I told you guys after the MSU game you’d better get used to anemic offense in the second half this season if the defense is really up to snuff now. Mike Bobo confirms it.
… In both games, Bobo said he felt confident that if his offense avoided big mistakes, the defense was playing well enough to secure the victory.
“That’s got a lot to do with it,” Bobo said. “When you’re playing any team and your defense is handling them like they are, you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where it puts them in a bind, so to speak. You slow down your offensive tempo a little bit, make sure you run more clock, and then that’s when the execution becomes more important.
“We’ve got to do a better job of executing in those situations. I still think we can execute and get first downs, even though we’re slowing down our tempo a bit and how we’re approaching things.”
Note that the goal there is first downs, not more scoring. That’s Richt ball: get a lead, then grind out the second half behind a tough defense to the win. It may not be pretty, but remember, that’s the formula that got Georgia to three SECCGs in four years.
Some of you may not like the aesthetics, but from where I sit, it sure as hell beats what we’ve seen over the past three seasons.
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UPDATE: More of the same, straight from the horse’s mouth:
“We talk about it a lot. We want to put teams away. We just have not been able to do that. You also get in a situation where if you got a lead you want to be careful not to do what we did where we threw that pick six. We’re up 21 points and the defense is in complete control. So yeah you want keep doing things offensively but the more you throw it the more risk you take of that – a pick six – happening and all of a sudden it’s a two-score game and it gets a little bit tighter than you want it to get. I certainly don’t want to play a conservative brand of football in the third quarter, but if it’s in the fourth quarter and you are up by three scores I think it’s wise to burn as much clock as you can. You do that by running the ball and making sure you don’t snap ball too early in the 40-second clock. Sometimes it’s boring but if you win the goal is to win.”
Get The Picture 
I may be wrong but it seems like Murray’s last pass attempt on Saturday scored points for the other team. His third INT of the game. With a two touchdown lead and our QB giving points to the other team I can see why CMR would want to go to the ground game.
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Well, this week may not be so easy. The last 2 weeks we played teams that were run first, pass second, thus we were good with the fact that we had stopped their running game and the QBs were unable to drive on us. Tenn has no run game(think they had less then 20 yards against Fla), they are pass first, pass second. If we get up by 14-17 pts, I do not think grinding it out will be best. All it takes there is one big play and we are in a 7 pt game. Plus the problem with slowing down the O is that it kills the momentum. Especially if they start going 3 n out or only getting one first down and having to punt. Then you have to wake them back up to ensure you do not let the other team tie it or take the lead.
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Only thing is…remember in 2007 when UTK had struggled running the ball too and all of a sudden, Coker is Bo Jackson when they play UGA. So I will never bank on UTK not being able to run the football.
The D has to show up to stop the run and hit Bray all night. He will get his completions, but we have to get pressure on him.
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“Grinding it out” doesn’t mean “Three and out”. Grinding it out burns time off the clock that they don’t have to score “quickly”. If Tenn can throw quick tds, we won’t be up14-17 pts. Sounds like a “heads, we lose; tails, we lose” argument to me.
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Also how retarded is it that our best unit is our LBs, yet they will have played every game so far except the first half of boise w/o at least one of the starters.
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Dare I say that’s good coaching?
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Olivadotti is doing an amazing job.
Grantham and Lakatos as well. (and Garner seems to be doing alright).
Imagine if Grantham picked our OC, OL coach, QB coach, and WR coach. Seems like the hires he’s chosen on the defense are much better than the offensive coaches. At least, it seems that way to me.
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Bobo is a proven QB coach. OC is above average in my opinion not great. Friend has only coached 5 games. I think he deserves some time before a judgement is given on him.
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That is fair. Didn’t mean to pass judgement on Friend specifically because I’m still waiting to see how that shakes out. Hopefully we finally recruit some guys for him to work with and he turns them into the Bama- or Wisconsin-line like we all want.
Bobo is a proven QB coach, but man… that star at that position hasn’t exactly made huge strides in a year, has he?
Not trying to attack Murray there. I just wonder what’s going on with him. And was more making the point that I’m much more confident in the defensive staff we’ve assembled than the offensive staff we have in place.
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Actually, you also need to give credit to Gathers and Jenkins for a push on the line and opening lanes for the backers. Those two guys make a world of difference.
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I’m actually OK with this IF (and that’s a pretty large “if”) this defense turns out to be legitimate. If Richt is successful at going back to his early years of stout defense and ball control offense, I will GLADLY watch a bunch of 20-13 victories. Having said that, I’m not entirely sold on the defense yet, nor am I entirely sold on the offensive line’s ability to impose its will on better defenses in the fourth quarter. In short, I love the theory, but let’s see how it turns out against UT and FU before we get all giddy about it.
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Love Mark Richt. I want him to be our coach until he chooses to retire. Love my Dawgs. But playing not to lose sucks, plain and simple. Playing not to lose is how one late fumble or interception ends up costing you the game. Playing not to lose allows teams to hang around and get back into the game. Playing not to lose is how you play down to your competition. When your defense is suffocating your opponent, great. Your offense should have one and only mindset. Score. Period. Want to grind it out and eat up some clock? Great. Do it. But score. Your opponent must be beaten into submission on BOTH sides of the ball. Does CTG tell the defense it’s okay to let the other team stay on the field and score as long as they only get three or four yards a play and have to use up a lot of clock moving down the field? Of course not. If he did he would get fired (eventually) and rightfully so. We would not allow him to cover his butt by saying he’ll let our offense outscore the other guys. Why is it acceptable for Bobo to say the same thing?
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Why is it no one remembers 30-0, 41-14, 62-17, 33-3, 45-16, 37-15, 35-14, 45-1? Most of the bad teams were beaten handily, not 24-10.
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Dude, am I gonna have to go all “Buffy” on you?
I swear to God I’ll do it.
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Why is it that so many has problems with the concept of the exception does not prove the rule? Give me a break. You’re going to trot out the few times in an 11-year tenure that we poured it on? Please.
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How about we do an average score of all FBS teams with 6 wins (by the end of the year) or less that we beat between 2002 and 2008? What do you folks think average score would be? I’m betting it’s more than two tds.
I’m not denying that the air-out-of-the ball strategy was in play then, but I think there were just as many times when we put the game away convincingly at the end regardless of the strategy.
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One thing about the “blowout games:” the scores often ended up that way when the other team’s offense started to panic and make mistakes themselves. They played right into the strengths of the Georgia defense. But in almost every instance, at the time an opponent abandoned their gameplan, the score was much closer.
Take, for instance, the 41-14 Tennessee game from 2004. That game was awful close to being 14-13 Vols at the half. Instead, a mistake made it 20 – 7, and the wheels came off for the Vols in the second half because they came out panicked and went with a high-risk, high-reward offense to close that gap. Score got rolled up because David Greene kept getting the ball back starting around mid-field.
That’s some old-school Richt style game planning.
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62-17 was vs Kentucky, in Lexington. I was at that game. It was a beautiful thing.
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The game has changed quite a bit since those halcyon days. The beat way to maintain a lead is to make it bigger. I’ll refer you to last year’s Auburn debacle. Every defense is susceptible to a big play, and as we saw on Saturday, this stupid offense in slow down mode is susceptible to idiotic turnovers. Grinding out the 4th quarter is reasonable. Doing it in the 3rd quarter is just plain dumb.
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I agree with Paul and Gooner that this is a less than ideal strategy. We’ll never get backups in the game with this gameplan, we run the risk of getting starters injured unnecessarily, and run the risk of letting inferior teams back in the game or (god forbid) taking the lead.
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Does richt train his assistants to say “you gotta execute?”
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I gotta agree here, too. We watched leads disappear against Tech, Auburn, Kentucky, etc. the last two years. Keep pouring it on until there’s no coming back. This offense has the potential to be prolific; they just need to stay focused for a whole game.
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When the defensive backs learn to catch balls that hit them directly in the hands they will give themselves a cushion.
Tennessee managed -9 yards rushing against FU. After having played Buffalo, Cincy, Montana and FU, they still rank 56th nationally against the run. UT’s linebackers, while being fairly big and physical, seem incapable of playing in space….that’s a very bad thing for UT in this particular game. Orson, Aaron, Bruce and Isaiah, all very capable receivers, should have a big night if we get the inside run working.
With that said, Nick Saban would never use this “grind it out” strategy because he is a whin…winner.
Now pass me the kool aid, beotch.
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Stop it. Yer jinxin’ us.
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Dude, I have been sitting on the front seat of the bus since the Boise game.
An FYI………..I also have a bag of wooden stakes and crucifixes in case I should need them. Damned energy vampires.
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Sic’em Red! Oh, and don’t forget the garlic(it makes the view from the a-hole seem less aromatic).
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What about silver bullets and…wait…that’s werewolves.
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Tennessee’s ground game vs us has been kind of… Jeykll and Hyde against us lately:
2010: 9 yards
2009: 162 yards
2008: 1 yard
2007: 221 yards (ugh)
Those numbers only mean so much. New defensive staff allowing 9 yards with no NG last year and UF holding them to -9 may tell us a little more about how UT’s ground game matches up with us.
We shall see. I expect them to run for less than 50, but they could suddenly show up. Stranger things than a UGA collapse in Knoxville have happened.
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What’s wrong with a scenario where we kick their running game in the teeth and play for the dink pass over the middle? We have speed enough to keep up with their receivers on the long ball.
How is Rambo? Is he ready to put the hurt on Da’Rick?
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Really wish I could edit out that redundant “vs. us” but what can ya do?
I hope that’s what we see. Certainly has worked in the past few weeks. And man… would love for Rambo or Shawn Williams to go ahead and knock the hell out of Da’Rick.
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Wouldn’t worry about the usage trips, otherwise The Senator would go blog broke.As long as you communicate well, it’s all good. You’re pretty straight forward and not like some who go on and on without communicating succinctly…..wha….me?…get outta here! You naysayers are all alike!
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Senator,
The only thing is our defenses haven’t looked quite as good as time wears on against good teams, especially against Lattimore and Carolina. I have zero problem with this if we have, say, a 17 point lead in the late 3rd or early 4th, or 10 points late in the 4th, but anything less than that seems more risky than reward. That said, it has worked well two week running when we have had the lead sans Murray’s pick six.
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As far as I’m concerned, each of the past two Saturdays were missed opportunities to get guys like Hutson Mason some experience against SEC opponents. Had we just opened up a wide enough margin in the 3rd quarters of those games, the starters could be rested (and so, maybe Boykin, arguably our MVP so far, wouldn’t have gotten his teeth knocked around), and the back-ups could get some reps. We’re always just an injury away from Hutson Mason being the starting QB.
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+1. I wrote a post about this the other day. If CMR had gone for it on 4th and inches at the MSU 10 with about 6 minutes left in the third quarter and the team made the first down they would have scored a TD which would have made the score 28-3. The route would have been on and UGA could have played back-ups in the 4th quarter.
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In the 4th quarter on Saturday, had a UGA cornerback slipped and twisted an ankle attempting a tackle, therefore allowing a Mississippi State player to score, it would have suddenly been a one touchdown game. It would have been a one score game in a contest completely dominated by UGA. Letting the defense handle its business is great. But you can’t just quit, Bobo, you stupid, stupid, stupid man. I swear, I haven’t been a Bobo basher through it all the last few years. But this attitude is ignorant. WIN BY 70 IF YOU CAN, MORON. Stupid, stupid, stupid, to the point that it makes me angry. In the 4th quarter of that football game Saturday, we could have blown it. All you need is one or two blown tackles like we showcased in 2008 against Tech. The offense had already contributed by gifting MSU points. You don’t take your foot off of the gas, ever. You don’t let your players relax. Aaron Murray’s focus in the second half was most certainly not the same as his focus in the first half, and I think it’s because he knew his coach had his feet up in the booth reading the funnies. Score. Every. Possession. And “scoring” no longer includes kicking field goals, because it usually doesn’t lead to scoring. So just win, Bobo. Stop being Bobo.
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As for the aesthetics, screw the aesthetics. I’m not worried about winning pretty. I’m OK with getting a lead and then just grinding teams down first down after first down. The problem is that *it doesn’t work*. This team apparently can’t do it. It’s really not surprising, either, Georgia only has one good running back. The others are good in spurts. But we don’t have the kinds of players that can just grind it out. The shotgun spread hurry up is great for getting the lead, not holding on to it. So until Georgia gets the ability to actually grind it out, the better option is to just step on the other guy’s throat and not worry about it if the other coach doesn’t like you so much afterwards that he wants to have a long, pleasant conversation like Mullen and Richt did after the game.
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“The problem is that *it doesn’t work*. ”
At what point has this strategy failed us this season?
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This season, it hasn’t, at least not in terms of winning and losing the game. However, in my opinion the Georgia conserva-ffense isn’t as effective moving the football and retaining possession. The offense functions better when Bobo/Richt’s foot is pushing on the gas. Our defense did a great job protecting a two touchdown lead. I see no reason to think that they can’t protect a three touchdown lead. Also, people are bringing up the Cowboys’ game against the Lions on Sunday… Romo throwing interceptions may not have helped the Cowboys’ cause on Sunday, but I also didn’t see the Lions having much trouble moving the football on the Dallas defense in the second half. Dallas, as a team, thought the game was over with, and relaxed. That’s when you get beaten. Georgia’s been beaten doing that several times over the past few years. In my opinion, Georgia needs to keep intensity up at all times.
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RE: your point about retaining possession.
Georgia’s last drive against MSU – which came after the Murray pick-six – consumed five-and-a-half minutes, although the Dawgs didn’t score. I suspect Richt was fine with that, given the circumstances.
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I apologize for going over the top on my initial post. It’s left over frustration from scoring three points in the second half on Saturday. I’m happy that we won Saturday, and I’m happy that the defense played so well. I’m just tired of walking out of the stadium and wondering to myself if we would have lost to a better team.
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“I’m just tired of walking out of the stadium and wondering to myself if we would have lost to a better team.”
A better team like, say, (insert next week’s opponent here)?
It’s a bear being a Dawg fan. Seriously, I wonder if there is a fanbase out there with a more fragile psyche? 😉
Be happy with wins brother, no matter how they come. And be encouraged we might actually be playing some defense again.
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Call it Munson’s Syndrome.
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This ain’t on Bobo. This is Richt’s philosophy.
And you can play the “what if” game both ways. For example, what if Blair Walsh had made all his field goal attempts in SEC play this season?
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That’s a fair point as far as it being Richt’s philosophy. But the Blair Walsh issue is kinda my point in my follow-up comment. It’s fine to have a long drive and kick a field goal, if you’ve already got a healthy lead. But if the coaching staff’s faith in the field goal kicker isn’t shaken at this point, I don’t know what game they’re watching. So, it seems to me that the gameplan of grinding folks down and being more than happy to kick an intermediate to long-range field goal is no longer effective. To me, when something’s no longer effective, you’ve gotta stop doing it.
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What’s not effective? They’ve won their last two SEC games. They’re over .500 for the first time in more than a year. They’re tied for the division lead.
I think Richt would tell you it may not be pretty, but it’s working.
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I guess I’m just not impressed by beating Ole Miss and Mississippi State ugly. They did win, and I’m happy about it. If a MSU player broke a run in the second half, though, it’s a one score game. These were two games where Georgia was capable of more, and just sputtered right on through the game. That’s fine against the Magnolia State, and it would be fine if this was 2004 and I hadn’t just witnessed the horror of the last three years. I can’t shake the feeling that we’re going to shut down the offense in the second half of one of these games, like always, and then blow it against someone with teeth. Maybe it’s shell shock, I don’t know. But I’m not happy with this idea that we’ll just close the playbook and keep punting the ball back to the other team in the second half, content to play defense and kick field goals, which apparently are now going to be adventures.
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I completely understand looking at this through the perspective of the last three years. It’s why I’m not willing to drink the Kool-aid just yet.
But I think you’ve got to be a little stubborn not to be impressed with the play of the defense the last three weeks. Against both Mississippi teams, I never thought they had a chance to get back in the game after the first quarter. I’m not sure if Georgia wins this coming Saturday night, but I’m not worried about the Dawgs getting run out of the stadium, either. Whether that’s progress, or just a return to the simpler times of 2002-4, I’m not sure. But I can’t say I don’t like it.
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Agreed. There is no denying the trend from the defense over the past three weeks. You can say the teams we played sucked, but you still have to go out and stop them. Our guys did that.
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C,mon, Senator, have a drink of kool aid. As a matter of fact, come sit on the front seat of the bus and have a sip of mine………it’s got Everclear in it.
I’ll throw in a “No Whining” wristband for good measure.
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Now Red, you have been relaxing and enjoying these games too much. Just let the buttheads unenjoy the games and bring up fascinating ways for us to lose and them to worry. It has become a sport unto itself for some. Their inventiveness is beyond reason and if they wrote about all the positive events and players, we would be inundated with praise. Now we wouldn’t want that , would we?
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I like the way the defense is playing, too. I just want the offense to stick with what moves the ball and scores points whenever the defense is on the bench, that’s all.
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I’m pretty sure that scoring points was the objective. However, we have inexperienced youngsters all over the field. Sometimes they don’t execute on every play. A dropped pass, a missed block or an untimely penalty will end a drive more times than not. Anderson and Gates did not grade very well in the second half.
First drive of the 3rd quarter – Crowell runs left, Gates and Glenn whiff on blocks, 3 yard loss. 2nd and 13, Crowell runs wide, Glenn and Mitchell whiff on blocks, no gain. 3rd and 13, Murray throws a perfect pass low to Bennett and he drops one that would have been a nice gain.
3rd quarter – 1st and 10 from the UGA 47, Murray rolls left, Glenn misses a block and Murray throws incomplete under heavy pressure. 2nd and 10, Crowell runs left, Gates misses block, no gain.
3rd quarter – 3rd and 5 from the MSU 10, Mitchell drops a pass in the end zone. He had his hands on the ball.
4th quarter – 3rd and 6 from the MSU 32. False start on Gates results in a 3rd and 11. Samuel makes a run for 7. 4th and 4, Walsh misses from 48.
4th quarter – On a first and 10 from the MSU, Glenn and Charles were both flagged for holding. Next play, pick six after Figgins completely whiffs on his blitz pick up.
I could go on and on, but there is no need. It’s execution, not playcalling.
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We don’t want to see facts mess up another attempt to can Bobo and Richt. Keep what actually happens on the field and caused by the players out of this anti-staff rant. Who’s going to believe you? Next thing, the buttheads will accuse you of looking out of your “you-know-what”.
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Yes sir, but I opted for the verbal stake in place of the wooden one.
Now can you imagine if Sturdi and Glenn were manning the same side?
Gates has a lot of potential but needs to keep his head in the game when he gets tired. Dallas Lee is quitely becoming an SEC interior lineman right before our eyes.
We need a prototypical LT. Until we get one, we will continue to struggle in certain down and distance situations. When the defense is guessing we do fine.
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Red…you proved the point it’s ALL Bobo’s fault! Just turrible play callin’, turrible. Why he jus won’t line-up in the I, show ’em all we’re MANNED UP, and pitch the toss sweep to Herschel every damn play….wait.
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“I guess I’m just not impressed by beating Ole Miss and Mississippi State ugly.”
We beat them worse than the number one team in the country.
“If a MSU player broke a run in the second half, though, it’s a one score game.”
And if a UGA player broke a run in the second half, it’s a three score game. The what if game goes both ways.
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We beat them worse at home than the #1 team in the country beat them on the road. Before Mississippi State had injury issues at the line of scrimmage. We also weren’t playing MSU on a short week in a nationally televised Thursday night game. All things weren’t equal.
And if a Georgia player broke a run in the second half, it would have been beautiful. Perhaps it would have been more likely to happen if all the pages of Georgia’s playbook were still on the table, as MSU’s full repertoire surely was at that point in the game?
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Tony Romo and the cowboys agree with the Senator.
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Kicker miss field goals – all the time. That’s not much of an argument. In fact, it’s an argument for trying to score more touchdowns to ensure that nothing flukeish can make a game closet than it should be. This is standard practice among good teams across college football.
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In his last two seasons, Walsh was 40 out of 45 on field goals.
Your definition of “all the time” and mine must be different.
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He’s been in a funk all year, which is not all that unusual when one considers the entire population of kickers in college and pro football. By the time the MSU game rolled around, there was enough evidence on the season to be concerned. Playing for field goals at this stage makes no sense, especially when ONE more TD puts us by 4 scores. It’s just not a good statistical play. It would also certainly help a team with thin depth rest some starters it desperately will need later this season. The smart play is to put the game away. Leaving your team open to a fluke is not smart and could very well result in a loss against teams that do have big play potential.
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I see: it was clear by MSU that Walsh was in a funk, so better to risk going for one more TD with Aaron Murray who hasn’t had any issues with late game turnovers.
I’m not saying this to take shots at Murray. I’m just impressed with your high-powered hindsight.
Look, I’m not defending Richt here. But he’s won plenty of games with this philosophy and it’s clearly what he’s most comfortable doing. I doubt he’s gonna change now.
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I’m just giving my opinion. Pointing out Murray’s turnovers is fair. That should play into the thinking as well. However, what was the real risk in going for it on 4th and 1 deep in MSU’s territory. Our D was eating them up. If we failed (which we did anyway on the FG attempt), they would have had to drive the length of the field to make it an 11-point game (which they were unsurprisingly not able to do). In that scenario, going for it makes more sense. It is the statistical play, especially in light of the D’s play. It’s not “high-powered hindsight” (whatever that is supposed to mean), it’s me advocating for an aggressive and smart philosophy. I think it’s dum to close down the offense early in the 2nd half and can really burn a team. I do concede that this is a fine line dye to our QB’s tendency to turn the ball over. In the end, I’m convinced it’s not sustainable though.
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It’s “Groundhog Day” all over again.
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You think 4th and short was the percentage play after MSU had stuffed us on 3rd and short?
I’m actually unclear on whether you’re arguing in favor of putting points on the board (which a short field goal attempt is virtually guaranteed to do), or whether you would rather play field position and defense.
Statistics usually say take points over yardage. That’s probably why Richt went for the field goal.
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When you’re dominating an opponent, have a comfortable enough lead to grind out a game, and your kicker is in a funk, would it not be best to let him work that out in this type of game rather than only using him when he’s needed?
Say we don’t put him out there for 45 yarders the past couple games, instead going for it on 4th and short. We win two games we weren’t in danger of losing by 30 instead of 15, but when we’re playing Bama in the SECCG and we’ve got a 45 yarder with 3 secs left in a 21-22 game, wouldn’t you have wished we gave our field goal kicker more reps during the season? I know I would.
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Fair point. Although I don’t believe a 3 score lead is substantial enough to start playing with a kicker’s woes in mind.
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At what point did you honestly worry that a 21 point lead vs. Missy would not be safe? That wasn’t exactly Matt Stafford and Calvin Johnson we were facing.
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Then it is one hell of a different season.
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Could this be any more frustrating? This is fine against inferior teams and gets you beat against the ut’s and fla’s of the world. All the dominating teams (Okla of the 80’s, Neb of the mid-90’s, fla in the 90’s, USCw in the ’00’s) would have NEVER thought of using this strategy. I agree with Paul above – playing not to loose sucks and it’s almost self-defeating. All these 4 & 5 star athletes at the skill positions. Yeah, let’s reign in those guys…
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I’m unclear on something. When exactly did Bobo say that he was trying NOT to score? He’s trying to control clock – and by doing so, he give the defense a rest. I would argue that when Murray threw that pick six last Saturday, they WERE trying to score.
I swear some people are never happy.
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+1
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Now don’t bring facts into an argument based on Emotion.
Of course, they were trying to score, one more time. But after the INT. Bobo or Richt or both said, ok, lets just run the ball down their throat and take 5 minutes each drive whether we score or not.
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Yes, but some people differ and are complaining that we were trying to score when we should have been grinding out the clock. Wait a minute,….ummm, let’s see….ummm…he wanted to blame staff..then he said we did it because the coaches wanted to… then it was the players actually playing the game for it to turn out that way…. then it was a planned coaching scheme….then we didn’t dominate so we are terrible…then it was……….I’m having a hard time keeping up with all the Great Offensive Minds with their encouraginjg suggestions and analytics that boggle the mind.
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Folks want to win like LSU, Bama, OK, etc. We just are not there yet. If we win ugly all the way to the Sugar Bowl then you can start talking about how we need to “win bigger”.
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My point isn’t that we need to ‘win bigger.’ My point is that the concept of playing not to lose is very different from the concept of playing to win. It is a hugely different attitude. Close wins don’t bother me as long as we are out there with our foot on the gas, going all out for sixty minutes. But when you intentionally slow the game down and start playing with the attitude that your goal is simply to protect your lead, then you open yourself up for all sorts of bad things. I think we have been seeing a lot of those bad things happen to us in the last three years. And I genuinely believe a LOT of it resulted from having the wrong attitude on the field. Richt has taken to calling out ‘energy vampires.’ Well, what message are sending to our players when we go into protective mode coming out of the locker room? It’s not good in my opinion.
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This coaching philosophy of get-up-by-2-scores-and-sit-on-it is used by Saban and was used by Tuberville. Unfortunately, it works most of the time if your defense is good. But it’s painfully boring, and allows thoroughly vanquished opponents to say silly things like “we won the 2nd half”. It also can lead to a team psyche that is incapable of playing from behind. That was my biggest gripe with Tuberville teams: if they got behind early the game was over.
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One might even say it’s been used successfully by Richt teams 😉
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Continuing to attack and throw it downfield with a big lead worked for Romo and the Cowboys Sunday……oh, wait….
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if we simply limit turnovers and special teams debacles our offense will be just fine. it’s not that the offense can’t move the ball or score points it’s that the offense also does the same for the other team. stop that and we can run the table don’t and we get blown out in jax again.
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No doubt Bobo is burning clock in 2nd half. It would be a wise HC and OC if they receive the ball at the opening of the second half to move the ball and not go three and out. Number of snaps and TOP are the results of execution. Not making it on 3rd down and short is a concern. Set or play call to gain down and distance, O line push and blocking to gain down and distance, and being a little concerned with your starting QB who has consistenly shown the tendency to turn the ball over and the other team scores. Just maybe if my defense was ranked in the top three in every category and I was 3 deep in every position, well I might game a manage like CMR and Bobo did the past 2 weeks. But I’d be damn guarded about it. After all a half is a half. But I have said all along CMR just does not like to put points on the board. And that is who he is.
And this weekend I do not think they sit on any lead at any point in the game. I think UT is more balanced than most think they are. Plus they are a top 5 team in TOP. Do not care what their opponents have been and their records. Remember a game with UT when CMR thought he had the game in hand and UT broke a long TD with barely 2 minutes left and took the lead against a quality defense and a solid special team.
Just perhaps those missy schools were game managed the way they were. If so, CMR and Bobo you are doing a good job. But, damn, let’s not go out and make freaking comments about it.
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Will, UT’s running game is anemic at best. They’ll be passing to set up the run. They’re not balanced.
If Georgia can play nickel and still control the Vols’ run game, it’s going to be a long night for Bray.
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And Bray has a tendency to force passes, he did it multiple times against UF. If the UF db’s could catch they would have had 2 or 3 more INT. I think Rambo, Boykin, and Commings should spend some quality time on the Jugs machine this week.
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Not only that, but if we can stop them from coaching at halftime and coming out to stop what was successful for us in the first half and make sure we don’t go three and out because of their changes, we would be KING KONG.
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My only potential concern with this philosophy as it pertains to this year’s Dawgs is that when we’re sitting on a lead in the second half, we’re breaking the huddle with ~20 seconds on the clock and asking our OL to hold their 3-pt stances for a long time.
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I am a little bit at a loss to understand why, if you are able to score 20-odd points on the other team in the first half, there would ever be any reason not to do the same thing in the second half until they prove they can prevent it. 48-20 is more comfortable than 24-10, isn’t it?
Look at it this way – If you run 6 plays and get a touchdown in 3 minutes, you have put the game farther away from your opponent than if you run ten plays in 5 minutes without scoring.
The same risks that existed in the first half exist in the second half. But the larger you make your margin, the more you use your superiority to turn your strengths into points, the less likely that acts of chance will give the day to your opponent. The clock can be a factor, I get that, but if scoring creates a bona fide advantage in the first half, logic suggests to me that more scoring only increases that advantage in the second half. And definitely agree that our backups would see great advantage in getting some playing time…also, Walsh slump or not, I am always exasperated to see us kick a field goal when we’re 4th and 1 deep in the other guy’s territory. Not meaning to be overly critical, here – like Richt a lot and am enjoying watching this team improve.
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This philosphy is why we have Zero MNCs this century and our main rivals have several. If winning ugly gets us a chance to play a 4 loss FSU, or Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, winning big might get us to the MNC game.
Put your opponent away, and let your starters rest. That benefits a team in intangible ways.
I’ll reference it again for those who haven’t read it. Goole “22 Minutes of Hell Georgia Bulldogs.” It’s a Scout article from 2008. It says a lot.
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This reminds me of Vince playing his brother Bill when the latter was at NCSt. Bill was more conservative than Vince, if that were possible. One wag described the UGA win like this, “Vince took the second half kickoff and ran out the clock.” That type play wins games but few fans. Some cuss Vince and his “three yards and a cloud of dust” even today. IMO, it is what’s in the W column, not style points, that define a coach’s career.
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Maybe we’d have more championships, and fewer dust clouds, if the offensive side of the ball were more productive.
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Let me get this straight. The defense has to give 100% all game long. But the offense only has to show for half a game and mail it in for the 2nd half. Its a testament to how much talent UGA has. We can have a half-ass approach like this and still be a competitive program.
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