjoy every win this year, no matter the opponent or the margin of victory. We still have a long way to go, but if we can somehow combine last week's defense with this week's offense and cut out some of the stupidity, this could still be a surprisingly good year.
1-0 in the SEC...I'll take it.
GO DAWGS!!!
WHEW!!!
I'll be later (hopefully today) with the full recap, but for now, this will do (and be sure to pay attention to the police officers in the background)...
Oh, and Rennie Curran? Still my biggest man crush.
Oh, and Rennie Curran? Still my biggest man crush.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Recap - Oklahoma State
Oof...not a good sports weekend. To recap:
- Dawgs lose, and look bad doing so
- Every one of our rivals wins, some (Auburn, UT) looking better than expected
- D.J. Shockley and Thomas Brown get cut from the Falcons
- Braves get swept by a mediocre Reds team at home, the final nail in the postseason coffin
Wow...good thing the Falcons don't start until NEXT week.
Let's get this over with, shall we?
THE GREAT:
Ummm....not much.
OH! I got one! College Gameday started with Comin' To Your Citaaayyy, rather than that Kenny Chesney abomination. That was awesome.
THE GOOD:
- The defense. If I were to give a letter grade, I would give them a solid B. That was a very good offense, and outside of the one big play to Dez Bryant we didn't give them much. I honestly believe that if last year's defense had been consistently put into bad situations due to turnovers and putrid special teams play the way this one was, we would have given up 40 plus. Tackling was solid for the most part, and I liked the scheme...I thought we mixed in just enough blitz to make it effective. We held Zac Robinson to 135 yds passing, Kendall Hunter to 75 yds rushing, and Bryant to only 3 catches (granted, two of them were for touchdowns).
The only concerning point to me, and what kept them from going into the "great" category is that we still did not get good output from our defensive end position. No consistent pass rush from there, and not great against the run, either.
The long touchdown to Bryant is directly attributed to lack of pass rush, in my opinion. NO safety is going to cover Dez Bryant one-on-one...that play was made because Robinson had too much time to throw and allowed Bryant to get past the zone and running free down the field. Still took a great throw and catch to score.
Overall, a solid performance, but still a disturbing lack of GAMECHANGING plays. Had the opportunity to make several interceptions early that could have been huge and did not convert.
- Drew Butler. Consistently flipped the field and had several big boomers. His average (57 yards per punt) was also helped by some fortuitous bounces and some bad decisions by Bryant on letting punts drop.
- Blair Walsh. The 53 yard field goal was huge at the time (made it a one score game), and he consistently did what he was asked to do on kickoff (although I don't agree with what he was asked to do).
- At least it wasn't an SEC game.
THE JUST OKAY:
- Richard Samuel. He ran hard, and I think we should have kept pounding him (more on that later). What concerns me is that he seems to go down at first contact too often. As big as he is, he should be running through arm tackles, and at least occasionally running over smaller guys. I'm no expert, but it looked like at least part of the problem was that every time he got hit, his legs stopped moving rather than continuing to drive. At least that's coachable, though.
- The offensive line. Played very well most of the game, but weren't consistent enough to make it into the "Good" category.
- Joe Cox. Right after the game, I would have put him in the "bad" category, but after watching it again (yes, I am that masochistic) he didn't play as poorly as I originally thought. He suffered some crucial drops on some plays that would have been first downs which may have turned his day around. But...the ball took too long to get out of there, it took too long to get to his receivers, he made some bad decisions at times (like running out of bounds and making it third and long rather than throwing the ball away), and there was no excuse for the fumble. That was not a blind side hit...he saw the guy coming and had plenty of time to either throw the ball away or at LEAST do a better job of tucking the ball and protecting against the fumble.
Couple of things to keep in mind, for all of those ready to bench him:
- He had the flu for three days leading up to that game, and who knows how healthy he was on Saturday.
- That was his first start in three years, on the road against a quality team. It's not fair to slam the book shut on a guy after just one start, especially since his play was only mediocre, not atrocious.
I wonder how many of the people turning on him now were the same guys who thought we would be better off with him rather than Stafford?
THE BAD:
- The offensive play calling. I don't pretend to be a football expert...I'm just a fan with about 30 years of experience WATCHING football. So, please, somebody who is smarter than I am...explain why we had a very effective drive to start the game, and then spent the rest of the game going away from the principles that made that drive successful? I thought the opening drive was Bobo at his best...a very nice mix of a power running game and just enough wrinkles to keep it interesting. For the rest of the game, it was like Florida '05 and JTIII all over again.
The Okie State defense never did consistently stop the running game...we shut it down ourselves, and got too cute for much of the second and third quarters. And why did we not see Logan Gray or Branden Smith on offense again after the opening drive? Didn't Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wootentheballcarrier make the trip? Anyone?
- Kick coverage. Game turning 75 yard kickoff return by the Cowboys to start the second half. Way too much room on the punts that they did get a chance to return. Branden Smith's brain fart on the punt that should have been downed on the one. Just a bad day for kick coverage, a continuation from last year.
- Branden Smith on special teams. The previously mentioned disaster on punt coverage, plus returning TWO kicks from 8 yards deep in the end zone. I can see ONE, as a freshman mistake, but to do it twice means I don't want him back there anymore.
- Penalties. Not as many as we had at times last year, but they always seemed to come at the most crucial moments, wiping out first downs or the huge punt return by Prince Miller that would have certainly been another TD.
THE UGLY:
- Trinton Sturdivant's injury. This one still hurts too much to talk about. Not even the effect that it has on our depth, etc...just what a crappy thing to happen to a really great kid.
- The Reshad Jones "penalty". I've now watched that play about 35 times. That was a GREAT play by Reshad Jones, the kind of play that Dawg fans (including me) have been begging this guy to start making. Great timing, perfect LEGAL hit. There was absolutely NOTHING he should have done differently on that play...if he doesn't hit the WR and jar the ball loose it's a big play and maybe a touchdown. The fact that not one, not two, but at least THREE officials threw a flag on that play makes me very nervous regarding how these plays are going to be called in the future. The sissification of football at ALL levels apparently continues unabated.
- The "fan" reaction. Kit said a lot of what I want to say here, on the Dawggone Blog. But people calling for jobs at this point seriously need to have their head examined. Yes, I'm ticked about the play calling, the substitution patterns, the continued stubborn approach to kick off strategy...but this was one game, on the road against the #9 team in the country. It's going to take more than that to get me to turn on the coaching staff that has produced two SEC championships, ten wins a year, and the longest run of success we have seen in decades.
I could go on a rant here about how message boards, talk radio, and yes, even the blogosphere has produced the sort of fan that only thinks they sound intelligent if they are being negative...but I'm in a bad enough mood as it is.
Let's put this behind us, pound some Cocks, and move on.
In spite of it all, I'd still rather be a Bulldawg.
GO DAWGS!!!
- Dawgs lose, and look bad doing so
- Every one of our rivals wins, some (Auburn, UT) looking better than expected
- D.J. Shockley and Thomas Brown get cut from the Falcons
- Braves get swept by a mediocre Reds team at home, the final nail in the postseason coffin
Wow...good thing the Falcons don't start until NEXT week.
Let's get this over with, shall we?
THE GREAT:
Ummm....not much.
OH! I got one! College Gameday started with Comin' To Your Citaaayyy, rather than that Kenny Chesney abomination. That was awesome.
THE GOOD:
- The defense. If I were to give a letter grade, I would give them a solid B. That was a very good offense, and outside of the one big play to Dez Bryant we didn't give them much. I honestly believe that if last year's defense had been consistently put into bad situations due to turnovers and putrid special teams play the way this one was, we would have given up 40 plus. Tackling was solid for the most part, and I liked the scheme...I thought we mixed in just enough blitz to make it effective. We held Zac Robinson to 135 yds passing, Kendall Hunter to 75 yds rushing, and Bryant to only 3 catches (granted, two of them were for touchdowns).
The only concerning point to me, and what kept them from going into the "great" category is that we still did not get good output from our defensive end position. No consistent pass rush from there, and not great against the run, either.
The long touchdown to Bryant is directly attributed to lack of pass rush, in my opinion. NO safety is going to cover Dez Bryant one-on-one...that play was made because Robinson had too much time to throw and allowed Bryant to get past the zone and running free down the field. Still took a great throw and catch to score.
Overall, a solid performance, but still a disturbing lack of GAMECHANGING plays. Had the opportunity to make several interceptions early that could have been huge and did not convert.
- Drew Butler. Consistently flipped the field and had several big boomers. His average (57 yards per punt) was also helped by some fortuitous bounces and some bad decisions by Bryant on letting punts drop.
- Blair Walsh. The 53 yard field goal was huge at the time (made it a one score game), and he consistently did what he was asked to do on kickoff (although I don't agree with what he was asked to do).
- At least it wasn't an SEC game.
THE JUST OKAY:
- Richard Samuel. He ran hard, and I think we should have kept pounding him (more on that later). What concerns me is that he seems to go down at first contact too often. As big as he is, he should be running through arm tackles, and at least occasionally running over smaller guys. I'm no expert, but it looked like at least part of the problem was that every time he got hit, his legs stopped moving rather than continuing to drive. At least that's coachable, though.
- The offensive line. Played very well most of the game, but weren't consistent enough to make it into the "Good" category.
- Joe Cox. Right after the game, I would have put him in the "bad" category, but after watching it again (yes, I am that masochistic) he didn't play as poorly as I originally thought. He suffered some crucial drops on some plays that would have been first downs which may have turned his day around. But...the ball took too long to get out of there, it took too long to get to his receivers, he made some bad decisions at times (like running out of bounds and making it third and long rather than throwing the ball away), and there was no excuse for the fumble. That was not a blind side hit...he saw the guy coming and had plenty of time to either throw the ball away or at LEAST do a better job of tucking the ball and protecting against the fumble.
Couple of things to keep in mind, for all of those ready to bench him:
- He had the flu for three days leading up to that game, and who knows how healthy he was on Saturday.
- That was his first start in three years, on the road against a quality team. It's not fair to slam the book shut on a guy after just one start, especially since his play was only mediocre, not atrocious.
I wonder how many of the people turning on him now were the same guys who thought we would be better off with him rather than Stafford?
THE BAD:
- The offensive play calling. I don't pretend to be a football expert...I'm just a fan with about 30 years of experience WATCHING football. So, please, somebody who is smarter than I am...explain why we had a very effective drive to start the game, and then spent the rest of the game going away from the principles that made that drive successful? I thought the opening drive was Bobo at his best...a very nice mix of a power running game and just enough wrinkles to keep it interesting. For the rest of the game, it was like Florida '05 and JTIII all over again.
The Okie State defense never did consistently stop the running game...we shut it down ourselves, and got too cute for much of the second and third quarters. And why did we not see Logan Gray or Branden Smith on offense again after the opening drive? Didn't Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wootentheballcarrier make the trip? Anyone?
- Kick coverage. Game turning 75 yard kickoff return by the Cowboys to start the second half. Way too much room on the punts that they did get a chance to return. Branden Smith's brain fart on the punt that should have been downed on the one. Just a bad day for kick coverage, a continuation from last year.
- Branden Smith on special teams. The previously mentioned disaster on punt coverage, plus returning TWO kicks from 8 yards deep in the end zone. I can see ONE, as a freshman mistake, but to do it twice means I don't want him back there anymore.
- Penalties. Not as many as we had at times last year, but they always seemed to come at the most crucial moments, wiping out first downs or the huge punt return by Prince Miller that would have certainly been another TD.
THE UGLY:
- Trinton Sturdivant's injury. This one still hurts too much to talk about. Not even the effect that it has on our depth, etc...just what a crappy thing to happen to a really great kid.
- The Reshad Jones "penalty". I've now watched that play about 35 times. That was a GREAT play by Reshad Jones, the kind of play that Dawg fans (including me) have been begging this guy to start making. Great timing, perfect LEGAL hit. There was absolutely NOTHING he should have done differently on that play...if he doesn't hit the WR and jar the ball loose it's a big play and maybe a touchdown. The fact that not one, not two, but at least THREE officials threw a flag on that play makes me very nervous regarding how these plays are going to be called in the future. The sissification of football at ALL levels apparently continues unabated.
- The "fan" reaction. Kit said a lot of what I want to say here, on the Dawggone Blog. But people calling for jobs at this point seriously need to have their head examined. Yes, I'm ticked about the play calling, the substitution patterns, the continued stubborn approach to kick off strategy...but this was one game, on the road against the #9 team in the country. It's going to take more than that to get me to turn on the coaching staff that has produced two SEC championships, ten wins a year, and the longest run of success we have seen in decades.
I could go on a rant here about how message boards, talk radio, and yes, even the blogosphere has produced the sort of fan that only thinks they sound intelligent if they are being negative...but I'm in a bad enough mood as it is.
Let's put this behind us, pound some Cocks, and move on.
In spite of it all, I'd still rather be a Bulldawg.
GO DAWGS!!!
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