So, what’s in your gameplan?

This.  (I hope.)

What Schottenheimer needs to do this week, or perhaps already has done, is devise about 7-10 pass plays he knows Lambert can hit and start the game with those. Whether those are deep balls, screens, quick slants, whatever. Then hopefully go from there based on what the defense is giving them.

By now, there is enough of a body of work to figure out what those are.  From there, it’s up to Lambert to execute.

Third and throw

Over at Dawg Post, you can check out eight third down passing plays from the UT game. Some of them work.  Some of them don’t for one reason.  Some of them don’t for another.

Lambert isn’t untalented.  But he still needs to improve his ability to read a defense and his mechanics aren’t consistent enough.  Kind of what I was saying in the summer, eh?

Name that caption: “Yeah, I’m OK,” he said. “I’m very much OK.”

Boy, talk about your “a penny for your thoughts” shot here.

Have at it in the comments.

PAWWWLLL, Jeb ain’t played Alabama.

It always amuses me when politicians think they can get away with stuff like this.

O’Bannon, still going

Interestingly, it’s the plaintiffs and not the NCAA that seek a rehearing by the Ninth Circuit.  Jon Solomon lists their reasons.

* Comments by Thomas, the chief judge, in his dissenting opinion that “there was sufficient evidence in the record” and the testimony of at least four experts to support injunctive relief. Two of the three appellate judges wrote that an “offhand comment” by former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson appeared to be the only reason for Wilken’s $5,000 figure and that Pilson was not prepared to given an opinion on whether consumer demand would be impacted by payments to players.

* Thomas’ observation that the majority “improperly substituted” the NCAA’s amateurism term in place of the relevant antitrust inquiry. By eliminating or assuming away the core question of consumer demand, the majority created further conflicts with Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court decisions, the O’Bannon plaintiffs wrote.

* The majority judges, Bybee and Quist, created a “new legal standard” for the Rule of Reason analysis in antitrust cases without citation or support from any other legal opinions. By not allowing the $5,000 payments as a less-restrictive alternative to the NCAA’s rules, the majority “adopted a new standard that few antitrust plaintiffs could ever satisfy,” the O’Bannon plaintiffs wrote.

* The majority “mistakenly” brought up dicta from the NCAA v. Oklahoma Board of Regents Supreme Court case to guide its review of less restrictive alternatives to the NCAA’s rules. All three appellate judges disagreed with the NCAA’s interpretation of a 1984 Supreme Court decision that the association has used as a defense for decades in relation to its amateurism rules. But the majority wrote they “accept Board of Regents’ guidance as informative” regarding the pro-competitive justifications served by the NCAA’s amateurism rules. “This is an unprecedented role for the Supreme Court’s dicta, fashioned from thin air,” the O’Bannon plaintiffs. “… This is immunity in another guise for conduct that would be per se price fixing in any other industry.”

As Solomon notes, it’s rare for a request for an en banc rehearing to succeed, so it’s hard to say what Hausfeld sees here, other than that he had the Circuit’s chief judge on his side.  If it’s granted, you’d think that wouldn’t be such good news for Donald Remy.  The question would be if it turned out to be bad enough where the NCAA would risk trying to take it to the Supreme Court.

Watch out… Michel.

By the way, Bill’s piece I linked to this morning reminded me that I hadn’t called out this remarkable run by Sony Michel in the Tennessee game.

There is so much going on there… dodging the defender after Wynn’s whiff… the turn upfield to split the two defenders being blocked on Georgia’s left side… the dodge of the UT player at the 25 (go pick up your jock, son)… the stiff arm at the 35… another tackle shed just before the 50… and Godwin’s terrific block to net a few more yards at the end of the run.

Just fabulous.  Other than ball security, of course, which Michel had best improve on real, real soon.

“The first step to beating Georgia is forcing the Dawgs into passing downs”

So observes Bill Connelly in his preview of Georgia’s offense.

To which I can only respond, yeah, but…  It’s a lot weirder than that.

Parrish Walton notes that Lambert’s had a complete meltdown throwing the ball on third down.

To which I can only respond, yeah, but…  It’s a lot weirder than that.

If you look at Lambert’s situational stats (go, Marty!), I’m not sure you’ll ever see another Georgia quarterback with anything like Lambert’s third down numbers.  I know I haven’t.

• 3rd Down, 4-6 To Go:  0-7, 0 yards, 0 rating
• 3rd Down, 7-9 To Go:  2-10, 12 yards, 30.08 rating

Okay, that stinks on ice.  The numbers on third and even longer must be incredibly horrific… er, what?

• 3rd Down, 10+ To Go:  12-17, 165 yards, 152.12 rating.

Seriously, how is that even possible for the same person?

By the way, as you review Lambert’s stats, check out his work on first down.  If I’m Schottenheimer, it’s time to be thinking about calling plays to put my quarterback in the places he’s more comfortable throwing.

More weed digging

One thing Mark Richt deserves credit for last season was taking a clear-eyed look at the offense’s strengths and weaknesses and fashioning an approach around those.  I don’t simply mean recognizing that the team was loaded at running back and telling Bobo to run the damned ball.  There was a realization that whatever Hutson Mason brought to the table, it wouldn’t include the same downfield passing ability that his predecessor possessed.  Richt realized that his offense would have to make up for that with greater efficiency.  (Mason did his part in that department by setting a school record for completion percentage.)

Georgia, it turned out, was very good at two things that aided it tremendously in being efficient on offense:  turnover margin and starting field position.  Last year the Dawgs finished fourth nationally in turnover margin, at +16.  They also were the number one team in Football Outsiders’ field position ratings.

This year, not so much.  Georgia is +1 in turnover margin so far, good for a tie for 66th.  It already has two games in which it had a negative turnover margin; it only had that happen once in all of 2014.  As for field position, Brian won’t publish those rankings until after this week’s games, but I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to recognize that Georgia won’t be in the same zip code when they come out.  (Georgia lost the field position battle to Tennessee.  And to Alabama.)

Throw in that Lambert isn’t completing passes on the season as often as Mason did, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a less efficient offense.  Which is exactly what we’re seeing.

The only glimmer I can offer right now is that Georgia is making up for that a little with a more explosive passing game than last season’s.  It’s obviously not been enough, though.