I tweeted during the first half that I was concerned about Georgia’s apparent lack of a pass rush. Kirby’s response was not to sweat that.
“(North Carolina QB Mitch Trubisky) is going to scramble if he wants to scramble. The big thing for us was stopping the run, making them one-dimensional. We really didn’t do that. They had some long runs that broke out on us. We tried to force them to be one-dimensional. There’s certain coverages that we wanted him in the pocket, we wanted him to stay in there because we were man-matching behind it. So much of our rush is tied to our coverage. I think there’s a misnomer out there that people think, ‘Oh, they don’t get any pass rush.’ Some of that is never by design, but when they have seven people blocking three, you’re not going to get a lot of pressure. Sit down and we might be covering. When we bring pressure, we usually get pressure. It’s just a decision of how many times you want to do that in the game. How susceptible do you want to make your guys outside? It’s something we’ve got to progress at and we’ve got to do a better job of conversion, meaning when they do pass the ball the defensive linemen convert into pass-rush mode. Look, guys, we don’t have the same rushers we had last year. There are some guys who could really rush the passer that are gone. It’s going to be a key for us to try to manufacture that in other ways.”
Honestly, I get all that. Georgia doesn’t have the d-line yet it needs to do what Smart wants. He’s not going to watch his defense get burned by a running quarterback, either (although that’s gonna get tested by better runners than Trubisky, I’m afraid). And, to be fair, I thought the pass rush was turned up in the second half.
The good news is they’ve got a couple of weeks before they’ll face a similar matchup again. The bad news is that Ole Miss has a more dangerous quarterback than North Carolina and better depth at wide receiver, too.
I promise I won’t tweet about the pass rush again, though.
Get The Picture 
Speaking of Kelly, I went to bed and it was 28-6 and almost halftime. Wasn’t expecting that score when I woke up today. Surprised the Ole Miss offense apparently stalled to only score 34.
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First half Ole Miss looked scary. Third quarter FSU got in synch and Ole Miss couldn’t handle it. Still, Ole Miss has some players. They worry me.
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Watched the whole game. Early in second half, FSU found Gus’ rabbit foot. Old Miss held them to a FG on the first drive, then fumbled and bumbled FSU back onto the field. Turn overs. Deep in your own territory turn overs. In a jiffy, FSU closed the gap..and OM lost the momentum (really just before the halftime they lost it) and FSU took them to the woodshed.
As far as Old Miss goes..in the first half they looked unbeatable. They were amazing…then they had a couple of injuries, had a true freshman trying to cover FSU fast receivers, and it got ugly…
OM’s pass rush is really good. FSU’ s QB will be in the whirlpool today. OM may be susceptible to the run game. Their passing defense wasn’t impressive.
Kelly is no doubt a skilled passer and runner..but he has a tendency to fold under pressure. He threw some pics. One was the receiver’s fault..he has a tendency to force the ball even when a receiver is well covered.. He did that a lot and mostly got away with it. I’d say he’s a lot like Bret Farve in that he won’t give up on a play even when he should. But he’s good when his receivers are even barely open and he has a few seconds to deliver the ball.
If we see the first half Old Miss, we’re in trouble. If we see the second half Old Miss, we’ve got a chance to win. Their defense is very fast and physical..but they got worn down by the offenses inability to stay on the field in the second half…Georgia will have to do enough other stuff to keep them from just converging on Chubb.
BTW..OM’s running game didn’t look great either.
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WHAT running game??
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Kirby has a giant Johnny Manziel shaped scar somewhere that makes him fear the running quarterback.
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Once Jimbo realized that he needed to roll this QB out and move the pocket, they annihilated OM’s linebackers and secondary.
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Can we replicate this?
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After this weekend our schedule looks better and better. Nothing unbeatable on it.
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Ole Miss is going to remain dangerous the way Kelly can sling it. Some of his passing decisions and throws were bad against FSU, but I think that is particularly because Kelly is asked to throw the ball so much and was facing a strong defense with great pass rushing. Kelly will still carve up a mediocre defense. Here is to UGA having a clock eating rushing attack in that game and a slightly improved defense by then.
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A mobile QB was essential to FSU’s success. I’m very nervous about this game. We will have to attach with the blueprint you described because we can’t do what FSU did.
Turnovers, as always will be key, but particularly can we get the ball from them? Kelly really is talented and has an impressive group of targets.
Another issue is what state will their program be in coming off that ‘Bama game?
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And that might be the key question to whether we have a decent shot against Old Miss because I see a lot of bad match ups for UGA in that trip to Oxford. Old Miss stuffed a very good runner last night and turned him into a Sony Michel type receiver, which is something we will have to use. But FSU’s QB had to have close to 70 yards rushing that helped change that game, and we don’t have that in our quiver. Also, those Rebel receivers were running free and wild against a pretty strong FSU secondary. We might can match their DBs but we haven’t got a pass rusher like Walker on our team, and he was essential to stopping that Old Miss offense in the 2nd half.
I am very concerned about competing on either side of the ball in Oxford based on what I saw this weekend (yeah, I know it was just one game) but a few banged up and bruised players hobbling from the Bama game might close the gap enough to allow us to steal it. Our team looks good enough to have a shot at the East title but the two best teams in the West look as if they are a cut above where we are this year.
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OM’s going to get a very heavy dose of Chubb & Co. Unless we fall behind substantially, I doubt we throw 20 times in Oxford – regardless of who we use at QB.
With FSU, a short week before Wofford, and then bama on the schedule, OM’s going to be one bruised football team when we hit town. They may have already lost 2 starters from last night’s debacle. As Kelly goes, so goes OM – they don’t have the kind of RBs we saw with UNC. I think Trubisky, who moved pretty well in the pocket, was a good warm-up for the mobile QB we’re going to get with Kelly.
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The lack of discipline for containment was reminiscent of the Florida game 2 years ago. Kirby looked to be coaching that on the spot, so hope we’ll see improvement on that in a hurry.
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OM’s D-line was getting really good penetration with a lot stunts and twists up front. This is the same sort of thing we’ll see from Mizzou’s D-line the week before.
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