For as much as last year’s offense was a struggle, Georgia is on pace this year to have less total yards. It has 2,984 through eight games, needing 1,920 over the final four or five games to equal last year – which was the team’s lowest yardage total since 2009.
You read that right. Assuming Georgia goes bowling, it will have to average over ten yards better a game over the remainder of the season than it’s compiled so far to exceed last year’s per game rate. If the team whiffs on a bowl game, well… you don’t want to see the math on that.
The good news, if you want to call it such, is that here are the rankings in total defense for the opponents left in the regular season:
- Auburn: 31st
- Georgia Tech: 40th
- Louisiana – Lafayette: 50th
- Kentucky: 80th
No world beaters there. The bad news is that three of those four are holding opposing offenses to less yardage per game than Georgia’s offense needs to gain to better last year’s pace.
Get The Picture 
Just another indicator of the plan.
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Still not sure Chaney is an upgrade over Schotty.
And our offensive line, … well … yeah.
Add these two things together, and you get one remarkably incapable offense.
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I’m going to be a broken record here…but the offense last year is awful without the first four games against Southern, USC, Vandy, and ULM. The offense needs 1,900 yards to match last year? Guess how many total yards the offense in 2015 had in the first four games? 1,965
It doesn’t mean it is better…but I’d hesitate in characterizing it as a step back.
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Nicholls = Southern and we couldn’t move them compared to a first half struggle where we still scored 20. Until you’re ND State (and even then), our talent advantage should produce a 5 TD win over any FCS program
USCe – we ran like crazy and passed like crap compared to ripping them apart last year (we only had 4 or 5 series go to 3rd down)
Vandy – win by 17 on the road with a defensive touchdown, lose by 1 in a game of lost opportunities and disastrous special teams
ULM – we haven’t played the ULM equivalent yet … let’s see what happens in 3 weeks.
Therefore, I would characterize the apples to apples comparison as a step back.
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You love going to the well on Nicholls. I’d argue..and still do..that those games mean nothing (unless you lose). You can’t look at struggles against Nicholls or success against ULM as anything other than noise, IMO. For a good example…so say the offense goes crazy against ULL, is anyone in their right mind going to say ‘hey! they’ve got it figured out!’?
Oh…and Vandy and South Carolina in 2015 is ‘apples to apples’ by comparing them to the 2016 versions? You do know that the teams change each year, right?
Yards per Play in 2015…Sept 8.26; Oct 4.79; Nov 5.46; Dec/Jan 5.11
Yards per Play in 2016…Sept 5.36; Oct 4.97….
One of these is not like the others. One of these numbers does not belong. Maybe Schotty got some credit for a Bobo Hangover?
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Both coordinators, both offenses, and both years have sucked.
However, Chubb was present and fully functional for the strong performances of last year. The production dropped off hard after his injury. This year there have been no strong performances with Chubb. I agree that Nicholls and all other cupcakes are noise as far as statistics go but it is very telling that our offense and coordinator could not come up with something to put that game away.
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Oh, for fuck’s sake.
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My fault, I forgot. Chubb and the offense did have a strong performanceon a terrible run defense that we had all spring/summer to prepare for. It was a good showing.The run game did well against SCar but the offense was weak as a whole. Back to the point, the results of schotty and Chaney suck. Whatever the reasons are, I would have more positive memories if they would get it headed in the right direction. For fucks sake.
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The Senator has gone to the well on Nicholls. I thought Schottenheimer stunk, too.
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It was as bad a game as I’ve ever seen from a Georgia team and that they narrowly dodged losing it doesn’t change that.
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I think Shotty stunk as well, but I think Chaney is below him as an OC. We had plays that worked last year, we actually had an offense (one that lacked a downfield passing threat, but had other weapons that could move the ball). Never thought I would say that because 2015 was the most constipated offense I had seen since the pre-Walker days. This one has less firepower, and it isn’t that close.
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My point is not to say that it wasn’t a flaming pile of doo doo. It was awful.
My point is really to say ‘what does it mean’? And I tend to think trying to extrapolate any meaning from cupcake games gets you into trouble when you beat the piss out of them…so logic tells me to be consistent I shouldn’t read into not beating the piss out of them.
It could be flawed but that’s why I try not to go there when talking about stats or performance. YMMV
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Nobody enjoys going to the dentist. It always hurts.
This football program and it’s fans are sitting in the chair.
We must resist becoming, “Anti-Dentites”.
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Two coaches with similar incoming resumes coaching relatively similar personnel achieving comparably substandard results. Maybe scapegoating Schott (and/or Richt) was a bit premature. At least we won games last season.
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“and/or Richt” … that’s funny.
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Explain
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To even suggest that any form of criticism directed at Mark Richt could have been “premature” is laughably absurd. Hence, “that’s funny.”
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Maybe not. If Richt had been the coach this year, then we could all criticize his inept offense. Instead, he’s in Miami and we’re left criticizing Smart’s inept offense. It’s just not as satisfying.
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See, that’s the thing. If Richt were still here, the inept offense would be his coordinator’s fault. Not his. But for an unfortunately large contingent of our fanbase, the current offensive shitshow is obviously Kirby’s fault, duh.
For what it’s worth, I’m actually having a grand ol’ time criticizing both inept offenses. Da U is back, baby!
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From where I sit, most of the criticism is directed at Chaney, but when Kirby is given more resources and control over the program on day one than Richt had in his entire tenure then he is going to be held to higher level of accountability early on. Think what you want about firing Richt, and hope for the future all you want (I’m right there with you), but you’re fooling yourself if you don’t think the program has taken a gigantic step backwards this season. I can’t remember a time when I’ve had less confidence in a Georgia team winning a game. Furthermore, it seems like everyone who thinks Georgia doesn’t have the talent to win right now are the same people who decried that Richt had too much to ever lose. Can’t be both.
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We will perhaps never know, but I was of the impression that Richt took over play calling or took a stronger hand in play calling late in the season, which led to the winning streak to finish the season. Whether that’s true or not is more blog fodder than material importance now, but regardless, it’s not an option probably open to a defensive minded Kirby Smart.
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It’s always refreshing to find somebody in the comment section who is so certain of their own opinions that they actually view them as facts and as such view any opposition is a joke. You just don’t find those gems very often.
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this blog was referred to me on the Gator board as the 31 recuriting blog for UF. Used to be the AJC, but the good Senator is UF’s best recruiter. Thanks Senator.
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Top shelf SEC recruits definitely frequent this blog.
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Boy, the overall activity here has really fallen off a cliff. Comments fell off after the Vandy game a bit, and now this place suddenly has become a Ghost town. A die-hard UGA friend of mine, who typically doesn’t miss a minute of any game, didn’t bother watching any of the UF game because, in his words, “I already know the outcome, and I have more enjoyable things to do on a beautiful day.”
I suspect the crowd at next the G-day game next spring will be 1/3 what is was this year. Oh, and boy has Kirby Smart been much more quiet/humble in his press conferences lately; a far cry from the brash cockiness he displayed earlier in the season.
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Agreed–We have a get together every year for this game. Saturday we all just went outside after the first half. I haven’t gone back and watched it. Don’t much care to.
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That’s the kicker with trashing short term results for a long term plan and really touches on the Senator’s post after the Vandy game about Georgia football just being damn unenjoyable from a fan’s perspective. People pay good money and invest a lot of time to watch this program. If the program doesn’t give enough of a shit to make things entertaining for us in the now while continually monetizing every step of the way – it shouldn’t be surprised when people start making other decisions with their money and time.
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Again, I don’t blame Smart for having a long-term plan and sticking to it.
McGarity, on the other hand, assuming he knew what was in the cards when he hired Smart, is a cynical SOB for cashing in on the honeymoon. And if he didn’t know, then he’s an idiot for not asking the right questions in the first place.
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Sure. Still doesn’t mean I want to give my money and time to something I don’t particularly enjoy watching right now, either. Not trying to assign all the blame to Kirby because I get that he’s just doing what he thinks he needs to do for long-term success (I’m not convinced he’s the right guy to do it or that he couldn’t be making better decisions for the now, but again – water under the bridge b/c first time coach), but it doesn’t change the fact that it sucks out loud to go to a Georgia football game right now and has for a long time.
You sure are right about McGarity coming across as a cynical bastard in all of this. It truly feels like the old saying about pissing on my head and telling me it’s rain.
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Well that made me smile a bit…
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Long term plan? HOW do we know if this plan. …how long is this plan?
All I’m sure of is Macon Dawg won’t get assigned some seat in row 37 during those press conf.
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Sorry, I don’t buy into all this ‘we have to stink now to complete the plan to be good later’. How many times have we heard how good coaches scheme around the talent until they can recruit for their preferred plan? I think it is a cop-out excuse to save his bacon. Nicholls and Vandy for crying-out-loud. How much talent/scheming do you need?
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Damn Bro, every game come down to the fourth quarter, barring Ole Missy, been exciting, and a competitive team. Surewe came up 2 plays short against Tennersee & Vando, otta be 6-2, but still, been fun games to watch.
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If you’re going to play they “hey, we easily could be 6-2” card, you also must play the “we easily could be 2-6” card as well. After all, it took a 4th and 13 or whatever pass to beat Mizzou, and UNC was beating us most of the 2nd half and easily could have won that game as well.
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Given what others have said that last year’s team was really 7-6, I’ve pretty much said this team is 3-5, and as Missouri continues its downward plunge, you could make the case we’ve played 2-6 football.
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I would argue, we’ve played 0-8 football. Who have we controlled?
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As a Georgia fan – you found that watching the Nichols, Vandy, and Florida games were aesthetically enjoyable experiences? I’ll take some what you’re smoking.
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Fun games to watch? Are you kidding?
Watching paint dry is more exciting than watching us run up the middle twice and put our freshman QB in a terrible situation where he is running for his life.
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Have we run a screen all year? I thought that was shitty o-line 101. The last guy we had was good for at least three a game.
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I agree. Considering that Chubb and Michel are both good in the screen game, it’s a real shame that appears to be deleted from the playbook.
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Pretty certain I saw one, if not 2, screen passes attempted. One was fairly early in the 1st Q I believe but FL blew it up so bad Eason just threw the ball away. Deleted the game from the DVR with no desire to go back and check anyway. I think this was true in more than one game this season…we can’t even execute a screen because the DL and LB’s are reading it so fast.
Now the WR bubble screen? That poor child has been missing in action all season unless those are some of the drops we’ve witnessed.
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I would love to see the quick WR bubble screen too. Bobo used to wear that out. But when you have tiny WRs and/or big WRs that can’t catch and an Oline that can’t block…
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That first down pass to Sony wasn’t a screen, but was pretty, eh? Eason showed poise, Sony rewarded him with speed and power.
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Good news you negative nannys!
Chaney is outcoaching Richt/Bobo if you look at Mr. Eason.
Stafford’s numbers were worse in 2006.
We got ourselves 2 winners in Chaney and Mr Eason folks.
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2020, we do seem to have multiple receiver hitting on all cylinders compared to last year, big improvement. If you’re a WR recruit, you gotta be salivating to join the party.
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Eason … yes
Chaney … no
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I cannot get Kyle Shanahan out of my head. The Falcons were awful last year. They signed a competent center, got a year under their belt, and now they’re the best O in the NFL.
I’m incredibly skeptical of what I’ve seen, but I loathe the idea of becoming a revolving door at OC, and that would be 4 in 4 years, with 4 different terminologies. Do we allow the OC to bring in assistants? Do we lose recruiting prowess because of that?
I really, really, really hope to see some improvement these last 4 games so that we can feel okay about keeping him and giving it a 2nd year shot.
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that’s the whole thing though.
any improvement right now would be great.
Have a good week of practice, go win a road game at night.
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Falcons. Are you talking Air Force?
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+1
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That’s where I am. The team looks terrible so far, but I feel like we need to give them three years to get a full chance. This includes Mr. Creosote as OC. Continuing the revolving door does no one any good.
But damn, it sure is ugly to watch. I thought this was supposed to be entertaining?
On a brighter note, Tuesday night MACtion is back, baby!
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I have noticed an uptick in McKenzie’s pass per catch average and also in Godwin’s over last year.
Also, Nauta is more productive on a per catch basis than Blazevich was last year.
This, on top of Eason outperforming Stafford’s 1st year.
All good signs @Chaney/Eason.
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I just caught that you’re posting under several different handles and that as “dawgman2000” you approved a comment you made as “tonyqbr”.
Sockpuppetry is against the rules here. Good bye.
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Boom MF!
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Damn, even the sock-puppets are having a bad season……
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YOU’RE THE PUPPET.
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Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
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Appreciate it greatly Senator.
Sincerely,
The real dawgman
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2 men enter…2 men leave.
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Dang, I forgot my handle one time and think I changed it. Hope I don’t get excommunicated.
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That wasn’t the problem in this case.
I’m usually pretty good at seeing the difference between what you did and sockpuppetry.
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I’ve noticed that too 2020, good eye. I agree, the pair is looking Magnifico. This will help recruiting.
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Eason seems to be more careful with the ball than even just a few weeks ago. That’s a good thing.
Any optimism beyond that feels like a stretch.
We just don’t do anything well enough to build counters off of.
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Agree, Staff threw 2 picks to every touchdown in season one. Jacob is tossing 2 touchdowns per pick. A nice trend.
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noodledawg, Stafford is still doing the same thing now in the pros so I don’t know how much relevance that comparison holds.
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Huh? Stafford’s having an MVP-ish level season if it weren’t for Matt Ryan. He’s got like a 4-1 TD-INT ratio.
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This year that is true. How about the other years?
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Ahhh, dawggrading our players long after they’re gone. That’s another Georgia Tradition®!
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The flip side to that is I think Eason is missing a ton of easy reads. If he were hitting on those, suddenly the offense and Chaney look a lot more credible.
Every week he has guys running wide open that he just isn’t seeing.
Part of plying a freshman I suppose. I hope we don’t get in the freshman QB business again for a long time.
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You are right, not sure he sees all the field, seems to lock in on a receiver before hand (admittedly, he doesn’t have much time against aggressive fronts.). I also think his inability to sell play action fakes, and screens (when they have been called) is some areas I thought we see progress in. We have always had good ball handling QBs, Eason seems to be going through the motions…hurriedly.
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Last year, Kentucky didn’t have an answer for the Godwin/Michel zone read.
Hope one of our returning coaches or staff remembers this.
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Don’t worry. All of the offensive footage from last year was deleted from the servers in the program. We’ll run 3 or 4 TEs and Chubb/Michel into a stacked box.
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One thing to me that has nothing to do with CKS’s long term plans, it has nothing to do with talent, and it has nothing to do with having to give up on a season for the future. The aspect that I’m referring to is special teams play. A team does not have to have talent out the rear end to play well with regard to special teams. Special teams has everything to do with coaching and attitude, and they can have a huge impact on games. There is no excuse for that aspect of this team to be as crappy as it is. On another note, we can transition for the future and still show improvement from week to week this year. We haven’t done that, and perhaps teams like South Carolina and Kentucky can show that they have. Regardless of our OL and receiver situations (just to name two), we do have more talent than does Nicholls State, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky and Tech. Those games should not have been as close as they were or should not have been or should not be lost. SCAR starts a Freshman quarterback and defeats the team favored to win the East by fitting their game plan to what that kid does best. i don’t think we’ve done that often enough this year for all of our players, with the exception of the UT game.
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Good post. Round pegs/square holes so far. Like it or not, adjust and move forward, continue adjusting, and evolve.
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My issues with the offence this year, so far, are that Chaney seems to be going out of his way to not make it easier for Eason. With a poor line and young quarterback, smaller, lightning quick receivers, and big, tall, fast Tight ends, and 2 of the finest running backs in the country, I’m not seeing a play call structure that helps get the ball out of Eason’s hands fast to people in space, giving them a chance to help him out.
Perhaps it is happening and I’m not catching it, but getting the ball out of eason’s hands fast can help him get a rhythm.
Also, why are we forcing Eason to make the checks at the line? What happened to the UT plan, where we lined up fast, checked the defense, looked over to chaney, confirmed or changed the play from the sideline, and then snapped the ball? Nick Marshall can’t spell football, but ran a fantastic offense where Malzahn simplified every aspect of it for him. Why can’t we HELP EASON with pre-snap reads from the sideline like we’ve seen for years?
to critique the coaching, Bobo did this for murray early on and it paid huge dividends in those seasons compared to alternative.
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This is absolutely one of the head-scratching things where it makes you feel like they’re just throwing the baby out with the bathwater trying to execute a long-term strategy and saying fuck it about the short-term. Long-term strategies are good and well when your only job is to build something, but it sure as shit sucks in the short-term. There has to be a happy medium where you can try to win games right now without sacrificing what you’re building long-term, but either Kirby doesn’t care or doesn’t know enough as a head coach to make that happen (it’s probably more of the latter than the former).
It’s frustrating to see what Fuente is doing up at Virginia Tech and while he’s had a couple of stinker games they look SO MUCH BETTER on offense than the last few years under Beamer. There talent is in no way appreciably better than ours, but he’s scheming around their weaknesses while still building long-term and is competing for his division title.
I’ve been saying multiple times today, but it’s really hard as a fan to shell out my time and money on Saturdays under the hope that one day things will be better when even just incremental improvements in the now would make things more tolerable.
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Fuente is someone I really wish we had considered. Although we don’t have anyone on the roster that could run his offense now, Georgia produces a TON of HS QBs that would light it up in that offense.
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Comparing Kirby to other first year coaches isn’t fair to him, given every program is at different stages of recruiting and development. Fuente does have a first time starter in his offense QB and seems to be taking to it well.
It’s just beyond frustrating to see the same offensive structure being used were Eason a 5th year senior with a veteran line. Sure, we don’t have many good options right now for Chaney to work with. but you know what? Best I can tell we aren’t using any of the few we do have.
All I hear about is how bad our WRs are. Godwin is a vacuum and catches everything. IM is squirrely and gets open. Wims has looked fine the last few games. Heck, per one of the highlights, he was breaking wide open down the middle on the play where ridley got hurt. it’s simply lazy prognostication to say the team has zero talent and it’s not the coaches fault. That excuses far too much in terms of what the offense should be doing.
Last year, that excuse had some viability because Lambert literally was scared of his shadow and would crow hop passes to wide open receivers. No coordinator can overcome that. Eason is a much better passer than Lambert and will hit many of those throws. it’s on the coordinator to help him be a better quarterback, which is to read the defense, audible into and out of plays, and put him in position to play a little pitch and catch out there.
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I have been thinking for a long time that the lack of talent excuse doesn’t fly. As I understand it, Pittman’s “lack of talent” = lack of size. Some NFL teams are actually drafting for the opposite. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/sports/football/nfl-offenses-are-changing-so-some-offensive-linemen-are-shrinking.html?_r=0
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Miami is #44 in scoring offense. UGA is #102. Oh, to be as inept as the Canes.
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