When you’re talking about the Georgia-Alabama game, one thing you don’t want to think is that it’s just like the last two games those two have played.
It’s not a question of whether Georgia’s been man enough to take on Saban’s team. It’s whether the Dawgs have had enough gas in the tank to finish. So what are they focused on this week? Ask Jamaree Salyer ($$).
“Making sure we compete for four quarters — five quarters, even,” Salyer said, with a chuckle.
Or Eric Stokes.
“I’m just trying to go 1-0 every week,” Stokes said. “I see they are our next opponent, and we’ve just got to do our business.”
There may be reasons to think that mindset isn’t just cheap talk. For one thing, the setting is different. Neither team is facing the other in an elimination game. Instead, at least at this juncture in the season, both are looking like the class of their respective divisions and the loser stands a strong chance of making it to the SECCG.
Another reason may be more of a stretch on my part: Jim Chaney isn’t going to be calling plays for Georgia in Tuscaloosa. ‘Bama is a great team with what is at the moment the best offense in college football. If Georgia somehow finds itself with a fourth-quarter lead (again!), the last thing it needs to do is take its foot off the gas in the hope it can grind its way to the finish. Hopefully, Todd Monken will approach the situation with a more aggressive mindset.
What do y’all think?
Get The Picture 
I still think the “taking their foot off the gas” narrative is reductive, but Georgia absolutely needs to be more successful on offense once they get a lead…if they do. One nice difference this time is that Mac Jones isn’t mobile, and if Alabama’s offense struggles they won’t have someone waiting in the wings to bail them out.
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Are we sure about that? Surely there’s some heralded freshman backup Saban can toss into the game to start the 4th.
I hope our DBs can improve their deep pass coverage, because they sure are going to need it.
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Especially 14…..
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You mean besides the number 1 dual threat qb recruit, California Gatorade player if the year Bryce Young?
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I don’t think there are a bunch of people clamoring for him to play like they were for Tua. Also, he hasn’t produced in mop-up time like Tua did.
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I think we need enough dee-fense to hold them to FG’s instead of TD’s two or three times. I think we need two or three receivers to step up. Obviously, we can’t give them any cheap scores.
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The difference in the last 2 games was dominate DL play. This time Georgia checks that box.
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I’m willing to take a close loss this week if it means beating them for the SECCG and in whatever round of the playoffs we have to play them again.
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The evidence to date suggests that Kirby will not take his foot off the gas until we are up by three scores. If we are up by three scores against Bama in the fourth quarter on Saturday, that’s a good thing. Let’s hope Kirby still does not take his foot off the gas in that moment.
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Just play loose and hopefully Kirby has learned some lessons from the last couple meetings.
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Well, I don’t expect Todd Monken to call the same run play four times in a row against Bama as Chaney did in the National Title Game ruining the only promising fourth quarter drive.
So that’s something.
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So, no toss sweep over the tackle to first time rb DJ Daniel with James Cook at fullback? 🙂
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I certainly hope that was Chaney, but my guess is…it was Kirby.
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According to Jed Blazevich in Seth’s book, it was Chaney.
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LSU and Alabama and Clemson proved that winning titles requires elite pass catchers, and the #1 path to recruiting those guys is letting your playmakers make plays with the game on the line.
The #1 path to moving the chains on this Alabama defense is finding the guy being covered by the safety and throwing to him.
Need meets opportunity.
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Ummm…it took Heisman caliber QB’s to make those throws. Pickens, Jackson and the TE’s give us the frisbee catching dogs, but can a talent less than Hurts/Tua, Burrow and Goldie Locks get us over the top?
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Jedi Master Kirby hopefully keeps the team focusing on themselves and their execution. Kirby’s first time back to Tuscaloosa as the opposition hopefully adds even more motivation to score early, often, and then late and often.
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Win or not this is the first time we have equal talent. They have a better QB – WR group but we have better defensive players. Should be one hell of a game. I’m excited to see if we have reached Bama Level.
The loser of this game will in all likelihood make the SECCG.
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Agree on your second point, but the 2017 squad had equal talent too.
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People aren’t going to like this, but I think it’s going to be just like all the rest of them.
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That and five bucks will get you a latte at Starbucks.
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Teacher,
I disagree because the last do were do or die games. The loser in this game still has a clear path to play the winner at least one more maybe two times before its do or die. All the players and coaches know this is bragging rights only to the winner. I do think it means more to us right now.
It would sure be nice to slay the beast and for Kirby to be the first underling to beat the master.
Winning the SEC just means more.
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Says the guy who said we’d lose to auburn….
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Our offense has to score. Our defense can keep us in it if we score. Our defense is really good, but so was last years. When you play elite offenses, they will score against evenly elite defenses (like LSU did last year). You have to be able to answer on offense or your defense will suffer late.
I don’t think it will be as easy through the air, unless our line can step up and make yardage on runs. Ole Miss got a lot through the air, but if they had not been able to run, do you think they could have continued to make long completions? If we run the ball, which opens up the short passing game, as well as long throws (though we are limited in that regard), I think we have a better chance than before.
Bottom line, I think the O-line has to step up.
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Can we please stop equating bad offensive outcome to “taking the foot off the gas”?
Per the seccg in 2018, we ran 20 plays in the 4th quarter for a grand total of 78 yards, 16 were passes, 4 runs. 4 runs gained 14 yards, included in those runs is the infamous 4th down punt fake. We were an atrocious 0 for 4 on third down (average 6 yards to gain, never ran on 4th down), that’s what lost the game. Call it inability to execute, call it adjustments by alabama, just don’t call it “letting our foot off the gas”
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Correction, Meant never ran the ball on 3rd down not 4th
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Kirby Smart’s news conference Monday contained a serious and surprising injury update.
Redshirt sophomore receiver Tommy Bush was involved in some sort of weekend car accident. Rivals reported that Bush was struck by a car on Saturday night while crossing a street in Athens.
“Thankfully, he’s safe,” Smart said Monday. “He’s got a little bit of a concussion and he’s got some injuries, but we’re thankful he’s OK. It was a dangerous situation, so glad he’s OK.”
Read more here: https://www.macon.com/sports/college/university-of-georgia/bulldogs-beat/article246396840.html#storylink=cpy
A “LIL BIT OF A CONCUSSION?!” Wassa roll tide driving the car?
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Man, that guy can’t get a break. Hope he’s okay.
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Question: is running a fake punt in a tie sec championship game at the 50 with 3:04 to play “taking your foot off the gas?”
Just curious…
Whatever that is, we shouldn’t do it.
Btw: had Shanahan taken his foot off the gas, the falcons would have a super bowl championship.
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Trying to run out the clock for 15 minutes in a one or two score game is nowhere near the same thing as running the ball inside 4 minutes with a running clock to kick a FG to go up 11 points.
You know that, and still you make the bad faith analogy.
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Except the actual play by play/game tape shows that what you claim happened DID NOT ACTUALLY HAPPEN.
Its only real in your head.
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Gosh, Derek, I didn’t realize Chaney called the fake punt. Thanks for clearing that up.
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Gosh Senator I didn’t know Kirby lost his head set in the second half of those two games. I had no idea.
Aren’t we all glad he got it back in time to call that fake punt?
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So, nothing is Chaney’s fault; it’s all on Smart. Ho-kay.
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Im saying that the Kirby “takes his foot off the gas” idea is flawed. The idea that we “took our foot off the gas” does not withstand scrutiny. Nor does the idea that you should never take your foot off the gas. The thing that actually matters is that if you want to win the players between the lines have to make the plays. The navel gazing about old fat guys in sky boxes and on the sidelines is nonsense.
The alabama front whipped our OL’s asses. Until our OL whips their DL with the lead (or just holds its own rather than getting rag dolled) we’re going to have problems finishing.
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I didn’t post anything about Smart taking his foot off the gas.
I posted something about Chaney taking his foot off the gas.
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You can act like Cheney and Kirby never met, and there was no line of communication between the two, all you like but the point is that:
We didn’t take our foot off the gas.
Sometimes you should take your foot off the gas.
Sometimes not taking your foot off the gas gets ugly.
And Kirby will be involved in whatever Monken does Saturday should be find ourselves with a fourth q lead. He will be part of the success OR of the failure. As well he should be.
Given that bama is not the run stopping force its been in the past, if we get a lead late we’d damn well better be able to run the damn ball. If we can’t, we’ll give an explosive team more possessions. If we try to throw and fail late, then they’ll just have more time to catch up.
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Kirby himself said in the offseason he didn’t dictate plays to Chaney, but whatever blows your skirt up, man.
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Dictate?
No I don’t think Kirby is telling and OC which plays to call. However, I am certain that there are discussions during game week prep, at halftime, commercial breaks and on change of possessions about the offenses approach to different situations.
Kirby is also listening on the head set to the calls.
He is also saying things like:
Lets burn some clock here.
Let’s be aggressive here.
Lets take a shot here.
You’ve got four downs to get this one.
Get it in the middle and we’ll kick a fg.
Dictate? No. Is he tolerating free lancing or a just a “bump on a log” during offensive possessions? Absolutely not.
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They lost the first one because Brenton Cox played his own idea of defense vs the called defense after #15 got hurt.
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Sorry, the 2nd one.
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Wouldn’t it have been better to be defending more than 50 yards tho? A punt with 3 to play in a tie game with their back up in the game seems pretty obvious to me.
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Cox let Hurts go to his right the entire 4th quarter.
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By design.
Hurts scrambled to his right ALL the time. The book on him was send a free rusher, flush him right, and let your secondary concentrate on that half of the field. The result 9x out of 10 was a small loss or a throwaway.
The thing you never wanted to do was let him get going north-south. He was harmless rolling right.
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Bama’s Offensive YPP is outrageous even by their standards. We need to be the reason there is regression to the mean on Saturday. As much as some 3 and out’s need to be made, we’ll probably need to settle for just being sure to stop them before the Red Zone. That would mean our O will be working uphill a lot, but with Camarda, we should be able to flip the field a few times and squeak out an advantage.
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visioning matt stafford with the game winning touchdown against bammer
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It was pretty live…
Nothing like a victory cigar inside Bryant-Denny.
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What is Brittany doing with her life?
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Our front seven has to at least pressure Jones or he will sit back and sling it. I think Ole Miss pressured him twice which resulted in two errant throws. Jones is definitely a different passer under pressure.
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What gives me hope is that Monken seems to make a lot of adjustments in personnel and play calling from the booth…more so than Chaney ever did. I see Monken manipulating tempo as well spreading plays out to various parts of the field, and then throwing in a designed quarterback run when no DC would expect it. Chaney was much more stoic and predictable than Monken, and it seems that CKS has given Monken more freedom for some of these personnel groupings…ie the defensive players coming in for short yard goal line attempts. Hopefully this creativity on offense continues and bares fruit for the good guys in red and black on Saturday.
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