Like most of you, I figure, I’ve read a bunch of commentary this week about tomorrow’s Alabama-LSU match. I’ve seen some good points, and plenty of stats being marshalled to support one argument or another, but, really, I keep wondering if the game boils down to one thing: can LSU’s defense bring AJ McCarron down to something approximating Zach Mettenberger’s level?
Am I missing something here? What do you guys think?
Filed under SEC Football
From the excellent Red Cup Rebellion:
With the type of talent Georgia has, especially the gamechanging talents in Jarvis Jones and Todd Gurley, this sort of statistical overview is nearly useless. Georgia is undeniably the better team between these two, but they are not demonstrably good enough for me to think the Rebels don’t have a puncher’s chance this Saturday.
Any given Saturday thoughts aside, what’s interesting to me in that post is the stats on sacks. Ghost calls it a “good edge”, but it’s more than that. Until Saturday, Georgia’s defense really hadn’t been racking up the sacks as might have been expected – a lot of that being due to Jones’ two-game absence, no doubt – but the Dawgs still manage to have a healthy lead over Mississippi’s defense in that regard. And the Rebel Black Bears have given up almost twice as many sacks this season as Georgia has. You’ve got to like that combination if you’re Todd Grantham.
Remember that last year, Ole Miss was the team that got Georgia’s defense going in the sack department.
And it seems that Grantham is honing in on his best personnel grouping for quarterback pressure.
But it’s clear that Grantham likes having the two dynamic pass rushers on the field at the same time — often with hybrid outside linebacker Washington also in at defensive end — because of their collective ability to harass opposing quarterbacks from either side of the line.
“[Jones and Jenkins are] the kind of guys that you want to have obviously from a setting-the-edge standpoint, from a run standpoint and then from a pass-rush standpoint,” Grantham said. “Those two guys have got a pretty good pass rush, a pretty good twitch, get-off, and it allows them not to be able to say that they can totally go to this guy. If they do, it’s going to leave somebody else one-on-one.
“By doing that, though, a guy like Cornelius Washington went inside and that was really big for us. I thought Cornelius did good inside, so at times we had as many as three outside backers in there, maybe four every now and then.”
No matter how fast an offense the opponent runs, good things tend to happen when you disrupt the quarterback. Hopefully, there’ll be a lot of disruptin’ going on tomorrow.
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UPDATE: It seems Ghost got his sacks totals backwards. But check Ole Miss’ split stats out.
Filed under Georgia Football
It’s the meme of the week.
“It seems like someone has to say something to give us some kind of spark to play hard,” Bulldogs senior cornerback Sanders Commings said. “Now the SEC East is on the line, and I think we realize we need to take our game to the next level. It shouldn’t have to happen like it has, but for some reason that’s just the way it’s been this year. Last year we played hard every game.”
In Georgia’s three most impressive showings — a 41-20 win at Missouri on Sept. 8, a 48-3 humbling of Vanderbilt on Sept. 22 and last week’s 17-9 upset of Florida in Jacksonville — the Bulldogs entered with the proverbial chip on their shoulder.
With Missouri, it was Tigers defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson describing Georgia’s brand of play as “old-man football.” With Vanderbilt, it was the combative encounter after last year’s matchup involving Bulldogs defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and Commodores head coach James Franklin. And with Florida, it was Georgia senior safety Shawn Williams calling out the Bulldogs for being soft and pointing out how certain inside linebackers should be playing more than others.
“Playing for something or playing to prove somebody wrong is an easy motivator for anybody in anything you do,” senior linebacker Christian Robinson said…
Time to do your civic duty, peeps. Please take the time to drop a few choice insults in the comments section. Remember, it’s for a good cause.
Personally, I think it’s a shame that a bunch of guys who play like old, soft men had to use their coach’s blowup with another coach as a motivational stone (I’ll forever be in your debt for that phrase, Charles Grant). GATA!
Filed under Georgia Football
Mangia, mangia.
Ah, what the hell – here’s the official highlight clip from this year’s Cocktail Party.
It’s missing the final Florida turnover, but I don’t hate it.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 