Well, shit.
In terms of how much missed time, I’ve seen estimates of anywhere from four weeks to the rest of the regular season. Hate it for him and the team.
On the other hand, now we have our own Metchie and Williams excuse, if needed. (Too soon?)
Daily Archives: October 16, 2023
Observations from the armchair, the Admiral under construction edition
Before I get to my specific thoughts on the game, a couple of things to get off my chest first.
- Looking at the comments here and elsewhere in social media, there is a portion of the fan base that is genuinely pissed about Georgia football. I don’t get it. The team is, at 7-0, the last remaining undefeated team in the SEC. Based on some research I did for my Mumme Poll ballot, the Dawgs are one of only five undefeated teams in the country with a net ypp figure over 2.0, which is the threshold for teams who have a valid shot at the CFP title. They’re having a season that may not quite be up to last year’s standard, but it’s very good nevertheless. If you’re unhappy about it, perhaps you put too much stock in style points (which is, admittedly, understandable from the vantage point of being spoiled by Georgia’s recent success). Either that, or you’re just jonesing for the opportunity to be able to say “I told you so” to your fellow Dawg fans when the day inevitably comes that the team loses a game. Sad to let your fandom come to that, but don’t bother trying to drag the rest of us down to your level of pissiness.
- I do have a working theory about this Georgia team. I don’t think it’s a matter of them playing down to the level of their opponent — at least, not exactly. These guys know they’re an extremely talented bunch, and while they’d never admit it out loud, they feel like by just showing up, they’ll beat at least 80% of the teams they face simply because they can out-talent them. It’s a young team, and chalking that attitude up to inexperience, immaturity, or whatever you want to call it is fair, but what it really tells me is that the senior leadership on the team hasn’t gotten the buy in that previous Georgia teams gave their leaders. (Not to mention the coaching staff seems to be emphasizing teaching mode still, which is understandable.) Looking at the remaining schedule, the game that bothers me, ironically, is the next one. Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee are all ranked and assuming they stay that way, will all have this team’s attention the way Kentucky did. Georgia Tech is Georgia Tech. But Florida isn’t ranked and has been an up and down team all season. The win at South Carolina isn’t going to set off alarm bells the way Kentucky’s win over Florida did. Will the Gators get Georgia’s full attention? I have no idea… and that could be a problem.
As far as the Vanderbilt game goes, I told y’all before the game that possessions would be a key in the game. Each team only had the ball one time apiece in the third quarter. Vanderbilt had ten possessions. Three resulted in touchdowns. Seven ended in punts, a missed field goal, halftime and an interception. Georgia also had ten possessions. Four ended in touchdowns, three with field goals, two with turnovers and the other was at game’s end.
Smart wanted to limit Vandy’s time with the ball and was successful in that. The game was tighter than expected (relatively speaking) because Georgia wound up settling for field goals instead of touchdowns and that meant Georgia was burning clock inefficiently, something Vanderbilt could live with. Making things worse, all three scoring drives that ended in field goals were extremely lengthy in time; conversely, all four of the Dawgs’ touchdown drives occurred in less than four minutes each, including the last one of the first half, which took up all of 25 seconds.
Does that suggest Georgia’s focus is better when it’s not trying to drag clock, but, instead, is trying to generate yardage efficiently? The thought did occur to me as I watched Saturday, but, obviously, I have no idea.
In any event, a win’s a win, unless you’re Kirby Smart, in which case any road conference win is something to celebrate especially. And with that, on to the bullet points.
- The offensive line took another hit, injurywise, but kept at it. Beck was sacked twice and didn’t face too much pressure. Given that Truss was replaced by a true freshman, it could have been worse. They managed almost 300 yards rushing and averaged 7.5 yards per carry. Both were season’s best and by a wide margin.
- Speaking of rushing, what a game out of Daijun Edwards! He’s been a rock. He may not have elite top end speed, but he’s shifty as hell and has a gift for squeezing out the needed yardage when called upon.
- Sucked that Milton got hurt again. He continued his good work from the Kentucky game with an excellent first half. Here’s hoping he’s able to bounce back in time for Florida.
- Should I count Van Pran as a running back this week? Okay, I kid, but that was a very heads up play that saved what turned out to be a scoring drive.
- Speaking of which, Georgia was exceedingly lucky on the turnover front in that game. There could easily have been a couple more fumbles that had Vanderbilt recovered, really would have tightened up the game.
- I don’t know about you, but my heart sunk watching Bowers pound the turf in frustration. Reports after the game were that he’s in good spirits about his return, but I’ll wait with
baitedbated breath for the MRI results. - In his absence, Delp contributed a couple of nice catches, but his blocking still isn’t as consistent as I’d like to see.
- As far as the receivers go, it was Dominic Lovett’s week to step up, and he sure did. He did the bulk of the work on the drive that led to Georgia’s final TD of the first half and his first catch, a 30-yarder, was a real beauty.
- They are getting impressive production from a guy whose time is limited in McConkey. He’s somebody else I hope gets a real benefit out of the bye week.
- Beck had his first week when he didn’t look improved from the week before. Aside from his ill-fated interception throw, he lacked consistent touch on his deep ball (although Arian Smith didn’t help on that one throw) and he held on to the ball a little too long on occasion. It was a good reminder — for him and for us — that he’s only seven games into his career as a starter and is still learning on the job.
- One other thing about the interception — compare and contrast Beck’s reaction Saturday to how he acted when he threw a pick six a couple of seasons ago against UAB. He’s definitely done some growing up.
- Mixed bag again from the defensive front. Vandy only ran for 18 yards, but it seemed like they really weren’t making much of an effort to run the ball. Their offensive line, which coming in hadn’t had a great year, did a pretty good job getting a standoff in pass protection. One thing the front did do well was not allow Vanderbilt to gouge them with misdirection plays.
- I’ll see Mykel Williams flash on occasion and immediately wonder why he’s not flashing more.
- That might have been the best game the ILBs turned in this season. Mondon led the team in tackles and had Georgia’s only sack of the day. Dumas-Johnson had a nice pass break up.
- The secondary had its moments, both good and bad. Vandy’s first touchdown came on a coverage breakdown, evidently caused by a communication error between Tykee Smith and Javon Bullard. Smith took the blame, but more than made up for it with a dominant performance on Vanderbilt’s penultimate series in the first half when he had two tackles and an interception (his fourth, which ties him for second nationally) on three straight plays.
- I can’t really blame Starks on Vanderbilt’s first score of the second half, as he had good position and did everything right. He just got beat on a great throw by Seals and an even better catch by Will Sheppard.
- Which reminds me — the secondary does deserve credit for shutting Sheppard down for the day, as that touchdown catch was his only reception of the game.
- Special teams? I’m starting to wonder how long Mews is going to be returning punts. It seems like there’s a flub on almost a weekly basis. Then again, there was a time when I wondered about Woodring’s future and look how he’s turned out.
- This week, I really can get away with overlooking Thorson. LOL.
- If you want to bitch at Bobo, it’s not like I can stop you, although I will point out that generating almost 550 yards of offense with several key starters out isn’t as easy as some of you think it is.
- The defense limited the ‘Dores to less than 225 yards of offense, so the game plan was solid. But there’s work for Muschamp and Schumann to do on the communication front. That’s something other teams are going to exploit if they aren’t addressed.
- They may not always look pretty, but give Smart credit for keeping this team pointed in the right direction. By the way, the time management at the end of the first half that wound up putting a touchdown on the board was as good as I’ve ever seen a Georgia coach direct.
The timing on the bye week couldn’t be better. This team needs to heal and it needs to spend time cleaning up some of the issues that appeared against Vanderbilt. Florida’s gonna be looking to pull off a Cocktail Party upset; I have no doubt they’ll be motivated. Which Georgia team will show up?
Filed under Georgia Football
2023 SEC Power Poll, Week Six
There sure are a lot of SEC teams that are scuffling these days.
- Georgia. The Dawgs are still the class of the league. I don’t know if that says more about them, or the conference.
- Alabama. They let the SEC’s worst offensive team claw their way back into a home game that ‘Bama was comfortably leading in.
- Tennessee. This is a different Vol team from last season. The defense is better, but the passing game is worse.
- Ole Miss. Junior is the recipient of a Week Six bye week bounce.
- LSU. The Tigers are averaging better than 44 points per game in conference play.
- Missouri. Down 14 on the road, they came roaring back to win by 17. Not bad.
- Florida. Early to bed and early to rise makes a Napier team win on the road.
- Texas A&M. That makes two straight games where the Aggies have failed to average at least two yards per rushing attempt. Jimbo’s probably thinking he could have done that without Petrino’s help.
- Kentucky. This week, Mark Stoops is going to host a telethon, inviting listeners to call in and pledge NIL money.
- South Carolina. Had the Gators on the ropes in the fourth quarter, but let them get away with their first road win of the season.
- Mississippi State. Another bye week bounce.
- Auburn. Managed less than 300 yards against the SEC’s most porous defense. But they did clear 100 passing yards for the first time this season against a P5 team, so they’ve got that going for them.
- Arkansas. Another valiant effort falls short. The Hogs are currently on a five-game losing streak.
- Vanderbilt. The ‘Dores actually won the turnover battle this week, but still fell short by 17 points.
To go along with this, check out this net scoring chart:
Is there any doubt that TAMU is the SEC’s biggest underachiever to date? And that Missouri the biggest overachiever?
Filed under SEC Football
2023 SEC Net YPP, Week 7
Subjectively, you may not feel like there’s a dominant team in the conference right now, but net ypp says differently.
- Georgia +2.74 (7.13 o; 4.39 d) [NC: -0.08]
- Tennessee +1.89 (6.30 o; 4.41 d) [NC: -0.33]
- Ole Miss +1.86 (7.06 o; 5.20 d) [NC: DNP]
- LSU +1.47 (7.91 o; 6.44 d) [NC: +0.35]
- Alabama +1.45 (5.92 o; 4.47 d) [NC: +0.15]
- Missouri +1.30 (6.68 o; 5.38 d) [NC: -0.29]
- Texas A&M +1.30 (6.02 o; 4.72 d) [NC: -0.23]
- Kentucky +1.26 (6.44 o; 5.18 d) [NC: -0.15]
- Florida +0.46 (6.20 o; 5.74 d) [NC: -0.33]
- Mississippi State +0.16 (6.16 o; 5.90 d) [NC: DNP]
- South Carolina +0.02 (6.18 o; 6.16 d) [NC: +0.23]
- Vanderbilt -0.43 (5.80 o; 6.23 d) [NC: -0.25]
- Auburn -0.44 (5.33 o; 5.77 d) [NC: -0.68]
- Arkansas -0.63 (4.98 o; 5.61 d) [NC: -0.29]
Turnover margin:
- +6: Ole Miss
- +4: Arkansas
- +3: Alabama, Auburn
- +2: LSU
- +1: Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, Tennessee
- -0-: Georgia, South Carolina
- -2: Florida, Vanderbilt
- -4: Texas A&M
Observations and tidbits:
- Net ypp says there’s only one conference team worthy of CFP consideration, Georgia.
- Three teams are now significantly underwater and Vanderbilt isn’t the worst of them.
- LSU is averaging almost three yards more per play on offense than Arkansas. Yikes.
Filed under SEC Football, Stats Geek!
When bend but don’t break breaks
Yeah, there’s a couple of numbers here that stick out.
Now, there is some useful context to be mindful of here. Georgia’s only allowed opposing teams inside the red zone a total of 15 times in 7 games. That said, those red zone percentages are anything but elite.
Let’s hope they can do some useful self-scouting over the next couple of weeks to see where the breakdown is coming from.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
2023 Fabris Pool results, Week 7
No tiebreaker this week.
Well played, rmj.
And here’s how the seasonal race goes:
Tight. Very tight.
Filed under GTP Stuff
Monday ticket exchange
Yeah, I know we’ve got a bye week, but I figure it’s never too early to get a jump on the Cocktail Party. Let everyone know in the comments if have tickets to sell or need to buy.
As always, be specific and leave contact info.
Filed under GTP Stuff
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