Observations from the 35, South Carolina edition

You didn’t have to be a very astute observer to see that something was off early on Saturday.  Blame it on whatever you like, but the visitors came into the game more focused than the home boys were and played that way throughout.  The talent disparity meant that the ‘Cocks never could grab hold of the game for good, but the focus disparity left Georgia in scramble mode all game long.

If you want to make the argument that this game was a perfect storm of not playing badly, but just playing badly enough, that’s a fair take.  The defense played well for the most part, except for one busted coverage that allowed for SC’s one offensive touchdown.  The offense generated far more yardage and first downs than did Carolina’s, dominated time of possession, scored touchdowns on both red zone possessions and managed a 50% third-down conversion rate, but also shot itself in the foot so many times with turnovers and fourth-down conversion failures that it ran out of bullets in the end.

Special teams played a part in that, too.  Camarda rebounded nicely from his struggles in the previous two games — his first punt was one of the best kicks I’ve ever seen from a Georgia punter — but it’s not a good thing when the take at the end of the day is that he was the best thing on special teams.  Rodrigo missed two field goal attempts (one blocked).  The punt return game was incredibly passive, so much so that visions of Logan Gray danced in my head.  Some of that was due to porous blocking, but Blaylock had a couple of very early fair catch calls that left me puzzled.  It’s great that he didn’t fumble, but a lot of those decision left Georgia having to play long fields to score.

Sprinkle in a few timely penalties (although Georgia benefited from a couple, to be fair) and there you have it.  Boom.

A few bullet points worth mentioning:

• It’s not that the offensive line flat out stunk, but it was very inconsistent all game long.  Thomas got called for a hold.  Wilson got beat by a speed rush a couple of times.  Kindley is obviously not completely healthy and struggled on occasion.  Cleveland got called for a hold on a play where he simply didn’t get out fast enough to block a man down field.  Hill regressed.  He got abused by Kinlaw several times and his failure to snap the first ball of the fourth quarter cleanly contributed to a brutally timed fumble.
• At this point, there is come clear separation in the receiving corps and it’s time for the coaches to realize that.  Blaylock, Cager, Pickens and Robertson need to be taking most of the snaps.  Landers isn’t getting anything done out there and while Simmons is good for blocking, he lacks consistency catching and that cost.
• If there’s a more disappointing player on offense than Woerner this season, I’m not sure who that would be.  His blocking was there sometimes and totally absent others.  He’s being poorly used in the receiving game, but I’m not sure how much of that is on him and how much on the play calling.  Wolf wasn’t much better, although at least he got a critical holding penalty called that saved the fourth quarter drive for the tying score.
• Good and bad was the story for the backs, as well.  Swift and White ran tough, but missed several reads that would have gotten them more yardage.  I scratch my head every week about the way James Cook is being used.
• Fromm had a poor game, no doubt.  Some of that was due to the inconsistent line play, but it was apparent from about the middle of the first quarter that he wasn’t his usual sharp self.  I wish he would keep the ball more often on the read option; as it was, the Gamecock defense didn’t respect that at all.  Despite that, he deserves credit for managing that late scoring drive that gave Georgia a chance to salvage the game.
• The story on defense was better — after all, they held the SC offense to ten points in regulation and kept them out of the red zone, to boot — but let’s not forget that for most of the game they were defending a third string quarterback who was a wide receiver at the start of the season.
• That being said, the front seven played well.  Tyler Clark’s play in the second overtime was awesome and capped an excellent day on his part.  The outside linebackers didn’t come up with a sack, but did manage plenty of pressure throughout the game.  Rice and Crowder were all over the place.
• Outside of the bust on the touchdown pass, the secondary did a good job handling the Gamecock’s dink and dunk passing attack.

Which brings us to the coaching.  Part of me wants to go with a the less said, the better approach, but aside from the poor job of motivation and a ridiculously conservative game plan against an inferior opponent that spent the entire second half trying to do just enough not to lose, Kirby’s inexcusable and costly decision making at crunch time at the end of the second half, starting with letting precious seconds tick off the clock after Joyner was stopped short on third down, was a key part in the loss.  And don’t get me started on his time out that bailed out South Carolina in overtime…

Enough said.  I’m not going to insult your intelligence by bringing up the “all their goals” crap, because even though it’s technically true, no team playing at the level Georgia played at on Saturday is going to run through the next six games unscathed.

There is obviously enough time for this bunch to get its collective shit together, but that’s an abstract until we see it on the field when it matters.  For now, all I can say is that I hope they aren’t gonna need a bigger mirror.