We bitch about Mike Bobo. We moan about Mike Bobo. We wonder why Mark Richt doesn’t take back the play-calling reins from Mike Bobo.
Maybe there’s something else we should do: take notice that this year’s offense is scoring at a prodigious rate.
… after 3 games Georgia has scored 122 points. That’s the highest popping total by a Mark Richt Bulldogs team ever. Here are the top 3.
2011: 122 points (21, 42, 59)
2008: 115 points (45, 56, 14)
2005: 109 points (48, 17, 44)It is also the 6th highest by any Georgia team in its history.
1910: 202 points (101, 79, 22)
1913: 179 points (108, 51, 20)
1915: 149 points (79, 64, 6)
1941: 129 points (81, 34, 14)
1922: 123 points (82, 41, 0)
2011: 122 points (21, 42, 59)
Before you get too excited about those 1910 numbers, Georgia’s first two opponents that year were Locust Grove Institute and Gordon. (Alabama showed up for the third game.)
Get The Picture 
Does that include points scored for the other team?
If you eliminate the last 4 minutes of each game, would the number even change?
Does scoring 30+ ppg help the right side of the line from getting our backfield killed in crucial situations?
Does it matter that the D gives up more against everyone but the cupcakes?
Am I a vampire, off the bus, and bad fan for asking silly questions about a statistic that maddeningly does not lead to victories?
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Well I wouldn’t call you a vampire….but you could definitely score some buzz kill points
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Hmm. Offensive stats after three games…
After three games? Are you kidding me? The University of Georgia Bulldogs have played two college football games this season. The other time they dressed up and took the field was a glorified scrimmage. Relying on stats that have a small sample size and include Coastal Carolina as one of three games … just silly.
If you adjust for points given up by the offense (see South Carolina) and subtract non-FBS opponents, the numbers aren’t quite so impressive.
They’re even less impressive if you analyze the “storyline” of the game (see BSU) where the offense didn’t even move the ball or get a first down during the entire first half, minus the Boykin Play.
I don’t understand how people can give the Georgia offense a pass on the first two losses this season based on flimsy stats. It’s a joke, really.
Someone recently posted the Belichick quote about how stats are “for losers” …
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Just to be clear:
For those strictly making the point that we’re “scoring at a prodigous rate” … fine. Hey, keep up the good work! We’ll have some great stats by the end of the season, I’m sure. 2011 will be one for the books for Richt and Bobo.
For anyone that might suggest our offense is helping us win football games or that these prodigious scoring stats reflect that … that’s what my post above is directed at.
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Bobo’s offense reminds me of NBA Jam turned on CPU assist. The score would always end up respectable b/c the CPU would go on a 20-4 run to cut your 30 point lead…but you always knew those were empty points.
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Anyway, I want to point out that the only thing we know right now is that we aren’t a top 10 team right now….who knows where we really are until we start playing some other opponents.
I think the next 5 weeks are probably the critical point of the season as far as evaluation. All of those teams are trying to get to the same spot we are this season…Richt takes the boys to 6-2 with NMSU, AU, UK, and GT left on the schedule, I think you’ll see a lot of the talk shift. But with a schedule this easy, there really isn’t anymore room for error if you want to prove your the man to bring this team back from the past two seasons.
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Two good posts.
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You know, if any one of those turnovers in the South Carolina-UGA game don’t happen, just one, or if their fake punt fails, UGA would be about where everyone thought we’d be after 3 games. But because the Dawgs lose the USCe game on fluke plays you guys are all screaming “the sky is falling.” You (and yes if you think I am talking about you I mean YOU) prove on a daily basis that you don’t know sh!t about football.
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Way to come out swinging! You showed ’em.
I guess you’re right. The program is in terrific shape.
Viva Richt!!
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Forget what I said, Justin. Can I be your lawyer?
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You have to respect a good NBA JAM reference.
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Well we are all disappointed for sure. Sure has been a lot of negativity and a lot of it deserved. However, a lot of football left to be played and no body is getting fired mid-season. If it comes to seppuku I am willing to be you second. Until then….. enjoy the season ! 😉
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……..talk about your “Disney Dawg” ! j/k 🙂
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My after tailgate affairs are different now. I don’t make as many trips to the cooler and I am often called upon to “entertain” important family members !
It can be contagious. I promise not to make a habit of it here.
Go Dawgs….. 😉
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I’m pretty Eeyore on the offense, and I think the offensive side of the ball is clearly to blame for our last three losses. But I’m not all Eeyore all the time. I’m fairly Disney on Grantham’s defense. I think the D is playing way better than a lot of our fans think it is.
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I am tired of that Belichick quote already. It is funny how he talks about that and with his new high powered pass wacky offenses just killing teams during the regular season. And exactly how many superbowls has he won since he went with this new cool stat approach. ZERO.
So maybe Bill needs to get back to his type of game and not worry about stats.
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That was his pointL the stats are useless, even if you rack them up. Gotta win.
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Just curious, but who’s offense would you rather have this season?
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Ga Tech’s. I think R Samuel would make a terrific B-Back.
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That’s a joke, right? I mean, you want to talk about racking up crazy stats against a bullshit schedule . . .
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Yea. I was kidding about that.
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“winning is for winners and stats are for losers” – Bill Belichick
I liked that one too
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“winning is for winners and stats are for losers” – Bill Belichick
I liked that one too
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Why does that sound like Charlie Sheen could have said it?
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Im paraphrasing… A bit
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Three games is a small sample. But comparing that small sample against all the other first 3 games in the Richt area is a larger sample. And when you compare it against first 3 games going back over a hundred years, then you have a meaningful statistic.
And yes, one of the games was against a AA team. But most teams play a cupcake early, including Georgia historically. If anything, I would say that this 3 game schedule is one of the more difficult (most?) of Richt’s tenure.
And I can understand the disdain for stats if it were truly an esoteric measure, such as opponent’s QB rating between the 40 & 50 yard lines in the third quarter. But we’re talking about points. You really don’t see how scoring points helps a team be successful? Do you think Richt & Bobo should try to score fewer points? Do you think our team would be better if they scored less?
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Does the 1910 OC have a great grandson by chance??
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Fire Bobo!!1!11!!
Oh, wait…..that’s not what this post is about?
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Kid Woodruff was a stone cold beast on that ’10 team.
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The root of the problem seems to be the little things that are killing this team. Blocking pass rushers, throwing the ball away, tucking the ball away, etc.
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Now we’re getting somewhere.
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you mean things that reflect a lack of coaching.
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Blocking, absolutely coaching.
AM trying to do too much when pressured is not necessarily coaching, since he admitted the coaches continually tell him to tuck the ball when getting sacked. I’m afraid AM just doesn’t perform well under pressure. It’s starting to become a trend.
I suppose you could say the fact they are unable to impress upon him how important it is to react well under pressure is tantamount to bad coaching.
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Since Stafford arrived, Richt decided we’re a team built on having to outscore opponents. Unless you’re going to hold the other guys to 10 or 14 points like we did regularly back in the 2002-2005 days, you better be able to keep up offensively and we lately are coming up short. And you definitely can’t keep making offensive mistakes. Joe Cox and Murray threw too many picks and fumble too much. Our running backs haven’t held onto the ball that well either. We’re no great offensive team.
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“…and Murray threw too many picks and fumble too much. Our running backs haven’t held onto the ball that well either. We’re no great offensive team.”
http://www.cfbstats.com/2010/leader/911/team/offense/split01/category12/sort01.html
Huh?
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Not to rain on your parade…but, if you want to win, you have to…um…outscore opponents. So, if our team isn’t built to do that, what do you want it to be built to do?
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We revisit this topic every so often but I think the decline of the program everyone has sensed can be traced back to Richt shifting coaching philosophies about the time Stafford arrived. Early in his time at UGA, I clearly remember very aggressive quotes from Richt to the sideline reporters at halftime like “We dont let our team get tired” etc looking pretty pissed off. Then around the time the entire team rushed the endzone quotes from Richt was saying that he was loosening up and letting his players have more fun. He stated an example that he used to make his team sit on the bench in strict groups by offense, defense special teams etc, not allowing them to move around during the game and he was loosening up on that and other things. Soon thereafter, we have players dancing on the sideline together, the blackout games but there also has been a simultaneous slow loss of on-field fundamentals and discipline.
I think you need a serious dose of dictatoresque discipline to mold 18-22 testosterone fueled males in to a successful football team. Left to their own devices, these kids (some of them campus celebrites) will be undisciplined and incapable of displaying the teamwork and precision necessary to win football games at a high level.
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Everyone knows that statistics are a conspiracy to keep Mark Richt and Mike Bobo coaching at Georgia, PAWWWL. I’ma hang up and listen (just not to your objective metrics of reality).
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Dawg D post-BVG has made armchair OCs of us all.
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Who cares how many points Bobo’s offense scored against SC when they turn the ball over for 21 easy points???
Bobo was basically throwing bombs against SC, realizing lots of points would be lost due to turnovers and hideously poor field position he was putting the defense in.
But who cares, just score???
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That description in no realistic way describes the actual things that happened in the South Carolina game. But, other than that…great thing to bitch about.
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You must have missed the 3 turnovers. Figures. Offense had a NET of 21 points. Scored 42, lost 21.
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So, you admit that it’s not really the case that “Bobo was basically throwing bombs against SC, realizing lots of points would be lost due to turnovers and hideously poor field position he was putting the defense in.”? Because that did not happen.
A. We simply did not, as a matter of fact, throw a lot of “bombs” in that game.
B. Even if we had, I cannot think of a more insane explanation of why than “Bobo knew in advance that there would be lots of turnovers and he would put the D in bad field position, and so that’s why he threw them.”
C. Talking about “net” points scored for the offense by taking aways points scored off turnovers is a silly stat. Turnovers are largely random, and the points off of turnovers is definitely random. To have three turnovers that lead directly to 14 points and a possession on the 5 yard line is an incredibly unlucky draw as far as turnovers go. To even suggest that any of this is some predictible result of anybody’s gameplan, much less than that they did some kind of re-gameplanning mid-game to account for it, is a blue ribbon winning “crazy fan” comment.
In my humble opinion, of course…
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+1
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Turnovers with Murray arn’t “random”, they’re “amazingly consistent”. Check all 3 of the biggest games Murray has ever played in recently(UF/UCF/SC), it’s a modus operandis. AVERAGE of 3 to’s per game from Murray.
Net points is a key stat for Murray in those 3 games, because assets are measured against liabilities. Look at the SC game, 42-21= Net of 21. You want win many SEC East games with a net of 21 offensive points.
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Sacks are happening so much more last year and this year because Bobo is going BOMB too much, leading to sacks, interceptions, qb fumbles, a whole calamirty of mistakes. Just blindly wining it down the field, boom or bust mentality, scoring points but giving away a bunch, isn’t effective. Florida game and South Carolina game are proof of that garbage approach. Scoring late meaningless td’s on bombs because you got behind because of turnovers, helps the stats, but results in losses
I’d rather see a short passing attack a la Boise. Quick passes, limited sacks, limited turnovers.
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Where are your statistical facts to back up this “Bobo is going BOMB too much” theory? We beat SC all day on routes over the middle and screens. Some of the over the middle routes were posts or somewhat deeper routes but I would hardly call them “bombs.”
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mayor of dawgtown, you should change your handle to mayor of Disney…if if if if if if if…..I bet you are one that can if us to a national championship even in our 6-7 season last year…
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If you look at sacks allowed, we went from 4th in SEC in 07 to 2nd in 09 to 1st in 09. Basically, 2007-2009, 1st to 4th in SEC in sacls allowed, top notch.
Last year, sacks allowed went to 7th in SEC, and this year, 10th.
Matt S & Joe C had fast releases.
And the wins seem to be correlated with sacks allowed for the UGA offense.
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The AJC boards are over there ->.
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My point is from an offensive standpoint, Bobo is either scheming the whole thing wrong since last year since sacks are up, and losses are UP, UP and AWAY.
Or else Murray is just not up to par.
Considering how Bobo’s QB’s did in sacks allowed in 2007-2009 (1st to 4th in SEC), abd how the team did in wins in 2007-2009 (8-11 wins per seaons), I’m going with this one on Murray (10TH IN SEC).
If you at the turnovers at QB in key SEC East games like Fla/SC, even the Bowl game, it’s clear what’s going on.
I think we have some options at QB, particularly in Hutson Mason. So there’s hope. But I doubt we win 7 games in 2011 with Murray back there.
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For the love! Yes Murray holds the ball too long at times. However, he is still a SOPHOMORE! People seem to forget even Stafford took some time to improve in the offense. He was pretty shaky his first year and took some time into his second year as a starter to be consistent.
Murray does need to improve but give the kid a break and let him develop before suggesting we need to bench him for a QB who looked teh awesome against Coastal Carolina for a half. Murray bashers act like he is a senior who has started for 3 years.
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I was actually trying to consider letting Murray off the hook for some of the SC mistakes by calling out Bobo’s playcalling, saying Bobo was calling too many slow developing pass patterns. If you watch the video of the SC game, you’ll see what I mean.
Murray seemed to do better after the int when Bobo called a bunch of short passpatterns where Murray didn’t have time to over-anylyze.
It’s pretty simple, somebody’s primarily responsible for the QB play and turnovers, either Bobo or Murray.
I’ve made the case that you can’t blame the offensive line.
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So, NRBQ…
Posts like SwanSong’s above are supposed to take a hike?
You’re the one that comes off sounding like an absolutist AJC poster.
Way to be, pal.
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Thanks.
You’re right.
Please see Xon’s posts for the proper, thoughtful reply I didn’t take the time to make against what, given the made-up facts and preposterous misuse of stats, is what I consider an uniformed rant.
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JDawg?
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Try and sugar coat it all you want to. But the fact is we won’t win 7 games. I’m tired of the bullshit.
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PASSING YARDS 253.3 42nd Overall
RUSHING YARDS 173.0 50th Overall
POINTS FOR 40.7 18th Overall
POINTS AGAINST 26.7 74th Overall
Here’s how 2011 ends…
Boise State: Lost
South Carolina: Lost
Coastal Carolina: Win
Ole Miss: Win
Mississippi State: Lost
Tennessee: Win
Vanderbilt: Win
Florida: Lost
New Mexico State: Win
Auburn: Lost
Kentucky: Win
Georgia Tech: Lost
I just don’t see 7 wins… oh, and you damn well bet we won’t be prepared to win the bowl game so it’s 6-7 for 2011
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See you in 2012 then.
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Okay, Einstein… then tell me where we getting 7, 8 or even 9 wins?
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That sounded snarkier than I intended. I’m not saying we will get those wins, but when I look at the performances so far of the teams we still have to play, none of them inspire me with fear. Not even Florida, who beat the crap out of a very young team that lost its biggest offensive threat in the first quarter. A lot of people were saying before the season started that they thought we might lose the first two games. Now that we have done that, a lot are giving up on the season. That’s fine if someone wants to do that, but I’m not going to start the weeping and wailing and teeth-gnashing until we lose to a team everyone thinks we are supposed to beat. (Ole Miss would be one of those.)
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I would say 5-7, unless we make a change at QB. You have losses at Tenn, Missisippi State, Florida, Auburn, Tech.
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Yeah, we got to go to Knoxville so that’s not a for sure win.
BTW, i took North Carolina State they just scored although it’s 21-7 Cincinnati less than 3:00 min in the first half
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I figured what Tennessee did to Cincinnati is why I picked NC St
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If you look at the Tenn game, the home team usually wins that one since 2007, every time, 4-0 pretty much.
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If you look at last year Georgia pretty much wins that game every time, 1-0 pretty much.
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That’s quite a sample size you’re using there.
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that would be NO BOWL GAME but who really cares after losing to UCF 10-6 and we couldn’t even score a f***ing TD
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UCF lost to Florida Atlantic.
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Oh good. I don’t have to watch the rest of the season now.
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you must be kidding… the stats that the offense has are in spite of bobo… the game plan for boise was the worst in the history of uga football… making a claim that the offense is humming with bobo is analagous to the national economy showing signs of life under obama or the economy of atlanta doing well in the maynard jackson administration… the key word is DESPITE.
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exactly… however the senator is trying to keep us motivated lol
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I’ll grant you Boise, but as to the rest, you’ve basically decided that Bobo sucks and therefore any success the offense has is due to something other than Bobo with no supporting evidence.
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To tell you the truth, I’d like our team to…not let’em sco’ not let’em sco and neva let’em sco na’mo’
That’s duh gameplan I think sho’ am good.
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Agree Ben, those 3 turnovers where we gave away 21 points to SC were nuts. And the fake punt. 28 points where we we let them sco.
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The offense under Bobo did good on 3rd down conversions in SEC play 2007-2009. Top 5 all 3 seasons.
7th in 2010, 8th in 2011.
Murray or Bobo?
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Did anybody see the Wolfpack vs Bearcats half time report? I think Lou Holtz is half senile
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I see that the Bulldogs of 1910 followed the Florida model of scheduling.
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Not good enough is pretty much my take on our offense, defense, and whole Georgia program at this point. Sure this year’s offensive production would have been more than good enough with the old Van Gorder defenses, but frankly, if we had a great defense I’m confident we wouldn’t be putting up the offensive points that we are.
Under Richt, when our offense is working (as it was against USC), actual scoring under Richt seems to be a product of necessity in any one game. Do you honestly believe that we would have put up 42 points in that game if we didn’t have all the screw-ups to give them 28 points? No way. We’d have settled for field goals or would have been content to punt them deep in an effort to melt clock. We’d have been looking at a 23-17 game or something like that. That’s Richt’s game management style, and it hasn’t changed since he’s arrived. Our blowout wins (against real competition) in the Richt regime are more often the result of our opponent’s turnovers or special teams plays than of an offensive with its foot on the pedal.
When our offense isn’t working?….Well, before 2005, we would be in white knuckle games and hope we could work out the kinks in time to save ourselves (2002 Auburn: yes. 2002 UF, 2003 LSU, 2004 UT: no). Now when our offense isn’t working, we just lose in an uninteresting, depressing, but not heartbreaking way.
This all of way of saying that simply comparing offensive scoring for later Richt teams to former Richt teams and concluding that we’re a better offense now is a mistake. The bottom line conclusion is that our offense was good enough to win then and not good enough now. Your head can spin trying to figure out if that’s the defense or the offense’s fault. Ultimately the fault rests, as it should, upon the head guy.
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“against real competition” My goodness when was the last time we beat a ranked team? Hell, I can’t even remember
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Good gracious. With every loss our fans are getting dumber. The point of the post is to say that we are scoring lots of points…enough to win. Guess what, we’ve played plenty of cupcakes in 120 years of football, so this is pretty impressive. It doesn’t mean much without victories, but the signs are there that this team is not THAT far away. How about we cheer for them instead of hoping we lose so you can prove you were right about Mark Richt. I’m not a Richt supporter or basher, I’m a bulldog supporter. And bulldog supporters cheer for their team to win. Now get your tail to Oxford and scream for the guys in silver britches. If we go 7-5, then we’ll discuss what needs to be discussed at the appropriate time.
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Amen!
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Oh stop it! None of us are hoping we lose or have a losing season.
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gloomydawg,
You might want to go back up and read the posts of you and a handful of others. You might not be “hoping” for us to lose, but you’re doing something here and it ain’t cheering for the Dawgs.
The blog’s host puts up that our O numbers are not bad. He didn’t say “so we have no problems”. He didn’t say “therefore, Richt should be our coach and bff forever!”
So, where is this kabuki theatre coming from where all you guys flood onto the board and try to show off who’s the bigger downer? What motivates that kind of crap?
It’s football season, dude. Enjoy it before it’s gone again.
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That espresso kick in? Good post!
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Only see gloom if no change is made at QB. I like our defense, I like our special teams, our rush offense seems to be going (didn’t like the fumble).
But the passing offense, and int’s/fumbles, needs a new QB or 5-7 is is a lock.
I’ve yet to see anyone here point to a winning team Murray has beat as a starter.
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Our interception ratio is solid to excellent. The Florida game was the only game where Murray really messed up as far as interceptions last year. It’s insane to say that Murray is not performing at a sufficient level as our QB. He’s not perfect, but who is? He is not only doing a serviceable job; he is doing an excellent job. Yes, even if he sometimes misses throws on the run.
We all know we won no games against winning teams last year. Last year sucked. That’s not usually how it goes. There are really obvious factors that contributed to our struggles last year. Namely, no AJ Green during the stretch when we played 3 of the winning teams on our schedule, and a frosh QB for whom the coaches did not open up the playbook at that early stage of the season. Against Florida and Auburn, our offense played excellent football, and Murray played excellent football. The OT interception was unfortunate, as are all turnovers. You don’t analyze a player’s in toto performance on the basis of a single play (or a handful of plays), though.
Anticipating an argument about the UCF game, aside from the fact that UCF was actually better than we give them credit for, our execution in that game was really, really horrible. Nobody can deny that. It still doesn’t prove that Mason should start over Murray. What?
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It’s not rational to say Murray has played well. Let’s look at his 3 most important games recently: UF, SC, UCF. Murray has contributed 2-4 turnovers in each game.
It’s not rational to blame losses on AJ or better competition, AJ was active for Colorado.
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It’s also not rational to base your opinion of someone’s overall performance on a fraction of their performances, yet that doesn’t stop anyone from doing it.
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Really? You are the onyl person I’ve ever met that thinks Murray played great recently against UCF, UF, and SC. Dude, open your eyes, take off your nhomer glasses.
Average to’s by Murray there in those 3 recent games? Figure it out.
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Auburn wasn’t an important game? Why are we leaving that one out, I wonder?
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Swan, get a clue, brother. Murray’s our best QB.
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Xon, a 6-7 season and a piss poor start motivates that kind of crap.
Winners get PISSED OFF when they lose. Losers bitch about the winners getting pissed off and say, “It’s just a game.”
Hooray for average mediocrity!
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Nice to have Charlie Sheen drop by.
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That was a reference to the Belichik quote.
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If you follow the trend in scoring as it goes upward you may want to follow the trend of the Defense. As we have scored more our defense has struggled more. What ever happened to the Dawgs that Controled the game with ball control and pounding the other team into the ground. When we changed our offensive philosphy to try to “outscore” the other team we also threw our “D” under the bus. What has happend in the “W” column as we have scored more?
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How do you know it wasn’t the other way around? Maybe we started trying to “outscore” the other team when I defense started sucking.
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Nah.
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Crazy talk! Doomsday Dawgs know the unknowable.
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Of course. There is a certain contingent of Georgia fans that are convinced that scoring a lot of points is a bad thing and makes defenses suck. There is a lot of sentimentality over the the Dooley days of the 70’s and early 80’s which seems to be the driving force of this criticism is my guess. We’ve never been a grind-it-out team under Richt. When we’ve tried, games usually ended up a lot closer than they should have been.
If you want to have any win/loss success with a ball control, grind-it-out offense, you better have a disciplined team and have a very good defense. We might be moving back to that direction, but we don’t now and certainly haven’t in the last 6 years or so. I give credit to Richt for at least recognizing this. Based on what I saw out of Georgia’s defense over this time, you can’t convince me that we would have suddenly been significantly better on D (we would have been better at third and Willie? We would have covered the wheel route? We would have stopped the bootleg against UT, etc?) if our offensive approached reverted back to old SEC smashmouth.
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