Once again there were the passes that showed why Greyson Lambert was able to walk into Georgia in July and win the starting quarterback job in less than two months. And once again there were the throws that reminded you why he lost the starting job at Virginia.
It was that kind of game, once again, for Lambert on Saturday against Missouri. And it’s been that kind of season for Lambert, who said being a Bulldog has “been amazing,” and a “huge blessing.”
Then he frankly addressed his own play.
“My performance has been rollercoaster,” Lambert said. “Hopefully this bye week will help me gain some consistency in that. But we’re 5-2 and we’ve got a shot still.”
But can Lambert do much in the bye week to correct the inconsistency, or does it just come in games?
“A little bit of both,” Lambert said. “I’m still kinda focusing, like I did this past week, in what coach Schotty was saying with streaks of completions, and check-downs, getting the ball – whether it’s down the field or short – allowing them to have a shot to make a play. Continuing to get that mindset that it’s not all-or-nothing on each pass.”
I can’t help but shake my head over the vehemence some of you showed me back in August when I suggested that Lambert’s game would need a lot of work if he were to be the type of starting quarterback Georgia needed to succeed this season.
Nonsense, I was assured. Lambert’s past was irrelevant. The coaching, the program, the surrounding talent, the lack of all those things when Lambert was fighting through the 2014 season – none of that would matter now, because Lambert was simply in a better place where smarter coaches realized he wasn’t the kid who lost his starting job at Virginia.
It seems, instead, that the Greyson Lambert who suits up in red and black is exactly the kid who lost his starting job at Virginia. That should sober some of you up. And what should really scare you a little bit is that it was clear last night when the game was on the line and Georgia had to pull out a late scoring drive to win, the playcalling showed the coaches had completely lost confidence in Lambert’s ability to make plays consistently.
My point here isn’t to slam Lambert, who’s a good kid trying to do his best. Regardless of how skilled you think Richt is at developing quarterbacks, though (and he is), he’s not a miracle worker. Neither is Schottenheimer. The point is that this program had warts coming into the season and the coaches can only do so much to mask some of those. To the extent that you brush off real issues like how quickly a quarterback who lost a starting job in the spring at one school can be transformed into a competent SEC starting quarterback in the fall… well, that’s how you leave yourself open for mockery by people who don’t have such a rosy outlook on things.
Get The Picture 
I have a really hard time with our fans that are booing this kid. He’s out there for a reason. We do not have Joe Montana or Dan Marino sitting on the bench behind him.
I think we get what we deserve. The next time an Aaron Murray rolls through Athens, you’ll be back to booing that guy, too.
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What do you think losing Nick has done to the offense and by extension Lambert’s apparent performance? I’d guess nothing good.
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To Lambert’s performance? Nothing at all.
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Really Bluto, you don’t think losing Chubb has added any pressure on the passing game, on Lambert to pick up the slack?
Maybe performance is subject to interpretation?
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Chubb was healthy for the Vandy game. And the Alabama game. Hard to see how much worse Lambert’s become since then.
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That “semantic differential” thing comes to mind.
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Chubb was not only the football player the Dawgs needed but he was the on the field leader who kept the Dawgs on track during a game. He does not get
hurt & we beat the Vols. He Is sorely missed by the entire team.
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The handful that booed don’t understand the game of football. Why boo a Qb who is top 25% in accuracy and effic? Idiots.
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I would have less of a problem with him and Schotty, if the kid didn’t just commit and show up right before the season. I would rather have our record, started Brice or Faton, then moved to Lambert when these long term UGA kids showed in games that they couldn’t do it. Or, maybe, I would just be upset that we didn’t start Lambert from the beginning. Who knows? I just feel that it would have been better, but that doesn’t mean anything.
I am glad we won, but I don’t think we can beat Florida with a performance like last night or the previous 2 games.
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Don’t worry about Florida, their pass defense is not very good, only good against unranked teams, they’ve been pretty bad at defending the pass against the 2 better teams they’ve faced.
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Sincere question, did Lambert ever have a USCe-like performance at UVA? I think that was the game of his life.
If they have lost confidence in GL at the end, the frustrated side of me would like to see the WildDawg, Bauta or something other than what we saw on the last two drives. But, ultimately it worked….two drives to FG range and a win. I’m glad GL has a receiver he can trust and we did see them pick up a couple third downs at the end against a good D.
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Genital warts.
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Um, I think you’re replying on the wrong forum, bud.
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Lambert never had a game in 2014 like that.
There’s no question he’s got a much more talented surrounding cast this year. That helps tremendously.
What I thought I saw from the S. Car. game was a kid who was coming along much faster overcoming the bad habits he brought with him from Charlottesville than I expected. Unfortunately, that game has turned out to be something of a mirage.
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No one is the history of college football has ever had a game like Lambert had against South Carolina, he set the all time record, so no, it has only happened once in the history of the game.
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Amen. And amen.
There is one sure thing about Lambert. If his first play is a pass he has a one in three chance of it being completed. Does not even mean it is productive.
In the past 5 years where is the quarterback recruiting at UGA?
We can thank CMR, Bono, and the offensive coaches for not finding one.
CMR had better load up with QBs and linemen.
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UGA has brought in more than its’ fair share of highly ranked QBs. Sure, it would be nice to have DeShaun Watson (sp?) right now instead of Ramsey. But QBs don’t always pan out, and I challenge anyone to point out a program with a better record of recruiting and developing QBs since CMR came to UGA.
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Christian Lemay was a 4 star everyone wanted. Rivals had him as the number 3 HS QB in the country. He was in the 2011 recruiting class. He would have been the senior starter had he panned out and not transferred. In 2012 we signed Faton Bauta, a 3 star, number 24 QB in the HS class. In 2013 we signed Brice Ramsey, a 4 star, number 6 QB in the Nation. In 2014 we signed Jacob Park, a 4 star, number 5 QB in the Nation.
We have signed highly rated QBs every year. We have not ignored the position, as some seem to think. Sometimes players do not pan out. LeMay and Ramsey apparently have reading defenses issues and did not pan out. Park did not want to stay and compete. Had he stayed maybe he would be the starter, now.
When you have to recruit teenagers, sometimes they do not mature as one hopes.
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Yet somehow other schools manage to scout and find less highly-ranked guys who can actually play. Look at Kentucky. Or Memphis.
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Just because they have decent QBs right now, you want to compare them to UGA?
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They hit the other side of the lottery. It happens. We’ve had consistently good QB play for years now. We were bound to hit a bad patch.
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Saban recruited Lambert really hard, he knows talent pretty well
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CMR. Tells Morgan no big deal if he misses again.
The mindset of a HC.
Do the players fear him when they do not play up to expectations.
Do not expect to see a “Les Miles” moment from Dawg players.
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Will, I don’t know if you’re deliberately misinterpreting what Richt said to Morgan, your reading comprehension skills are poor, or you’re just too lazy to care about getting it right, but you really ought to think about showing your ass less now and then.
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I considered it to be a sincere pep talk to relax the kid & to win the game.
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Me, too, but it wasn’t fiery enough for some.
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Thank you, Senator. I have issues with CMR and they are growing each week but to say he thinks ” it’s no big deal” to miss a game winning field goal is wack.
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Geez Louise, Will. Ever stand at the free throw line with the game on the line, having missed your previous attempt? The worst thing a coach could do is tighten the hands around the neck of the shooter.
Richt knows Morgan; been coaching him through 47 games. Different players react different to the same approach. Perhaps you are the personality type who does your best when your boss says he will fire you. Perhaps you perform your best when your boss tries to reduce your stress. Perhaps Richt knew that Morgan’s self-confidence was low and knows that Morgan reacts better to a pat on the back than a kick in the nuts.
Richt;s approach friggin’ worked in that situation.
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So lemme see if I understand, Will, coach talks to kicker, we don’t know what was actually said during the game, all we have is Richt’s typically soft sell description after the game.
Kicker goes out on the field with the game very much on the line.
Kicker makes the kick, we win.
And you are upset that Richt did not handle the sideline conference correctly?
Makes perfect sense.
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If you go back and look at the game, and that conversation, the first words out of Richt’s mouth talking to Morgan were “I’ll love you no matter what.” I don’t know what he said after that, because I don’t read lips that well, but when he claimed that was what he said during the postgame interview, I watched it closely. It’s clearly what he said.
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Morgan said all he remembered was “you better not miss”
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You’re right. If only Grantham was here to flash him the choke sign…
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Sometimes you can not teach ” old Cavaliers” new tricks, as hard as you might.
Just suffer thru another season .
High point will be if CMR can score more than one TD in a SEC game the rest of the season.
Pony up if you are an optimist.
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Fair points Senator, Lambert has made some excellent throws at times, but has missed badly in some of his decisions, some hurried throws, and timing issues. He clearly isn’t the Aaron Murray level QB we could use right now, or the confident, consistent Hutson Mason we had last season. His surrounding cast also turns out not to be as strong as we originally thought. I am not throwing him under the bus but surprised we don’t have a better option.
The next two weeks allow time for making some significant adjustments to the offense based on what we have seen. Successfully tweaking the playbook, personnel groupings, and strategy are requirements for success the balance of the season. The defense remains scary but last night shows the idea of using an aggressive pass rush to provide cover for the secondary issues was one of the things we have needed. I realize it was Mizzou, but it was an outstanding effort and gave all of those defensive guys a taste of how they can do their share for the team and how rewarding it can be. Everyone knows they won that game for UGA, how long has it been since our defense played that big a role in a getting a W?
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The lack of playbook tweaks so far has been worrisome. They had a week to get ready, knew there was no Chubb, and what we got was…pretty bad. Trying to scheme ways to get Blazevitch and Rome on linebackers seems like a no-brainer yet we got one pass to a TE all game.
All the warnings from the Rams fans about Schotty seem really accurate so far this season.
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Yes, Lambert certainly has his issues. No one will argue that one. The most glaring issue this season is the OL. Our OL is a huge disappointment to this point in the season. Both Theus and Houston are getting manhandled on the regular, making silly mistakes, and generally underperforming. A large reason for the subpar OL may be that everything the Dawgs run on offense is In front of the defense. Opposing defenses are playing 11 guys within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. Is the problem our offensive system or personnel? I am leaning towards personnel.
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I thought Theus did ok last night. He’s consistently had the harder matchups than Houston (and consier that last night he was largely left isolated on one of Mizzou’s best defenders, a high honor given who plays on that defense). He’s doing ok. He’s not the 5* turned All American candidate everyone hoped he would be. He’s a solid OL. Houston, who I know is trying, has had a rougher go of it I think.
I do think we’re not getting the consistently amazing perimeter blocking we had for the last 3-4 years. That’s partly due to a young WR corps (and it’s probably a rougher transition for Godwin; he’s not a big guy but little guys can become a force blocking on the perimeter while being dangerous receiving threats; ask Hines Ward). And we inarguably miss Christian Payne, who was underrated. Earlier in the year I was frustrated with the lack of outside runs (until SC of course). I can understand CBS not calling those plays more in this game. I am a little more confused as to why we went back to the bubble screen (iirc when we ran it at first and goal it had already b een blown up 2 or 3 times, and once on that drive; I might be mixxing some of those instances up with some flares that just didn’t work but we definitely went bubble earlier in that drive). All of this said it would be nice if CBS can figure out some clever ways to mix in certain concepts. A counter or two might be nice (though at the very least we need to be consistently succesful off tackle in the game we run them and it was tough going last night).
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Plus all the WRs that have had significant snaps (Mitchell, Davis, Godwin) are 200 lbs or less. A step down in potential power from 6’2, 205+ Conley, Bennett group.
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Our pass pro is better than last year and I think that if we had Gurley and
Chubb running the ball, people wouldn’t think the run blocking was so much worse. Those guys – especially Gurley – just made it work.
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Sounds like your point is really to say “I told you so.” Man, get over yourself.
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Hahahaha, I’m sorry Bluto, I just realized no matter what you post you can’t win.
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Hey, they could always use the off week to rep Bauta and install the Veer.
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As much as folks like to bash Lambert, he is 4th in the SEC in passing efficiency ratings at 149.28. That ranks him ahead of Will Grier, Dak Prescott and Jake Coker. I anticipate the response is that “his rating benefits from teams dropping interceptions.” I refuse to believe that he is the only QB who has had would-be interceptions dropped. Lambert is 4th in completion percentage, ahead of Coker and Kyle Allen. Lambert is 4th in yards per attempt at 8.2, ahead of Prescott, Grier and Coker.
I am not saying he is a better QB than Prescott, Grier or Coker, but I am saying he has not been the epic failure that some suggest. ON the Friday night before the opening game if anyone could guarantee that after 7 games Lambert would be 4th in the SEC in efficiency, completion percentage and yards per game you would have been ecstatic.
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BTW, Lambert is likewise 4th in fewest interceptions.
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With all due respect, with the game on the line last night, it was obvious that Schottenheimer had lost faith in Lambert’s decision making. Whatever else his stats might say, that’s pretty telling.
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I got that sense this was the case before the “game was on the line”. I mean, it seemed like CBS was really struggling to figure out how to compensate for various factors even before the fourth quarter. Lambert made some good throws and some not good ones. He did seem to lock on to the first option at times (there was a second half flair pass to Michell where a LB closely shadowed Michelle out of the backfield and the whole defense seemed to key on it and Lambert threw it anyway. I could swear I saw Michelle’s eyes say “ahhhh shit”) . He could easily have thrown 5 picks (and the throw near our goal line. . . just take the sack. It’s ok to come away with a FG there).
When the QB is struggling like that, there’s just not much you can do. At times I’m not sure I understand CBS’ play calling (see: bubble screen on first and goal after it had failed to work once that drive). But lacking Payne, and the perimeter blocking we are used to, and the erratic QB play. . . nobody calls a great game in these situations.
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I agree with you there. Schottenheimer was faced with a series of unpleasant choices last night due to shaky QB decision making and an offensive line that didn’t exactly shine.
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Lambert only threw 1 pick. Coach Shotty knew his Qb was very accurate, and kept calling calls for him, he had great confidence in him. And when it wasn’t necessary to throw, he ran it against such a terrible offense. Smart coach, and it worked to perfection. Lambert surprised Missouri by going to Godwin when they shaded coverage to Malcolm and he burned them many times. Was a great pass defense, sure the contested passes, but he only threw 1 pick and still leads the conference in td to int ratio.
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I do not quite see it that way. We did throw the ball on the last drive to convert a first down, then we passed on first down and got a PI penalty that put us in field goal range. I saw the play calling at that point to be running to kill the clock and to not risk a sack. I am not sure he did not trust Lambert or whether he figured he had the makeable field goal and he trusted Morgan, so why not run the clock, run the 3rd down play to get to a spot where Morgan likes the ball, and if Michel had made the first down, great, run the ball until we could kick it with time expiring.
On the previous drive leading to the missed FG we had Lambert pass in a 3rd down (and we got a first down) than had him pass on a 2nd down to Missouri’s 15 yard line.
On the previous drive, leading to the tying FG, the coaches had Lambert pass on a 1st down, on a 2nd and 2, on a 1st down and on a 3rd down.
I do not see those drives as demonstrating that the coaches had lost faith in Lambert.
Again, Lambert is no Murray, but neither does he stink. He had 1 veteran wide receiver last night (Mitchell) and an upperclassman who has not played much (Towns) to go along with a true freshman (Godwin). I understand use of the run on the last 2 drives.
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If on the Friday night before the opening game you knew he’d be 4th in efficiency based on two good games, two awful ones, and two ho-hum ones, would you then be ecstatic?
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Looked like a bootleg keeper was open for Lambert several times when we needed a first down. He ran a fake to the RB and scored a TD on a naked bootleg once this season. I knew he isn’t known as a running QB but watch how open this was when you re-watch the tape, especially in the RZ. Someone had to see that from the booth, don’t know why we didn’t give it a try.
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Schotty knew he was facing the 126 best offense, so it was a field position gameplan, he figured surely Pruitt could get some 3 and outs, and then the offense could move the ball on 3 drives and kick 3 field goals for the win. And he did, and it worked.
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What we saw last night was an NFL game. CBS and most of the OC’s in the NFL are used to close games won on a last minute field goal. His job was to get us close enough to win and not to risk a turnover. He did his job in spite of a weak offensive line and an erratic QB who while having good statistics does not command the winning attitude of Aaron Murray.
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He was smart enough not to call the third down sweep to give him the poor angle again.
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Why takes chances, Missouri can’t play offense. CBS called a great game.
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Why is this blog so anti-Lambert? He completed 72% of his passes and was excellent on 3rd downs and we won the game. We moved the ball well. Missouri is a top 6 defense nationally, and a top pass defense nationally, coverage was tight. Alabama was no slouch, nor was Vanderbilt’s defense. La Monroe also is a top 25 ranked pass defense. Lighten up, you guys are WAY off base.
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< 50% completion vs. Bama & UT, 2/2 TD/INT ratio the last three games and 4 dropped picks yesterday can have that effect.
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THIS game, Lambert completed 72%, and only threw 1 interception. He leads the SEC in td to int ratio, don’t get all the hate from this blog. If you drop a pass on defense, it’s not called a dropped interception, that’s called a fumble. There were no dropped picks yesterday.
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