It’s not just what advanced stats have to say about Georgia’s defensive performance that impress. Some of the raw numbers regarding blitzing and sacks are just as crazy good. Consider these:
- Georgia is blitzing on 18.8 percent of opponent dropbacks, its lowest rate under Smart, but is getting sacks on 12.1 percent of dropbacks — the highest rate under Smart.
- Eighteen different Georgia players have at least one sack, and 12 different Bulldogs have recorded at least one full sack. That’s the most on any Power 5 team in the country and second-most in the FBS. In just six games that’s already more than Georgia had all of last season (11) or four years ago when it reached the national championship game (10).
Get The Picture 
When you can get pressure consistently without blitzing in today’s spread game, it makes the offense work extra hard to get anything. If you can drop 6-8 guys in coverage with a spy and still get home, you make QBs have to play QB rather than be the athlete who happens to be a QB.
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Yup. We are getting consistent pressure with just a 4 man rush. That is nuts. No wonder we are giving other offenses fits! And when we decide to blitz, their O-lines fold like cards.
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We are getting consistent pressure rushing 3 sometimes. Think about that.
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EE,
your last sentence is damn FINE analysis!!
I’ll take that over Gary Danielson any day!!
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Blitzing when you want to rather because you have to is what constitutes real havoc. If you’re good at disguising in the back end, that helps a ton as well.
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Kirby and Lanning are basically the anti-Grantham. Instead of 1000 coverages that theoretically stop anything but in practical application are all run poorly, UGA has way fewer sets run with brutal effectiveness. Churchill was right: a mediocre plan executed with great force and violence is better than a perfect plan executed with indifference. He didn’t say anything about good plans executed with great force and violence, but one assumes he’d have been a fan. 🙂
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ANY post with a Churchill quote is a winner in my book
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Wasn’t that said by Patton instead of Churchill?
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I said it during the 4th quarter vs the bammers 2018 when the margarita machine blew a 50 amp fuse….
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Senator,
Not sure if its the exceptional season and/or the positive vibes on the board here lately, probably some of each, but I feel compelled to thank you for providing this platform and consistently excellent content and commentary…
You bring joy to a lot of people that otherwise might not have it,
or certainly would have less of it…Go Dawgs!!!
Proverbs 5:19-20
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+1000
Over the years, this has been my mainstay board. I stopped blogging when life got busy, but never stopped reading this board… and truth be told, it’s the primary reason I’ve never felt the need to go back.
DawgNation is in good hands with GTP!
GO DAWGS!
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A sack is the best pass defense their is,
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And the 2nd best is the QB running for his life trying to avoid one.
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The defense is more fun to watch than the offense. That’s not really a knock on our offense, which hasn’t been this inventive or productive since 2017. I just look forward to the defense being on the field more now.
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This is so true. I said in 2019 that team was boring to watch. Yeah we were winning but that team was at times painful to watch. We won with talent alone, almost in spite of Coley.
This team has excellent coaching and both sides of the ball are fun to watch.
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If you are gonna havoc, might as well be Elite Havoc…
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I texted a friend of mine that we were playing vanilla defense against auburn, and he texted back “what do you mean? We’ve been pressuring Nix.” I had to explain to him we were just rushing four and not even doing the shifts like we did against Arkansas. (Shifting at the line. I do love when all of our defensive front shifts in unison).
Then they dialed up that blitz for a sack. Such a thing of beauty.
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It’s a great defense, but the fact remains Dawgs haven’t faced a great offense. Auburn was the best so far and did in fact show that UGA is not perfect. Some missed and dropped throws kept at least 11 points off the board. Granted that is what happens every week for other good defenses, too, but in any case, teams like Florida can put pressure on the defense for 4 quarters if Dawgs are not bringing their A game.
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I don’t think you beat this defense with a good running attack. You have to have a skilled quarterback and really good receivers.
Right now, the team I think that would pose the biggest challenge is Ohio State.
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I like that answer. OSU might be the one for me as well. But if that is true, than Bama is also still a threat. Young and the WRs can really spread it out even if not at the level of Bama 2020.
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I haven’t watched aOSU yet. But I haven’t seen an offense in the SEC that really scares me like the last couple of years.
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I think the difference is that we have elite defensive linemen that can get into the backfield instead of just soaking up blocks. The fact that Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, etc. have developed to the point where they can beat their man instead of just occupying him opens up so many more pressure points than just soaking up blocks to free up linebackers. This is what Clemson, Alabama, and Ohio St have had that we haven’t.
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One thing missing from this analysis and the comments is that the DBs are playing better than expected. DK is really good and Kelee is growing every week. Many of those sacks occur after a few seconds have past because no one was open. They have to continue their level of play as the better passing teams come later in the year and in the postseason.
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