If you’re a glutton for punishment, I’ve got more blather for you. There are a couple of posts up that gave me some food for thought. Also, I sat down and watched a replay of the first half last night (I think I’ve finally OD’d on political punditry).
Start with these two posts from my favorite Florida blogs (hey, sometimes it’s good to get the enemy’s perspective):
- Over at Orange and Blue Hue, Gatorpilot responded to my comment that I still find the Florida secondary somewhat suspect, although what he wrote was too kind to me to be labelled a retort (flattery always works at GTP, folks). He makes some good points there, but I think he’s confused Strong’s gameplan, which in addition to being sound had the added benefit of being successful, with the quality of play of the defensive backs. I like Jenkins a lot, although he’s a freshman, and Haden’s come on, but those safeties are still a weak spot in pass coverage.
- Meanwhile, over at Saurian Sagacity, Mergz has a post up on why Strong’s gameplan was the obvious course of action and why Georgia couldn’t key on anything Florida did on offense in a similar manner.
As for what I saw in the replay…
- My overall impression was that we saw a continuation of what been occurring in the past few weeks, particularly in the Vandy and Tennessee games – lots of yardage that didn’t translate into sufficient scoring, inefficiency in the red zone (which follows), a freshman place kicker who’s playing like a freshman, untimely penalties, lack of an adequate pass rush from the d-line, the occasional misalignment of a defensive player, etc. The only difference on Saturday was that the opponent was a serious step up in class.
- That being said, the score should have been much closer than it was at the half. The spot on the Tebow run was a travesty – man, was Richt pissed about that – and Walsh’s misses looked even worse on TV than they did live.
- It’s a shame that Geno Atkins couldn’t have timed that rush a split second better.
- Bobo really struggled with his playcalling in the red zone. He’s got enough experience under his belt at this point in time for that to be puzzling. On the other hand, his single best call of the day was undone by a tight end who wasn’t on the same page with his quarterback. That one hurt.
- I truly don’t understand our fans’ criticism of Stafford’s and Moreno’s effort. They both got the crap beat out of them and kept going back for more. Stafford’s problem wasn’t that he didn’t care; it was that he was trying to do too much.
- Kenneth Harris, when your quarterback throws that beautiful a pass, the least you can do is catch it.
- I thought the run defense played Demps and Rainey well. But how hard was it to figure out when Tebow was going to keep the ball?
- Prince Miller played a fine first half.
- The linebackers didn’t play badly so much as quietly.
- Massaquoi played brilliantly. Again.
Get The Picture 
And there you have possibly the best list anywhere for why we lost. We don’t need new schemes or coaches (though I’d say there should be some tweaking to some schemes and coaches) or better players with more heart or from the state of Georgia. We just had a day where about 500 different things went wrong at the most inopportune times and it all added up against a very talented opponent who didn’t need any help from us (or the officials). I was seriously smiling through the 3rd quarter because it was so comical that in the biggest game of our season, pretty much not one single break went our way. I called in my head the fumble and the second INT. You could just see it coming because we had just made this great play to get out of a hole like we did before the first INT. This was the ONE game we had to have – we HAD to validate last season’s win. That’s why it hurts so much.
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We should have been up by at least a TD at half. Strange, strange game, but as you say, it was very similar to the Vandy and Ufk games.
I do not know how we can allow Penn Wagers to call another UGA game. It is an absolute abomination. He certainly did not lose that game for us, but he definitely set the tone that UGA would have to work a lot harder than UF would.
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I think think that Knowshon constant subbing himself out is hurting the flow of this offense, especially in the Red Zone. And if King is going to be the backup he has to improve his pass blocking. Cost us a sack either in or near the RZ last week.
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We lack the “2” in our “1-2” punch in the red zone this year. Last year, both Moreno and Thomas Brown had a nose for the goal line and would fight like hell to get there. Caleb King has a long long long way to come if he is ever going to be a reliabel tough yards back.
When Moreno comes out when we are in the red zone, I just deflate because I know (and the defense knows) that we just lost the ability to score on a running play.
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…reliable…
damn Penn Wagers!
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Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. We knew that the way we played against SCU, UT, and Vandy would get us beat against a better, more efficient team. It did. No big shock there.
The more pressing problem to me is the lack of leadership and heart on the team. As much as I think Urban is a cheap salesman, his motivational tactics work with college kids. Richt is never going to do some of the cheeseball things Urban does-he’s always relied on senior leadership and motivation within the team. We’re lacking in that department right now.
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+1 for the Mo Mass shout out – it is almost impossible to believe that he was having problems a few years ago catching the ball because he’s been fantastic.
Great list and all valid points. UGAMatt nails it talking about the fact that CMR wants his Seniors to step up without much prodding/cajoling from him. For whatever reason, this year’s group hasn’t responded.
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I hear all of that, but it is my striong feeling that it is nearly impossible to tracel 4,000 miles and return to play Alabama in 5 days. Same with going to Baton Rouge the week before another “road” game in Jax. Although I know the SEC does the scheduling intra-conference, someone needs to get CMR and Damon Evans an Adderall Rx when they get together on scheduling. Now we go to OK State then back to play South Carolina. In 2010 we go to Colorado and return to play Tenn. We have one open date before the Florida game until 2015. Sounds like we put ourselves behind gthe eight ball before we even tee it up. Please help Damon and CMR understand.
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“This was the ONE game we had to have – we HAD to validate last season’s win. That’s why it hurts so much.”
+1
That about sums it up on so many levels… Had to validate last year… had an opportunity to turn the tide in the series (3 of last 5)… and the road to Miami being paved… It’s becoming clearer that an SEC team will be playing for the MNC against a untested Penn State. Granted Alabama needs to win out as does Florida, but odds are its gonna happen, and its even more likely that Florida will light up bammer to the tune of several touchdowns, which the media and computers will love.
Slowly I’m recovering from that embarrassing walk out of the stadium. Slowly. And I’m trying to turn the page and see the glass half full. It’s not easy, but I’m clinging to belief that 10 wins is low hanging fruit and very much within reach. 3 wins to finish the season and the question about heart should stop – they better, because I don’t think that anybody should question our team’s heart.. The silver lining in all of this is we could likely have a shot at playing Ohio State in the Outback Bowl. That would take some of the sting out of the disappointment in this season’s losses.
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Amen, Mr Carver.
I live in Jacksonville and this one hurts more than any I can remember. I couldn’t figure out why until I read your comment.
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Re: the 4th down spot.
It was a bad spot, no question, and Florida may or may not have continued on 4th-and-inches, but either was it was an opportunity lost for the Dawgs.
But.
If you want to see a similar travesty, which might have been a makeup call, look no further than the spot after Tebow carried to the goal line to make the score 14-3 before the official review showed he didn’t make it into the endzone. They were half-right: the ball did not appear to cross the plane, but it was easily a first down, by at least a foot or two. Instead, the officials spotted the ball so far back it was 4th-and-inches at the goal line. That was a huge gift to Georgia, one they were not able to capitalize on, but a huge gift nonetheless. More than negates that bad spot earlier.
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That was a huge gift to Georgia, one they were not able to capitalize on, but a huge gift nonetheless. More than negates that bad spot earlier.
gp, I agree with you on the first point, disagree on the latter.
Which is what you’d expect from a Georgia fan, right? 😉
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