Monday, October 3, 2011

Thoughts on Mississippi State

DE-FENSE (stomp, stomp) DE-FENSE (stomp, stomp)!

Wow. For all the issues Georgia may have on offense and special teams, the defense has surely made up for them. For three straight weeks, the Georgia defense has been absolutely dominant to the point where the offense knows it doesn't need to continue scoring points to win. At no point in the game after Georgia held state to a field goal to make the score 7-3 did I feel Georgia was in trouble. Todd Grantham's system is finally paying off and it makes me excited to see how the rest of the year goes. Here are my thoughts on the game from Saturday and what's coming next.

- Pressure was coming from the linebackers all day long. Jarvis Jones notched a pair of sacks and has clearly proven why he was a 5 star recruit out of high school. Cornelius Washington had the best game of his career, but of course he had to go out and do something stupid and get suspended. Hopefully this opens the door for the Pastor of Disaster to finally make his impact.

- What a difference having a true nose tackle makes. Having Geathers and Jenkins in the middle makes Abry Jones and Deangelo Tyson awesome. Speaking of Jenkins, he finally made his first big play at Georgia. I loved seeing him sling Perkins around like he was nothing.

- Amarlo Herrera has done an admirable job filling in but I was very glad to see Christian Robinson back in the lineup. He had a nice pass break up on a key third down that most players would not have made.

- The secondary coverage has been great. Now, if we just learn to actually catch those interceptions before we run for the TD, we'd be awesome. I counted three for sure pick sixes we dropped.

- Blair Walsh...ugh. I know a lot of these misses are from almost 50, but that last miss was BAD.

- Aaron Murray was up and down again. He had some nice throws but all three picks were bad. The passing game plan sucked in my opinion.

- Speaking of the play calling, why the hell was Murray throwing with the Dawgs up 21 on a first down inside MSU territory with 8 minutes on the clock. I know it was first and 18, but three more runs would have ran another two minutes off the clock. You pin them back deep and make them go the length of the field three times in 6 minutes instead of risking them getting the free touchdown. The other part of the offensive game plan I did not like is the complete lack of throws downfield. We went deep once (the incompletion to Bennett) and that was it.

- Orson Charles is in full beast mode. No linebacker in the SEC can cover him one on one (well, no linebacker currently on Georgia's schedule anyway).

- Crowell looked great in the first, not so much in the second. But the blocking was also much worse in the second half as MSU definitely made adjustments to clamp down Georgia's running attack outside the tackles. FWIW, I thought Crowell stayed in bounds from what I saw on the replay.

- Malcom Mitchell is only a freshman. I repeat, only a freshman. This kid is good.

Overall, another solid win over an SEC opponent. I said this to some friends the other night, but this season is starting to feel a lot like the 2003 team. A solid defense that keeps the team winning despite inconsistency on offense. Don't forget that Georgia's leading rushed in 2003 was Michael Cooper and David Greene only had 13 touchdowns to go with 11 interceptions. But that team found its way to the SEC Championship game and finished #7 in the country. The Dawgs are set up for similar results. A win over Rocky Top would continue to build this strong momentum as we get closer to the game that will most likely decide the SEC East, the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville.

GO DAWGS!!!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh i forgot about those stats from 2003. Good point!

You're right about Orson as well. I just wish we utilized him more. Just 3 touches for 46 yards when he's averaging 16 yds/reception. Sigh, Bobo.

Great game Saturday. Hope Walsh gets whatever is weighing on him straightened out. He's got too much talent to be hovering at .500 through 5 games.

Go Dawgs!! Beat the Vols!

Boliver Shagnasty said...

David Greene threw 13 TD passes in 2003.

Streit said...

For clarification, Greene had 9 touchdown passes in the regular season, 1 in the SECCG, and 3 in the bowl victory over Perdue. So for the year, he had 13.

Fixed.

RevTom said...

Why didn't Mason play the entire second half? That is the most baffling question of all!

Anonymous said...

Why is no one talking about the play calling? Streit, your point about the 1st and long just brushes on the issue. Its great to see the "D" is making up for offensive issues but that has to be rectified as "D" can only hold for so long. If this was a better opponent -read: any team better than MSU, I am not sure the result would be as beneficial. BOBO Sucks. Clearly he's not focusing on the skill enhancement of the QB.

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Mason is a good player.. he need to be in the game.. AB1825 Training