‘We think he’s fine.’

Mark Richt utters expected words of encouragement for his starting quarterback, but that’s not why I’m linking Seth Emerson’s article about it.  This is some of the best troll bait I’ve seen in a while:

In four games this season, Georgia’s senior quarterback has passed for 131, 191, 97 and 147 yards. By comparison, Aaron Murray only had two straight games of sub-200 passing yards: the first two of his career, as a redshirt freshman. He had 14 overall, out of 52 starts.

Where have all the G-Day reveals everything folks gone lately, anyway?

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Week 6 opening lines

Big week in the conference:

• Georgia’s giving 32.5 against Vanderbilt.
• Kentucky is getting 10 against South Carolina.
• Auburn is favored by 8.5 over LSU.
• Tennessee is a one-point underdog against Florida.
• Alabama is giving 4 against Ole Miss.
• And Texas A&M is favored by a point against Mississippi State.

Thoughts?

Nobody throws Steve Spurrier’s play sheets to the ground except for Steve Spurrier.

Because you asked for it, here’s Maty Mauk meeting the OBC on the sidelines.

Not exactly seeing Heisman Trophy-quality moves there, Coach.

Adios, Charlie. For now, anyway.

Is it hard to believe that Kansas axed Charlie Weis mid-season?

Not any harder than the decision to hire him in the first place.

I doubt he’s that upset.  He knows there’s another dumbass AD waiting around the corner to be dazzled by Super Bowl rings and talk of Tom Brady.

Besides, it’s not like he isn’t getting paid.

Observations from the armchair, Urnge edition

THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, JON-MICHAEL SULLIVAN — AP Photo

So, there I’m sitting with a little more than a minute to go in the first half. Georgia has dominated the second quarter, running off 21 unanswered points to go up 21-10.  It’s survived Mason’s first interception of the season. Going back to the first quarter, Tennessee’s been held to ten yards of offense on fourteen plays. Pruitt’s dialed up a pass rush masterfully, put the clamps on UT’s running game and pressured Worley.

And what happens?  Georgia plays some prevent, forgets how to defend the draw play and Tennessee scores a touchdown in less than a minute.  The game was a struggle the rest of the day.

Your bullet points:

• I hope I never see a three-man rush the rest of the season.  This secondary simply isn’t good enough to stay in coverage long enough to justify the strategy.
• And while I’m bitching about Pruitt, one more thing:  Amarlo Herrera is a good player having a fine season, but he can’t cover anybody 20-30 yards downfield.  Quit leaving him in situations like that.
• Rush defense was solid up the middle, but shaky on the edge.
• On the other hand, the pass rush was fierce and consistent.  It was a major component in the win.
• Ray Drew started and proved he earned it.
• Before the season started, Jeremy Pruitt said that Damian Swann was the only member of the secondary who was ready to play.  What if he’s right about that?
• Aaron Davis is still looking for safety help on that touchdown catch.
• I will say that the DB’s are good at contesting the catch.  But that means they have to be in the vicinity of the receiver first.
• That was the punt of Collin Barber’s life.  But tell me you weren’t thinking 99-yard pass play on Tennessee’s first call.
• If Bobo was trying to prove he could be an even more mystifying play caller than he was with the first-and-goal in Columbia, he succeeded with the first two series of the third quarter.
• For all the criticism, the defense deserves credit for holding things together in the third quarter.
• If I’m not mistaken, the offense capped off the third quarter with a five-minute drive that managed to gain less than twenty yards.  Oy.
• I don’t recall a completion to a tight end.  I’m not sure if there was more than one throw to a tight end.
• Georgia didn’t dominate field position as it had previously.  Another reason the game was tight.
• Is Hutson Mason a better blocker than passer?  Discuss.
• In defense of Bobo, three things:  (1) good mix of pass/run on Georgia’s third scoring drive included (2) a throw to the fullback and (3) a successful wheel route.
• In further defense of Bobo:  there’s only so much you can do to scheme around a sputtering passing attack and an inconsistent offensive line.  And come the fourth quarter, he realized that.
• There is no excuse – and I mean zero, zip, nada – for that illegal substitution call on special teams that let Tennessee off the hook on fourth down.  But you know what there’s even less excuse for?  That after the defense stopped UT again, Georgia only had ten men on the field for the punt.  Luckily, the Dawgs got bailed out by a Tennessee time out.
• Georgia didn’t show up for a good chunk of the first quarter.  I’d blame it on the start time, except that’s been a disturbing trend all season.
• Kickoff coverage wasn’t as good as it has been.  And that cost a bit, too.
• The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Gurley wasn’t as bad as the one on AJ Green a few years ago.  But it was pretty bad.
• I don’t really need to say anything about Gurley’s day, do I?

It was an ugly win by a flawed team, no question about it.  But it was a win on a day when South Carolina lost.  Which means Georgia is back to controlling its destiny.  Kinda feels like 2011 all over again.

As far as I’m concerned, the one lesson to be taken away from yesterday is that Pruitt needs to throw caution to the wind against any team with a decent passing game and go balls out with the rush.  High risk, high reward. Because there simply isn’t enough talent in the secondary right now to hope he can win with coverage consistently.

I hope the way the game was contested means that Tennessee is better than I gave the Vols credit for coming in.  (For one thing, it might help Georgia’s chances in the SEC East race.)  But I also remember that sinking feeling I got back in 2009 upon hearing that Houston had blown out Oklahoma State the week after Georgia’s anemic loss out there.

At least we’ve got Vanderbilt this week.

A twenty-five cent face on a million dollar body

Jeebus, was Matt Austin’s crew inept yesterday.  Notice I’m not saying biased.  They cocked things up for both teams.  As bad as the inconsistent forward progress calls were yesterday, the topper was the pathetic explanation given for why no penalty was called on Isaiah McKenzie for delay of game for running with the ball after signaling for a fair catch.

It turns out the real reason is even worse.

… and officials called a fair catch in third quarter when he waved a hand in the air at 6-yard line and then took off running. The play was ruled dead.

“The ref before the game told me to wave complete,” McKenzie said. “I think I did it, but at the same time I didn’t hear a whistle so my first intention was just to run.”

When they don’t blow the whistle, that’s what you’re supposed to do.  But I don’t suppose Austin is going to admit, “oops, our bad.”

We’ve said this before, but it’s a joke that a conference bringing in as much money as the SEC does doesn’t make the financial effort to create a more professional officiating corps.  Maybe if a blown call costs the conference a playoff spot, Slive’ll wake up.  I’m not holding my breath, though.

And let us raise a finger in honor of the fine young men giving their all on our behalf.

Classy broad.

There’s always Clemson, ‘Cock fans, to look forward to.

“We got one.”

There are times when it seems like Todd Gurley has more faith in Todd Gurley than his coaches do.

Tennessee keyed on the superstar tailback, loading the box from the start. At first Georgia tried to make up for it via the pass, but with that mostly a struggle, the strategy turned to just giving the ball to him, hoping he would finally break one.

Gurley said he told Lorenzo Carter, Georgia’s freshman outside linebacker, “We’re gonna get it sooner or later, we’re gonna break one. We’ve just gotta be patient.”

He finally did, breaking a 51-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to make it 28-17.

“We got one,” Gurley said.

Hell, let him call the plays.  He’s pretty much doing everything else on offense right now.

“We have too many inconsistencies as a unit right now.”

You probably noticed that, except for one brief stretch in the second quarter…

The senior quarterback completed 9 of his 12 passes, tallying 104 of his game-total 147 pass yards in that quarter. Perhaps the most promising drive of the whole game — for the passing game at least — came on Georgia’s second-to-last possession of the half. Mason connected with Gurley, fullback Taylor Maxey and wide receiver Reggie Davis before completing his only touchdown pass of the game to freshman Nick Chubb.

… Georgia’s passing game against Tennessee was a complete mess.  There’s plenty of blame to go around, and the parties involved are more than willing to throw it.

“I don’t know today execution-wise on my part and everybody’s else part offensively if we can really say that this would win us a ballgame again even if we played Tennessee again or even games down the road,” Mason said. “It’s a lot more fun to learn from your mistakes after a win. … It’s just a little frustrating when you rep stuff all week, and you don’t execute it right.”

“We’ve got to place the ball better,” Richt said, “and we’ve got to get off the jam better and give a better target. … The reality is we need to get a little separation out there too. We need to get some guys that give you something a little more exciting to throw to than just a back-shoulder throw. Obviously, you can say ‘out-of-sync.’ I don’t know the words to use, but we’re definitely not clicking and throwing the ball like we like around here.”

“We’re doing what we need to be doing,” Bennett said. “We aren’t trying to force anything, but we’re taking what is given to us. We were taking some shots down the field. We just need to execute them. I had a few chances deep. Chris (Conley) had a few chances. We just need to execute. I feel like a few tweaks here and there and we’ll get it going.”

“I do have confidence in him to do that,” Conley said. “It just comes down to us being consistent. Without consistency you won’t have a quarterback who trusts you. And right now that’s something that we have to work on as receivers.

“It’s not always his fault. A lot of times it’s us.”

They’ve played in their fourth game of the season, with a fifth-year senior at quarterback and senior wide receivers, and they’re still struggling mightily with communication issues.

“Even the touchdown pass I threw to Chubb really wasn’t the right route. I see him running the other route and just had enough protection where I could sit in there and hit him on it,” Mason said. “So yeah, there’s still some miscommunication between guys.”

In weeks past, the stagnant passing game has been justified by mistake-free football. Going into Saturday’s matchup, Mason hadn’t thrown an interception all season. Against Tennessee, he threw two.

While it’s easy to blame Mason for two untimely throws, Conley held himself responsible for his quarterback’s second turnover, which Mason referred to as “just an average one-on-one jump ball for Conley.”

“I was wrong on my route, and I caused that interception,” Conley said. “I was supposed to be able to adjust by the way I ran it off the line. I messed it up at the line, and it gave the corner position. It’s one where I’m supposed to beat my guy at the line, and I’m supposed to establish a cushion at the sideline. What I did at the line didn’t establish that cushion.”

I don’t get why this is happening.  And to me, it’s an even bigger concern than Hutson Mason’s arm strength.  Just ask the head man.

“We’re definitely not clicking throwing the ball like we like around here,” Richt said. “But like I said before, part of it is when you throw it as hard as we have been, it’s hard to abort running the ball just to sling it around to prove you can. We’re trying to win games around here.”

I don’t know if that’s a general observation, or a more specific criticism of whatever Bobo was up to in the third quarter yesterday, but either way, it’s certainly frustrating.  And I don’t know that getting injured receivers back, or even changing quarterbacks (NOTE:  I’m not calling for that, just using it as an example) is going to make any difference in the short run, if timing and communication are the big problems.  But it’s something Bobo and Ball better get a handle on soon.

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UPDATE:  Tyler has some additional thoughts.

Mea culpa

To all the fretters this week:  you were right, I was wrong.  (Although I suspect we were in different places when Georgia went up 21-10 yesterday.)

But I guess this is my time of not understanding.  Why all the angst after a win? As I tweeted yesterday, Georgia brought its “C” game against a motivated opponent and survived.  We’ve all seen worse results under those circumstances.

And it’s not like other ranked teams didn’t struggle yesterday against inferior opponents.  In some cases, with worse results.

Five in a row against Tennessee.  Take some pleasure out of that.