I dunno, maybe this is too inside ball for some, but I did find one interesting tidbit from Dabo’s presser yesterday.
Yeah, interesting, like I said. If Ross is back to full health, I would assume that’s going to put some stress on a different area of the secondary than the corner positions in Georgia’s opener. For example, if Brini builds on his solid performance in the bowl game at the Star position, does he have the chops to cover someone with Ross’ skill set?
Get The Picture 
Just send him/them this for some leverage. Maybe he won’t be stretching and will be hearing footsteps all game….especially over the middle.
Couldn’t hurt:
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Man that was a hit. Definitely illegal as the rules are written, but he was trying to make a clean hit. Cine is going to be fun to watch this year.
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Yep……catching is easy. But put them in a game/practice & give them something to think about, it doesn’t stay “easy”.
More to it than just catching, got to be tough mentally also. Along with numerous other things.
Hines Ward is one of the best I’ve seen….& toughest.
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I know no one in the football offices cares what I think, but I’d give due consideration to the approach Tampa Bay used vs. KC. Play off. No one gets behind us. Rush with 4. Make them earn it. No reason to force a shoot out. If we take away their big plays, they can’t win. No reason to let them max protect and throw into one on ones vs. dbs who have never (or hardly ever) seen the field. Just my .02.
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Makes sense.
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I think there will be a lot of this from Kirby and Lanning. The issue may be that without Azeez we don’t have enough guys rushing 4 to 1) get to DJ and 2) bring his 265 lb butt down. He isn’t super mobile, but he is big. I worry about him finding our weak link at DB and abusing it all day. So I think they’ll bring more bear fronts and mix in safety blitzes to rattle DJ.
And to the Senator’s point, the weak link in Game 1 may be Brini at slot. He lacks the speed to stay with Ross. Most DBs in college football do, so we have to figure out a way to contain him. I would personally put our best athlete on Ross, and that’s Ringo. Guess we’ll see.
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I have kind of felt like this since the college football playoffs wound up. I think that our offense is going to struggle against a defense which has back 10 of 11 starters. If we can’t rush four and get consistent pressure on DJU to prevent time to wait on receivers to get open, I don’t think it matters what our offense does though and it will be a long game.
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You are correct that this is a great strategy it is just unlikely that Clemson or other teams wouldn’t be able to protect and would actually run the ball instead of what KC did in the Superbowl.
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Dabo and DJ > Reid and Mahones?
Sure.
Even if that was the case:
whose their back?
doesn’t that adjustment to take what is given put a ceiling on their score?
why can’t we try and win our defensive battles in the rz?
The idea isn’t to keep them at 10 or less. Its to keep them under 30. Lets see how disciplined they really are.
The fact is that some of their wrs are better football players than many of our dbs right now. Why say “let the best man win” when you know the outcome before kickoff? Seems reckless.
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KC had what 3 starting OL out? So DJ will get a lot more time than Mahomes did – especially if we only bring 4.
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I keep seeing this response. It makes no sense. The idea apparently is that if KC could protect, Tampa would have sent more pass rushers/blitzes and left themselves exposed to Kelce and Hill running wild through their defensive backfield while Mahomes had time to find them in single coverage.
The fact is from a strategic point of view a healthy OL for KC would suggest more reasons for exactly the same strategy, not a different one.
That the four man rush may have had some more success because they weren’t 100% is a decent observation but it doesn’t have any effect on the reason for the defensive approach which was to keep Hill and Co. from beating you deep.
The idea that you would say: “well they can block us so lets get beat in coverage” is irrational.
The question is: can you cover their receivers? If the answer is “no” you don’t send more pressure. You send less.
The major impact it had was that if Mahomes didn’t throw short early it was nearly impossible to throw downfield no matter how much time he bought scrambling around because of how many dbs were back there watching the qb rather than locked in on a receiver.
Don’t take my word for it, fine. Maybe these guys know what they’re talking about:
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People seem to forget that part of the reason Tampa was so successful was that KC was missing both of their starting tackles.
If we are missing both our starting tackles (whoever they end up being) we will be in a world of hurt.
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They lost me when I saw a quotation mark right after Dabo Swinney.
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The Clemson HT(Head Tater) has earned your derision. The goober.
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It’s gonna take 60 points to win that game. Ross there scares me but not just because of his talent and that of their other WRs. We’re obviously thin and inexperienced opposite them and I don’t see a way to scheme around it. Gonna have to get pressure on the QB and hope we can cover because we know the secondary will be on islands. We really need Cine and Smith to be good at the safeties.
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The current rage is getting your best receiver into the slot role and then moving them around to dictate match-ups. Put him in motion to see what the coverage is. If it’s man, he runs an option route dependent on the DBs leverage. If it’s zone, he runs to one of two predetermined spots based on the safety’s post-snap commitment.
It’s a lot to handle mentally on both ends, thrower and catcher, but it’s literally impossible to defend if those guys are on the same page, the routes are run right, and the throw is on-time. What Smith and Jones did for Alabama after Waddle went down. Ross probably isn’t going to be creating the same kind of separation Smith did (dude just had a sixth sense for setting up DBs and getting them to lean the wrong way at exactly the right moment), but he’s a much bigger frame with great hands, so he can post people up.
The cautionary note here is the requirement to run slants out of that role. Those can get you blasted, especially if you’re a bigger target who takes longer to get low. That seems interesting for a guy coming off spinal fusion.
But I basically read that as Dabo feeling very good about where his QB and WR1 are.
Hopefully Lanning can abuse their offensive line the same way Ohio State did.
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So did I.
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Yep…..shat was going on 30 plus years ago. Even in HS ball.
Everything cycles back around, nothing new in football….just new if you’ve never seen it.
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I’m sure all of the CU receivers have watched how Brini can reign down the thunder. If our DB’s can get that front arm around the receivers without their back arm grabbing jerseys…this will be the key. Also what officials are on the field will make a big difference. I look forward to the CU game as I feel like it is going to be a gunslinger’s dream to watch!
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I’d like to see a reincarnation of the old Junkyard Dogs beat Clemson the first and last games of the season. That would slack my thirst for payback for the 1983 tie and subsequent omission as National Champions.
GATA!
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Same here, old school…..some of the best and most physical games I’ve ever seen (early 80’s).
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RR, that would be really sweet but I’d like to see the Dawgs beat bama and nicky on a blown / controversial call that goes our way for once and win the title that way. The crying from the tusked losers would be deafening.
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The Dawgs can fulfill your wish on 4 Dec or the NC game. Personally, I’d enjoy watching the Dawgs lay such a severe beatdown on the Gumps that Saban quits with ten minutes left in the game to “Spend more time with my family” and all Bama’s 5 star recruits flip to UGA and the underclassmen enter the portal.
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Try as I might I simply can’t work up the hate for Bama as I have for CU, FU and tech. I have Balkans level, deep loathing for those pieces of sacks of shit. Auburn is closing in rapidly to that level.
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Agree, except for me , Auburn leads the pack as recipients of my hatred.
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Balkans-level hatred is a new one to me and I love it! My Balkans-level hatred however is fully directed at all things Alabama. I’d like to treat Tuscaloosa the way the Romans treated Carthage!
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I agree Ranger. I just don’t have a deep-seated hatred for Bama or Saban. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to beat Bama and hope that it happens while Saban is the coach. But I feel real, palpable hatred for Florida, Tennessee, and Auburn and can hardly envision scenarios where I would pull for one of them in a game against any other team in football. The fact that my son got into Florida and might well go there since he doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting into Georgia from our zip code just makes me want to vomit.
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Not meddling in your business Milton but my son couldn’t get in as a freshman either. He ended up at CCG for a year then transferred to UGA. Way easier to get in on a transfer, with the bonus that his freshman core was in 20 student classes rather than 300. It was a smart move on his part.
RR, What is Balkan Level hate? I know where the Balkans are but that’s about it.
aubrun. aubrun is the one I hate the most.
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Unca Got, I’m talking about ancient hatred. The kind of hatred passed down for generations but still allows you to conduct business with those considered subhuman. The latest example was the breakup of Yugoslavia. Tito kept those Eurotrash hillbillies from killing each other for his last years. After he passed it was on like Donkey Kong.
It’s infinitely more complicated than that. But that’s the idea. You know. Dressing the grandbabies up in RednBlack and teaching em to say “The hell with tech” and “Fuck those motherfuckers” as their first words.
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Yeah. That’s aubrun all right.
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CowDAwg is right just let him go to one of the other four year schools in Georgia. My son transferred from Ga Southern without any problems. Seem the University System of GA has rules that keep UGA from not taking a student in good standing from another GA 4 year school.
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With todays rules, NO defender is going to be able to cover a receiver if the QB has time. The key for all of these high powered teams is going to be the front 7. If they can consistently get to the QB to sack him or make him have to run for is life, I like our chances. If he can sit back there eat a sandwich, take a nap, and survey the field, then we are in trouble no matter who the DBs are. We have some serious talent at DB, but the front 7 will have to do their job for us to be successful.
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As I said above, if we can’t get consistent pressure on DJU with four I think that is going to be a long, frustrating game.
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Most big games come down to LOS play and I think this one will be no different. Do expect both secondaries to have long nights though. The difference? I think it will be the Dawgs running game and tight end play.
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This and we have to tackle that big QB when we get back to him.
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This may be flawed thinking, but after my own experience with back surgery (with a good surgeon utilizing the latest technology), I’m still not convinced Ross will just step on that field and be automatically a great player again. I’m not saying he cannot, but I’m skeptical. And just because someone looks good running drills or working out, doesn’t mean their body is ready to absorb physical punishment again — our that it won’t affect his play when he hears footsteps.
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“You’re looking at my gut, aren’t you? I’m working on it!”
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Josh and I did our Spring Position Preview on the DB’s over on DawgSports a couple nights ago, and my biggest concern for game one is Brini at the Star. I’d almost like to see a situational rotation there if one of the younger guys can’t take his spot. He’s great against the run, so I think there’s a time and place where he should be trotted out there. I just don’t know about his coverage skills. We need a true slot corner at times. Brini in short yardage and Nyland Green or Kamari Lassiter on 3rd and longs and other obvious passing downs feels like the best answer with the information we have right now. I’m worried about our secondary, and I’ll be looking at the G-Day tape of the DB’s like it’s the Zapruder film
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What we need is another Roquan. Cine and Brini have been fun to watch at times but the brain trust here knows the roster much better than I. Just need to be in the right places and be a solid tackler. I don’t remember Roquan as being a hard hitter as much as he was always in the right place and never let his man go.
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The play in the Rose Bowl where he stood the runner up and stonewalled him from getting a first down was as big of a play as any that season. It was not flashy but it was textbook solid.
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