Those of you complaining about Chaney’s second-half playcalling in the national title game, okay, fine. Just explain something to me, first: how would you scheme around Da’Ron Payne, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Rashaan Evans?
Evans finished tied for the lead in total tackles with 74 including eight run stuffs and in pass defense he added six sacks and three pass break-ups. Fitzpatrick was third in tackles, had seven pass break-ups and an INT, and also made six run stuffs. Payne’s impact was quiet statistically (one sack, seven run stuffs) but he was the heart of the defense and regularly clogged up the interior for the Tide’s athletic backfield.
The result of Evans and Fitzpatrick being so good in coverage and versatile enough to each play two primary positions had the effect of making Alabama “matchup-proof.” Both of them could man your typical slot WR or TE without being overwhelmed and needing an in/out bracket from a down safety. That then freed the Tide to play both safeties over the top to help the corners or to bring extra defenders on the blitz. It was also nearly impossible to find a favorable angle or matchup inside with Da’Ron Payne owning the interior and rag dolling opposing centers.
Georgia was able to throw on guys not named Fitzpatrick and Evans and also ran the ball well on a few key third downs when Alabama got caught playing man coverage with our two heroes turning their backs to the backfield (until the Tide started dropping a safety to eliminate that problem).
The good news is they’re gone.
Get The Picture 
If a blocked punt doesn’t get ripped away, a blatant face mask go uncalled and an unnecessary roughness get called when Fromm’s head was slammed into the turf, none of this matters.
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The uncalled false start on the Bama TD. Never forget the uncalled false start on the Bama TD.
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I thought about including that, but I was focused on the offense. Mainly our ability to manage field position by maintaining possession was compromised and at least 3 points were taken off the board by the offsides call.
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I’ve watched that play several times and it’s way too close for me to say it was offsides. On the other hand, they did us no favors with the excessive celebration bs.
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^This. The game was won by Georgia and stolen for Bama by the refs. Period. Bama had a damn good team and was going to make their share of plays on both O and D so of course someone could nitpick this call or that call by the OC. It was a close game but Georgia out-played Bama and should have won the game. The refs stole the game for Bama and everybody with two eyes could see that. I am still pissed off about it. What pisses me off the most though is that nobody in government seems to care that the damn National Championship Game in football was fixed. I am certain that it was professional gamblers (read: the Mob) who fixed it by buying off at least some of the officials. Where is the FBI? Where is the Justice Department? While I am at it, since the game took place in Atlanta, where are our worthless State Attorney General and the GBI? Even a routine investigation would crack this wide open–putting the refs before a grand jury and subpoenaing their bank records. One of them would crack and spill his guts. But no….crickets.
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I do not want to pile on Cheney, but this is not a scheme issue:
Georgia Rushing
CAR YDS AVG TD LONG
Sony Michel 14 98 7.0 0 26
Nick Chubb 18 25 1.4 0 7
In defense of Cheney, you dance with the ones who brought you, and perhaps he didn’t want to cheat a DGD like Nick Chubb who’d brought us so far, and that gets a lot of respect from me. However, there is the rest of the team to consider, and it’s not like Chubb was averaging 3 ypc and could contribute a little bit and he just needed some time to get rolling.
He was just having a really, really bad game – the gulf between those two stat lines does not suggest an entire game of platooning. Even trading 5-6 carries might have made a huge difference – we lost entire series due to whatever was happening between Chubb and Alabama that night. Maybe they were getting cues or stealing signals, who knows?
Even taking Sony’s long run away (which is unfair), and he’s averaging 5.1 ypc.
Take Nick’s long run away (which is unfair) and he’s averaging 1 ypc.
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Sorry, Chaney. I better get back in shape before the season starts…ye cats!
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The wild dawg play with Chubb late in the 4th was especially mind boggling. It was at that point, that I knew we had nothing to counter Bama’s second half defensive surge.
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I agree with you. Post Chubb injury, there have been way more times (IMHO) where I felt like Michel needed to be the bell cow than the other way around.
True confession: I think D’Andre Swift may be better than both of them. (forgive me father, for I have sinned)
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They were having a tough time controlling Michel on the edge. Would like to have seen more of it. Thought we got somewhat conservative with playcalling after the 20-7 lead. Really hard to blame refs or playcalling on the loss…..but it could have changed the outcome. Bottom line is, the best team won. Bama may have been deeper, but I do not necessarily think they were more talented (starting 22). Very proud of the way the team fought. May see a run like we did in the early 80’s.
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How am I just now hearing that Frank Sinkwich’s grandson is on the team as a FB?
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I did not help that we lost Wims to injury during the game.
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This! I don’t have access to the coaches film, but it would not surprise me if Bama was having to overcompensate for Wims and opening the door for Ridley. Without him, they were able to adjust their scheme, shut down the passing game which bled over into stopping the run more effectively. At least that’s my theory.
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Exactly. He did not play the entire second half and the talking heads never mentioned it. Pruitt knew it.
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Losing Wims hurt, he was to guy that could challenge Evans and Fitzpatrick. Leaving Sony in the game would have helped as well. On Georgia’s last possession 3rd and 7ish, Swift ran an out route with a linebacker covering him. From overthrew him. If Swift’s route was a post/go down the hash we would all be in a different frame of mind right now. Swift caught several long passes during the season. Easy to be the armchair OC but at that moment at the game i couldn’t help it.
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The bad news, though, is that they’re not actually “gone.” They’ll just have different names and jersey numbers this season … and the next season … and the next season …
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Chaney did a damn good job all year. No sarcasm. I too was wondering why Sony was not getting the ball more. I think that maybe things are a little more complicated than we think. Otherwise we have a lot of people on this blog who should be getting a million a year to be OC at UGA.
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I appreciate your point and do not intend to be snarky here, but taken to its logical conclusion your post suggests we refrain from criticizing the “smart folks” in any arena.
You don’t have to think you know football in general better than a coach to think he made a mistake.
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As a fan, I agree with everything you’re saying. When I take off my red and black, I look at Chaney as a professional doing his job. I feel like he should be judged by his entire body of work, not a particular play or series which we don’t even know the thought process behind. Does he make mistakes? Hell yea, but his body of work the past year was pretty damn good.
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The bad news is they probably have someone better to play now.
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I as stated in a post yesterday, our coaches/staff did one hell of a job in the national title game and have nothing to be embarrassed about. Alabama was, and still is, just better. They had, and still have, more talent and better depth. What their freshmen were able to accomplish was miraculous. We stood toe to toe with the best in the land and the Dawgs did not flinch. I am proud of the 2017 Dawgs and I am excited about the future.
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This is true. I cannot image complaining about a coaching staff who took us to OT in the big game in the 2nd year. I mean, WTF are we even talking about? We kicked the shit out of a lot of teams on the way and got shitted…and I will say again…SHITTED in the final by Vegas. Cheney knows what he is doing. Damn…just damn.
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The play I complain about was the attempted pass to Sony after the pick that resulted in a TO. No reason to take any chances with the ball there. We had field position, tua in two drives had gone 3 and out and thrown a pick. Run the damn ball and either punt or send Rodrigo out.
The first time they had momentum all night was after that pick.
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Run the damn ball and lose three yards like we had been doing for a lot of the second half?
It was a perfect “screen type” pass. Sony was wide open. That was just pure damn bad luck.
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Sony was open. Fromm just made a bad decision.
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Were those Bama D stat lines the cause of our 2nd half offensive woes, or was our 2nd half offensive woes the cause of those Bama D stat lines?
New season…let’s move on.
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Yes
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You sure?.
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