Goose egg

Against Auburn, Georgia was 5-14 on third down conversions and 1-2 on fourth down conversions.  But that doesn’t really tell the whole story.  Georgia’s offense faced four one-yard conversions in those situations.  Somehow, it managed to whiff on all four.

That’s not easy to pull off.  But it’s how you manage not to beat a bad team more convincingly.

I can’t wait to hear the explanation for lining up in the shotgun on third-and-one, especially after it had flopped the first two times.

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UPDATE:  Just to finish connecting the dots, consider some of Georgia’s seasonal conference rankings.

Gosh, don’t you wonder sometimes what Georgia football would be like if they managed to get good play on both sides of the ball?  In the same season, I mean.

58 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football

58 responses to “Goose egg

  1. Dog in Fla

    The Schottgun had three barrels?

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  2. BonaireDawg

    Schottgun is loaded with blanks.

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    • gastr1

      It’s not helped when his QB refuses to throw the ball to open receivers. You can even see this on TV now. The blind leading the blind, here.

      It’s likely Richt will survive this season too, I guess, but I sure hope he gets another OC in here for Eason’s arrival. Just start fresh.

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      • BonaireDawg

        Jacob Eason’s parents would be nuts to let him come to Athens to be coached by Schottenheimer. Typically you want someone there who actually knows how to develop a quarterback.

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    • Dawgfan Will

      Not so. The Schottgun has unlimited ammo. It just keeps firing it all into the offense’s foot.

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  3. mg4life0331

    If I remember correctly CTG had pretty good stats his 2nd year. We also played some abysmal offenses that year as well.

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    • UGA85

      Are you again bashing CJP? You can’t seriously be comparing CJP to CTG, can you? CJP has had no offensive support at all, and usually poor special teams. Have you looked at the points given up by our defense? There is no objective way to put those two coaches on the same planet. CBVG would be the best choice to compare to CJP, IMO. Given the year to year improvement over these past two years, CJP may have a shutdown defense soon. If he stays, of course.

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      • mg4life0331

        Not necessarily bashing CJP, but I am certainly not praising him for beating up some of the worst offenses we’ve seen this decade.

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        • UGA85

          Why not? We aren’t Bama, but this is clearly the best defense we have played at UGA in a long time.

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          • mg4life0331

            Best statistically I suppose. But the teams we have built the stats on are horrible on offense. Except for the teams with a pulse, they seemed to find a way to score on us.

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            • Athens Townie

              Yea, after we hand them field position and time of possession favors with our anemic offense and ST mistakes.

              Go back and watch the first halves of the Bama and Florida games. The defense is the only reason we hung around for a little while.

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  4. You think they’ll ask them about that play Senator? I’m guessing you have at least a few press guys reading this blog, so fingers crossed. Maybe we should look at the Cardinal for some answers here. Those guys don’t play around in short yardage situations.

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  5. Macallanlover

    Shotgun and toss pitch for up the middle runs in short yardage is just asking for trouble. Difference in our RZ success is both an inept OL at run blocking,and a lack of trust in throwing the ball inside the ten yard line. If I am in a short yardage play I would bring both Payne and Hicks in and pound it. Unless there are security issues, a fast, 260 pound man hitting the line should have some success. Just spread receivers out to take safeties and backers out of the area and let him rumble. Without Chubb, we don’t have RB built for that tough yard besides Douglas and Hicks and I like the extra beef. It isn’t just strong defenses that have stopped usin those situations, everyone has.

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    • Will (the other one)

      Given the undersized Dlines left on the schedule, I’d love to see some of this, plus some OLine reserves as blocking TEs (really just an extra lineman). Though this kind of creativity and matchup scheming may be beyond Schotty/Sale’s abilities.

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    • Rp

      The other part of the stupidity on the shotgun runs was the fact that the backside pull was WIDE open on many of those runs. Apparently no one on the staff noticed that and told Lambert to pull the ball out.

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  6. W Cobb Dawg

    Somebody remind me again what CMR does for this team? If he’s truly helping Schotty with the playcalling and this is the result, then we’re in worse shape than I thought. At least the off-season is coming up, where CMR can resume doing absolutely nothing. Unlike football season, when he does next to nothing. Okay, I’m kidding (kinda).

    I’ve already accepted that CMR & the O staff will return en masse. But with sooo many openings, I find it hard to believe CJP & Co will return. Every game the D wins for us puts Pruitt one step closer to another gig. I don’t envision many scenarios where we convince him to stick around. And losing Pruitt would be a disaster for us.

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    • Mayor

      “unlike the football season when he does next to nothing.” Not true. He make decisions at the end that blows games, turning victories into losses.

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    • UGA85

      I think more decisions will be taken out of CMR’s hands if he stays. The CJP hire was made after CMR’s publicly stated desire to keep CTG. The decision to hire CBS was CMR’s to make, based on his offensive background. The decision to (hopefully) replace CBS may be more like the CJP hire, where someone steps in for CMR and makes a decision. And, yes, this all becomes irrelevant if we can’t find a way to keep CJP and go back to a sieve-like defense, IMO.

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      • Athens Townie

        We can only hope…

        Seriously, CJP and his assistants are the lone bright spot on this coaching staff right now.

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  7. Russ

    It was the same at Florida as well. I have to think it falls on the O line, though some of the play calling us a head scratcher as well. How do you toss the ball back on a dive play at the goal line?

    But with decent blocking we have to get some if those almost by default. Is it the blocking scheme?

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    • Russ

      Oh, and I see Schotty returning, unfortunately. It seems like Richt is trying to guide/teach Schotty how to be a playcaller. I only hope he’s working on his QB development skills as well.

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  8. Athens Dod

    Toss pitch up the middle???? Shotgun on 3rd and 1??????
    Most vanilla, unimaginative, predictable offense ever. Unreal that we actually won.

    I’m proud of team but shudder to think about this regimes return.

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  9. I don’t mind the shotgun on 3rd and short, but damn, where is the pistol formation in that situation? Derrick Henry makes a living out of the pistol. Gurley, in particular, did as well with Murray at QB.

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  10. SouthGaDawg

    Weird season 1) – The D seems really good and continues to get better (BTW, there were some great 2nd half adjustments on the D yesterday), but the DC was supposedly “fired” two Sunday’s ago for insubordination.
    Weird season 2) – 3rd & 41…drop the mic

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    • Athens Townie

      The DC was found guilty of exceeding Mark’s Standard of Mediocrity, which amounted to a serious act of insubordination.

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  11. doofusdawg

    Correct me but I don’t think we have run a quarterback sneak but once or twice this year. That was a staple of short yardage situations the last five years.

    The lack of i formation at the goal line and on third and one or two is just not Georgia football. If cbs is not back next year this will be the reason imo. But I think he is back and I suspect he just doesn’t have faith in the o line. But cmr standing on the sidelines with a head set on while we continue to pass or run shotgun on third and short has got to be taking it’s toll on him. You can run spread elements in an offense but certain situations demand power. We have no identity on offense and it is depressing to watch.

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  12. Dawg Stephen

    Not everyone.. but some comments.. Look, i know I dont agree with everything i saw yesterday or in some games this year.. but good Lord people.. we can disagree without just being a plan out jerk. The hate i am seeing after winning for the 8TH time in TEN years over a HUGE rival is blowing my mind. we hatent led in the auburn series since DOOLEY…. You can criticize and want coaches gone.. I respect that. you can disagree with a play call.. I did the same… but to do it and express it in the way some have been makes me PURE ashamed of some part of our fan base. Seriously…

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  13. Skeptic Dawg

    I have said this before and I will say it again, the offensive problems are a result of poor talent across the board. The QB’s are below average, the WR’s are average as grits (and that’s being kind), and the OL is just plain bad. Add all of this up and you get the 2015 UGA offense. The reason for running out of the gun on 3rd and 1 is poor OL play. The reason we do not pass inside the red zone (yes, we did throw once down there yesterday, if not twice) is poor QB play and and poor WR play. The numbers the Senator listed above regarding 3rd and short explain this clearly. I do not defend Richt nor Schotty for their play calling, but it is difficult to score with below average talent.

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    • doofusdawg

      The fact is that Pyke was the #1 or #2 junior guard on draft gurus’ boards at the start of the season. Now he is not starting. Somebody splain that.

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    • The other Doug

      Mitchell, Godwin, and McKenzie are average? lol.

      You seem to skip over Michel and Chubb at RB or our TEs.

      Yes our QBs and OL are atrocious, but the rest of the O is good.

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    • Turd Ferguson

      If only there were people in positions of authority whose job involves evaluating HS talent and recruiting accordingly. But … science fiction, right?

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  14. shane#1

    It it ain’t broke don’t fix it. A veteran line that’s opened holes for the run game changed to zone blocking? Why?

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    • Macallanlover

      I have heard that about a half dozen times as everyone is putting the OL under a microscope. If it were that simple, we would have switched back to what worked last year. Who made that change, Sale or CBS? Has to be more to it. For all the talk about short yardage plays not working, and play action being neutered because we cannot run effectively enough to sell it, linemen would have been screaming about this change. I am not saying we have a top flight QB on board but the OL issues have contributed to their shortcomings more than many are willing to admit.

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  15. I miss Chubb & I miss Bobo. Nuff Said,

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  16. Schottenheimer continues to impress. Best coaching hire ever.

    We should congratulate Richt. I can’t remember our offense ever being more fun to watch. Golly–i just can’t wait to see what kind of tricks they have up their sleeve next week!

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  17. The only third and one I recall being converted was yesterday with Hicks. Naturally, we never saw him again in that situation. Between this game and Florida, we must be 1 or 2 out of 10. It is 100% the idiot coach.

    Third and 2, however, we are much better. Go figure

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  18. Athens Dog

    We’ve played two good teams. Got smoked. One ok team. Gave up 3 touchdown lead and lost. Played seven crappy teams. Won 7. Two crapppy teams remain on schedule, Not something to really write home about.

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  19. Dog in Miami Fl

    The UGA defense sure does play well against these teams without winning records like Auburn and the 6 others.

    Against teams with winning records, UGA ranks 13th or 14th (last) in total yards and scoring in the SEC.

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    • UGA85

      I can’t help but respond to those who bash our defense after yesterday’s game. To review, our defense played very well against UF and adequately against Bama. The offense was a complete no show in both those games. They gave up 38 against UT but scored 7, for a net of 31. The offense scored 17 and special teams 7. UT, by the way, has a bad defense and a very good offense, so lots of blame for the offense in that game. Looking at our season, why do you insist on bashing the defense? Your statistic above does include points scored by special teams, etc., and does not reflect abysmal offensive play and time of possession. If you want to see how our offense does without CJP, you may get your wish next year. And I don’t think you are going to like it.

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  20. The other Doug

    On a positive note, I did like that play where Mckenzie was in motion at top speed and we handed it off to him immediately after the snap. Thing of beauty. I hope they run that again, and then have some wrinkles off of it.

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