1:12 left in game, Georgia down 17-6
South Carolina kicks a chip-shot field goal to basically ice it, barring a miracle.
I'm headed down to the locker room, and will have postgame quotes and thoughts ASAP.
This loss isn't the end of the world for Georgia, but it makes next week almost a must-win if this team wants to accomplish much this season.
2:05 left in fourth quarter, Georgia down 14-6
Georgia's defense could only hold Marcus Lattimore for so long. The freshman has put together another long drive - yes, pretty much by himself - and South Carolina is poised to put it away.
The debate after this one will be how much is this the fault of the Georgia defense, and its poor tackling, and how much is it just that Lattimore is a special player.
It looks to be a mixture of both. Georgia's tackling wasn't that good overall; a couple Alshon Jeffery catches-and-runs come to mind.
When Stephen Garcia was back in the pocket, the Bulldogs were able to do some things. But in head-to-head confrontation at the line of scrimmage, they were out-physicaled.
9:39 left in fourth quarter, Georgia down 14-6
High praise for the Georgia defense. Not only did it force a three-and-out when it badly needed to, but it forced the Gamecocks way backward.
The big play was a 14-yard sack. Now that Marcus Lattimore is being bottled up, the aggressive, blitzing defense is able to rear its head and go after Stephen Garcia. The results are good.
But is it too late? The Georgia offense starts this time at its own 9, after another special teams mistake - a block in the back.
11:49 left in fourth quarter, Georgia down 14-6
The story of this game is shifting from Georgia's inability to stop Marcus Lattimore, to Georgia's inability to capitalize after it finally began stopping Lattimore.
Georgia just went three-and-out, and South Carolina takes over at midfield.
This isn't a huge indictment of the Bulldog offense. The Gamecock defense has been pretty solid the past few years, and there's no reason to think it won't be again this year.
But the Bulldogs sure do look limited without A.J. Green. It has one long play, the pass to Kris Durham, but otherwise it looks unable to break open big plays.
The good news is the defense is back into form. Lattimore has been held to 20 yards in the second half. And Justin Houston is announcing himself, now with three sacks on the day.
Houston absolutely clobbered Stephen Garcia on the previous drive. Houston blitzed from Garcia's right and laid down a hit that brought quite a reaction from the crowd. It didn't bring a fumble, as another Houston sack did, and the Bulldogs sure could have used one there.
Special teams was supposed to be an advantage for the Bulldogs today, but it really hasn't. Branden Smith went negative yardage on a punt return, and was lucky to get back out to the 10. And Drew Butler has been off his game, with some very low punts.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
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6 comments:
I give Lattimore his due, he runs really hard, BUT a good bit needs to be put on the defense for poor tackling and basically just standing around while waiting for someone else to make a tackle.
btw, the "Hitman" needs to give his nickname back after several weak attempts at tackling with just his shoulder and not wrapping up.
check the time of possession, our defense was on the field WAY too long. Way too many three and outs, you cant expect them to give full effort for that long when all our offense can manage is 6 points
Well, we all said we'd know what we have after this game (and maybe next week.) I'd say that falls out as follows:
Offense:
1. The OL's run blocking is not as good as advertised. They did a bang up job on pass protection though.
2. We do miss AJ. Against a good secondary, no one made anything happen. Murray was back there with all the time in the world and no where to throw the football.
3. Murray so far has been solid. I saw good decisions today in a hostile environment. I think he's a keeper :)
Defense:
1. Our secondary is pretty good (against the pass). I watched on TV, so I couldn't really see the secondary that much, but in the passing situations, Garcia didn't have anywhere to go most of the time (compare to last year.)
2. As we were afraid, we are deficient in run stopping. I thought people were in the right spot most of the time (an improvement from last year), but the tackling was high and poor. It will be interesting to see if that'll be a trend, or if Grantham can coach 'em up enough to survive the SEC.
3. Grantham actually makes adjustments! The concept! The defense overall did a much better job in half two.
4. An improved pass rush? Too close to call. I thought we were pretty poor in the first half but much better in the second...
Alas, the second game, and the road to the East championship just got a lot tougher...
Where to start...tackling? If Todd Grantham and his staff thought that the defensive fundamentals were so bad when they arrived in Athens, then they proved today that they can't coach tackling.
Bobo, how many plays did we burn throwing hail mary's out of the i-formation.
Special teams, things have not changed at all on kick coverage.
The offensive line might be the most overrated squads in college football.
You would think that we might know how to manage a game clock. When you burn 3 timeouts in the first 10 minutes of the second half, that is just great.
Wow. I am trying to be optimistic and not throw my beer throw my window, but I can't believe how bad we looked.
Our offensive line is just that... offensive. For such a highly touted group, they suck balls and cannot run block.
Our defense played great. Some poor tackling occasionally? Yes. But we can't purge Willie in one season.
There was a time about a year or two ago where Richt Bulldogs were something like 40-0 when we held the team under 20 pts. That used to be an automatic win.
But now we've lost at least 2 or 3 games in the last 2 seasons even when we held the team under 20. That's bullshit.
6 points? 6 FUGGIN points?
Southern Miss scored 13 for chrissakes.
Here's what I saw...
#1 is terrible in coverage; flashbacks to Evans/PMiller....and cannot tackle. Commings (#19) is much more solid and should've seen the field. Special teams and an occassion offensive play is OK for 1.
Why did our tackilng look soooo good last week, and this week "chip" tackling reappeared. Did Willie take a week off and come back to Athens? I think he did because OU's defensive backfield looks really good against UGA South right now (obviously not coaching OU).
Is Rambo gun-shy? Look, if you aint going to lay the lumber, get out of the game!
#3 & #4 are over-hyped. These are not SEC caliber type backs. Neither has break-away speed nor tackle breaking ability. They are adequate 10 carry backs. They might run the state of GA (and the soft ACC)....but they don't run the SEC (nor the 1969 ACC champs).
Great "Wild Dog". Bobbled, bumped into each other and net 3-4 yards. It's Ok to run it v. Idaho, LALAFAYETTE, ApSt, etc...but again...we don't have the caliber of players to run it in SEC play.
Ohhhh, and I thought this year would be so different. 5-6 is imminent.
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