Matt Hinton, in his national title game preview, alerted me to something I somehow missed. He linked to this piece that laid out Pro Football Focus’ grades of Georgia’s Rose Bowl player performances. The stunning part? This:
1. RG Ben Cleveland: 83.9 (64 snaps, No. 1 among OG in CFB Playoff)
2. LT Isaiah Wynn: 83.5 (64 snaps, No. 1 among OT in CFB Playoff)
6. C Lamont Gaillard: 79.7 (64 snaps, No. 1 among C in CFB Playoff)
7. RT Andrew Thomas: 78.4 (64 snaps, No. 2 among OT in CFB Playoff)
[Emphasis added.]
Basically, Pittman’s group turned in the best offensive line performance of the semi-finals. That’s remarkable.
Let’s just hope they’ve got a lather, rinse, repeat in them for tonight.
Get The Picture 
The addition of Cleveland has been big.
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Literally.
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This is getting to be too much. I’m so confident I’m questioning my own sanity. Alcohol is now required.
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Now? Too late. I started a long time ago.
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Just wondering why Big Ben needed so much time this season before starting. Anyone have insight? He has been great since starting.
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No real insight, but via deductive reasoning, I’m guessing he wasn’t ready at the beginning of the season. The season went swimmingly for 9 games, so no changes seemed to be needed in spite of his improvement. After the Auburn game when they took stock, they determined they needed a more physical guard, and he got his shot.
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It is often overlooked and rarely mentioned, but Cleveland was on 17 years old when he joined the program. He did turn 18 until midway through the 2016 season. He was literally a kid. He just needed time to mature physically, adjust to college football and learn the system. He has been a great addition to our OL this season.
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Need them to have the game of the year. I heard the bloviators saying Alabama blowout on 92.9 this morning. Gosh, I hope not……
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Cleveland is just awesome.
I have watched a zillion clips from the Rose Bowl, and he just gets his hands into the chest of the defender and drives them like 10 yards.
I would guess the issue was that he is not particularly flexible or nimble?
Bama is not Oklahoma, though. Going to be a bit more difficult.
Especially since the Bama safeties appear to want to play football, whereas the Oklahoma safeties were just terrible most of the night.
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Also, I am a soccer coach, and not a football coach, but isn’t his pad height also a problem?
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This game will be won by either Georgia’s or Bama’s OL. This gives me some real hope that it will be Georgia’s.
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We were playing Oklahoma, the other team was playing Clemson.
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Yep.
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You guys just had to put realism in the buzzkill, didn’t you?
‘Bama is minus a skilled D player and O player this game and that will make things easier. 🙂
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More concerning is the Reggie carter grade. Damn natrez.
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I’d be interested to see grades by half for the defense.
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Although he didn’t grade out well he did have some big plays.
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A look back at the Awbun grades is interesting, too.
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Still, the improvement across the offensive front is frankly, amazing. I’ve said this before, but to my mind this is the best coaching staff Georgia has had since….well…its a damn good coaching staff.
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We all know bama has a great DL. But it any better than awbie’s combo of Holland & Derek Brown? Or Simmons of MSU?
Point is, a lot of prognosticators talk as if we’ve never seen anything like this. I think we’ve shown our OL can pull it’s weight against top defensive linemen. The match isn’t as one-sided as many seem to believe.
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Did you see the picture of Big Ben Cleveland on the Dawgnation site?
If there was no perspective, you would swear he was a 6′ 200lb freshman linebacker. What an amazing physique for a 6’7″ 340lb offensive lineman. He’s not finished growing. He is a 19 year old Sophomore.
What a future.
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