Ok, so another day after the disaster in the dome, I am left to think about where our team stands right now. We have a head coach that everyone respects so much as a man, but as a football coach, he is taking a big hit. A bigger hit that that, Coach Grantham, the guy we are paying 750K a year to bring back the Erk/Van Gorder style of defense, still waiting coach. The guy taking the MOST heat though has to be Mike Bobo. Perhaps because he is the only coordinator that has survived the last couple years. Fact remains, the offense did not produce on Saturday night. Part of that can be directed at the job Boise did, especially the DL. Part of it was the play calling, no huddle against an experienced D that also just happens to have one of the best offenses in the country waiting to take the field again when we go 3 and out. How do you shorten a game against a team you know can score, you huddle, you run the ball or you try some short passes-over the middle, screen passes, there are various ways to move the ball besides running between the tackles and running deep routes that require you obviously outmatched OL and RB's to protect the QB long enough for him to find the open WR.
Speaking of the OL, wow, just not a good effort. Couldn't give our backs any space, couldn't protect Murray, thing is, we have NO ONE that can come in to replace the guys we have. I expected more out of Ben Jones and Cordy Glenn at least. Anderson, well, this was his first game back at OT so I give him more slack, but Burnette and Gates didn't do well at the guards either. Course Bobo insisted on running inside the tackles, I think Crowell's longest run came to the outside. Also, Boykin of course had his run around the outside with a great block from Figgins. Boykin never came back into the game, nor did Branden Smith, we had no wild dog formation. I never noticed a two tight end set to help with our pass protection or run blocking. It took until the 4th quarter to throw a pass to Mithchell, who by the way, appears to be our most gifted WR. Tavarres, well, let's just hope he got his one bad game out of the way early. That is NOT what I expected out of our #1 WR. I guess besides our OL getting dominated, I just thought our best bet was to get our WR's/TE's/RB's on the edge, let them use their abililty to make some plays, break tackles etc. But, we seemed convinced we could have success up the middle.
As for the D, I continue to be disappointed with Grantham's style of defense. I personally believe we have some physical corners and yet we never come up and man up the WR's, bump them off the line to throw off the timing of the play. Also, I was really excited when he arrived talking about bringing the blitz-you never know where it will be coming from, we will be able to disguise our blitz packages etc etc. Maybe it is just me but we rarely blitz, we never bring safeties, the few times we were able to bring some pressure up the middle, Moore threw an UGLY INT and the other time had to throw the ball away. To me, the best way to play a QB like Moore, who has such a quick release and the pass plays are based on timing and execution, play tight coverage and bring the heat. I know losing Ogletree was a big blow to our D but I would have immediately moved Jarvis Jone to middle backer-the position he has said HE feels the most comfortable playing, and then put Ray Drew, Chase Vasser or TJ Stripling in the game on the outside. I HOPE that is what happens this week. Eventually I would like to see Tree and JJ playing inside, Washington and Drew playing outside. Nothing against Christian Robinson but I personally believe that 4some is our best. Drew didn't even see the field against Boise-yet a walkon Sulek played most of the second half. I just don't get that and I think a lot of the UGA faithful don't get it either. Yes, the kid is a SR and knows where to go and what to do but he does not have the talent/ability of our younger guys.
My early look at SCarolina, they have Marcus Lattimore-need I say more. Seriously, they beat East Carolina 56-37. You could say, well yeah but ECU turned it over 5 times. Yes, that is true but SCarolina turned it over 4 times. The QB play for SCarolina was pretty sloppy, with Garcia (who didn't start) going 7-15 for 110 yards 1TD while Connor Shaw was 3 of 9 for 21 yards. Lattimore had 23 carries for 112 yards and 3 TD's. Garcia and Shaw combined to rush for 82 yards with Garcia scoring 2 TD's rushing. Pretty evident looking at that, same formation we saw last year. QB in the gun, either hand off to Lattimore of fake the handoff and QB keeps it for big yardage as everyone keys on Lattimore. Ashlon Jeffrey only had 5 catches but those went for 92 yards. East Carolina threw for 260 yards on 56 attempts-obviously a lot of dink and dunk stuff. South Carolina scored one TD on a fumble recovery/run for a TD as well as a punt return. Bottom line, unlike most years where we come into the SCarolina game fresh off a big win but not knowing much about our team, this year is obviously different. In a lot of ways, this is a role reversal game. So many times we have come into this game almost expected an easy win over SCarolina, only to see them play inspired football and we either win a nail biter or lose. This year, I feel like SCarolina might very well come in overconfident. Yes, they didn't look great against ECU, but they are the defending SECe champs, they watched us get whipped by Boise, I feel sure they are very confident. Let's just hope somehow, someway our guys show up ready to play and play the game of their lives. Win this game and the loss to Boise is a lot easier to take. The REAL season starts this Saturday.
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