Bill Connelly puts on his Missouri hat, looks at his team’s chances this week and doesn’t see much room for hope.
Defensive coaches will tell you they want the offense to have to play left-handed: force them out of Plan A, and if they beat you with Plan B, so be it.
Because of Missouri’s weaknesses in pass defense, Plan B will probably work just fine for Fromm and Georgia. But if you can’t stop Plan A, you’re going to lose by 40. Mizzou’s only chance is to get linebackers Terez Hall and Cale Garrett and linemen like Terry Beckner Jr. into the backfield against the run, sell out in the box, and hope Fromm misfires on a couple of deep shots. It probably won’t work, but there might not be a better option.
That’s pretty much what everybody’s been trying against Georgia all season, right? That’s worked well.
Georgia’s success, of course, is driven by its defense and special teams. The Dawgs are fourth in Defensive S&P+ and first in Special Teams S&P+, which means they don’t have to take many chances. That’s a good thing considering their youth at QB.
Fromm took over for an injured Jacob Eason almost the moment after the season began, and while he’s a blue-chipper and has looked the part at times, they haven’t had to ask him to step outside of himself very much. He threw all of three passing downs passes last week; as means of comparison, Missouri’s Drew Lock threw 15 such passes at Kentucky. Since you can’t score on them, they don’t mind taking their time figuring out how to score on you.
Somebody ought to put that last sentence on a t-shirt.
Get The Picture 
We’re playing to our strengths:
1) Tailback – because of the depth we have, we always have a fresh set of legs on the field. It demoralizes a defense to see one future NFL player leave the field to see another come in right behind.
3) Front 7 – these guys have controlled the line of scrimmage in every game so far. We aren’t regularly loading the box to stop the run because these guys are so dominant.
3) Special teams – the two specialists are field position weapons and allow us to force offenses to drive the length of the field.
Keep using the formula until someone proves they can stop it … and don’t turn the ball over.
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I’m digging this. Last season Georgia’s O-line had to use all 5 interior linemen to block 3 on the defense. It’s a numbers game, if the defense has that advantage the offense will play hell moving the ball passing or running. (Shout out to Jacob Eason for his performance last year). We have that advantage on D this year and it’s damn fun to watch.
On the other side of the ball? Watching #77 push a DT a yard and a half off the line of scrimmage the turning and shoving a linebacker off his feet as NC27 cuts behind his big ass for a touchdown?
Priceless
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Oh BTW, I did not get to see the UT beatdown nor Vandy. I am seriuosly jonesing for some UGA football right now.
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Eh, you didn’t miss much. Just 86-14. Oh, and Booch showed off some new shades of purple.
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Butch does look good in purple, doesn’t he? 🙂
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You haven’t missed them, just missed them live. Well worth watching the re-runs if you set the DVR, or they are available elsewhere. There sure isn’t any decent CFB on again tonight. What the hell has happened to Thursday nights? Come on WWL, quit over stacking Saturday nights, spread the games out.
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I actually watched Troy (I assume) lose to South Alabama. This is the same Troy the beat LSU in Red Stick, losing to a 1-4 South Alabama team. In Troy’s stadium.
It was either that or the Yankees, and I can’t stand the Yankees. Unfortunately I couldn’t watch part 2 of “Tales from the tour bus” about George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Part 1 was hilarious. Part 2 airs/is released Friday.
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Supposed to have Canes and Jackets tonight, but some scheduling changes earlier in the year made them change from Thurs to Sat. Overall, you are correct, only two decent Thursday games so far this year.
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Forgot about that date change, you are right. Would have been an entertaining Thursday night. Saturday has no Top 25 matchups but each time slot has one of two games I am very interested in seeing. Fun, low stress day from 12 until midnight.
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Good thing for CMR..not having to prepare for GT’s break knees offense on a short week..right after FSU. Hope he beats shitum out of geeks.
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I feel like the Senator with this, but with regards to making the O one dimensional, Fromm has been highly successful in one important stat: third down passer rating, where he leads the SEC. He also has more third down passing attempts and just as many firsts down conversions passing as Jalen Hurts. Just food for thought when considering how many people think he hasn’t really been asked to carry the team in certain situations.
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Fromm doesnt get some credit he is due. Dropped passes every game show up on his record. And he runs the zone read really well when asked to. Those scrambles seem to go for 10+ yards every attempt.
Dont fix what aint broken. Until a team stops the run consistently, we should continue to lean heavily on that portion of the game with a few throws sprinkled in.
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Erk would be proud. If they don’t score, we can’t lose.
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That was my exact thought.
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“If we score, we may win. If they never score, we’ll never lose.”
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Agree with others that Fromm isn’t being given enough credit. Seems to me he has no problem making the throws when called upon to do so. The diversity of plays he’s run successfully has been truly impressive. Excels in the redzone. He’s turned 2016’s inept Chaney into 2017’s mastermind.
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The team around him being vastly improved compared to last year has had a much larger effect. Fromm has played two excellent games, two solid games, and two mediocre to poor games this year. He has been what you would expect a talented true freshman to be. Assuming he holds down the job, I hope he can lead the team in a game where the defense is a little less than dominant and Georgia doesn’t have the luxury of running the ball 40 times, but it is an open question whether or not he’s ready for that.
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I would say partially open, but it is true he hasn’t had to carry anybody yet. I like our chances if it is in his hands, but the need simply hasn’t arisen. The zone read capability alone makes him more capable than any QB since Shock, maybe Murray.
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I believe Biggus is correct. I also believe this is why Kirby is trying to get Eason back up to playing speed. Jake from State Fromm is doing an excellent job, no doubt. But we’ve been fortunate that simple, rather narrowly focused game plans have been quite effective so far. We may need to do more as the season progresses.
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My favorite part of that article is talking about tailbacks;
“And, of course, when they need to be spelled, the youngsters (sophomores Herrien and Holyfield, freshman Swift) can be counted on to further soften up the defense. They’ve combined for basically another Chubb: 98 carries, 519 yards, three touchdowns, and 45 receiving yards.”
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I’m going to miss Chubb and Michel, but adding Zamir “Zeus” White to Swift, Holyfield and Herrien will help ease the pain some. 🙂
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And possibly Dalvin Cook’s younger brother
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I hope this is not the week Mizzou figures out how to hold on to passes. They’ve had a lot of drops this year.
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I don’t expect a letdown from the D this week, but even if it happens I somehow just expect the O to go off — I expect to score 50.
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