This shouldn’t come as a real surprise.
One of the strengths of the Georgia offense during the 2017 season was their offensive line. Not only did they pave the way for a dominant running game, but they kept their freshman quarterback, Jake Fromm, clean in the pocket, which was critical to his development throughout the season.
However, the Georgia offensive line finally met it’s match in the National Championship Game against Alabama.
Fromm was pressured 19 times on his 37 dropbacks, easily the highest rate he faced all season.
Of Georgia’s five starting offensive lineman, only left tackle Isaiah Wynn played a clean game, allowing zero pressures on 37 snaps in pass protection. Each of the other four starters, however, allowed at least three pressures apiece.
I guess we know who didn’t get stuck with trying to block Da’Ron Payne.
Honestly, considering the pressure, Fromm handled himself pretty well most of the night.
Get The Picture 
It was enjoyable watching Fromm grow and develop this season. I expect he’ll continue to grow and be even better next year. The OL could continue to improve as well.
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I wish Eason the best of luck at Washington.
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Yep, perfect landing spot for him. Funny – I said back in October that he would be transferring to Udub (a lil birdie looped me in on that), and I was ripped on a particular UGA board, as he was surely heading to Michigan or Miami.
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Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back…just about every website speculates one of the Washington schools as a potential spot. Geez.
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The University of WA is commonly referred to as UDub in the state. For what it’s worth, WA State is located in an area called the Paloose(SP?). I live in WA State about four months every year.
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If you haven’t seen the video of Eason and Fromm in the tunnel after the game, definitely take a look at it. Eason didn’t have to be there for Fromm, but you can tell the guys are more than teammates and competitors. They appear to be friends.
Eason has totally shown class throughout this entire episode. Good luck to him.
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Mr. Eason goes to Washington? I think he’ll do quite well, thank you. He has to sit a year, right? Another year to mature, a year off to learn a system, I’ll assume all the Coeds there look like Meg Ryan. Damn good Dawg, Jacob Eason is, and I hope he wins every game he plays that isn’t against UGA. Here’s to a first round pick and NFL dollars, Jacob. Thanks for what you did here.
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Meg Ryan – 2 thumbs up!
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Word.
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a YOUNG Meg Ryan…
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A couple of days before the game I thought we could play small ball and take advantage of their depth issues. Sometime on game day I came to my senses and thought, nope, you’ve gotta have Jake throw it early and often or we won’t survive.
We just weren’t where we need to be up front to get north and south on those guys. Beyond the refs, the inability to consistently get a push up front was the difference.
Our left side was manned by CMR-era small-ish guys. Our center was a former DL recruit and we had 2 freshman on the right side. And a freshman QB.
Unbelievable that we made it as far as we did. A truly remarkable coaching job.
Can’t wait for guys like Netori and Sayler to start pushing people around.
We get that OL right in the off-season and we’ll be back.
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Yes and man did Cheney let Fromm throw in spots were you would not think he would. That Deep in inside the UGA 10 yard line was just a pretty play.
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With the exception of the helmet interception and a couple of poor throws under duress, Fromm held up very well. Hot Rod bailed him out on the sack in OT with the 51-yarder. Fromm never got frustrated especially as Payne continued to blow up whoever was at right guard all night. He’s a gamer, and I shudder to write this. He’s every bit of the player Murray was as a redshirt freshman (but with a better run game to support him).
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Nothing wrong with the helmet throw. The ‘Bama player was pushed backwards into the path as he released it. I’ll look closely at the replay to id the Dawg pushing him or perhaps some of you could furnish the name.
All an accident and not the result of a bad throw on Fromme’s part.
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I think the Bama guy (Payne?) was doing the pushing. Jake didn’t have the ability to step up. That one was on Jake. The first one the guy just outworked Wims for a 50/50 ball.
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Thanks for the video. Fromm still didn’t have great pocket presence on that play. Unfortunately, it ricocheted to the wrong player.
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Fromm had a helluva game, minus a couple of mistakes. He was fearless (as was Chaney) throwing over the middle deep in our territory.
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Its quite amazing the turn around in one friggin years time for the O line. I never would have thought I would say that it is actually one of our strengths!
Can’t wait till next year. There will be even more beef if Wilson starts.
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It was also hard to turn the ball loose quickly with Bama DBs playing the receivers so tightly. They covered to the edge of legality and beyond at times.
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As do we (mainly DeAndre Baker because he’s the only CB we played with the correct skill set). These Kirby recruits will continue to get more physical on the outside in press. It’s going to be fun to watch these youngsters step in next year.
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seemed like they kept pushing that deep throw on the sidelines and he had some trouble making that throw. he was whipping the ball in there on throws across the middle though.
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He played very well for two and a half quarters, and he played pretty poorly for the final one and a half. Part of that was because the playcalling was more conservative after the helmet INT, but I do think the pressure eventually did get to him mentally. Alabama may have also mixed up coverages, and losing Wims might have limited things. Still, he had time and an open Swift on the last possession of regulation and threw an awful pass, and he simply couldn’t take that sack in overtime. Blankenship bailed him out, but it was still a bad play. I have no doubt he’ll learn from it and fix some of the flaws in his game this offseason, but man, if he could have just made one more play…I guess that’s true of a lot of guys, though.
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Just imagine if Sony had got just 2 opportunities in the 4th instead of Chubb. Game.Over.
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4th quarter:
Chubb 3 runs, 5 yards
Michel 4 runs, 29 yards (28 without Payne in the game)
Hardman 1 run, 9 yards
Michel got stuffed on the 3rd and 2 that lead to the punt with 3:39 to go.
The OL was getting owned by that point. Maybe Michel breaks one, but all his yards came on (a) 3rd and longs that caught the D in a bad look and (b) the one drive Payne was being spelled by 69.
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Honestly, considering the pressure, Fromm handled himself pretty well most of the night.
That was my first thought as well.
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I have said before, I think Fromm played a hell of a game overall. He had a few truly awful passes, but made up for them with many more right on the money passes. Hell Bryant for Clemson didn’t play near as good as Fromm against the exact same defense. And the adjustments Bama made for the second half on D had a lot to do with Fromm’s decrease in production. Do y’all think Mayfield suddenly became a shitty QB the second half of the Rose Bowl or was it the great coverage the dawg were getting? Fromm’s only going to get better.
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The o line will be the strength of the offense next year. Jake should flourish and the backs should run wild.
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Wims being out definetly hurt since it cut down on the receivers available Ridley, Godwin and Hardmen stepped up but that loss was huge.
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Fromme is fearless. He made an arrogant ‘Bama team sit silently with creased eyebrows during the first half and into the second. It was worth all the play to watch a lone player account for mighty ‘Bama to doubt itself and to rattle their players to the bone. And they knew it.
Said this before, but worth repeating that Fromme’s learning curve hasn’t flattened out. He certainly is into territory that I never gave him credit for 14 games ago.
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Heck haven’t we signed another whole offensive line for next year? We need another Ben Jones or David Andrews at center. I’ll never forget Ben trying to block Mount Cody. He did everything but kick him in the nuts. Centers need to be especially mean and he was and is. David wasn’t called the Boss for nothing.
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“We need another Ben Jones or David Andrews at center”
Man! I was saying the same to a friend at work today but couldn’t remember Ben’s name for nothing. Not knocking Gaillard but do we have someone to step up for the center position? Sims, Allen, Barnes maybe? Any newbies? You have to believe our OL will be getting upgrades at almost every position soon. Thomas most likely to LT, Wilson to RT, Cleveland RG etc.
Can you imagine if Gurely, Chubb and Sony had this line to run behind? I’m getting a little pumped on the idea.
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I can sure imagine Holyfield, Swift, Zeus, etc running behind em.
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Sims is senior also.
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Gaillard played as hard as he could, but he was just up against a future all-pro. It wasn’t just him, no one could handle Payne. And when we tried to double him, he would just split it. He was a monster.
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That stat makes his performance look even better.
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Is it surprising that Kublanow and Catalina are on NFL rosters? Our much-maligned 2016 line has two guys hanging on in the league. Why didn’t we get more out of them last year?
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Everyone was forced to play out of position bc we didn’t have 2 tackles. Whenever they tried playing Wynn at tackle, the guard play suffered too much. More than anything, I am stunned that Kublanow is in the league. He had a really rough Jr and Sr. seasons.
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