He “slanders us every time he’s on radio.”

Talk about your meteor pissing match.

Feetwork

Seth Emerson catches something.

An observation about both quarterbacks: Lambert and Ramsey both tended to have their feet set together in the shotgun before a run play, and one ahead of the other when it was a pass play. (Now if I can notice this …) Lambert did it most of the time, though not before a couple play-action pass plays, and before one run play. Ramsey did it on both of his passes out of the shotgun, but didn’t have a handoff out of the shotgun during his one series.

As dismayed as I am to see that, I’m even more dismayed that I’m posting something on this subject for the second time.

Geez, guys, it’s not like the passing game isn’t struggling enough as it is.  Do you really have to give the defense extra help?

I hope Seth gets to follow up on this at Richt’s next presser.  Can’t wait to hear the explanation.

***************************************************************************

UPDATE:  I took a look at the replay last night to see if I could catch what Seth saw.  He’s right.

The good news, such as it is, is that Lambert’s stance isn’t as pronounced as I recall Cox’ being.  (There’s also one play where Lambert went against the grain by passing from a balanced stance, but that was because the play was designed to start with a draw fake.)  It’s also not as pronounced as Ramsey’s stance.

The bad news is that it appears Lambert does the same thing under center.

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In today’s moment of duh…

He had 11 tackles, 2 sacks & 5 TFL. JORDAN JENKINS is the Week 2 Defensive Line Player of the Week. #SECHonors pic.twitter.com/s7d7DU35SS

— SEC Sports (@SEC) September 14, 2015

Honestly, if anyone else had received the honor, it would have been more surprising than Leonard Floyd’s hands to the face penalty.

You think Georgia’s got quarterback problems?

Arkansas lost to Toledo on Saturday, despite outgaining the Rockets by almost 200 yards.  Sure, the Hogs went minus-1 on in turnover margin, but, still, there’s got to be a better reason than that for an embarrassing home loss to a MAC squad.

How about this?

Inside the red zone, Brandon Allen’s QBR fell from 87.0 to 1.0, thanks to 2-of-11 passing, no touchdowns and one interception.

If you’re not a QBR fan, on the season Allen’s passer rating in the red zone is a woeful 52.91.

Considering that Allen currently ranks fourth in the SEC in overall passer rating, one of Georgia’s saving graces this season may turn out to be that there simply aren’t many consistently good quarterbacks in the conference.

Hate to say I told you so. Except when I don’t.

The bloom is off Grantham’s rose with some Louisville fans now.  It sounds all too familiar.

That sure didn’t take long.  At least we waited longer than a season and two games to start carping.

Observations from the armchair, Vanderbilt edition

We’ve already hashed out so much, that I don’t think a lengthy exposition is called for here.  But there are a few things worth noting.  Bullet points, you ready?

• The good.  And there was plenty.  Isaiah McKenzie looks smoother on returns than last year, which should scare the crap out of opposing teams.  Begone, spirit of Logan Gray!  Malcolm Mitchell looks like he’s got his old toughness back in spades.  There is ridiculous defensive speed.  The offensive line held up in the face of eight and nine men in the box, as well as safeties crashing the line of scrimmage, to pave the way to 284 rushing yards against a decent SEC defense.  Wynn’s improvement in one week was noticeable.  Jordan Jenkins has taken his game to another level.  Leonard Floyd in the middle of the field has worked better than I thought.  Sony Michel.  Speaking of which, did anybody catch Terry Godwin’s block on Michel’s touchdown run?
• The bad.  Receivers struggled on occasion to get separation.  The defense still lacks a presence at inside linebacker in pass coverage, which is why I keep hoping Roquan Smith can get up to speed soon.  Marshall Morgan can’t miss field goal attempts like that.  Natrez Patrick losing contain on the fumbled punt snap that went for a first down.
• The ugly.  Lambert’s first half.  The hands to the face penalty called on Leonard Floyd.  Letting Vanderbilt run 94 offensive plays (to give you an idea of how ugly that was, the only game in the last seven years I could find close to that was Georgia Tech’s 92 plays in 2010).
• The disappointing.  Letting Vanderbilt score late.  Another pooch kick misadventure.  Another ejection for targeting.  Not cashing in on a couple of pick-six opportunities.  Not opening up the playbook on offense for a second week.
• The weird.  It’s Nashville, so weird comes with the territory.  But I think what qualifies as weirdest is characterizing Nick Chubb’s day as “quiet”.  (By the way, he leads the conference in rushing yards, despite averaging less than eighteen carries a game.)

The key moment of the game for me came in the second quarter.  Lambert threw a pass that was ill-advised, to say the least, and was fortunately bailed out by the stone hands of the Vandy safety.  On the next play, Sony Michel took off for the end zone and 31 yards later, it was 14-0.  Georgia wasn’t threatened after that.

Just like the rest of you, I have no idea why Schottenheimer’s play calling has been so constipated.  Is it lack of faith in the passing game?  A strong desire not to show much until the meat of the schedule arrives?  Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing I’ll point out is that when Georgia appeared to hit that “enough of this shit” moment in the third quarter, Schottenheimer called his best series of the game, topped by a perfect option read by Lambert for the score.  You tell me what that means.

This could have been a more lopsided game, true.  But it’s also worth noting that Georgia didn’t win the field position battle, which is something that makes its offense a more efficient machine.  How much did the officiating and Patrick’s mistake play into that?

Survive and advance, people.  Survive and advance.

“We’re all perfectionists, and we all want to do it just right.”

Give me all the crap you like about talk being cheap, but I really like the way Mark Richt has taken the Vanderbilt game.

“We know when we don’t that it bothers us and bothers everybody. I talked to the team after the game and said we’ve all got to look within ourselves and say, ‘What did I do that I could have done better?’

“We’re in a business of correction. We’re in a business of watching film, critiquing what we do and being gut-level honest about what we see and making it better.”

It bears repeating:  this is a young team.  Don’t forget that Georgia opened the season playing more true freshmen than any other program in the country.  I don’t offer that as an excuse, but it’s certainly an explanation for some of the glitches we saw Saturday.  And that’s why this matters more than you’d think:

Georgia won without playing its best Saturday, with the Bulldogs moving up from No. 10 to No.7 in Sunday’s Associated Press poll.

“When there were some momentum shifts and some things that looked ominous there for a minute, we could have folded,” Richt said, “but we didn’t, and that’s a good sign.”

He’s right.  Last time in Nashville, the 2013 team collapsed in the face of similar pressure.  Saturday, they sucked it up and got the job done.  You’ve got to have experiences like that if you’re going to learn how to approach the South Carolina game with your heads on straight.

The big question from here is where that gut-level honesty takes Richt and his coaches.

Dammit, PAWWWLLL, them advanced stats don’t know nothin’.

Who ‘da thunk it?  After Georgia’s embarrassing showing in Nashville, the needle hasn’t move a whit in Brian Fremeau’s FEI ratings and projected wins.

He’s got ’em right where he wants ’em.

Hey, look y’all!  Spurrier gonna Spurrier.

“We’ll try to play our best against Georgia in Athens,” Spurrier, still hoarse from the previous night, said on a teleconference call. “They look awfully strong, as usual. But I think our guys will look forward to playing the game.”

For some of you, I know Saturday is shaping up as a no-win situation for the Dawgs.  Lose or pull out an ugly one, and it’ll be another week of no-excuse-for-shoddy-play shrieking.  Win comfortably and it’ll be, “so what did you expect?”

Me?  Any win over Spurrier is a good one.  As long as I get rewarded with one sideline look of despair, I’ll be happy.

“I’d say we have a good working relationship.”

The usual warnings about anything coming out of Chip Brown’s computer apply, but he’s got sources telling him that Steve Patterson is on thin ice with Texas president Gregory Fenves, primarily because Patterson is reportedly pissing off donors left and right.

“Fenves knows athletics is the front porch of the university,” one source close to the situation said. “So he can’t have people who want to give being turned off or turned away at the front porch.”

Eh, maybe.  It seems to me that was a similar criticism leveled at Michael Adams and we all know where that went.

Not to mention Patterson’s got something that even Adams didn’t have, a guaranteed five-year deal paying him roughly $1.4 million annually.  (And some of you think there isn’t much money in college athletics.)

So let’s just say I’ll believe it when I see it.  Besides, I’m kind of enjoying the rebranding.