- Coxian (adj.) – a type of “what, me worry?” on-field decision by a player who should know better that leads to disaster, e.g., “I kind of saw Norwood and was like, hmmm, but I decided to throw it anyway…” — GTP Lexicon
My fellow Dawgs, what we have with Stetson Bennett is a significantly more talented and capable Joe Cox. Although it’s taken me a while to get there, I’m fine with that.
Those three or four times a game that make me wince or maybe even yell at my TV screen over some boneheaded decision, like this…
… or, even more egregious, times like that deep throw into coverage to McConkey when he had Washington wide open and in his line of sight? Eh, I’ve gone from hoping it can be coached out of him to hoping he survives the play. (You know what? Most of the time, Stetson does.)
The reason I do is because it feels like I can count on him doing things like this to utterly redeem himself:
You also get this as part of the deal:
… Georgia QB Stetson Bennett. In 3rd down and 4-to-9 yards to go — the toughest throws in a game — Bennett is completing 74.2 percent of his passes.
But when you dive deeper into the situational throws, the numbers are more impressive. Bennett has completed 26-of-35 passes in 3rd and 4-9 to go, and 22 of those completions went for first downs.
That means 63 percent of the time, Bennett completes the toughest throws in the game for a first down. Moreover, 9 of those completions went for 15-plus yards, and 2 for 25-plus.
In sum, the pluses far outweigh the minuses. Just look at the record. As Graham put it, “forcing Stetson Bennett to beat your defense is no longer a viable way to stress UGA.” I can live with that, easily even, notwithstanding the occasional shouty moments. Really.
Get The Picture 
how has Stetson not gotten a Stetson or Colt .45 NLI deal?
the juke on his TD run is heisman moment and legendary elite status
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was to obvious, Stetson “The delivery Guy” was a good one…GO DAWGS!
LikeLike
Hello? NY Athletic Club??…
LikeLike
Turnovers are worrisome—-maybe we getting them out of our system before December games start They always seem to even out
LikeLiked by 3 people
The two pics this week were flukes. The arm gets hit on one and a batted ball falls in such a way that it gets taken out of one our lineman’s arms. Both are pretty rare.
LikeLiked by 11 people
I wouldn’t call them flukes as much as I’d call them need better protection from the oline. So for instance on the flip side I’d say a lot of hendon hookers missed throws were due to our D line affecting him which was definitely NOT a fluke. Thought Ladd was pretty wide open on the first pick if the defensive lineman doesn’t get to Bennett first.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OL was the problem on the first. Second was just a fluke play. 90% of the time, that’s a completion for a first down.
LikeLike
They got us in third and long on the second interception, which put us in a difficult spot to get the first down. The interception itself was fluky, but their defense got us in a bad spot which ultimately led to it.
LikeLike
I’ll take him over Bryce Young. Yeah, I said it (again)!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Let’s not go crazy here, podnah. Without BY, ‘Bama is probably a four-loss team right now.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I agree and think Young is better. He is totally carrying that offense. His ability to escape sacks is incredible.
I do find it funny that Stetson gets dinged for his size while Bryce Young doesn’t and Stetson is bigger!
LikeLiked by 6 people
Carrying that offense is an understatement. I still can’t believe that Gibbs got benched in the second half. He was largely ineffective (less than 5 yards rushing in the first half if I remember correctly), but that was a helluva move by Saban when the unquestioned number one back was not getting it done. Will be interesting to see if McClellan is the number one back from here on out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Smells like planning for next year to me.
LikeLike
I gotta believe there is more to the story than just being benched. I tend to believe somebody mouthed off.
LikeLike
I watched a few plays from a bar in Starkville before our ko.
9 is an amazing talent. He threw a laser for a TD with an unblocked edge rusher about to kill him.
If you watch Stet and Young play and you can’t tell who the better player is, you’re a football idiot.
You probably think Dilfer > Marino cuz Super Bowl ring.
That said, our guy just keeps coming up with plays from somewhere. I wish he’d clean up some stuff, but as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman says:
“Ya got guts and guts is enough!”
Stetson is a better than average Friday night football player who has decided he belongs where he is. Every other kid like him would fold under the pressure and the sheer size and speed of everyone around him. But not this kid.
5 wins to history Stet. Just 5 more.
“Do you believe in unlikelihoods!”
Cotton McKnight
LikeLiked by 3 people
I bet CKS is fine with my statement, as stated.
LikeLike
Just as long as he isn’t hooked to a lie detector at the time.
LikeLike
It doesn’t mean they would be worse or that we would be better if Young sand Bennett had been swapped before the season.
LikeLike
🤣
LikeLike
Considering last year, you said the guy (Daniels) that didn’t keep the job at West Virginia should have played over Bennett I’d say I’m the one that should be laughing.
LikeLike
If Stetson had gone to WVU they’d have have a natty and would be working on another and we’d be fucked. Kirby would be unemployed. We’d be .500 at best.
Is there any doubt?
LikeLike
The point is you called someone a football idiot because they have a different opinion than you. I think Kirby was right last year and that question has nothing to do with West Virginia. I have watched a lot of Alabama games. Brice Young has talent, Stetson has talent, to say one is definitively better than the other is not a question anyone can say with real evidence. Both have things they can do better than the other one. But on balance Brice has received a lot of praise (deservedly so) while Stetson has been judged far more harshly (not deservedly so).
LikeLike
In some company, I would be a football idiot.
There’s always a poker table where you can’t find the sucker, so you’re it.
Name one thing Stetson does better than Young.
This guy came to my mind earlier when the discussion came up: Tim Tebow was undoubtedly a great college qb. All the intangibles of a Bennett inside a much more capable body. However, I said then that his game was not suited for the league. When Denver took him in the 1st round I said: well, maybe they know something I don’t.
Turns out, they didn’t.
Meanwhile, Bryce Young may well be the best qb of the Saban era.
There is no coach on the planet taking Stetson over Bryce Young. None. If Stets dad was a coach, he’d take Young.
LikeLike
Stetson is quicker and a much more elusive runner. He’s also a better leader in my opinion though Brice is good as well. I always thought the same thing in regards to Tebow. While the who is going to be better in the NFL is not really the question at hand here is the thing, the next time a Tebow comes along they may walk into a situation and be a perfect fit for that given situation.
There is more than speed, agility, arm strength, vision, and speed of processing/absorbing information to being a successful player at the quarterback position. Many players have been a success in college and not in the NFL. Likewise there have been good quarterbacks in college that were great in the NFL.
“There is no coach on the planet taking Stetson over Bryce Young. None. If Stets dad was a coach, he’d take Young.”
And no one would play Stetson over Daniels either. Well except Kirby Smart…..and me (and some others on here as well).
LikeLike
Smart DID play Daniels over Stetson and for a long time.
Neither of us know what changed. If we knew what CKS knew when he made to the change we might have done the same. But we don’t.
If you think Stet should have been game 1 starter in 2021, your issue is with CKS, not me.
LikeLike
I’m with ya, not against ya.
LikeLike
Bryce Young paired with Monken and our tight ends would be hell on wheels.
LikeLike
Hopefully, we’re going to get a pro-style version of that next year with Beck, Bowers, Delp, and Gilbert.
LikeLike
Maybe Bama would be hell on wheels with Monken and SBIV.
LikeLike
Suddenly the bammer OL would block somebody because stet snd Monken.
That’s not how any of this works!!!!
LikeLike
The beautiful part is we’ll never know for sure. And your guess is as good (or bad) as mine!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bluto,
First: kudos for the Dr. Strangelove reference
Second: not to jinx anything, but Stet is tough as woodpecker lips…he’s taken some nice hits and then just pops up (that TN touchdown run comes to mind…call me!)
Third: Darnell, excuse me, Mr. Washington is getting open and also blocking like we have not seen before…hallelujah, amen!
This offense, but Stet in particular, has a championship swagger about them…and it’s a good frigging look.
LikeLiked by 4 people
There have been some great Georgia players that I didn’t really get the chance to fully appreciate in their time. This extra year from Stetson Bennett has definitely given me the chance to appreciate his greatness and his growth, and even with the occasional WTF play like we saw in Starkville, he redeems himself more often than not. And if ever there was an example of a guy who is “just having a lot of fun out there” it’s Stetson Bennett. I shut down any criticism of him after the Bowers touchdown in the national title game. This year it’s just about watching a guy whose like we will never see again. Oh, we’ll have great quarterbacks and kids who are great stories but this player and this story are once in a lifetime.
LikeLiked by 20 people
This is true. What a story he has! Unlikely we will see anything like it in our time again.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Now you’re there.
The kid is incomparable. Suggesting that he is talented obscures the actual story here. He is winning without being the biggest, fastest, quickest, strongest, smartest or most accurate. He’s just fucking doing it and it makes no damn sense. At all.
But I’m here for it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I would have to argue with you on ‘smartest’. The dude is 25. He knows the offense inside out.
LikeLike
I can tear a Sikorsky H-60 apart and rebuild it. I’d probably crash it if I tried to fly it though. Knowing the offense inside and out has nothing to do with the “smarts”.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Look no further than the 4th quarter of the natty… just an insane, worse-case scenario fumble instead of throwing the ball away sooner or taking the sack and living to fight another day followed up by a beautiful go-ahead TD throw to Mitchell.
Stetson Bennett contains multitudes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wasn’t a fumble. I’ll go to my grave insisting that.
LikeLiked by 6 people
And Bryce’s was to start the game.
LikeLiked by 3 people
*Brett Favre nods with approval.
LikeLike
The TD pass to Rosemy-Jacksaint against Tennessee was perfect, but the degree of difficulty was extremely high compared to the wide open Bowers just to the right in the end zone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No QB is perfect. Someone who says that Peyton Manning is not elite because he threw 3,255 incompletions in his career misses the big picture, just as the Bennett haters do.
LikeLiked by 7 people
Eli Manning, at his retirement, was asked, what was your worst interception. His response, I do not remember ever throwing one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He misses some reads, but I’m sure you could find a screenshot like this for every QB in every game. The deep lofted throw to Kearis got an audible gasp from Sean McDonough for how good it was. There are obviously guys with higher ceilings, but they ain’t that much higher. Leadership matters.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hence the reason that I think there will be teams that will use a late round pick in the draft to give him a look in camp.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hope so !
LikeLiked by 1 person
As a Falcons fan, I believe they would be much better with Stetson than they currently are with Marcus Mariota.
LikeLike
I think the play where he should’ve dumped it off to Washington is more egregious by far than the one pictured above. As you said, Washington was in his sight line and there’s no way he couldn’t have seen him. Take the easy throw and let Big 0 rumble downfield for some extra yards. On the 2nd & 3 play it’s like people are expecting Stetson to overlook the open player he sees on his first read and instead see out of his right ear hole that Bowers was open.
LikeLiked by 3 people
He made a bad decision, but on the replay I at least understood it. The corner started coming down on Washington before retreating back. He basically baited the throw from Bennett. He still shouldn’t have thrown it, but I understood what he was looking at.
LikeLike
Stetson is Luke Duke, Brock is Bo. Rather than take a Ferrari up the highway to Atlanta, Stet’s driving the General Lee through the backwoods, spinning donuts and jumping creeks. And that young trainer on the sidelines massaging his arm is 100% wanting to be his Daisy Dukes. Legend.
LikeLiked by 4 people
A year and a half ago everyone but a few of us wanted to kill Bennett or at least get him on the bench. It is amazing what a National Championship will do for a guy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
One day, some of y’all will look back and appreciate Stetson…at least I hope so.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Why wait? He’s already one of my very few all-time favorite Georgia Bulldogs.
LikeLike
Speaking of which, JT Daniels got benched Saturday; wonder what’s next for that guy.
LikeLike
Pundit heads will explode when Honky McFailson wins another natty.
But don’t even suggest him as a Heisman ceremony attendee, let alone a legit candidate, lest you be ridiculed by the talking heads.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The main things that worry me with this team are 1) their propensity to flip from dominant to sloppy and back again, frequently in the same game and related to that 2) our negative turnover margin. We seem to have developed a propensity for coughing up the ball .
That’ll get you beat by a team that shouldn’t even be competitive with you. Fortunately for us, except for maybe Ohio state, probably every other team in the country falls into that bucket.
LikeLike
That’s what’s weird about this team… those mistakes DONT get them beat by teams that aren’t competitive.
LikeLike
when I look at the picture wherein we are Monday morning quarterbacking our National champion QB for not seeing Bowers I see a defensive lineman braking free and I see a QB who does not have near enough time to adjust his feet —-we do complain about Stetson NOT getting his foot work right a lot don’t we—– No one criticizing Stet , not named Patrick Mahomes, could have made the throw we’re bitching about Stet not making. A still photo has the innate ability to distort reality every bit as much as elucidate.
Brice Young’s interception in the end zone vs LUS was as boneheaded a brain cramp as any we’ll see all year but the boy with the pencil thin mustache is still the Heisman candidate. Ya’ll can sell but I ain’t buying. I’ll stand pat with the man from south Georgia.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That juke was just plain disrespectful.
Also not to jinx this team because we have, presumably, hopefully, 5 more games left if we keep our head screwed on straight, but at what point is Bennett, Georgia’s greatest QB? Even if we don’t repeat, the resume is getting kind of insane, not just because he finally won a national championship for us.
(Disclaimer, I am a Former “there is no way we can beat Alabama and win a national championship with Stetson” guy)
LikeLike
When he walks off the stage with a trophy on 1/9/23.
Discussion over at that point. Done.
No one but #34 will belong in the same room with him.
(You weren’t far off btw.)
LikeLike
Bennett seems to have the “it” factor. You can’t explain it. The thing that’s most important is that he seems to have the full faith of his coaches and teammates. When he leaves, you’ll look at his numbers and scratch your head. All he does is keep winning (and putting up some pretty damn good career stats along the way) which is the bottom line when playing the game.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Perfectly stated.
LikeLike
As I said weeks ago, it can’t be coached out of him!!!
The question in front of us, is when he faces 2 of the best teams in the country in the CFP, can we overcome this type of error.
It is like baseball. During the 162 game season you face the Marlins 16 times. No problem. Then in the World Series, you face Verlander, DeGrom, etc. It is a different game
LikeLike
I should have ended with, He gas done it once. Hope he can do it twice
LikeLike
Bennett misses throws, makes bad reads, makes an occasional bad decision but in my lifetime (and it’s long), I can never remember a QB that was perfect as I wanted them to be.
Stetson has something that many QB’s with NFL attributes and a high draft status will never have, he has moxie (the force of character, determination, or nerve) and he is simply a person who finds a way to win in the face of adversity.
He doesn’t panic, get mad, blame others, act like a prima donna, he becomes an assassin, takes ownership, and makes things happen. See third down conversions as a prime example.
He will never be perfect but in a strange way, I find Stetson to be a perfect fit for the sloppiest 10-0 dominant team in college football. Somehow, it just works!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dayne annoys the hell out me with takes like this. Bowers is likely the last read on this play. He’s the fifth receiver in the concept, and running the opposite direction from where Stet starts his progression.
Even if we assume Stet didn’t read the blitz pre-snap, Rutledge gets whipped and Stet feels it immediately. The ball needs to come out. His he doesn’t have a true “hot” over the middle, and fires it to the primary.
But Dayne watches film like he’s playing Madden and believes the QB, in the midst of all that at field level, can see every receiver and every defender simultaneously.
And because he has the “UGAsports.com” tag, people take latch onto it.
LikeLike
Cool, man.
Guess Dayne was wrong about this, too:
Even Stetson admitted after the game he should have thrown that ball to Washington.
Stetson’s definitely upped his game this season, but he still makes the occasional shaky decision, regardless of who points it out.
LikeLike
I didn’t say all of Dayne’s takes, did I? I said “takes like this.”
I watch his Film Don’t Lie with Brent Rollins, and there are no small number of bad “but what about this” takes from him. The one you highlighted in this blog is one of them.
Stet ain’t perfect, but Stet’s gonna play in the NFL and likely be drafted on Day 2.
That aint Joe Cox.
And yes, he should have checked that FL pass down… but with the positioning of the corner on that play (corner’s hips are straight downfield and there’s no safety inside), a whole lot of QBs take that throw. He made a bad one, sadly, and the corner was able to work back underneath and snatch it. If he puts a little more air under it, the corner can’t get there by cutting under, but he didn’t. Like I said, not perfect.
I don’t have an issue with criticism of the guy, I have an issue with bad criticism.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Show me a quarterback who doesn’t make the occasional shaky decision.
LikeLike
Define “occasional.”
LikeLike
Jekyll and Hyde
LikeLike