A shocking observation:
It’s more satisfying to blame the results on coaching incompetence, though.
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“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
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Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
Just to play devil’s advocate, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have had more experienced people to step in on defense as opposed to relying on true and/or redshirt freshmen with no college game experience. That we didn’t is the fault of the coaches.
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Not really. UGA had to kick two DBs (who would be Jrs) off of the team. Add that to JHC being an idiot and you get Norman playing when he otherwise shouldn’t.
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Wasn’t at least one of them kicked off a long time ago? Like long before last season even started and in time to replace them in the February 2012 signing class? How is that relevant now? Granted, I haven’t read CTG’s job description, but I’ll bet it includes recruiting and developing players and not just deploying them in his defensive schemes.
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I agree. I think the small size of the 2012 recruiting class was a big mistake given that we had schollies available and should have been able to see some roster holes on defense coming in 2014.
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We also lost Tree, Jarvis, and Kwame with eligibility left.
Kicking people off plus people leaving early plus a smallish class in 2012? That’s how you get a lot of young people on the field against the best offense we will see all year.
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“against the best offense we will see all year.”
I hope you still think that Saturday night…me, I got my doubts
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You think South Carolina’s offense is better than Clemson’s? Really?
They beat up on a team that Tech (Tech!) scored 68 points on last year.
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Yes! More excuses…
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Yes, 8 freshmen on the 2 deep defensive roster is a lack of recruiting forsight.
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ILBs being young after the two starters I’ll give you, however.
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No way UGA runs vanilla stuff this week. For one, they can’t afford to, for another, SoCar doesn’t use complex stuff like Morris does.
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Clemson ate all the vanilla which only leaves the Strawberry and the Chocolate.
The Neopolitan Defense is a hybrid, but it’s not nearly as complex as Moose Tracks or Chunky Monkey.
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Yes. We definately will be seeing more chocolate coverages this week.
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Because we’ll have JHC instead of Norman? That’s racist.
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No my man, cuz of the munchies.
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Actually, I think Grantham chose the Rocky Road for the Cimpson game…
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I stayed off the message boards on Saturday night but I thought most of the ire was oline/ off play calling than the defense. Was the fan base really that upset with the defense?
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I don’t see how any Georgia fan could watch Saturday night’s game and not come away extremely disappointed with the defense.
The offense has plenty of blame to shoulder in that loss, too, but my goodness. The defense looked like they’d never played football before.
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Well, the defense gave up 31 points (15 is on Murray and the OL). With three true freshman starting and the No. 1 and 2 safeties out, I’m not too upset. There were several plays where UGA was just a hair away from making a big play.
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By 15 mean 7. Clemson picked the ball up on the 15.
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And Georgia’s offense pretty much started on the 20 the entire night because the D couldn’t force a punt / 3 and out. The field position argument goes both ways, it’s just more immediately obvious following a turnover like that.
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The defense got several stops, and if it weren’t for the botched FG and the fumble by the offense, the D played well enough to win.
I didn’t have much faith in the D getting a stop after the offense had like 7 drives that took no time and none of which ended in points. It was a lot like the 2011 SECCG in that way.
Remember that the defense opened with forcing a 3 and out. Then our offense went 3 and out as Murray missed some wide open receivers. That hurt.
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We will have to agree to disagree that “several stops” and 38 points makes a solid effort or that the offense, while goofy-looking, owed us more points.
I have to quit talking about it, I’m becoming even more of a crashing bore than usual.
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I guess I just thought – along with most everyone else – that the offense would have to score a whole bunch to win this one. And not have any stupid turnovers that led to points. I was expecting like 42-30 for the good guys. If the offense had scored once more and not given them that fumble that led to a TD, I would’ve only been off by one point. We were close, but I just don’t see how you can expect the defense to stay in a game when we have 6 or 7 failed, short drives in a row. That KILLED us against LSU. Three and outs and turnovers – especially a whole bunch in a row – will kill a defense. Especially a young defense.
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Yes. The fan base is upset at everything.
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At least they are giving Russ a break.
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No, and that’s the part that bothers me. An offense should be able to score 35 points and win easily. There’s no excuse for a D giving up 38. None whatsoever barring a massive rash of injuries that far exceeds what happened to us during fall practice.
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The D held Clemson under last season’s scoring and yardage average.
Most UGA fans were saying 40 points wins the game.
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I didn’t hear a single person say that. But as long as they scored less against us than they did against GT, NC State, Duke and the like then our D clearly did its part. We all know the ACC is the land of competent football and explosive offenses. Ha! We gave up more against them than any other SEC team they played last year.
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NC State scored 48 against Clemson, though.
We win comfortably if we do that.
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Along these lines, how many points do you think they score against South Carolina on November 30? I’d bet less than 25.
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I think we are gonna find out Clemson is pretty good–I’ll give you the gentleman’s bet on that
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I’m not doubting that they are good. I’m just doubting that they go 1) they go undefeated the rest of the year (in the ACC, no less) and 2) South Carolina beats them by scoring much less than 35.
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Doh! #2 should be the opposite. I DON’T doubt that SC will beat them by scoring much less than 35. I think it will happen.
Now back to my coffee before I put my foot in my mouth further…
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My biggest beef was with the defense. Not stopping the run and shoddy tackling are a major issue. Both totally negated our opportunities to use a speed pass rush on a 2nd/3rd and long situation.
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Spurrier’s a big fan of Grantham defenses. There fixed that for you.
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Steve’s been a fan since 2010
http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=569334
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I don’t care how vanilla the play calling was. We struggled to get off blocks as a front 7, and failed at tackling a lot. I agree with those that say the injuries and lack of practice time is partially at fault for tackling. But I’m not blaming the scheme and play calling for defensive failures Saturday.
And did anyone see Taylor or Mayes get snaps on the DL? I never noticed either one. And while I can understand thinking they might get gassed quickly from Clemson’s up tempo stuff, it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t have helped a bit on the DL instead of the undersized Thornton and Smith at nose.
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I think if we fix the tackling we will be ok defensivly. I personally think this is a very talented group of young guys, who once they ‘click’ are gonna cause a bunch of headaches f0r OC later this year.
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Maybe by the time we face LSU, but I’m not thinking we can fix the tackling in just a week and by adding JHC to the mix too.
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And next year we are going to have a very nice to d to go with Gurleys last year at UGA.
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Are you really not tired of always looking toward next year?
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It’s nice having a good defense later in the season. It’s becoming a tradition for us.
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Anyone see this quote from an NFL scout concerning our LT. “To put it mildly, he struggled. He gave up at least 2 sacks in the game and a few pressures and after that I stopped watching. Gates is knocked kneed and straight legged. He plays with no bend. When he tries to get low he has to widen his base because he can’t bend. He has a tendency to bend at the waist when he gets out of position on a play. He plays mostly from a 2-point stance and is slow to set. He has limited lateral agility and recovery. He gets beat wide by speed rushers often…..Georgia plays South Carolina this week and Jadeveon Clowney has to be praying that Gates is still the starter at left tackle! If I were Murray I might call in sick for the game.”
That scares me more than correctable, ‘Arm’ tackles by young defensive players.
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Gates has to be moved or given help on every play. He’s just not a good LT.
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Except he’s apparently the best we have there. Which says something bad.
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First play, I would run a sprint draw right in the area vacated by Clowney on his speed rush. Then on the 2nd play I would do the same thing. Even if it is stopped, get him thinking instead of playing. But that is just me.
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Yep, but then folks would bitch about Bobo calling the same play over and over again.
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To be kind he would make a great matador. If he is our best then we have been lied to yet again. Remember the last time we were suppose to have a great Oline and they absolutely sucked. We maybe revisiting that under our new Oline coach that everybody was so glad we got. Callaway couldn’t pick talent. Stacy Searles couldn’t coach them up so we go and get Callaway Jr. to come in and here we go again. Mark, God love him, is just not a good judge of Oline coaches.
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I agree, hopefully Artie or Hicks is there for every play. My head will explode if our first series has Gates going 1 on 1 against JC to see if he can handle him.
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Georgia fans are not going to see the offense we have all been salivating over during the offseason if Bobo has to stay in max protect or screen mode all season.
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We def needed to tackle better and get off blocks better. However, anyone defending Norman just needs to stop. He got trucked a couple times. He bit big time on a play action play that saw Watkins outrun him to the endzone. He did play that wheel route TD down the sideline as best as he could. But can anyone really, with a straight face, tell me the outcome of those two plays wouldn’t have been different with a (true) scholarship athlete in there. Tray Matthews also looked a little slow. It seems like he was confused and not playing full speed.
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The Connor Norman thing is really telling. If we are going to say that he is the best because he knows the D then we are in big trouble. He might make a great graduate assistant but he is not capable of playing against SEC or top 10 teams because he is too slow.
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No idea where that is coming from.
Connor Norman is faster than Bacarri Rambo and JHC.
I don’t think he was the problem last week.
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You are right, CTG defense gave up 38 points, way too many points to win most games.
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We just gotta get budder by Saturdee.
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