Observations from the end zone, Cocktail Party edition

The coaches wanted better execution from the players and the players wanted better scheming from the coaches.

Saturday, everybody got their wish.

I’m not gonna claim that Georgia played a perfect game, but what we got will certainly do until perfect comes along.  The Dawgs never trailed.  They were the more physical team.  The coaching staff turned the pre-game wisdom about Mullen’s vaunted superiority on its head.  Fromm got his mojo back, with a vengeance.

In other words, another satisfying win in Jacksonville, like it was part of Gawd’s plan.  (By the way, those of you bitching about those pesky advanced stats, the game played out pretty much as advertised.)

On to the bullet points:

• I really have to start with Dan Mullen.  All this week, we heard constant blather about how Georgia may have the talent, but Florida’s been the better team of late, because of coaching.  What we got in reality was a guy who waved the white flag in the running game almost from the beginning — this, in a game where the winning team in the last thirteen games ran for the most yardage! — was forced to burn timeouts because his team wasn’t organized and topped it all by calling an almost seven-minute drive when his team was down by two touchdowns mid-fourth quarter as time became more precious.  As the beneficiary of Mullen’s generosity, Smart had to be pinching himself.
• Todd Grantham deserves a shout-out, too.  Not just for the inevitable success Georgia’s offense enjoyed on third down, but for being the coach who proved to be more predictable than James Coley.  Everybody on the planet knew Florida’s game plan on defense would be to sell out to stop the Dawgs’ running attack and make Jake Fromm beat them.  Grantham’s problem was that Fromm was more than happy to accommodate the Gators.  Once it was clear Fromm came to play, Grantham had no answers, as the pass blocking stuffed Florida’s rush and Georgia actually had more success against Grantham’s soft zone coverage when the Gators sat back.
• The offensive line came to play, too.  Pass blocking was dominant, even as Georgia relied less on its tight ends to block than in any other game this season.  I was worried about how Thomas and Wilson would hold up against Florida’s speed rush, but other than one whiff from each, they held up just fine.  Trey Hill chipped in a monster game, which was good to see from him.  It also shouldn’t be underrated how much the return of a healthy Solomon Kindley helped to stabilize the o-line.
• The passing game is alive!  Led by a dominant Lawrence Cager, Georgia’s pass catchers combined for more yardage on their own than Florida’s entire offense.  Coley deserves plenty of credit for scheming to get players open in space, and, for the most part, was rewarded with big play after big play.  I mentioned the design on Cager’s TD catch already, but the play they ran on the two-point conversion, using Cook to draw off the coverage, was equally brilliant.
• Is Matt Landers allergic to stretching out and diving to make a catch?
• Rushing yardage was tough to come by, given the fronts Grantham called, but Swift grinded all day.  (It was a damned shame his TD run was called back, because it felt like Florida was on the verge of getting blown out then.)  He and Herrien made up for some of that with some big contributions as receivers.  They were also terrific picking up the Gator pass rush and giving Fromm time.
• It was interesting watching Fromm’s body language in this game in comparison with his in the South Carolina loss.  Florida did, at times, get pressure on him, but was never able to rattle him.  He turned a couple of close calls into modest games by scrambling.  His coolest moment came on the game’s most pressure packed play, when he calmly held his ground with a Gator at his feet and converted a third-and-seven with a big completion to Wolf to lock the game down.  What was so impressive about that play, at least as I watched it live, was the sense that both of them knew they had it from the snap.
• The defensive line played at least as well as the o-line did.  Clark, Wyatt and Davis all made monster plays.  Davis’ sack was the definition of overpowering.
• The OLBs may not have made a huge number of plays, at least outside of Ojulari, but they did their part in containing Florida’s offense and keeping the Gator rushing attack grounded.
• I loved the way the defense was ready for Emory Jones’ one snap.
• The ILBs had a mixed game.  Florida had some success, especially in the first half, exploiting the middle.  (Pitts was a handful, as expected.)  But Monty Rice had a massive game; he’s such a smart, physical player.
• The secondary game up some receiving yardage, but was largely successful keeping everything in front of it.  Lecounte’s early pass breakup on fourth down was instrumental in setting the tone that Florida’s offense was going to have to work hard for everything.  Daniel played his best game of the season and made me miss Campbell less than I expected.  Stokes was Stokes.
• Remember that chart I posted last week, when I wrote that “Florida is going to do everything it can to target Mark Webb in pass coverage”?  Well, they did.  To his credit, poor ol’ Webb hung in there, though he did have his struggles.
• When the worst thing you can say about special teams was that Camarda let one of his two punts go in the end zone, it’s been a good day for special teams.  Blankenship was back to being his usual automatic self, the return games did nothing to hurt the team (I believe Georgia only started one drive inside its twenty all game) and the coverage teams allowed almost nothing.
• Just as Coley outcoached Grantham, Lanning did the same with Mullen.  Georgia made Florida one-dimensional on offense and worked its ass off on defense to keep the Gators, first in the conference in plays of 60+ yards, from breaking off a big play.
• Kirby Smart got exactly the game he wanted — zero turnovers, a bend-but-not-break effort from his defense and an offense that was balanced without futilely running into a brick wall.  His staff was ready and so were his players.
• It’s a good thing I have a self-imposed rule about not commenting on the officiating in an Observations post.

Make no mistake about it, this year’s edition of the Cocktail Party was a big, big deal for this Georgia team.  If you had any doubts about that going in, they were blown away by the reaction of the players and the coaches in the aftermath of the win.  Georgia may not light you up offensively the way Alabama and LSU do, but when focused, these Dawgs are one tough out.

I don’t care if that mindset came about because of the big stage, the realization that the team is playing with zero margin for error, an us-against-the world chip on their collective shoulders, or some combination of all that.  I just hope that they can keep tapping into it the rest of the way.  They’re certainly better for it.

Now, on to Missouri.

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