Seth Emerson has a good piece on what’s changed for Greyson Lambert. Lambert, not too surprisingly, says not much.
People in Virginia are still keeping an eye on Lambert too. Last Saturday, as his historic game was unfolding, the reaction among Virginia and ACC watchers could be summed up thusly: Where was this last year?
“It’s not like these types of performances weren’t in me last year. It’s just a lot has to happen,” Lambert said. “Like coach (Mark) Richt’s been saying, for the O-line to do their job the way they did it and kind of dominate the line of scrimmage. And for there not to be just a drop. A lot of stuff has to happen. It’s not like I did something spectacular. The whole offense did something spectacular that game, that doesn’t just really always happen. It was a full offensive effort to get that stat.”
However, even he acknowledges there has been some adjusting.
Regarding his mechanics, Lambert said there were only “little tweaks here and there” since his Virginia days. Mostly, he had to work on taking snaps under center, since Virginia was so shotgun-oriented. So Lambert has put in a lot of work refining his drops, footwork and ball-handling that comes with taking snaps under center.
Schottenheimer also worked with him on getting more legs into his throws. Lambert described it as “a little more bounce with my hitches.”
But it’s the next thing he says that’s most telling: “I guess it just comes from experience and trust what I see,” Lambert said.
The mental aspect of trusting the system and the talent had to be a hard thing for Lambert to accept, given his surrounding cast last season. But he appears to have done so, with bells on. That wasn’t merely a big jump in his mindset from year one of starting to year two. It was a big jump from week two to week three. Good on Lambert to absorb that so quickly… and great on Georgia’s coaches to bring him along so well. Now, keep grinding, y’all.
Get The Picture 
“Now, keep grinding, y’all.” I think you hit the nail on the head here. Continued improvement and consistency are what we need at this point.
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I watched the game again last night. GL was reading the D like an open book. Here is one play (link below) that was indicative of the whole night. GL recognizes the blitz from the right side of the D. Checks to a quick pass to the TE. Great decision making and everyone on O was on the same page. Am I dreaming?
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Sorry that link didn’t work the way I planned. The play is at the 44:36 mark.
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I agree with you. His pre-snap reads were impeccable. It’s the best part of Lambert’s game right now.
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If a NFL dream does not pan out for him, he may eventually be a good OC. Just saying.
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Looks like Yogi took that last fork in the road. Not a Yankees fan but always loved me some Yogi Berra.
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He really struggled against the 2 top 25 pass defenses in Louisiana Monroe and Vanderbilt, and did great against the lowly South Carolina pass defense.
Per his pattern, he will struggle against better pass defenses like Missouri, Florida, and even teams like Kentucky, Auburn and Georgia Tech.
He should have a big passing day against Alabama & Tennessee’s terrible secondaries as everybody else has.
Alabama, Florida and Mizzou all field top 25 rush defenses, so he will HAVE to have great passing days to win those 3 games.
Overall, Mizzou & Florida will be the best most complete defenses in the SEC he will face.
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You have to consider that CBS kept everything vanilla the first two games. From this point, the playbook is open.
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Vanilla, no doubt, but 0-7 in the 1st half like Vandy. I still don’t understand why that happened.
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You still fretting over that? Two stone cold drops…shit happens..time to move on. Lambert did and had a nice second half in Nashville.
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I am still fretting it, because Vandy is the only real pass defense #11 has faced. And the 1st half, 0 completions, what happened? Remember, needed a special teams AND defensive td to win that game.
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Annnnd…Thomas Brown is back. Man, you are one boring son of a bitch.
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Yep. I’m just getting around to reading today’s posts. Recognized him right away. Unmistakable style- new handle with an inordinate amount of replys, give a player a backhanded compliment while dwelling on negatives, spit out ridiculous stats 3 games into the season, then go on and on as to why we’ll lose more games than we’ll win.
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Struggled against la-monroe? He was 8-12 for 141 and 2 td. I do not think that word means what you think it means.
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140 pass yard won’t be enough against Alabama, Florida or Mizzou, who all stop the run.
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Won’t be enough against Missouri? LOL. How many points do you think the Tigers will score? Even Vandy’s more prolific.
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Vandy’s only giving up 9 points a game, and they’re scoring 23. Very solid defense. http://www.cfbstats.com/2015/leader/911/team/defense/split01/category09/sort01.html
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Meant Mizzou, not Vandy.
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That’s not what I asked you. But I think you answered me, anyway, with that dodge.
No, I don’t think they’ll score very much either.
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I think that one will be a low scoring affair: UGA 21 (special teams or defensive td), Mizzou 14.
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Yeah I doubt 17.5 yards per catch and a touch down every fourth catch will be enough to beat those teams other. In case you cannot tell the sarcasm font is on. Stats are a real bitch when they do not support your argument.
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WTG, Debbie Downer!!! Let’s pee on everyone’s parade! With this supporting cast he’ll be fine! Go troll somewhere else!
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I’m just saying how will #11 do when he faces pass defenses better than the one he practices against like Mizzou, Vandy, Auburn, GT, and Kentucky (all rank higher than UGA’s pass defense). If Vandy is any indication, Lambert will not bring his A game in these matchups.
You also missed how I predicted he would torch Alabama.
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We will be lucky to beat any of those highly rated pass D teams…they all look like juggernauts to me. You pick and choose stats funny, IMHO.
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Not saying they will be losses, GT is the only one there ranked in the top 25 FPI. I do not see #11 having big days in those games with the stronger pass defenses.
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Who of us saw this coming? Wow, aren’t we glad now that a random vet rolled into Athens?
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All credit goes to recognition of his talents by Richt, then Schotty and staff coached him up. What I didn’t get earlier is what a champion Greyson can be, in character as well as on the field.
Senator, this is a “goody” post that we don’t forget and , if you really want to know, I suspect that most, like me, haven’t thought you were against him and his exploits thus far. You just had a kink that made for fun blogging.
The cactuses in your garden have started to bloom and you know how beautiful those blooms are. Thanks for putting this on the table for us to see further into a guy we can really cheer for because he truly represents the team and their play.
You got the over or the under this week?
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I saw it coming, South Carolina’s pass defense is ALMOST as bad as Alabama’s.
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Sorry to shit in the whiskey bowl, but let’s see if he keeps his cool when Bama jams receivers and blitzes.
If he passes that test, then I’ll scratch off Murray from my 11 jersey and write Lambert in.
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Fair point, but let’s not lose sight of how Alabama’s played pass defense so far this year. Somebody’s managed to make some yards there.
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see last Saturdays’ stats versus Ole Piss..Ole Miss has no real run game and went into that game with Bama knowing Kelly would be tossing the rock…just sayin.
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2 fumbled kickoffs, five total turnovers and a Auburn like fluke play didn’t hurt either
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Sure they didn’t hurt… but also had nothing to do with their passing stats against the tide.
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Well, except for the Fluke of course
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Game-winning fluke, you mean. I wouldn’t want to lose with the point difference that way and Bama certainly hurts, like us, when luck decides the final score.
Yep, our passing game is unveiled just in time to get the running game up to full speed. No excuses, the best team will win and our chance is slightly better than Bama’s. This is promising to be an old time SEC-style game that both Nations can enjoy seeing their best athletes on the field – between the hedges.
Sic’em Dawgs.
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What has happened to Bama’s pass defense the last couple of years? I don’t watch every Tide game, but the ones I have seen have been games where their secondary has been torched.
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B-D, where are you? Perfect place to start that discourse.
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Changes in offensive scheme have dictated changes in personnel and scheme on defense. The secondary is suffering because of changes he has had to make to his front.
Before everyone started operating at pace (or at least getting to the line in a hurry), Saban could substitute on each play. They had players who fit very specific roles. On early downs, they could 2-gap 330+ pound linemen. This allowed the LB to clean up tackles at the LOS on runs and allowed 7-8 men in zone coverage. Then on passing downs, they could sub in the elite pass rushers who made the qb make errant throws.
Now, Saban has to play a defensive front that can play all three downs. This required a compromise on personnel. They can’t have the bulk on the DL as in the past against the run game. They can’t have true pass rush specialists on passing downs as they also have to hold up against the run.
The hurry-up isn’t so much about wearing down your opponent as it is about limiting what the defense can do.
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Pruitt left them…
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yes, but they played the no.1 passing team which had 2 huge borderline fluke plays against it. They also have only played one cupcake. Point being, declaring Bama’s pass defense dead would be foolish based on the three games they’ve played so far… not that you’re asserting that argument.
Bama has incredible athletes at db which will jam our smallish and young wide receivers. We’ll see how well Grayson adjusts schemes at the LOS presnap against what is a more sophisticated and talented defense than South Carolina or Vandy.
I’m pro-Grayson after the game I saw with my own eyes Saturday, and as optimistic about our offense as I’ve been since Bobo and Murray were here at the same time. But someone on this blog said “old habits die hard” about our starting QB very recently. Happy feet are hard to stop dancing when you’re under pressure, and Grayson wasn’t under pressure at all Saturday. Let’s see what happens after they hit him a few times. Hope he steps up.
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#11 will go deep on Alabama, another 300 yard day.
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But, but they were all quick, safe passes and he won’t have success against Bammer because they’ll jam our WRs all game. Maybe but I’ve now watched a 1st half replay of Bama vs ole miss and didn’t see much jamming.
I’d like to take this moment to congratulate Lambert on proving me wrong, among other things. Schottenheimer, too. They had me fooled as much as I’ve been fooled in a long time. Honestly, though- I think the mean for both will fall between Vandy and Carolina, hopefully closer to Carolina.
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Against a spread team you can’t jam as much because your dbs have increased run responsibilities. Also true with moblie qbs.
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Football Power Index is interesting, seems to measure how complete a team is so far (note: very small sample size).
Has Bama #4, GT #12, Tenn #13, Florida #25, Auburn #31
You have to think overall, those will be the 5 toughest outs on the schedule.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings
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Is it just me or does this game seem a lot like the Clemson game last year?
One good quarter and Georgia jumps way up in the polls and then proceeds to break our hearts shortly thereafter. Again everyone nationally has jumped on the Georgia is great bandwagon. Hopefully with all the changes in the program this is the first step to a truly memorable season!
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Lambert’s performance was amazing, but let’s not project it to the rest of the season. The OL can’t be that dominant in pass protection against Alabama and UT, can it?!
Remember the ’14 Sugar Bowl when Trevor Knight looked like Aaron Rogers (32/44, 4 TDs, 348 yards)? And then how he played in the ’14 season?
The true GL is probably somewhere in between what we saw in the first two games and the USC game. And that’s fine, especially if he keeps improving and the OL keeps his jersey clean like they did last weeked.
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Well said.
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Alabama & Tenn are 2 of the worst pass defenses in the entire country. #11 will torch both teams. Even Trevor Knight torched Alabama. GL has shown he’s superb against teams with suspect pass defenses like Alabama and Tenn.
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Bama and UT have suspect secondaries, but not front 7s. My point is to expect a lot more pressure on the QB going forward (and I didn’t include AU, GT, etc). “#11 will torch both teams” is the kind of projecting that is dangerous, and I think, overly optimistic. Just look at how he did against UCLA when they got pressure on him last year.
I just had a thought. What if we have a good-Greyson and bad-Greyson situation going on. Have we really seen enough (after 1 stellar week and two ho-hum weeks) to assume good-Greyson always shows up?
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I’m not trying to throw ice water onto the situation, just trying to have realistic expectations (so maybe some cold water). And I don’t think 24/25 qualifies.
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I don’t ever expect to see another offensive performance like that in an SEC game this year, and it wasn’t just Lambert, it was the calls and the execution by all 11 players. Incredible, and thrilling to see. While we won’t see it at that level again, I do think we will be successful on offense because of the diversity of weapons we have. I am convinced GL is the best choice based on what I have seen, but I also want to see how he is in a game where we don’t have the luxury of stepping into every throw, or having that much time. Bama will likely tell that story as it will test our OL in all phases of the game. Kudos to DL, I hope you have this dream season continue and make your mark on this program and have them shaking their heads in Charlottesville.
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