Can you say “tentative”?

Good.  I thought you could.

To put things in a nutshell, what Georgia lacks on offense is an identity, a purpose.

I hate to make the comparison, but look at what Alabama did tonight.  When you break the Tide’s offense down into its component parts, there are a lot of similarities to Georgia – inexperienced quarterback, superstar playmaker at wide receiver, tight ends that haven’t played much in the system.  ‘Bama’s got more depth at running back; Georgia’s got more experience in the o-line.  All told, pretty much a wash.

But here’s the difference:  Alabama knows what it is as an offensive team.  It’s a run-first, pound the other team and set up the play-action pass offense.  It wasn’t pretty starting out (I think McElroy was 2-12 at one point throwing the ball) and there were ups and downs for a while, but in the end, they stuck to what they are and wore a much better defensive team than Oklahoma State out.

Compare that to what Georgia’s offensive coordinator had to say about his game plan.

“We felt confident coming into the game that we’d be able to do some things and be successful, but we just weren’t able to after that first drive,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “I feel like right now I could have done a better job. I thought our guys played hard and I just didn’t put them in enough great position to make some plays.”

“It’s hard to run it over and over and over again,” Bobo said. “You’ve got to be balanced. You’ve got to stretch the field. Looking back on it, I think I didn’t stretch the field enough. … Just varying what we’re doing a little bit formation-wise and trying to get the ball in (A.J. Green’s) hands a little more.”

I swear, I thought there was a stretch in the first half where Bobo looked down at his play card, decided he’d called too many running plays and went pass heavy just so he could get to a point where his calls balanced.  Never mind whether his offense was moving the ball.  That’s not a scheme; that’s an abstract goal.  And I think the play on the field reflected that.

There’s certainly no need to panic and there’s certainly the opportunity to fix problems, but these guys need to decide what they’re all about first.  Noodling around isn’t going to cut it.