One thing overlooked from last Saturday night – now how could that happen? – is that Mike Bobo called a pretty good game.
This year, the Commodores have been respectable on defense as a middle of the pack SEC team and Georgia’s showing against them resulted in the most yards Vanderbilt’s yielded defensively all season. Georgia averaged better than six yards per play missing its top receiver and with limited carries from a still banged up Isaiah Crowell.
Just thought I’d mention that.
Get The Picture 
You violated the first rule of Bulldog commentary, although you are correct. Expect outraged responses.
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FIRE MARK RICHT!!!!1!
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Good point Senator. I like your positive energy.
Bobo is having a good year. However, the nay sayers
will let no good deed go unpunished.
Matdawg
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What irks me about the whole situation is that most of the people that rag on Bobo, weren’t raising hell about the offense the first five years of the Richt regime when we no better actually worse, but Richt was calling the plays. I happen to think Bobo is a more than adequate offensive coordinator who is plenty good enough to win us a national championship, he just hasn’t had the defensive support, if had continued to have the same level of defense from 06-10 that we had the first five years, Bobo would be head coach at a D-1 school right now.
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Bobo’s fault… Harrumph..harrumph…harrumph
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Bobo has called quite a few good games this year. My level of outrage at his playcalling has been much lower than years past. The fact that we have 4 guards and no tackles on the O line isn’t helping matters.
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Bitching about Bobo is the equivalent of yelling “Free Bird” at a rock concert. You don’t really know why you’re doing it, but you don’t know what else to do because you’ve always done it.
The offense was awful in the Boise game. Other than that, the offense hasn’t been all that bad. There are things to complain about, certainly, like the fact that we haven’t exploited our advantages at tight end, etc. but on the whole, Bobo hasn’t done a bad job this year. He certainly hasn’t done a bad enough job to warrant some of the things that get yelled about him in the stands… and, mea culpa, I’ve been critical of him here, too. But, he’s called good games this year. With execution, he also called two plays that could have gone for Marlon Brown touchdowns on Saturday, and he didn’t miss the field goals. He called a good enough game for the postgame drama to never happen.
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I understand people bitching about the TE, but a player has to make the reads and if the TE is not open, he can not force it in there. That ends in pick 6s. So maybe Bobo has been calling plays primarily for the TE, but for whatever reason, he is covered or someone else is more open, say for a 75 yard TD when the safety is pulled in by the TE.
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if the TE is not open, he can not force it in there. That ends in pick 6s.
See, South Carolina, 2011.
We need talent to have a great offense. With Crowell and Mitchell we are a very good offense. Even without them, Bobo still did a good job of moving the ball against an underrated defense.
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Besides if the Defense is a Cover 2 and you have a WR streaking down the Sideline and the safety takes even a step toward the TE crossing, then the pass has to go to the outside. In fact, even if the safety does not bite the call is supposed to be to the outside. Of course, some people do not understand that you are not throwing the ball in a vacuum, the other team knows how good Charles and White are.
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I agree completely. They couldn’t blame Grantham last year (understandably) because it was his first year, so the blame went to Bobo by default. Not really fair since he’s had first year QB’s for the last two years. Not saying he’s been great all the time, either. But it kind of helps when you don’t have 3 out of every 4 runs going for a loss. A simple 4 yrd run is so important for a drive. Thanks I.C.
I personally think we need to utilize the TE’s and slot receivers on slants and crossing patterns more to slow down the LB’s. Its what is being used to gash our Def.
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How a Bitching About Bobo session ends in a bar:
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We haven’t exploited our advantages at TE because Orson, Aron, etc have been seeing bracketed coverage underneath and over the top almost every game since Boise (I read Orson saying this in an interview before the MSU game). Murray can’t just force the ball in there and teams have been trying to make us throw outside to the WRs where we don’t have the advantage.
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Red Zone… That’s my only complaint with Bobo. It seems we either encounter the nation’s best “Red Zone” defense each week, or maybe that’s the moment we should be “exploiting” our Tight End advantage. I believe that a majority of our Red Zone TD’s have been by Orson or Aron.
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Definitely agree he called a good game. Particularly b/c UGA was still able to move the ball well without it’s top two rushers. That being said there’s still two things that puzzle me about Bobo. Going back the last 10-12 times UGA has had a 2nd and 2-3 yds or less, they have run it every time. Not once have they taken a shot or thrown a mid range pass. Over the last few games though, there have been several times UGA has thrown deep on 3rd and medium. It’s not that I think they should or shouldn’t take shots downfield in either situation. That’s not what gets me. It’s simply odd that they don’t go downfield on 2nd and short, but will on 3rd and short/medium. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
The other thing is how often UGA throws routes where the ball has to travel over 20 yards to get less than 3-4 yards. There were a couple examples in the Vandy game and have there have been several throughout the season. I understand how & why it works and I’m definitely not saying those type throws in short yardage situations should never be called (I am a UGA fan who watched the defenses of 07-09 get picked apart b/c of playing 10 yards off the l.o.s., after all), but it seems to be called too often (imo).
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Again, we are not reading the D. If the safeties are up next to the line of scrimmage to keep the short pass down, the read is the one on one deep ball. Sure it’s low percentage, but at least less chance for an INT.
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The duality that is Bulldawg Nation never ceases to amaze me.
It was Vanderbilt, Senator. They should never be competitive with or hold Georgia under 40 points. After all, Bama put up 34 on them in Tuscaloosa.
It’s just a matter of time before we lose a game against a real opponent.
Now let’s go down to Turd Ferguson on the sideline. Whatcha got, Turd?
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Ferd: I’ve got Blair Walsh here, and he really likes to eat belgian waffles, isn’t that right, Blair?
Blair: Yeah, I love ’em.
Ferd: Back to you, Larry
Red Blackman: Third and three from our own forty seven, we’re in the I.
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+1
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Perfect
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I had to put the coffee down to avoid spewing it all over the keyboard. Thanks, Red.
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So Bama who is the #2 team in the nation put up 34 on vandy at home, yet you expect UGA, who none of us consider as good as Bama, to put up over 40 on them in nashville.
Also I am sure the guys were expecting a fairly easy game since Vandy had been sucking.
As I said before, Franklin was gunning for UGA. He threw everything he had at us. Which he should, sometimes that works well…others you fail miserably and get beat by 50 pts.
In the end Bama scored 34, we scored 33 and missed some FGs.
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Merk,
Please stop making excuses for Mike Bobo. I, for one, expect Georgia to score 40 or more every game. We have talent. It’s a coaching issue. CMR is too nice and his sit on a lead strategy is gonna cost us eventually. Mike Bobo is predictable. Hell, Merk, half the people here know what play we are gonna run before we run it. Furthermore, Merk, we have a WR coaching RB’s and a RB coaching WR. We have a film guy in charge of S&C and an S&C guy in charge of film. We have no special teams specialist. Isn’t that why they call it special teams? We use walk ons and 5th stringers. It’s the damndest thing I’ve ever seen.
We are gonna lose one eventually and I will be the first to tell you……I told you so, Merk.
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I have to agree with Red Blackman here. I find it highly unlikely that Georgia is going to go undefeated for the rest of the time the Bulldogs have a football program.
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I generally agree with you but our offend has shown a talent for scoring points for the opposition this year.
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Oh my. We are going to lose one eventually.
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AAAAAHHHHH! Fire Mark Richt before we lose another game!!!!1!
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What? I missed the discussion part (had to go to the bathroom). For Chrisake, can’t anyone fill me in? Red was about to speak.
Oohhh. Sorry, folks. Brain fart and old fart collided. Now, where were we? Oh yeah. To hell with Bobo!
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I think part of the frustration with Bobo is that he DOES call good games quite often, and it makes people grind their teeth when he inexplicably calls plays that everyone knows won’t work, or continues to run plays that have stopped working.
I thought he called a good game Saturday, but let me echo Jason’s puzzlement of the lack of short routes, especially with our talent at TE and the skill that Figgins and Samuel have shown catching passes out of the backfield. My 2 favorite plays from the last few years were toss sweeps and screens to the FB. I’ve seen very few of those FB screens this year.
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seems like Brannon Southerland made a living out of those passes. With Chap and Munz, they started to disappear. I thought by having a TE at FB this year, we would see so many of those, we would be complaining how often we do it (because, you know, they only get 5 yards at a time).
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my whole, well thought out, in-depth and entertaining reply just disappeared.
so i can only say, “fo rilz” to yours.
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For more on the enigma that is Mike Bobo, let’s go down to Turd Ferguson on the sideline.
Whatcha got, Turd?
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Furd: I’ve got Bean Anderson here. Man, he’s a big ole boy. How much do you weigh, Bean?
Bean: About three-fifteen.
Furd: Back to you, Larry.
Red Blackman: We’re pinned back close to our own endzone, Florida is showing Blitz, now the back off…
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I’m just glad Bobo took the “Fumble on the Goal line” run out of our playbook.
That play was terrible for us last year.
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Yes, the OLB quick out was also a pretty lousy play for us.
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Not really even sure why they drew that one up in the first place!
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It keeps defenses honest.
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When did he stop letting the fans call the plays?
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Oh, the fans still call the plays. The jerks on the field JUST AREN’T RUNNING THEM!!! YEAH, I’M LOOKING AT YOU, 11!!! YOU SAW ME SIGNAL IN SPRINT DRAW!!! YOU RUN WHAT I CALL!!!!
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Poor execution.
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We’re executing the poor now? Did the Republicans win an election that I missed?
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Cannot disagree overall but I do think we need a better strategy in the redzone. We are unable to get a push from the OL so two dive plays in the middle and a fade is just not acceptable. We have receivers, a FB with great hands, and backs with the speed to get to the corner. Surely there is a way to add to the mix. It was bad enough when we were settling for FGs, now they are not a given for the first time I can remember. Not necessarliy a knock on Bobo, this has been a shortcoming on UGA teams forever.
And while I am at it, can’t we have a quick-hitting dive play rather than running back six yards to hand the ball off to a TB? I realize this gives them a chance to read where to run, but it also gives any slight openeing a chance to close. Must be room for both in our playbook. The only time we ever run a quick hitter is with the FB, and this year we don’t even use that,
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Agreed. Excluding our dubious 2nd half strategy to grind out games through a run-it-up-the-gut attack, I think we do a very good job moving the football until we get into field goal range (usually around the 30 for us). Then we tend to bog down. I’m not sure if this can solely be attributable to a shortened field. Personally, I think there is a certain mindset of settling for the FG once we’re in range that effects our playcalling in these situations. As a result, we’re leading the league in FG attempts by a lot. And now, points from those attempts are far from a given.
If you compare our TD/FG rate against those of the better teams in the league, this weakness really stands out:
UGA: 26/20= 1.3
Ala: 36/11= 3.3
LSU: 33/11= 3
Ark: 30/8= 3.75
Aub: 23/11= 2.1
SC: 31/6= 5.2
If you take out the Coastal Carolina game (8 TD and 1 FG), UGA’s rate falls below one to .95. The only team that has close to as many FGA’s as Georgia is Florida, but they’re making them (15 out of 16).
As I pointed out to begin with, our offense is generally good at moving the ball, and we are scoring at a nice (if not great) average–however our high FGA rate and the sense that we’re leaving a lot of points on the board leads to much frustration and worry.
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I agree with both of you, but this is the same complaint we all had when Richt was calling the plays.
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No doubt. Bobo is a good whipping boy for our fans, but he’s just an extension of Richt: his offense, his offensive philosophy, and his offensive tendencies. These same issues could be raised at any time during the last 11 years, but a good defense (and resulting Ws) tends to mask this problem.
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Good game plan…only quibble I have is that when we were down to only Samuel IV in the fourth Q, we kept running single back formations that allowed their defenders to chase down Samuel IV in the backfield. And then, we forgot we were in conservative mode and tried to throw a TD pass on 3rd and 14 when the points would have effectively insured nothing worse than a tie.
We ran 5 times on our last two drives and 4 of them were for a loss.
I’m not trying to beat him up or nit pick too bad…we were majorly short handed without Thomas or Crowell…but why not put in the FB for an extra blocker or throw it over the middle instead of down the sideline considering their interior players were all keying on the run thinking we were happy with the 3 points.
Anyway, that’s my only area of concern. But I have to admit, other than the Boise game, Bobo is calling some nice plays and is getting a lot of production when we are at full strength esp. considering the patch work line.
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Really, Boise was the worst performance and everything else was good to great. Even South Carolina was very well done. They have a legit defense and we hung more than enough points on them to win handily. Turn overs and special teams killed us.
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Bashing Bobo seems to have become a birthright and I am just as guilty as anyone. Perhaps more. I think the main frustration many of us have with Bobo is that he can call a series of plays on one drive that are nothing short of inspired and follow that up with predictable dreck that a Pop Warner team could defend. The other complaint I have, and this is not limited to Bobo (it seems to be systemic), is that we don’t seem to make in-game adjustments very well. If we haven’t planned for it in advance, we don’t seem to be able to do much about it. Witness our ineffectiveness against the run versus Vandy and Richt’s admission that we hadn’t really expected that.
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Given Rodgers’ track record, why would they have anticipated his success?
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My point isn’t that we should of planned for it. My point is that we didn’t do a very good job of adjusting to it. We seem to struggle with those sorts of in-game adjustments. In my opinion, it’s an outgrowth of the ‘get out front, coast and sit on a lead’ philosophy. It almost cost us the game against Vandy. I doubt that strategy will result in wins against Florida or Auburn either. We need to maintain our intensity for the entire sixty minutes. I don’t think we’ve done that this year. I’m not sure if we’ve really stayed focused for an entire game more than a few times in the last two or three seasons.
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What about the in game adjustments vs. Tennessee? That was a really, really good game plan for the 3rd quarter.
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this proves nothing bobo sucks and should be fired everyone knows having a talent like richard samuels on the field masks bad coaching and that the coaches are an utter failure for playing samuel because he sucks and for failing to develop him as a running back. on a serious note boise game not included does it ever seem like the offense this year is somewhat bi polar? There are times when it looks like murray and co. can do whatever they want on offense then all of a sudden can’t they get out of their own way. this seems to be especially pronounced when we’re either A) in a position to put a game out of reach or B) in the red zone
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“this proves nothing bobo sucks and should be fired everyone knows having a talent like richard samuels on the field masks bad coaching”
Not sure if serious.
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“on a serious note boise game not included …”
Definitely not.
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As you know I have not been a fan of Bobo or his offense. Some plays in the Boise game and more so in the Carolina game moved me to think Bobo was turning a page. I know what his numbers were last season but that is under the umbrella of a losing season.
You make a very good point Senator about the production against Vandy. I looked at the statistics in you had available. I notice Vandy sits in the middle of the back with Carolina above them. Tennessee, Ole Miss and Mississippi State are below them. The Dawgs beat all of those teams except Carolina which will lead me to another point about the rankings.
Here is my issue with Bobo. Vandy…3 FGs when the offensive may have added 12 more points as a differential in that game and changed Vandy’s second half play calling. What is my concern about Bobo is the Dawgs seem to have a strategy to get out front, coast, and sit on a lead. In the last three games it almost backfired. Now Tennessee and Mississippi State are no Carolina or Bama defense. Nor do they have an offense that can come back. I think most followers would agree those games should not have been that close in the fourth quarter when the defense had played well. Granted the Ints by a QB and the failures of special teams contributed to that.
Against Tennessee and Vandy the O line and play calling failed to move the ball and we punted the ball back with time and field position for the scored and keep the game in doubt.
Now this brings me to Florida. Next team up and another East team somewhat on the road. If you look back at those SEC teams defensive rankings please note where Florida sits. They are above Vandy. And look at the teams they have played. When we played Vandy, contrary what the stat sheet shows, the Dawgs were not ranked 24th, they were unranked.
Frankly I agree with CMR this team is no where close to the level of play they should show on the field. They have serious issues with the running game and the red zone.
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I think that’s more on the offensive line than anything else.
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The Oline is the main culprit for this offense not humming along. Whether it’s poor recruiting or just a series of unfortunate circumstances we don’t have one legitimate Tackle on the field. Bean and Cordy are Guards, they are hge and have slow feet, yet they are being asked to block speed/bull rushes (often with no help since we are 4 wide/shotgun quite a bit). I am not surprised that they struggle in both pass protection and in short yardage, grind it out (i.e. red zone) situations. Isaiah is making this line look a whole lot better than they really are. I would really like to see David Andrews at C and Ben Jones moved out to Tackle in the New Mexico State game to see if that combination works. Maybe Dantzler will be closer to playing by the end of the season as well. I think that will Theus and the guys we recruited this past year our O line will be much better next season.
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Practice is when they move players, not during a game. The O line problems are clearly an indication that the coaches don’t listen to my demands. I’ve been on record since last year for the coaches to use cattle prods during practice. That’ll put some snap in Bean’s moves. If they use it correctly (just as the signal is called) this lethargy will cease. It wouldn’t be limited only to practice. Afterwards it could be used in S&C during snatch and jerk lifts. A little touch right on the testicles will……and use during flights when he snoozes…. and give one to his roommate to be used unexpectedly whenever he wishes……and his girlfriend and family could participate as well. Man, that would put a little “Git!” in his hitchalong! But do the coaches listen to me? Hell no !
Park a Fing Scooter by the practice field, cranked and running with two wires coming from the battery and leading out toward the scrimmage line and…well, you get the idea. The idiots just won’t listen to me.
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1.21 gigawats
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Iam I wrong about this?
It seems that in each of the last two games, in the 4th quarter we had a two score + lead and the last pass we attempted was intercepted.
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Yes? And?
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and we won.
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This is just one of my more paranoid ideations and I am sure there is no truth on the following statement below.
I wonder if the On and Off nature of the offense particularly this year is somewhat related to the betting line going on outside. It seems that when UGA has covered they start slowing down, and that allows the other team to catch up well and UGA have a hard time covering again. Just being paranoid .
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I LOVE this line of thinking, but I wouldn’t think UGA would be a part of it, but the refs could. Refs getting caught fixing games for betting purposes? No problem, happens all the time, totally understandable (NBA games just a few years ago?). But the school somehow being involved with that? Now you’ve got news and rivalries will see it to the end.
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Don’t bet money on the Dawgs unless it’s evened up, ericdawg. That way you don’t worry about the point spread and what they do with it.
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Also smoking that shit makes you paranoid as hell.
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IT’S A CONSPIRACY! A C-O-N………..speer-acy.
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That’s useful info, Senator. Like others, I hope for better use of the FB and am frustrated over RZ problems. Re: the latter, however, our thin O Line will typically be more challenged on the short field than the long one. Also, I think the point about Crowell and Mitchell (which I kept reminding myself of on Sat) is very important–means others stepped up when needed.
The post game dust up, unfortunately, has diverted attn from a weak D effort in the 2d half. We’ll score points on Florida. But we damn sure better be prepared for Muschamp to do what SC, Ole Miss and Vandy did to us, not to mention UF last year, and that’s throw everything, including the kitchen sink, our way. I don’t think our O will lose that one for us, but another shaky D performance and more godawful Special Teams might. No excuse AT ALL to be caught flatfooted by fake punts, trick plays.
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Are you advocating not to fall back and block for the punt receiver? Not unless a fair catch is called before the punt! Then they would be blamed for not running it out until a QB heads for greener pastures.
Is flatfooted an euphemism for player stupidity ? If so, you are missing quite a few plays that Special Teams don’t make. Trick plays aren’t called trick plays if they are obvious to everyone. Jeez!
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Bingo! Hutson Mason in to fair catch and all the problems are solved!
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Let’s see, wasn’t Hutson contemplating…..oohh, I see.
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I’ll take “Bingo!” for $100
“The fair catch”
What trick play is Florida working on for Georgia?
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They won’t work any trick plays on us. We are practicing how to stop all of them. Of course there are trick plays we have never seen, but the fans have been requested to tell our staff what they are. Just submit them to : Special Ed Dept
c/o Special Teams
UGA Football Team
Athens, Ga 14692
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This has been the funniest thread I have read in a while. Thanks, guys. Today, I needed a good laugh!
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Bobo plays favorites and will always start a senior over a more talented player. He should be starting Crowell and Mitchell. He got that from Richt who is just another Bowden. Bowden always played the older guys because he is old. That is why CMR loves thugs and never starts freshmen. Like starting Thomas Brown. If Brown was a team leader and a good blocker and actually won games for the Dawgs it would have been different, I mean, the only way he got all those yards against Ole Miss and Tech in 2007 was because Knowshon had tired them out, besides Knowshon should have been the started that Tech game. What? Never mind. It’s all Bobo’s fault anyway.
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Hell, he kept playing one guy he favored at FSU until he got the Heisman!
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When Bobo beats good teams consistently, call me. Twist it any way you like, but putting up 33 against perpetual doormat vandy doesn’t say much. We couldn’t run out the clock after Rambo’s INT and nearly lost one of our easiest games of the season – Bobo’s modus operandi whenever a game is on the line. And fans are happy about this?!
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Called a good game? That last drive alone should have gotten Bobo beaten with a brush. All he needed was one damn first down and the blocked punt never would’ve happened. What does he do instead? Lines up in shotgun, SHOTGUN – when every peewee defensive back in the world knows UGA ain’t passing . Stupid series of playcalling. Bobo is too predictable. I could even tell you which side the play was going towards.
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Left or right? I thought we were supposed to go downfield.
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