S&P+ says Alabama by 2.3 points in the title game, but I’ll worry about that later.
In the meantime, check out Bill’s percentile performances from the Rose Bowl:
That was the worst performance of the year for the Sooners defense… and here we’ve bragged about SEC defenses, when maybe we should be pumping our chests about SEC offenses. (I keed, I keed. Sort of.)
Speaking of offense, there’s one note from Bill’s five factors worth a mention. Remember how so many were talking about Georgia using its running attack to slow the pace of the game down to keep the ball out of Mayfield’s hands? My response was that given the weaknesses in the Oklahoma defense and Georgia’s own propensity for the big play, that might not be as much a thing as people hoped.
In the end, that turned out to be the case. Georgia averaged only 3.5 plays per possession, compared to Oklahoma’s five. That’s what happens when your rushing IsoPPP, which measures explosive plays, winds up more than tripling the national average. Wowzer.
Get The Picture 
Given those stats you would think the Dawgs would have won easily. The fact we had to go into OT to do it even with that kind of dominance scares me for the next game.
LikeLike
OK’s opening flurry of offensive efficiency was scary. Once we got that under control, we mostly controlled the game. The scoop and score on Sony’s fumble prevented what was (IMHO) about to be an early knockout punch on them. They had one rally afterward..My point is (I think) that Alabama won’t match OK’s offensive flurry. They, like UGA, want to pound you to death. Their right defensive end is finished with a blown knee…so Fromm just got a little more security.
LikeLike
I thought Pollack’s observation that defense needed to time to adjust to the speed and tempo of OU’s offense before finding their footing was spot on analysis. I think he is the only one who made it btw.
LikeLike
Yep, once our D quit playing scared, we shut them down. Their offense scored 10 points in the second half and OT. Meanwhile, our offense had it’s way (as long as Chaney would just RTDB). We averaged 16 ypc in the first half and Chaney kept trying to fling it.
LikeLike
I coulda choked Cheney when he had Jake throwing the ball on 3 consecutive plays at midfield right after Nick ran it for 50 yards out of our endzone.
Other than that, can’t really criticize his gameplan.
LikeLike
I like our chances to put 24 or so on Bama. I think our offense is good enough to score on just about anybody. Hope I’m right about that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bama scares me. There, I said it. Bama scares me just because they’re “Bama”.
BTW, welcome back Senator. Without much posting to pontificate on, I have been quite productive in my employment. I’m afraid the powers that be will notice and become accustomed to such behavior. 😉
LikeLike
Sounds like you and Kirby have something in common.
LikeLike
You mean the part about our employers not being accustomed to productivity? I’ll buy that.
LikeLike
If we’re averaging 3.5 plays per possession against the Death Star we ain’t doing so good. We be punting after too many three and outs.
LikeLike
Keys:
3rd down conversions, red zone and turnovers.
LikeLike
As ever. A great stat as to the total 2nd Half defensive clampdown: OU was 1-for-10 on 3rd downs. Uga wins 1st down and keeps that OLine away from 3rd and <5 and I like the odds.
LikeLike
Not share where to share this but a really cool video showing the up and down emotions of the game from DawgNation.
LikeLike
Cobb County
LikeLike
Nice!!!!
LikeLike
Dean-O in the red hat!
LikeLike
With both offenses dominating, look to special teams for the differentiator.
The biggest plays went Georgia’s way.
The block in the second overtime;
The play on the squib kick near the end of the first half;
The field goal at the end of the half (which would not have been attempted had Oklahoma put a return man in the game); and
Oklahoma’s short punts in the second half.
LikeLike
I questioned why they didn’t have a return man. I guess playing the fake all the way.
LikeLike
Who was it that snagged that squib kick? Tae Crowder? That ball was smoked, kid showed some reflexes that would have made Brooks Robinson proud!
LikeLike
Read that he was a shortstop in HS and just snagged it and got down. Thank the Lord he did…
LikeLike
Stoops should be canned, as of yesterday. You could have drove a zamboni through that hole Sony hit on the right side for his long run. With the athletes they have, just no excuse for such poor play. Gonna be tough sledding against Bama though.
LikeLike
You mean Riley?
LikeLike
No I think he means the D-Coordinator Mike Stoops.
LikeLike
Fatigue. That’s why Kirby chose OT instead of going for 2 in regulation.
LikeLike
Yep, Mike Stoops.
LikeLike
I lurked on one of the OU blogs. The majority of their fan base represented there feels the same way about Mr. Stoops. Personally? I think OU flat out didn’t have the horses to play with UGA. It wouldn’t have mattered who was calling the shots.
LikeLike
And I told you it wouldn’t necessarily matter whether Fromm threw 20+ times if our run game was clicking! 😉
LikeLike
Georgia can beat Bama, but they’ll probably need to win the turnover battle to do it. I don’t see either team gaining much more than 300 yards in this one. Still, win or lose, this has been a pretty good year for a voluntary rebuild.
LikeLike
I was gonna wait and post this Monday night….guess I will have to post it twice now .;-)
. .have a way with words. Mr. Grizzard’s thoughts on the Undefeated, Untied, Undisputed, and Undenied National Champions in 1980.
By Lewis Grizzard
NEW ORLEANS – I am writing this from the 16th floor of the Howard Johnson Motor Hotel in downtown New Orleans. I can see the top of the Louisiana Superdome from this perch, and I notice it looks more like one of those ominous nuclear power plants than a sports stadium. The truth is, the place exploded, what is now four hours ago.
I am no stranger to madness. I have attended an Indianapolis 500 automobile race, the annual salute to mental illness. That was nothing compared to this.
This was wild. This was crazy. This was downright scary at times.
A cop on the floor of the Dome said, “Thank God they ain’t armed.”
A security man screamed to no one in particular, “I’ve got the big toebig toebig toebig toe president of the United States in here and I can’t get him out!”
A female member of the Notre Dame band, holding onto her flute as she surveyed the incredible scene before her, said, “If it meant that much, I’m glad Georgia won.”
It meant that much. Grown men cried. A man kissed Georgia defensive coach Erskine Russell squarely on the top of his bald head. Erk just smiled.
I saw a man get down on his all fours and bark like a wild dog (dawg) and try to bite a passerby. A woman I had never seen before lifted her skirt to show me her underpants. “Georgia” was stitched hip to hip.
Let me take you back to when the playing of the 1981 Sugar Bowl football game between Georgia and Notre Dame first began to show signs of the subsequent emotional explosion that it became.
New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street. It’s the Red Sea. If there are Notre Dame people in town, where are they?
The 1 Bourbon Street Inn, in the very heart of the French Quarter, is packed with Georgians. The third-floor balcony is Bulldog Central. The bathtubs in the adjoining rooms are filled with ice and champagne.
The people in the street, thousands of them, scream, “HERSCHEL!”
The people on the balcony respond, “WALKER!”
A chant aimed at what brave or stupid Notre Damers might be in earshot begins:
“YOU GOT THE HUNCHBACK! WE GOT THE TAILBACK!”
“The pope’s a dope” came out a couple of times, too — there’s one in every madhouse.
At midnight, there was much kissing and hugging and how bout-them-dawging, and speaking of dogs (dawgs), the Georgia mascot, “Uga,” showed up at the party on the third-floor Bourbon Street Inn balcony, and I heard one man say to another:
“Hey, how’d your lip get cut?”
To which the second man replied, “I was kissing ‘Uga’ on the mouth at midnight and he bit me.”
When the sun rose on 1981, there were those still partying from the night before. Three hours before kickoff, the city was covered in red. Red hats, red pants, red shirts — red, I was to discover later, underwear as well.
The Game. So close. God bless Mrs. Walker. Thirty seconds are left. Notre Dame can’t stop the clock. At :14 showing, the game ended because every Bulldog from Rabun Gap to Tybee Light and Hartwell to Bainbridge hit the floor of the Louisiana Superdome.
They trampled each other. They trampled the players, the coaches, the press, they ripped down a goal post.
The public-address announcer pleaded and pleaded and pleaded: “Please clear the field! PLEASE clear the field!” They turned off the lights, but the Georgia band kept playing, and the people, that delirious mass of people, kept on celebrating.
It got ugly a couple of times. Secret Service men trying to get Jimmy Carter out of the building shoved a few citizens around.
And then there was this group of little girls, the “High Steppers” from Shreveport or someplace, who had competed for the right to perform at the Sugar Bowl.
They were cute little girls wearing cowboy hats. They were left out of the pregame show because the teams stayed on the field too long. They were promised they could perform after the game. They lined up, all neat and nice, but there was no way.
One little girl said, “I don’t want to go out there. We might get hurt.”
They finally gave it up and went back to Shreveport. Sad.
But it was also bright and beautiful and boisterous and an All-American sort of thing that other schools have enjoyed, so now it is Georgia’s turn to point that finger to the sky. It may be days before the last Bulldog leaves New Orleans. The streets would not be safe Thursday night.
Number One, by God. Number Ever-Lovin’ One. The sign in the Georgia locker room had said it all: “This one is forever”
LikeLike
Man, I sure miss Lewis. Still tailgate with one of his ol’ college roommates (dude’s got some great stories).
LikeLike
Great story Athens, I’m not sure why I had never read it before. The “hunchback-tailback” line was great
LikeLike