Coach 30 on the opener, ladies and gentlemen.
Daily Archives: September 4, 2022
The post-manball era has arrived.
So, in my pre-game analysis for the opener, I’m all in on the key to the game being Georgia’s success running the ball. Oregon’s two best defenders are their inside linebackers, who are stout playing run defenders. How would Monken attack the strength of the Duck D?
That’s how a dumbass blogger thinks. A $2 million a year offensive coordinator says to himself, why try to go at those guys when I can just go around them? Georgia’s offense spent the entire day — or at least the first seven offensive series — living on the outside, with devastating results. Dan Lanning’s defense never came up with an answer to it ($$).
“You saw a ton of stuff on the perimeter,” (Oregon safety Bennett) Williams said. “It was all out, quick screens. I think they had one deep ball, and they weren’t running the ball down our throat. It was all perimeter scheme. We schemed for a lot of different stuff, but when it came down to it, we didn’t play the perimeter screens well enough and they know that so they kept going to it.”
It turns out that if you’ve got the talent, you can make a pretty good living taking what the defense gives you. Stetson Bennett averaged better than a first down on every pass attempt yesterday. Todd Monken never felt the need to water that kind of production down in the name of balance or will imposition.
But that’s only half the story here. Check out this notable quote from Kirby Smart after the game:
It’s scoring points is the name of the game. We want people that want to come play in this offense, and I think when you watch what they did today, if you’re watching from home, you’re saying, man, I’d love to play in that offense. They throw the ball around, they toss it around, 30 for 37 for how many yards? I don’t know, but he threw the ball really well. Passes, he threw a lot of passes for a lot of yards. I think that’s a credit to the offensive staff or the planning they had.
Sure, sure, it’s Kirbs doing his always be ‘crootin’ thing, but there’s more to it than that. In three years, Mr. Impose Your Will has gone from promoting James Coley to run an ineffective manball offense because he didn’t want to risk losing Coley’s recruiting chops to promoting Monken’s offensive scheme as a recruiting tool. Change doesn’t get much more dramatic than that. And Georgia is a more dangerous team for it.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
Seen this movie before
“It was the same Georgia,” Nix said. “I’ve seen a lot of those looks. They’re just really good. Really good at the point of attack. Really good playing the ball. Really good at tackling. It’s just tough to move the ball on those guys.”
If anyone’s an expert on the topic, it’s Bo Nix.
Filed under Georgia Football
Understanding this round of conference expansion, in one picture
UCLA, yesterday:
The Big Ten ain’t paying for asses in the seats, that’s for sure.
Filed under Big Ten Football
Welcoming back an old friend
One of this offseason’s mild disappointments was Stingtalk closing the board to anyone who isn’t registered to comment there. (Hey, if I were a Stingtalk administrator, I wouldn’t let the likes of me register.)
So you can imagine the pleasure I took in discovering last night that Stingtalk has a Twitter feed that is an automated post feed of comments from the message board — and if you click on it, you can read the message board thread.
Let me be the first to say thanks for letting me back in, guys. I don’t know if you’ll regret it, but I won’t.
So much for the “UGA can’t win if he attempts 30+ passes” narrative
Do you want to know how good a game Stetson Bennett played yesterday?
He has a whole section devoted to his performance… in The Athletic’s “Tracking the 2023 NFL Draft” piece ($$).
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 