“Comfortable”

I’ve kind of made it a rule not to discuss officiating in Georgia games any more because Penn Wagers is no longer an SEC referee because it’s basically a pointless exercise, but I can’t let this pass without a comment.

pic.twitter.com/bvUjoHkLjI

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) October 3, 2022

I bet he was more comfortable about that than Carter was.  Really, if they can’t make the right calls to protect player safety, what good are they doing?

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Every ‘Dore has its day

Congrats if you have this on your bingo card.

Game time alert: Vanderbilt at Georgia on Oct. 15 will be at 3:30 on the SEC Network.

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) October 3, 2022

It’s not a nooner!  Vandy’s coming up in the world.

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UPDATE:  Weirdly enough, there are three games scheduled for 3:30 that week.

Kickoff times and networks for Oct. 15 SEC games. pic.twitter.com/OHSR3okqTM

— Brandon Zimmerman (@BZSEC) October 3, 2022

Makes you wonder if Mickey’s baiting CBS.

Glad they cleared that up.

Apparently, Auburn’s problem this season is bad press.

Bless their hearts.  Anybody wanna tell ’em?

All done

Javon Bullard lives to fight another day.

Nickel back Javon Bullard will be back this week, coach Kirby Smart. He served a one-game suspension after his DUI arrest.

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) October 3, 2022

Monday ticket exchange

It’s Auburn Week, peeps!  You know what that means.  Share what you have or need, ticketwise, in the comments.

Observations from the armchair, Mizzou edition

I don’t know if that was the most frustrating game of the Smart era to watch, but it’s definitely on the short list.  It wasn’t that Georgia was flat out awful, the way the Dawgs were in 2016 against the likes of Nicholls and Ole Miss.  It’s that they were incredibly inconsistent, seemingly from play to play (or even, in the case of Milton’s first run of the night, within the same play).  I mean, how do you go from burying the Tigers in a third-and-18 deep in their territory to letting them off the hook on a boneheaded pass interference penalty on a poorly thrown ball with safety help, to boot?

That kind of stuff went on all night.  At least it did until somebody remembered to flick on the light switch in the fourth quarter.

This game should not have been close, but Georgia didn’t take Missouri seriously enough and was unprepared for their aggressive game plan on both sides of the ball.  Add to that a couple of stupid first half turnovers and you’ve got a recipe for letting a big conference underdog have a shot at stealing a game away.  That it didn’t happen is something the team deserves credit for, but living dangerously is no way to go through an SEC schedule, son.

On to the bullet points:

• I’m sure that some (most?) of y’all will argue about this with me, but Georgia’s biggest problem on offense isn’t the o-line.  It’s that nobody respects the downfield passing game.  I saw some of that with Kent State, but Missouri went all in on it.  Their DC called more Cover 0 coverage than I’ve seen since the 2020 Mississippi State game.  Georgia never called his bluff.  Their d-line is good, and when you send six on plays when Georgia is sending at least one tight end out, somebody’s getting home early.  Bennett got the crap beat out of him.  Missouri’s penetration clogged up run plays repeatedly.  More significantly, all night long there were defenders in the way of the perimeter passing game that Georgia’s made a living on all season.  Smart said after the game that UGA needs to get some healthy receivers back and he ain’t kidding.
• All of which is not to say the o-line didn’t play their worst game of the season, because they clearly did.  It wasn’t just the guards this time, either.  Van Pran and both tackles had plays they’d rather forget.  I give Graham Coffey a lot of credit for being on Georgia’s zone blocking scheme as a bad match for the personnel early on.  It showed Saturday night, but Georgia went more with more gap blocking as the game went on and the o-line’s fortunes dramatically improved in the fourth quarter.  It’s not a line that’s going to mash you (and, no, I don’t know why that’s the case, considering recruiting), but it’s a line with enough talent to finesse a defense into looking bad.  A perfect example of that came on back to back plays during the first TD drive on the second half, the first a near sack by a blitzer on the outside that led to an incomplete pass followed by a huge run by McIntosh into the area cleared by the o-line against the same defender who was simply run out of the play.  I don’t know if this is the last vesting of manball, but clearly the coaches need to do some soul searching this week about how best to run scheme with this line, because otherwise Bennett is going to get killed.
• Stetson was a little of this and a little of that.  His mechanics are still off-kilter, as he continues to sail some of his passes.  He again missed some of his reads downfield and didn’t take the open receiver when he had the opportunity.  The fumble on the zone read was on him — although he deserves credit for having the presence of mind to tackle the Missouri defender when he picked up the ball with a lot of real estate ahead of him.  (It looked like a TD if he doesn’t make the tackle.)  But he deserves credit most of all for not losing his head.  The Bennett of a couple of seasons ago probably takes it on himself to do more than he should.  Not Saturday night.  I don’t remember Stetson making a single cringeworthy throw.  But he needs more help from his wideouts than he got.
• As for the running backs, Milton’s fumble hurt, but there were encouraging signs overall.  The Big 3 averaged about six yards a carry and came through when the Dawgs needed them the most.  The most encouraging development of the night was seeing both Milton and McIntosh break tackles in the open field to gain additional yardage.
• The tight ends?  Well, Georgia doesn’t win without them.  I’ve already posted to say that was the best game of Washington’s career.  Blocking, receiving, yards after the catch — he’s turned into a complete player.  Bowers whiffed on a tackle, shockingly, but turned in his usual big play reception and showed how quickly he gets up speed on that catch he took to the one-yard line to set up Georgia’s final score.
• The wideouts are struggling to get separation on their routes on a consistent basis, which is also adding to Bennett’s problems.  There were plenty of tough receptions from Jackson, Rosemy-Jacksaint and, best of all, Blaylock, but things shouldn’t have been that hard throughout the game.  Missouri’s secondary simply didn’t look intimidated if they weren’t covering the tight ends.
• The defense really had me pulling my hair.  Missouri didn’t gain 300 yards on the night, but it seemed like they got the bulk of it in just a handful of plays.  The long run that Starks stopped on the one-yard line was a combination of a bad run fit on the line and the ILBs overrunning the play behind them.  The touchdown pass was misplayed by the safeties, which was somewhat shocking, considering how well they’ve played this season.  In addition to the pass interference call, Ringo also gave up a long reception when he didn’t make an effort to play the ball.  Lassiter got burned on a pass play after Nolan Smith didn’t wrap up the quarterback.
• The weird thing is that the defense really tightened up their perimeter play from the week before and did an excellent job on contain.  They also got plenty of pressure (although not as much as Missouri’s defense did).
• Special teams rebounded nicely from the last two weeks.  For once, it was Georgia dealing out the fake kicking play and not the other team.  Podlesny was money all game long, most importantly in matching Missouri’s placekicker blow for blow.
• Monken’s worst coaching job of the season?  Well, yeah.  I don’t know if he took Mizzou’s defense too lightly, or what, but he clearly wasn’t ready for how aggressive their game plan was.  Give him credit, though, for figuring a way out when it counted.
• I don’t know how much you can blame the DCs.  My feeling is not too much.  It seemed like most of the big plays were all the result of player busts.  And, again, things really tightened up at crunch time.
• Kirby may not have had his team mentally ready to go when the game started, but whatever he did at halftime to right the ship worked.

You can look at a game like this in an individual setting and shrug it off as one of those nights.  The problem is this was the second week in a row when Georgia played poorly enough to give an inferior opponent plenty of hope and life.  You can keep calibrating the close calls closer and closer and eventually it’ll catch up to you.  This is a talented team that knows it’s talented.  But it also appears to lack a certain maturity and focus that last year’s team had in spades.

Auburn comes into town next.  A rivalry game with a distracted rival.  It’s time to start fixing things, Dawgs.

After you’ve gone

This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise.

A "stop" is a solo tackle that results in a loss for the offense (i.e. not necessarily loss of yardage). #UGA Interior D-linemen:

'21 – JD99 and Devonte Wyatt – 315 run defense snaps….43 stops

'22 – Six Non-Jalen Carter IDL – 327 run defense snaps….17 stops

— Brent Rollins (@BrentRollinsPhD) October 3, 2022

We all knew there would be a step back early on.  We all expect they’ll improve, too.

Right the damned ship, Dawgs.

Bill Connelly ($$) notes something about Georgia’s play against Mizzou and what it might say about the bigger picture:

… The Dawgs began the game with five straight scoreless drives but drove for four straight field goals to stay within reach, and when it was time to charge back in the fourth quarter, Georgia did exactly that, outgaining Mizzou, 185-30, and putting together two flawless and physical touchdown drives.

The fact that the Dawgs were able to dominate so thoroughly when they needed to suggests this is more of an attention span issue than anything else. But Missouri ranks 51st in SP+, Kent State 107th. Five of Georgia’s seven remaining regular-season opponents rank 43rd or better, and three are in the top 15. If the Dawgs keep having to rouse themselves into action, it’s going to backfire at some point.

Once they got going, they strung together six straight scoring drives, a streak that ended only because they were able to run out the clock successfully (and, even with that, might have scored again if Edwards had been able to keep his balance on his last run of the game).  It’s confirmation that this offense remains brutally efficient, if they can only keep out of their own way with bad mistakes.

And, as Bill points out, that’s more on them than the teams they’re playing.

A simple question

I’m not saying Wisconsin can steal Nick Saban away from Alabama, but given our great academics and outstanding campus, we should at least call to gauge his interest.

He’ll probably say no, but have to at least pick up the phone and call @BadgerFootball.

— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) October 1, 2022

Does Clay Travis hire stupid people for Outkick, or does working for Clay Travis make someone stupid?

That “probably” in the last sentence is doing some galactically heavy lifting.

SEC Power Poll, Week 5

Five games in, there isn’t a single SEC team that’s underwater in points scored, although Vanderbilt and Auburn may threaten that after next week’s games.

1. Alabama.  Took a couple of punches from Arkansas, but put the Hogs away.  They are more dominant in net ypp than Georgia was last season.
2. Georgia.  One subpar game is an outlier.  Two in a row is something else.
3. Ole Miss.  To answer my question from a couple of weeks ago, yes, these guys have a defense.
4. Tennessee.  No bye week bounce for the Vols, but they didn’t drop, either.
5. Mississippi State.  Mike Leach’s team might very well be one muffed punt away from being undefeated right now.
6. LSU.  Went +3 in turnover margin against Auburn and needed every one of them.
7. Kentucky.  I tweeted during the game that I don’t get the Levis hype.  I still don’t.
8. Texas A&M.  When do the rumors start that Aggie boosters are ready to buy out Jimbo’s contract?  Oh, and by the way, guess who travels to Tuscaloosa this week?
9. Arkansas.  Loved the call, but all the gutty onside kicks in the world can’t disguise how bad their defense is.
10. Florida.  Absolutely dominated Eastern Washington, which means they’re still winless in the conference and tied for last in the division.
11. Auburn.  Does Bryan Harsin make the trip to Athens this week?
12. Missouri.  Winners of the SEC’s first great moral victory of the season.
13. South Carolina.  They won, but I dropped ’em because they didn’t play Georgia nearly as closely as Mizzou did.
14. Vanderbilt.  The ‘Dores ain’t gettin’ a bye week bounce, either.