If you think Georgia’s offense is about to drop a whole bunch of “who saw that coming?” on LSU Saturday, maybe you should hear what Kirby Smart’s saying first.
“You can’t change who you are completely in a week,” Smart said on Tuesday night. “Certainly we’ve got different groupings, different packages, different use of guys.”
Georgia’s personnel dictates its philosophy.
“We’ve got a lot of big guys,” Smart said. “We’ve got tight ends, backs, receivers, just not as many as we’ve normally had, but I don’t think there’s going to be a major wholesale change in a week.”
The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs (11-1) have been winning with a formula that largely consists of dominant defense and an efficient offense that most often refuses to beat itself.
“The No. 1 thing that indicates success is, don’t turn the ball over, and (two,) get explosive plays,” Smart said. “We’ve been good at one and we’ve been just okay at the other.”
Jake Fromm’s Job One is the same thing it’s been since the South Carolina game: don’t turn the freakin’ ball over. If the explosive plays come, they’ll come.
Just don’t expect Coley to reinvent the wheel this week. Schematically, what we’ve seen is what we’re gonna get.
Get The Picture 
So you’re saying there’s a chance….
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UGAs offense needs explosive plays and that will happen if they hit a couple of deep(er) passes early to force the LSU safeties out of the box. That requires a few great plays but not a schematic change. Recently Coley has started the game with some creative play calls, but the players failed to execute.
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I’m beginning to think we have been too hard on Coley. In recent games he, as you have noted, has tried to dial it up a notch or two but the players have failed to execute. He may have been giving us the plain vanilla offense all year because the WR in general are not able to execute anything more complex. Better to do the simple really good than to fail at the exotic. I will take an ugly boring win over an exciting loss any day.
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I agree he has been better
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For me, the Florida game was somewhat of a turning point on Coley’s game planning. Of course that was when we got Cager back the first time, but there seemed to be well timed throws on early downs, early in the game, that set the tone — and gave me some hope that he was committed to forcing the extra man (or two) out of the box. The past few victories since then, there have been some frustrating moments, but we have led pretty much the whole second half of the season. I really don’t want to see georgia get into a LSU-paced, air it out type game, but will be hoping Jake can soften up the box by throwing on early downs.
Of course, I’m not entirely sure that he is the long term answer at OC, but I believe that there is a thoughtful effort to at least threaten defenses with our passing game early on.
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agree….been saying that all along, this is Kirby’s team. Probably one reason why Chaney left….
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Chaney $$$$$$$$
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Elite talent not executing again and again and again throughout the season – largely to inferior talent – points to coaching, which points to Coley. There’s a lot more to being an OC/QB coach than just calling plays.
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I foresee a new WR coach for the New Year
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Hes done better at PC. He is still a bad QB coach and play designer.
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I agree with the sentiment but I’m not sure who we would target on any deep early throws. With no Cager and no Pickens, we don’t have anyone else who has shown the ability to get open deep. And if I were LSU, even if I got burned once or twice deep, I’d still keep stacking the box, figuring the odds are in my favor over the course of a full game.
This game is gonna come down to execution. Coley has actually shown from time to time the last few weeks that he can dial up a well timed creative play, and more often than not, those plays have failed due to the execution by the players. Whatever opportunities we get in this game, we gotta convert them. And man I sure hope Swift is somewhere close to at least 90% or so. I shudder to think what this game is gonna look like if he can’t go or gets knocked out early.
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D-Rob had a long TD called back in the Vandy game. He definitely has the speed to get down the field.
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As does Tyler Simmons. One of those two will catch a long one on Saturday.
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Between those two, there’s exactly one deep ball that’s been completed all year, was 12 games ago (Vandy) and it was called back. Which kinda proves my point. 🙂
BELIEVE me though, I would love to end up being wrong on this one. I know they have the speed. But whether by design or by performance, neither has shown they can get deep and make a play.
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UGA doesn’t complete deep passes to anyone. The numbers are bad across the board. We lost one fast guy for the first half, but Cager isn’t the guy to beat someone deep. UGA can run routes that clear out the safety or pick the defender to give Robertson and Blaylock a couple of steps. Heck that crossing route in the first series of the Tech game will work if Fromm had lead the receiver.
This offense is loaded with NFL talent. It’s time to stop making excuses.
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Kirby was at Bama in ‘09 when they showed up against Florida with 4 wide sets and empty backfields. He remembers. Right?
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The beatings will continue until morale improves.
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Captain Kirby Smart
Rule # 1: Captain is always right…
Rule # 2: If the Captain is wrong, see Rule # 1…
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Our formula the last two seasons has seemingly dissipated. It used to be a bunch of boring runs in the first half, followed by those runs opening up the offense in the 2nd half because the defense started to wear down. We did that even when the box was stacked. I’m not quite sure why it’s not happening this year, but I’d love to see that happen again on Saturday.
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Because Herrien is not Holyfield. I like Herrien and he runs hard and gives his all but Holyfield could wear a defense down with his size strength and speed. Swift is not a bruiser type back, he’s more of a slasher who can make a man miss and did a lot of damage last season in the second half when the defense had lost a step. White may be good next season but so far he has been a plow into the line and maybe push for a few yards type back. Cook isn’t going to do anything between the tackles and when he is in the game the defense pretty well knows to look for a sweep of some kind.
Defenses know if they put eight in the box that our front 5 plus a tight end can’t block everybody and they can stuff the A gaps and pretty well shut down our running game. Our receivers aren’t physical enough to keep from being knocked off their routes and forced to the outside so the defense has no reason to fear a pass in the middle of the field and that takes away most of our play action opportunities.
I haven’t been a Coley fan but I’m starting to wonder if anyone could do much better with what talent we have on offense this season.
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All good points. I’m still definitely not a Coley fan, but have softened my stance on him the last few weeks. Especially when you see well designed, well timed play calls that are just botched by execution. I do think Coley the QB coach has failed Coley the OC some though. I realize Jake is limited in the WR’s he has to work with, but some of his mechanics being all over the place (especially footwork) seem like they could have been coached up better.
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With the talent that we have? What about all those 5 stars? D-Rob, for one. Blaylock, for another.
Greatest line evah. Methinks we have some offensive talent.
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WRs are not where Jake expects them to be on many plays. They either run the wrong route or get knocked off their route by the DB. Quite a few of Jake’s “bad throws” have been because he wasn’t able to throw where he thought the receiver was going to be and had to adjust. D Rob has been nursing a hamstring and hasn’t been fast. Blaylock has been fast but can’t get separation or gets knocked off his route. We are really missing Holloman, he was big and physical enough to block out the DB and/or not get pushed outside where the sideline becomes an extra defender.
The line is good but there are a lot of banged up guys on it right now and, again, 5 or 6 can’t block 8 no matter how good the 5 or 6 are. ND and SC showed everyone how to defend our offense. Load the box, play 2 safeties fairly close to the line, fill the A gaps and play tight man coverage and we will struggle. In spite of every team we have faced doing that, we have won 11 games and the SEC East.
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Jake and the WRs should be on the same page more often at this point in the season. I am not sure whose fault it is, but the staff as a whole should have made more progress.
I partially blame being stubborn with insisting that WRs block, if they are a downfield threat they can draw defenders with them without have to make contact. I also believe regularly making contact has limited UGA’s ability to get the opposing D call for holding which makes it harder for the WRs to get separation.
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Good insights
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Our problem has not been talent but execution.
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Which is coaching
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I’ll be honest: a huge part of me wants to see us manball a win in this game just to piss off everyone
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Yes! 23-16 for the win! 😉
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Because we sack Burrow for 2nd and 26 with 6 seconds left….oh wait!
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Manball’s still gotta execute, and it’ll have to consist of more than run-middle, run-middle, incomplete pass, punt in order for us to have any hope.
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when all is considered, probably the best plan….thinks it could work!
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What Charlie Woerner said in the QOTD.
Believe.
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These big games, Smart always seems to have a good “plan A” for defense (offense to a certain degree with chaney). It’s been the plan B coming up with in game changes that’s created problems
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Particularly when Plan B is “sit on the lead”
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Anybody who thinks Kirby doesn’t want to control the clock in this game at the expense of trying to go fast and wide open is dreaming.
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Finally, someone mentions the obvious. And everyone and his brother thinks it unfair to mention injury as part of our problem (?) this year.
This is a rebuild year with young players becoming big players that they are destined to be at Georgia. This year has shown an unexciting over-the-top team that isn’t truly appreciated for what they have accomplished.
I’m going to enjoy the last games of this year and – WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!
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Kirby for the win with some 4D chess.
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This is brilliant gamesmanship! They’ll be expecting that Kirby is lying and has a 5 wide, all spread air raid attack up his sleeve BUT we are going to catch them by surprise by coming out and running up the middle twice and then 6 yard button hook routes.
They’ll never expect us to do the same thing we’ve done all year…Kirby, you brilliant bastard.
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I think that you just drank the chalice with the iocaine powder…
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I was wondering if someone was going to connect that dot. Well done sir
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So we can forget about Stetson coming out on the second drive and running the triple option?
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Whip the guy in front of you and kick the ball every opportunity you get.
With Georgia, it gets no more strategic than that.
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Don’t re-invent the wheel, but I’d sure like to see Swift on the receiving end of several wheel route catches
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This is Nick Saban “they have to execute the plays we call” version 2.0. Just gotta hope our QB won’t take bad sacks or delay of game penalties after a timeout. Need our RBs to hold onto the ball. The WRs need to catch and not let it go through their hands.
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The more I slow plays down and watch, the more the execution thing becomes clear. And again, a large amount of times it’s a WR missing a block. I broke down last week how the first play against A&M that went for a big loss would have been a huge gainer if Blaylock takes the correct angle and just gets in the way of the dB that made the play.
This week a play that stands out is when Swift fumbles the second time. That play was sealed with a perfect lane if Jackson just manages to get in the MLB’s way. In slow motion, I still can’t figure out how Jackson misses. Hate to say it, but it looks like a bit of fear makes him shade off to the LB’s right. I’m sure he got embarrassed during film review. Once again, ten guys do their job, one guy doesn’t.
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Who is responsible for the lack of season long progress in execution? I feel pretty negative about Coley because I just assume that he is responsible for running drills, plays, teaching during practices. The O feels like a practice problem to me.
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Just gotta get butter at executing the plays called even if the other guy knows what we’re running 90% of the time.
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Can somebody give Tyler Simmons Michael Johnson’s phone number ?
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If swift is out, I just don’t see what playmakers we have to move the ball, much less find explosive plays.
I was happy to see Simmons get a little bit of redemption Saturday but the guy has been football AIDS the entire season, like potential sec defensive player of the year as a wide receiver, would give the team food poisoning if assigned water boy duty, Bryan Evans award for senior year ineptitude bad. The fact that he’s mentioned as our last hope for wide receiver production kinda shows our dark our situation is.
Demetrius Robinson has steadily disappeared as the season has progressed.
James cook has caught zero passes from beyond the line of scrimmage. He’s also inherited Keith Marshall and Dick Sam’s inability to break tackles.
Zeus either doesn’t trust his knee or hasn’t really demonstrated much vision. Has he popped a run greater than 20 yards?
Jake Fromm looks like he couldn’t hit water if he fell out a boat. By extension he’s completed less than 50% of his passes for 4 straight games and seems to be as confident in his receivers as I am.
Herrien: solid, solid senior season, but good enough to be the feature back and does he have the big play ability of Swift?
Blaylock: another bright spot. Caught the only slant we’ve called all year and more importantly two very long touchdown passes. I’d feel even better when he and Pickens
are on the field at the same time. That’s assuming Pickens doesn’t somehow find a way to get ejected for the second half of the seccg while serving his suspension in the first half. I have no idea how that could even happen but if anyone could find a way it would be Pickens.
Woerner and Wolf: offensive linemen: ineligible recievers who are there to block.
I really don’t want to be Debbie downer here before somebody shits all over this but can somebody please help me outline a realistic path to success for our offense, because I’m just not seeing it outside of the offense producing something it hasn’t all year. I would love love love to be proven wrong come Saturday night but I just don’t see how we’re going to all of a sudden start scoring points and moving the ball.
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Demetris probably got tired of hearing the announcers call him ‘Demitrius,’ so he stopped making plays.
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He has had a hamstring issue all season. When he is a step slow he is an average WR.
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Cook may prove to be the elusive back to LSU’s D. He showed flashes of his earlier season running that shows, given room to dance, he can elude a few tackles to make gains when it is shut down in front of him. Hope that he and White have an opening or two to show their innate talent.
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Def need to get creative with him on Saturday and hope we execute
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Keep the faith, Jake. Trust your teammates. Trust yourself.
We got your back.
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The plays are in the playbook and several of the ones we need have already been called this year… with success. The problem is that they have only been called once or twice all year. So Kirby can talk all he wants about personnel and who we are but Coley just needs to make the those calls at the appropriate time and we need to execute. And if we do then keep it up.
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Whatever we do, we better do it well, and come out hot on the first few drives.
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Whatever we to we better have at least one more point than them at the end of the game.
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“…we better do it well…”
To me that is the key, and that is what I believe that Jake has been saying when he says ‘we are so close’. There’s nothing wrong with the plays that proper execution won’t solve. This would be good week to play 60 minutes executing.
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Seems to be official – Bobo is out at CSU
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And how long till he gets turned on here?
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I’d welcome Bobo back with open arms. Best OC in UGA history in my book.
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Can any of you fathom just how good this offense would / will be with better execution.
I honestly believe we would more like Clemson – LSU – OSU than what we are if we only executed 75% of the time.
Coupled with or defense – oh my!
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“our”
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I hear ya Kirby.
Manball as usual. Just gonna pound it into the line likealways.Understood.
wink wink
#GlengarryPlayCalls
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