One of the weirder things about Georgia, 2016 edition — not necessarily a short list, I know — is that in the opener, the defense held Mitch Trubisky, who is getting all sorts of wows from NFL talent evaluators these days, to his second lowest passer rating of the season.
Which isn’t to say the pass defense didn’t have its moments in other games, but generally speaking, the better passers it faced didn’t have off days against the Dawgs. Except Trubisky. Sure, there was a bit of luck involved, like a blown deep throw to a wide open receiver that should have been led to a touchdown, but overall, it was a very good day for the secondary.
What I can’t figure out is if that was a sign of things to come, or just a random blip signifying little. Georgia did finish fifth in the conference in defensive passer rating, but that was a slide from first the year before. And as well as the secondary performed in the opener, it wasn’t so hot in the end game.
Then again, maybe this is more of an issue of getting the right personnel in to run a good system.
Get The Picture 
This team played some really solid ball early in the year, but nothing after Tennessee. UNC, Mizzou, and UT where all solid performances. Ole Miss and Nichols were obviously the indicators of the future, but man if UGA had reeled off 4-5 more games like the UNC, Mizzou, or UT I think everyone would be much more optimistic right now.
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I thought they actually played really well against USC too, considering how awful Eason was that day. That easily could have been a 4 TD win.
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Those are 3 very average teams so I wouldn’t feel too optimistic. SC beat all 3 teams last time they played and NC was more talented last year.
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“Why did we do so well in the North Carolina game” is still, I think, the most intriguing question of the season.
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Simple, the new staff had not had sufficient time to screw up the defense and the offense used Lambert to his best effect. Once Kirby got going the team went down the tubes. He was coaching for the future not the present. It will be 2019 before he’s ready to win the East.
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So we win that sweet, sweet 2018 National Championship by dong it the Ohio State 2016 way?
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Started the season strong and then it was mostly down hill from there. Good, bad or average…this was one of the most consistent Georgia teams I remember. Strengths stayed Strengths and the same for the weaknesses. Scary that we didn’t really improve anywhere but maybe the was by design for the first year. Quite the inauspicious start for the new HC. Certainly left room for improvement.
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The 2 guys in the NFL from last years team that rushed passers are the difference. One of them might be defensive rookie of the year.
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Agreed. Those guys, as well as Malcolm Mitchell were way undervalued.
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Did those guys suit up during the first 5 games, but didnt for the last 2 months of the season?
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It intrigues me…what has Mitchell got that Chris Conley doesn’t? Mitchell is smaller, not as fast, hands seem equally good. Route-running? Quickness on moves that enable getting open? Malcolm has surprised me with his ability to stand out. Conley has a chance on a team that doesn’t have a lot of WR options, but he’s not yet made the leap from role player to dependable starter.
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I just see it as aberration. The Georgia game pass defense vs UNC was carry over of Pruit’s defense in 2015 that eventually fizzled under the new style being setup by CKS.
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Should the results of the unc game been duplicated in all other 2016 games, CKS’s honeymoon would be short lived with the expectation bar waaaay to high. Staff members were placed in defcon 5, with direct orders to tuuuurrn this mutha’ around. We now are experiencing the process at work, do not adjust your t.v.
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The UNC game is the one game this year that our offensive line dominated. We ran the ball well consistently and moved the line of scrimmage. How we couldn’t do that against the weaker teams on our schedule the rest of year is a mystery.
Yes, the defense got lucky a couple of times when the Heels missed on some big plays. The last 22 minutes of the game the defense played some of their best football of the year.
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I’d be interested to know how much zone blocking we did in the opener vs. the rest of the season. You don’t just get worse at blocking. It could be that unc was surprised that we were doing something different and that’s why we looked good, but I doubt it. There’s plenty of tape on Pittman’s OL.
My supposition is that CKS was unsure of what he had, maximized things for the opener, and then focused on changing our identity for much of the rest of the season. It seems to me that there were games we went off script to get a w, like Missouri where we threw more than CMR ever did, and other games where we just banged our heads against a wall in the name of impacting identity and with disregard to the w.
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Winner! I agree.
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The UNC game was UGA’s pilot episode before the actual first season started. After it was over, the writers retooled some of the characters (the OL especially).
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It was an evenly matched game with two overrated teams. And I’m somewhat skeptical about the Trubisky love. Not a bad college QB at all. But he’s not gonna challenge Watson for top pick in the draft.
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As I recall there was no pass rush vs. UNC and the left tackle was in full preview. 2 pass interferences when Eason took shots won that game.
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Penn Wagers was still hyper sting early in the season. He was in full display vsthe bugs.
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I don’t think it was as much UGA DB’s as it was the kid got inside his own head for his first big game, ever. He shook it off down the schedule
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