I’m not the only one feeling it. From Seth’s ongoing live chat today:
Do you think Schottenheimer/Richt have purposely been showing a vanilla offensive scheme, or do you think the offense is just vanilla this year?
A little of both. They are going to ride this running game all year. People need to get used to that. They believe they have a defense they can win with, as they did in the VanGorder days, and don’t believe they need an air-it-out passing game to win it. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to pass the ball; they realize they need to pass it better than they have the first two games. But the coaches also don’t care about style points as much as fans do.
Ah… so much fodder for the comments section here. I’ll hang up and listen to your answers now.
Get The Picture 
Please stop posting direct quotes from the coaches and observations from the media tasked to observe the program. It disrupts the resident expert opinions posted here.
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I love vanilla ice cream. I love winning.
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French Vanilla is better. So is winning BIG!!!
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‘Winning’ and anything ‘French’ is oxymoronic.
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Granted, but you gottta admit, they did get the Vanilla right!!
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We definitely have the players to open up the offense. Get the joystick in space and its all over. I would love to see a couple of slants and tunnels screens to Isiah and then watch Chubby go!
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I don’t care about style points… what I care about is taking advantage of opportunities and being able to stomp on the opponents throat and put them away earlier in the game instead of pussyfooting around for 2 quarters and letting them hang around into the 4th.
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I dont care about style points. I can about stylish wins.
nice work.
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+100
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damn straight.
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Pretty much my thoughts. They don’t need to do much passing. They just need to do it better than they did against Vandy. Though I’m not quite convinced this defense is on a level with the ’03 and ’04 defenses either. Saturday needs to hurry up and get here.
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While I did enjoy tand agree with this, and especially the one out of the LSU leaning media that burnt down the ‘Barn yesterday, I still take a grain of salt when I’m hearing explainations from media types (See Jeff Schultz, AJC).
Also, don’t forget that PF is considered a media expert. As is Herbi, Mark, Lee, Andre, etc…..and those are some of the lesser loons in the bidness.
I consider almost any of the posters on GTP (almost) to be taken at least as seriously as the above mentioned asshats.
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Our starting four defensive linemen could be as good as we have had since the days of Stroud and Seymour. I really thought that we would see Bailey at tackle with Mayes… and Trenton with Adkins rotating in and out. Maybe we will when tt gets his legs. But right now those starting four are a perfect mix of size and speed for stopping the run as well as rushing the quarterback. Rocker is doing a hell of a job… if for nothing else just having put the right folks on the field at the right time.
If those guys can stop Carolina’s running game when sos spreads us out then we may be building something special this year… and I won’t be anywhere near as worried about ut.
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“Rocker is doing a hell of a job.”
+1. In 2 games I’ve seen Mayes, Atkins, Bailey, DeLoach & Co hustling all over the field. Hat’s off to them and their coach.
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Live by the,sword die by the sword. This riding Chubb kinda bothers me. Dink and dunk down the field and hit Marshal or Michel or a wo occasionally. We were in Todd sophomore yr 4th game when he rolled that ankle. Just sayin’
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No kidding. Why wear out our fully stocked stable of running backs when all Young Schotty has to do is coach somebody up to throw the gosh darn ball
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I’m working to hard and not posting enough when I can’t determine snark from agreement. Lol.
“Why wear out our fully stocked rbs..”;-)
You fergot JJ Green was our #2 leading rusher in 2013 and Doug #3 for a reason. Green is at Tech now and Douglas didn’t get a carry last week against the ‘Dores.
Yikes.
The lessons from the OBS and Lattimore can’t be ignored.
Imho
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You are forgetting Michel and Marshall. Actually Douglas did play last week.
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You missed my point Debby. We were talking about running backs in the backfield…not playing special teams. So no Douglas didn’t make into the backfield. And he was our 3rd leading rusher in 2013. Green was 2nd and he is now at Tech. I pointing at injuries .
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Again, I agree!
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He’s averaging 17.5 carries a game so far.
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Are these the same people who will scream we should have run the ball more if we go to the air unsuccessfully Saturday? Bet so
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Yep. That’s hardly riding Chubb. While I’d like to see him touch the ball more, I also see the merits of not running him into the ground…
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Football has changed a lot in a decade. Scoring is way up due to the HUNH, and our defense today will have to defend a lot more plays than Van Gorder’s defense. Even Alabama has adapted somewhat to a more offensive approach, recognizing that rule changes and pace of play make it very difficult to stonewall teams. We will need to score points, even if our defense is great.
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They are averaging 41ppg in 2015 and averaged 41.3ppg in 2014 running basically the same offense. Scoring points hasn’t been a problem.
I mean….seriously, do you people not know who actually led the league in scoring last year? It wasn’t the HUNH. It wasn’t Bama or Ole Miss….it was Georgia’s same old ‘vanilla’ offense. And it wasn’t close…Georgia was 13% better than Bama. And it wasn’t just against powderpuffs…UGA led the conference with scoring 38.8 ppg in conference games.
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Markets/Vanilla-still-most-popular-US-ice-cream-flavor-says-industry-survey
So just to put a bow on it…being vanilla absolutely and in no way means being low scoring.
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Yes, if we score points like we did last year, I think most of us would be confident in the season. The problem after our 17 point offensive effort last week is that confidence in this year’s offense, especially the passing part, is lacking right now.
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Right. Because last year we didn’t score any points on turnovers or special teams either. I mean…its not like we had any kickoff returns for touchdowns…derp. Punt Returns…derp. Pick 6…derp.
Wellllll…..I mean all of the drives last year were sustained drives from the opponents 25….none of the offense flowed from field position based on takeaways….derp.
Folks are going to see what they want to see. The missed passes in the first half were ugly….but the reality is that the offense did ok. They sputtered after the sideline tackle on Chubb (no points on that drive), a missed FG, a holding call on Godwin that killed a drive…and then conservative playcalling protecting a lead. A little better execution and the offense easily scores 27 to 30 on its own. Those games happen to every team. It doesn’t mean it’s broken.
Just for comparisons sake…the offense is averaging the same number of ppg (despite losing a quarter), more yards per play, and the same number of plays per quarter as last year. There might be a little more two tight end sets….that’s really the only difference that I’ve seen.
There is just such a mindset of right now in ‘hot sports opinions’ that you have to be ‘real’ and ‘predict the collapse’ etc. I’m boycotting that. I’d encourage everyone here to do the same. I refuse to shovel dirt and focus on the negatives until/unless they lose. At that point, we can all spend time nitpicking why they lost. Until then, I’m not going to engage in the whole mindless and ego-serving exercise of trying to predict why my team will lose eventually.
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We ran a lot of hurry up and were not vanilla last year.
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That all plays well until you lose one. Running 70-80% of the time isn’t balance.
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It is if the other guys can’t stop it. 😉
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Compared to 2002-2004, what must we hold them to these days, to be a ‘defense we can win with.’
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and I’m sure Coach Dooley would say – add in a great kicking game, and it all works for me. Go Dawgs
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We’re going to have to throw it and throw it well to beat USC, Ala., Tenn. and Tech to have a special season. Lambert is not the guy. He’s shell shocked. Never confident in the pocket. And that’s against two cupcakes. Ramsey throws the ball with more confidence. And yes, I realize some of those throws are ill advised, but sometimes you can be just not smart enough not to understand the enormity of the moment. And I thinks that helps him. This is the best defense we’ve had since ’03 and it’d be a shame to wait until after the first loss to make the switch. And yes, I’m aware of the talent on the ’12 defense, but the coaching was ……well, let’s not even bring that up. The length of our 3 pass rushers is unmatched and they could turn this into a really special season. Man, what would we look like with Nkemdiche? Great move by Garner. Screws us 3 times on the way out. Nkemdich-whiff, Lawson-ignores but yet falls into coaching him and Montravious Adams-takes him on the way out. Sorry, got carried away. Go Dawgs
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“… sometimes you can be just not smart enough not to understand the enormity of the moment. And I thinks that helps him.”
Uh, what?
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Not that these two are even remotely comparable. But here’s what I mean. Take Peyton Manning, undeniable talent. Eats and sleeps football. He knows what it takes to win. Think of gripping a golf club too tight. You’re trying so hard it’s debilitating. That’s him in every big game he’s ever had. He feels the angst in the stadium. Mathis and Freeney won him his only super bowl. Flip side of that, think of Tom Brady and what he’s done with inferior talent. He’s the goofball that made good. Not that he doesn’t want to win as bad as anyone, but he’s worried about dating models and endorsing fashion. I just never get the sense that he feels the weight of the fan base. And that serves him well. And again, our 2 most definitely aren’t these 2. Ramsey has a shot at a career backup, Lambert, maybe a GA. Kid seems to have a good attitude.
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That is truly the worst description of Tom Brady I’ve ever read.
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Try pugging in Broadway Joe.
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“plugging”.. pugging sounds like something TN fans would do after a win.
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I love ‘Murica! Cuz I can totally disagree with dude’s qb comments above, yet pull for the same team.
Go Dawgs indeed!
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You state your first sentence as if it is fact, it is not.
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We’re going to have to throw it well to beat SC, Tenn, and Tech? Maybe. I agree to the extent that we don’t necessarily need to throw it more often. We just need to execute when we do. I think people are overreacting to last week but for a percentage of our fan base overreacting is what they do. To everything. I roll my eyes at statements like, “Lambert is not the guy.” You can not possibly know that yet. He may not be. But what if he has a good game Saturday? Is he still not the guy just because you’ve made up your mind due to the Vandy game making you mad? Come on man. As for Garner and Nkemdiche, Lawson, and Adams, first, good riddance to Garner and not getting those three guys is a bargain price of it meant not having him anymore. Also, while all three of those guys are good players, do I think they are better than our best three defensive players? Hell no. And Lawson stays hurt half the time on top of that.
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I basically agree with the linked comment but think the coaches are going to have to decide to throw it a little bit more than they originally thought in order to keep opposing Ds off Chubb, Michel, et.al.
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The midrash concerning Georgia’s passing game this year has been epic in scope.
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Nu?
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I believe I said something earlier about Pruitt’s year two being on the same level as BVG’s year two. Just win baby!!!
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We only need to throw the ball to set up the run.
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Am I the only one who isn’t as concerned with how much the ball is thrown as much as I’m concerned with how well it’s thrown, when it’s thrown?
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Bingo.
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The QB during BVG’s tenure was Greene, with Shockley serving as an eminently capable backup. I seem to recall a game or two when we had to depend on those QBs to win games for us with their arms, although the D certainly did their part. Anybody think Lambert & Ramsey have that same magic? So I say we should go for all the points we can muster, and not leave the door open for catastrophe.
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How many more points should we be scoring? Last year, with the same offense, team scored 41ppg. This year they are averaging 41 ppg in 7 quarters of play.
I hear you…let’s go for all the points we can muster. I’m just wondering…in light of the fact that last’s years team set the school record for ppg and led the SEC in scoring…what that means to you.
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2 games against weak opponents is a bit small of a sample size just yet. I’d take last year’s offense and this year’s defense in a heartbeat.
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Last year’s offense and this year’s defense this year wins the SEC East, the SEC Championship and likely the National Championship. Yeah, I’ll take those too.
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Explain how last years offense is different than this years offense? At this point in the year, we were 1-1 and folks wanted Mason benched in favor of Ramsey.
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There was a lot of angst about the passing game last year at this point too:
http://dogbytesonline.com/uga-qb-mason-says-passing-attack-just-hasnt-been-real-pretty-86831/
That article is from exactly 1 year ago today (Sep 17th). And Mason wasn’t missing a bunch of easy throws or throwing it straight to the other team. We definitely have to do something.
I honestly wonder if Richt’s tendency to err on the side of caution (like the Logan Gray fair catch/punt safe era) is manifesting itself in the passing game these past 2 years.
“Be consistent” and “protect the ball” seem to be the only real priorities in the passing game for the past season + 2 games. We aren’t attacking downfield much, if at all. Some of that may be our QB’s nerves – Mason said he put too much pressure on himself to not make a mistake. Maybe Lambert is doing the same. The benefit of playing Brice – and suspect we will see more of him this weekend – has to be his comfort and confidence. I think of QBs like lead trumpet players or really good singers – you need one who is confident, bordering on arrogant if you really want things to sizzle. Nothing amazing ever happened when someone was too scared to try.
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Thanks for the link. Lots of short memories around here.
If you really want to get insight into the level of angst surrounding the passing game, go back and listen to the Gentry and Seth podcast from the week after the Tennessee game.
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He can’t answer the question because it’s based on feelings. Even when you present the facts that scoring is identical to last year it just isn’t good enough. We hear bragging about last year’s offense NOW. I remember last year around this time it was, “Paaaaaaaaawl! Mason can’t get it done Paaaaaaaaaawl. There’s a reason he was Murray’s backup Paaaaaaaaawl! Why didn’t our coaches recruit better at qb, Paaaaaaaaaawl?” And guess what, the year before that they were talking about Murray the same way. He supposedly couldn’t win a “big game” except when he did and even then it didn’t count. And he locked onto his receivers too much according to them. They are never happy with the starter and infatuated with the backup. Every year. The faces may change but the complaints never do. Also, as far as needing the qb to win games in 03, do y’all remember who our running backs were that year? I’ll put it this way, we missed Musa. Bad. And they were nowhere near the level of Chubb, Michel, and Marshall. That probably had something to do with the qb having to win so,e games for us. Fair to say?
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Just to clarify: the offense isn’t averaging 41 point per game. It’s averaging 34 ppg (which is still good btw) and that’s with a two game sample size against two of the lesser opponents on the schedule, so not exactly a great sense of its ceiling or floor, yet. Perhaps worth noting for both sides of the debate on the offense relative to other years.
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We’ve only played 7 qtrs, so more like something like 38 pts/game. And I don’t know that you can just discount the DST points. It’s a team game. Also, we could have scored a million on LA Monroe, so I don’t know what conclusions we can really draw at this point. Lastly, jury is still out on whether Vandy is a “lesser” opponent with respect to their defense versus our offense. They’ve played two games and played well on defense in both.
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Totally agree on Vandy’s defense. I was only pointing out the numbers in the context of a discussion of whether or not the offense specifically is underperforming or not. I’ll take the defense and special teams points all day and a win is a win as far as I’m concerned.
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I’ve always been a big believer in the early Richt/Dooley style, but, Senator, the link that you posted to Spencer Hall’s reaction to our hire made one excellent point:
coaching ball-control football at the college level and relying on the defense to bail out is a great recipe for losing games 14-10 when one of your DBs gets distracted by a butterfly and lets a receiver get wide open behind them. We know because WE SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS WATCHING THIS EXACT CRAP. It’s gonna happen, because you can’t run low-margin football strategy with college talent that yields high margins of error.
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2015/8/4/9094551/the-mc-predicts-moderate-doom-again
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Assuming the passing game becomes as efficient as it was the final 7 games last year, this is basically the same team with, probably, a better defense. Georgia didn’t lose any games 14-10 last season.
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The whole argument is this offense is not looking to be as prolific as last year…I hope (but expect) we’re going back to the days of getting a lead then freaking out that we might lose so we go on prevent offense in the 4th. I hope I’m just being a jerk and not giving CMR enough credit, but I’m getting that duck-and-cover feeling again.
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There’s a one game sample where the offense didn’t perform as well as last year. The passing game needs to do better than that, and I’m suspicious of that happening, but it’s premature to suggest they’re Florida 2012 or even Georgia 2003. For starters, the offensive line and running backs are far better than the 2003 team.
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No. The team lost 3 games last year 2 by margins of 1 TD or less. The total scored by both teams was higher though.
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The premise is that relying on your defense and ball control to carry your team in college is a fool’s errand because you’ll make mistakes eventually and lose no matter how good your defense is. Everyone loses and wins games by 1 TD or less. Georgia’s losses last year were not in the manner described by Spencer Hall. I’m somewhat skeptical of the Schottenheimer hire, but I need more than two games to think my suspicions are true..
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Run the damn ball bobo sure did flip to throw the damn ball schotty with a quickness.
Balance was once the enemy, it is now sought after. Dont take what they are givin ya, let know you can throw it.
You’d think that some folks just like to complain.
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And you’ve described the situation perfectly. They will never be happy. A NC will just lead to complaints about how long it took and that there should have been more.
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Having read each post, this is truly one of the worst threads I’ve ever read on here.
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