Jason Butt tosses out an interesting statistic.
It’s a statistic that shouldn’t hold too much significance. But it sure is still one of note.
When receiver Isaiah McKenzie scores a touchdown, Georgia is 5-0. When he doesn’t, the Bulldogs are 0-4.
Sure, it’s a matter of correlation, not causation. But it’s also indicative of something that happened on offense Saturday night that gave me some grounds for optimism. No, I’m not talking about moving Jim Chaney off the sidelines.
I’m talking about what appeared to be a greater focus on getting the ball into the hands of Georgia’s best offensive play makers. Chubb and Michel got 40 carries Saturday night. After zero touches against Florida, McKenzie had two catches, including that electrifying touchdown reception. Terry Godwin had three. (He did have five against the Gators, so at least they never lost sight of him.) They seem to have figured out that they have a weapon in Wims, who led the team in catches and receiving yards.
Things still aren’t as smooth as they could be — Ridley’s sudden brush with butter fingers being the best example of that — but it sure felt like the offense performed more capably than it had in weeks. No doubt the quality of Kentucky’s defense played into that, but, still, take it as a promising development. Now, they just need to build on that against Auburn.
Get The Picture 
To my untrained eye, it seems Kirby(cheney) has followed his “next man up” philosophy and not concerned himself with who that man may be. At Bama, that may work. At most other programs, discretion is advised.
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Unless something shocking happens, they aren’t going to be able to block Auburn’s line. You can’t give guys carries when they aren’t gaining anything, and it’s hard to distribute the ball when you don’t have time to throw. Auburn’s secondary isn’t as good as Florida’s, so at least receivers should be able to get open on the occasions when Eason has time.
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If you watched the Aubie/Vandy game you saw a pretty inept Commodore offense drive the ball consistently by spreading the defense out and getting the ball to their receivers in space via short, quick passes mixed with enough runs to keep them honest. There is no way we run the ball up the gut on them, or have time for slow developing play action. Vandy only had 70 yards on us before that last drive in the 4th Qtr featuring a 50 yard screen play, how did they change into a passing O so quickly? They don’t have the receiver talent, running threat, or QB that we have, but had over 350 yards of offense. I hope we see a spread/shotgun look on Saturday or I don’t see us keeping pace with them. We have enough of those plays in our two-minute offense to build off of.
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It won’t hurt if Callway is hurt!
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. It sure is refreshing to get a BEHIND the scenes look from Jason BUTT.
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Nauta. You forgot Nauta. They should have throw to him 5 times a game. The dude is near unstoppable.
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Yes..he’s money.
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Perhaps the assistants who’ve underperformed are starting to feel some heat. Let’s hope the win in Lexington wasn’t a dead cat bounce.
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The number and type of dropped passes this year are truly astonishing. These are NOT leaping, outstretched arm, heavily defended, fingertip glance offs. They’re solid, square in the hands/gut shots from Eason. I’m counting on regression to the mean on this in coming seasons. Fix just 1/3 of these and our offense looks much more potent on all fronts. Too bad we lose Chubb and Sony to test this theory.
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While ecstatic for the win considering where this team has been, it’s amazing to me how optimistic everyone all of the sudden is. We ran the ball at will against USCe less than a month ago who has a comparable D to Kentucky. How did that translate against Vandy and UF? Color me skeptical that we’ll be able to run on the WarTiglePlainsmen. I think our best bet as discussed above is to come out, spread em out, and mix in some shotgun runs and screens and short slants…. I think it is more likely that we come out and try to “impose our will” in power formations until we’re down 2 TDs.
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+1
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I can’t remember the last time I was that geeked up about a come from behind last second win over Kentucky!!!!! We are back baby! Skies the limit!!!
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Did we take the red-shirt off Mecole Hardman in this game? Didn’t he come in when Parrish was hurt?
I think Chubb’s down time and last few games may give him pause to join the NFL this year unless he gets taken in the first or second rounds as he was projected before. I wouldn’t be surprised if he might want to stay another year for what he sees as possibility of going better in the draft after a damned impressive Senior year with a stronger team.
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