Classic “other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” quote from John Lilly about his punting unit:
“We’ve made more impact plays this year on the punt team than we have in the six years I’ve been here,” said Lilly, whose unit was tops in the nation in net punting in 2009 at 41.95. “We’ve forced two turnovers, we got a successful fake and then you give up the big plays and it is disappointing. If you can throw out the two catastrophes, we’re up in the top five in America in net punting.”
Well, yay for that.
Georgia currently ranks 45th in net punting, in case you were wondering.
Get The Picture 
Hey CJL, let the 44 ahead of us throw out their worst two statistical plays and see if we are still in the top five of your irrelevant assessment. Let me stack the deck and I’ll always out play you.
LikeLike
I guess the dropped snap where we have Carolina the ball inside the 20 does not count as a “catastrophe.”
I’m pretty sure we’re the best punting team in the country that has had three punt attempts that failed to reach the line of scrimmage.
LikeLike
60 percent of the time, it works every time… http://youtu.be/pjvQFtlNQ-M
LikeLike
I have never understood the “if you take away x, y, and z” argument when talking about statistics.
LikeLike
Other than that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?
LikeLike
If you take out everyone’s bad plays then they are all top five! ….wait.
LikeLike
Hey, I’ll bet if they had 100 more blocked punts for touchdowns this year, you could subtract those 100 (plus the two which actually happened) and then they would STILL be ranked in the top five in net punting.
Lilly’s right. You just have to know how to cut through the statistical fog to get to the REAL story.
LikeLike
It WILL cost us a game this year, probably when it matters the most. Mark my word.
LikeLike
Like maybe @ WLOCP perhaps? Mistakes at crucial moments have always impacted the game.
LikeLike
Uh, Clemson?
LikeLike
Puff I thought we were talking about punting.
LikeLike
A blocked punt is the cardinal sin of mistakes in all phases of football IMO. Many bad teams go years without a blocked punt. No excuse for it.
LikeLike
I know, I can’t believe our coaches have decided to go with the strategy of letting the other team block punts just to see if we can still win. You’d think they’d pick an easier way.
Besides, I’d much rather those two blocked punts have cost us a game so I’d have a loss to complain about, too.
I’m just tired of it. Newsflash, our team isn’t perfect. Newsflash, nobody’s team is perfect. Newsflash, the coaches’ plan is to NOT get punts blocked. Newsflash, the opponents’ coaches’ plan is TO block punts. Sometimes they get them. We had two catastrophes and survived them. The odds of getting a third are small because…well, they just are. Moreover, we will have added attention to it for the remainder of the season.
It’s funny how when we block a punt it’s all because of our coaching savvy and great play/effort of a player but when we allow one it’s because we’re idiots. It’s football. We do some things great, others are a work in progress. And we’re winning. I’d much rather it be that way than losing. And I’m glad we’re at a point where it doesn’t take perfection to win a game. That’s where we were a few years ago.
LikeLike
I know. Some fans have a lot of nerve discussing our flaws considering that we’re not going 8-5, 6-7 anymore. They also conveniently ignore the conference titles that we’ve won in the last 7 years.
Our fans should be thankful that we even have a program, let alone that we’re better than Arkansas, South Carolina, and Kentucky.
LikeLike
Yes but are we really better than South Carolina?
LikeLike
Wow, Coach Lilly is that you????
LikeLike
So how, exactly, are bloggers and commenters supposed to comport ourselves on a college football blog? I’m not being a smartass. It’s a serious question.
Personally, I come to this blog almost daily simply because I know Bluto and most of the commentariat will engage in a reasonable discussion of our favorite team’s strengths and weaknesses. Are we not supposed to discuss the fact that our favorite team has allowed TWO blocked punts for a TD this season? Or are we supposed to bring it up only long enough to acknowledge ‘these things happen sometimes’ and the players and coaches are, more or less, powerless to prevent them?
LikeLike
I’m just saying that it seems to me that some people seem to get more joy from complaining about their team’s blemishes than celebrating their teams successes, which means they are actually happy when we lose because they have something to complain about. It’s almost as if they’d be glad if it cost us a game just to say “I told you so”…and I just don’t understand that way of thinking.
LikeLike
Despite Todd’s suggestion that John should have nuanced this one a little better, next week’s episode* of Special Teams’ Fire Protection will feature a special guest speaker lecturing on Acceptance, the final stage of the Kübler-Ross “Five Stages of Grief” program:
“Disaster Creep – Why Disaster and Catastrophe are the Norm – not the Exception”
http://magazine.sfpe.org/issue-71-disaster-creep-why-disaster-and-catastrophe-are-norm-not-exception
*All attendees should bring a protractor and scratch paper for notes. No compasses will be allowed because the sharp points lead to too much grabassing and trips to the school nurse for puncture wound repair.
LikeLike
Are we overreacting? Seriously, a couple kids made a couple mistakes…I was in the stadium last Saturday and I was tired of the “good ‘ol rocky top”…really tired of it…but when that kick was blocked…all I could think was, shit! And then I reminded myself that this is why I like college football…
Just saying, it worked for me at the time…
LikeLike
It is puzzling and awful. Just when we thought our special teams inconsistencies were behind us, they cropped up again to almost beat us. hopefully, we get it all ironed out this week. I wonder how long a kicker is supposed to hold the ball…jake timed morgan at 2.0 to 2.1 seconds on all his kicks. erickson was not much faster. I wonder if the velocity of the ball from the snap is slow, which combined with a wide open center of the formation and missed blocks has been a big part of the problem
LikeLike
We’ve been there, done that, this season. That’s why Frix is back at it.
LikeLike
Let ’em block it. We play better from behind anyway.
LikeLike
I’m right there with ya on that excuse coach. All I can say is you’re damn lucky AM was around last saturday to save your ass from the hotseat.
LikeLike
The first step in solving a problem is coming to grips with the fact that you have one.
LikeLike
And that has traditionally been a very long and winding road under Richt.
LikeLike
I’m sorry but Coach Lilly is taking up a position that a real coach should have. Why we have a Tight Ends coach escapes me. Most teams have their Tight Ends cross train with the WR and OL since they are hybrids. By the way do you realize we have 8 TE’s on our roster. Let’s get a Special Teams coach that can coach TE’s instead of a TE’s coach that can’t coach Special Teams. He’s another FSU legacy by the way.
LikeLike
Well then we shouldn’t have to worry about another blocked punt because of laziness and lack of attention .. things we can control. Because that’s what that was .. the missed block and Barber’s tendency to get slow.
A simple matter of two players and a coach not doing their job.
~~~
LikeLike
Two blocked punts. 37% 3rd down conversion on offense, third from the bottom in SEC. MIzzou over 50%. Why are we not holding on to the ball more on offensive. Given they score alot. “D” is last in conference on 3rd down. “D” had a goal line stand against old ball coach. “D” forced old mad hatter to give up the ball, too. Why is this so bad on 3rd downs on both sides of the ball. “D” I can understand to a point, youth and played some very solid teams [3 in top 10]. But I am a little concerned about the O line now with the loss of 3 top receivers and 2 top TBs. Can this O line perform again in a “crunch” time, or can they put some distance against Mizzou on the board, clock and score? Can they sustain blocks a little longer for AM. He did not go deep or over the middle mid range against UT after player injuries. When Douglas scored, it was big, but I thought he was a tad slow to the flag / end zone even when Hicks gave him a very good block to run to the corner. How the Dawgs do on 3rd Saturday has to a damn lot better than 37% and a much lesser % against UT. Dawgs have to domiate the LOS on O. Can not coast or pace in this game like at UT, otherwise expect something bad like a blocked kick in the endzone. Not heard any comments from defeated opponents that “Dawgs have a domination Oline”. Guess that adds to the 37%.
LikeLike