One last nooner

Techies, come early.

📺 times and networks announced for the weekend of November 26. https://t.co/ooJCOCmejP pic.twitter.com/GKov7Fnndw

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) November 14, 2016

Schadenfreude, darling, schadenfreude

I know this isn’t a good year for a Dawg fan to gloat, but, damn, these salty tears are delicious.

Weird stat of the week

In conference play, Georgia is an impressive second in the SEC in rushing defense and in average yards per rush, but a mediocre ninth in defensive rushing touchdowns.

Some of that’s due to field position issues on occasion, but some is also due to poor red zone play.

Give Kirby credit for one more thing, then:  if your defense can’t hold its own in the red zone, the obvious strategy in response is to keep the other team out of the red zone.

Oh, what a catch!

The most impressive play of the night…

AP photo by John Bazemore

Best part of that shot are the looks on the sideline, as it hadn’t quite sunk in yet what Ridley did, while being interfered with.  Awesome.

Chaney speaks!

I haven’t seen the broadcast, so thanks to Seth Emerson for this catch.

While the ink-stained media doesn’t get assistant coaches, the CBS crew does get Jim Chaney, who told Gary Danielson he had to be “non-emotional. … I can’t over-react to things that happen. I have to stick to my gameplan. And I want to throw later in the game when those pass rushers are a little tired. Early in the game they’re tough.”

After the game, a friend of mine pointed out that, while those sideline passes Chaney called may not have been effective purely from a yardage gained standpoint, they may well have served the purpose of getting Auburn’s defensive line to do more chasing than it wanted, with the goal of wearing them down.  That, plus more time on the field in a game when Georgia held the ball almost forty minutes, appeared to have just that in mind.

And, boy, did it work.  Auburn only ran 54 offensive plays Saturday night, its lowest number of the season.  Meanwhile, Georgia ran 76 plays of its own, which on the surface may not seem like a lot, but when you’re grinding like hell in a game where both teams are doing what they can to establish the run (Auburn at least was trying to do that in the first half), it actually is.

For all the damage Adams and Lawson did in the first half, Auburn did not have a sack in the second half.  Mission accomplished.

*************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Or, as Smart put it,

“The defense got to rest,” coach Kirby Smart said. “Going into this game that was my major concern was not getting to rest on defense because of their tempo….All the things we did wrong, we possessed the ball. “

Is it possible to self-Dawgrade?

Because it sure sounds like Sean White was doing exactly that in his post-game remarks.

Observations from the 35, Georgia-Auburn edition

Ho hum.  Just another win at home over a highly ranked Auburn Tigers team. Been there; seen that.

Okay, it was a little more bonkers than that.  The Maurice Smith interception jolted Sanford Stadium and the defense fed off the crowd for the rest of the game.

Bullet points?  Sure.

• Give a Georgia crowd a chance to get excited, and it won’t disappoint.  The second half was as energized a setting as I’ve sat in for a couple of years. The noise level at the time of Auburn’s last fourth down play of the night was ear-splitting.
• Right now, the most money call in Jim Chaney’s playbook is Isaac Nauta on a crossing pattern.  There isn’t a defender in college football who can cover that.  The only catch is that the line has to block for a while for the pattern to open.
• I’m not sure how significant it was, but McKenzie appeared for much of the evening to be shifting the wideouts when Georgia deployed trips to one side.  I assume it was to get a certain matchup against Auburn’s defensive backs.
• The most telegraphed play call is when the tight end goes in motion and settles in near the center of the line.  It’s always a run and it got stuffed every time they ran it.
• Nick Chubb with over 100 yards rushing was good to see.  I know Sony Michel needs his touches, too, but it was a little frustrating on occasion to see Chubb run for a good game, appear lathered up and ready to go, only to see a substitution.
• Good to see after dropping a couple of balls against Kentucky that Riley Ridley got his mojo back… with a vengeance.
• It was an up and down night for the offensive line.  There was a brutal stretch when Adams and Lawson looked like they were taking over the game, and by brutal, I mean I was worried that Eason might not remain standing on the night, but there were also stretches when Eason had solid pass blocking.  The line was still not particularly effective run blocking up the middle, but did manage to open up the outside with effective pulling.  No small thing after Wynn went down.
• Tyler Catalina has gotten his fair share of criticism this season, but he deserves some credit for a gutsy night.  He was clearly playing in pain in the fourth quarter, but basically held his own.  He also was the lineman who got down the field to throw a big block to spring Nick Chubb on one of the night’s longer runs.
• Eason showed nice touch on several of his downfield throws, but it was a pass to Nauta where he took a little off but still put the ball exactly where it had to go that may have been his best throw of the night.  It’s also worth noting he made it through another game without throwing a pick.  When he gets a real handle on reading defensive sets and is given some leeway to change the call at the line, look out, world.
• Broken record time:  it’s gonna be a lot of fun to see what the pups on the defensive line do next season with a year under their belts.
• Roquan Smith played his ass off.  Again.
• How could you not love the way the convoy formed around Smith after he intercepted the ball?
• That may have been the best usage of blitzes I’ve ever seen from a Georgia defense.  Creative and effective.  Add in some halftime adjustments that shut the outside run down, and Mel Tucker had a whale of a game.
• Not coincidentally, special teams turned in their best collective effort of the season.  Blankenship amazes more with every passing week.  This time it wasn’t only nailing two field goals that turned out to be the difference in the game, but also putting all four of his kickoffs in the end zone.  Ramsey, called into service because of Long’s injury, did shank one, but had a very effective punt that was fielded inside the Auburn 5.  McKenzie managed to hit the longest punt return Auburn’s given up this season.  There were no breakdowns by the coverage teams, either.  As good as Auburn’s kicker and punter are —  and, man, the punter especially was good — it didn’t turn in to an area of advantage for the Tigers.  And that’s one way you win a close game.
• Bitch about those trick plays if you want, but overall, Jim Chaney called a solid game.  Georgia held the ball for over 39 minutes, and if you don’t think that was job number one for the offense, you weren’t paying attention.  There was an effort made in the playcalling to take pressure off the offensive front; it didn’t always work, but it worked enough.  I loved the commitment to throw deep, too, and somebody figured out that Auburn’s corners were vulnerable.  Yes, Georgia’s inability to score touchdowns in the red zone is troubling, but I think as Eason grows more comfortable running the offense that will get better.
• The officiating was SEC-level quality, which is to say it sucked.  The blown pass interference call was the night’s worse, but there were plenty of other whiffs that made me shake my head.  The best thing I can say about it all is at least it didn’t cost Georgia the game.
• Man, Deshaun Davis for Auburn was hell on wheels, wasn’t he?  I saw him making plays all over the field.  Good player.
• I tweeted about this during the game, but the video board put up a tribute to the win at Auburn in 2002 and managed to misspell David Greene’s name.  That’s beyond embarrassing.
• Cool use of cellphones by the crowd in the fourth quarter, but from what I’ve seen from video clips of it, it was something that had a lot more impact live.

I wish I could take credit for calling the game with this post from Saturday, but identifying the strategy to win wasn’t the hard part.  It was getting the players to execute that was.  So give Smart and his staff a lot of credit for getting that done.  It was their finest hour this season.  Now, the trick is to keep it up.

SEC Power Poll, Week 11

It really is the year of Snow White and the 13 Dwarfs.

1. Alabama.  Nothing to see here, move on.
2. LSU.  Coach O burnished his résumé with a four-TD win over a team that demolished Florida the week before.  Guess who’s coming to Baton Rouge next?
3. Auburn.  Last week’s conventional wisdom:  with that offense, there’s no way Georgia can hang with Auburn.  This week’s conventional wisdom:  with that offense, there’s no way Auburn can hang with Alabama.
4. Texas A&M.  Two straight conference losses and LSU awaits. The bloom is coming off the Aggies’ rose.
5. Ole Miss.  THEY STILL THE BEST FIVE-LOSS TEAM IN ‘MERICA, PAWWWLLL.
6. Tennessee.  Death, taxes and the Vols’ November schedule.
7. Arkansas.  I knew the Hogs couldn’t play defense.
8. Florida.  Parts keep falling off, but somehow the Gators keep winning.
9. Georgia.  If you try to explain the Dawgs’ season with the transitive property of wins, you’ll go mad.
10. Mississippi State.  Yeah, they got destroyed by Alabama.  They’re still better than half the East.
11. Kentucky.  Seriously, how do you rush for 443 yards (better than eight yards per play) and still lose by thirteen?
12. South Carolina.  The greatest trick Will Muschamp played was convincing the world that the ‘Cocks were relevant ahead of schedule.
13. Vanderbilt.  Beat Georgia on the road and lose to Missouri on the road.  Whatever, Vanderbilt.
14. Missouri.  I’d move ’em up, but they’re going to get smoked in their last two games, so I’m not sure it’s worth the bother.

There’s your garden variety, run of the mill toxic…

… and then there’s Chernobyl-level complete nuclear meltdown toxic.

In response to multiple questions about a former Baylor coach who claims to have talked to Judicial Affairs in 2013 about an allegation that one of his student-athletes had been sexually assaulted at a party by several football players, Baylor responded as follows:

To place the news accounts in context, here are the facts about the underlying report of sexual assault: In April 2013, a female student-athlete reported to her head coach that she had been sexually assaulted by five Baylor football players approximately one year earlier. The student-athlete provided her head coach with the names of the involved football players. The head coach immediately reported the assault, including the names of the reported players, to the then-Athletic Director, to the head football coach, and to the sports administrator for the female student-athlete’s team. According to Baylor’s investigation, neither the head coach, the Athletic Director, the sports administrator or the football coach disclosed the reported sexual assault to Baylor’s Judicial Affairs or to anyone else outside of the Athletics Department.[Emphasis added.]

Uh, that would be wrong.

Under Title IX and Clery, a University must have campus policies and procedures for the reporting and investigation of reported sexual assaults. This is in addition to any criminal law enforcement action a victim may seek. Many university employees have reporting responsibilities and if they learn of a reported sexual assault, they must share the report with the designated official on campus. In 2013, Athletic Department coaches and staff should have reported the incident to one of three places: the University’s Title IX Coordinator (then the VP of Human Resources), Judicial Affairs, or the Baylor University Police Department, all of whom would have been in a position to assist the victim and take responsive action. While a victim may choose where or how to report a sexual assault, once informed of the report, athletics personnel may not exercise discretion to not report.

By the way, those questions the school is responding to there were encouraged by a current member of the Baylor coaching staff, who just happens to be Art Briles’ son.

https://twitter.com/kendalbriles/status/794709614017318912?ref_src=twsrc%2525255Etfw

Here’s where things get really disgusting.  The school doesn’t directly point a finger at Briles, but it sure does stick something out in its former AD’s direction.

• In early 2015, Baylor’s Title IX Office first learned of the sexual assault allegation in connection with three other reports of sexual assault involving multiple football players. At the time, the Athletic Director was asked if he had any prior knowledge of an alleged gang rape within the football program. He denied having any knowledge of the alleged incident. Later in 2015, for the first time, the Athletic Director acknowledged that the student-athlete’s head coach told him about this report in 2013. The Athletic Director explained that he did not take any action, including reporting the alleged sexual assault to Judicial Affairs, because he thought the victim did not want to report the incident.  [Emphasis added.]

So, first McCaw lied and then he tried to justify his decision to bury the complaint.  Briles may not have done those two things, but that doesn’t change that he was aware of the allegation and failed to report it, pursuant to school policy.  The logical implication from that and from McCaw’s behavior was that Briles expected the matter to be covered up in the best interests of the Baylor football program.

People may have lost their jobs over this, but no one from the school deserves any of our sympathy.  The school not only turned a blind eye as events unfolded, but tried to walk a fine line with what it learned from the Pepper Hamilton report.  That’s not working now because some of the people involved lack any sense of morality and there’s only so much you can sweep under the rug before people start noticing.

That Art Briles walked away from the school with a multi-million dollar settlement despite what the investigation turned up is a sad state of affairs.  That we live in a world where it’s not a complete impossibility this man could be involved in coaching again isn’t just sad.  It’s horrifying.

Tray channels his inner Reggie Ball.

This is pure “Come on, dog”:

Saturday marked the first time Matthews had been on the field against the Bulldogs since his departure.

He sat out the 2014 season due to the NCAA’s transfer rules. Last season, he was held out of the game due to injury. Yet despite being in the visitors’ locker room at Sanford Stadium for the first time, Matthews said it didn’t feel all that different than any other road game.

“It wasn’t really anything special to me,” Matthews said. “It was just, like I said, a game that we wanted to win…”

3 steps OB. No flag#SECrefprobz pic.twitter.com/tYPkYY3OQO

— Matt Moscona (@MattMoscona) November 12, 2016

It was also a game when he didn’t have to tackle Leonard Fournette.  It was nice for Trigga that the refs let him indulge himself a little.