STOCK UP
Aaron Murray – Remember how all Murray had to do was manage the game, and not make mistakes, and Georgia would be fine? Well he seemed to do a pretty good job of that the first couple games, and now Mark Richt wants to put more on his shoulders.
Justin Anderson and Kwame Geathers – By not playing at South Carolina, the pair of nose tackles suddenly became run-stopping fiends in the eyes of fans. It is a good question why they weren’t used, but do we know they would’ve been able to stop Marcus Lattimore?
Justin Houston – It was almost lost in the shuffle that the outside linebacker had three sacks at South Carolina. Houston is now giving SEC offenses someone to worry about, and that’s a good thing for the Bulldogs.
Kris Durham – He also had a second straight good game, hooking up with Murray for Georgia’s longest pass play of the day. He may be running a lot of the routes A.J. Green would have been, but when Green does return, Durham is looking like he’ll still get some passes thrown his way.
Todd Grantham’s mouth – Yeah, the best answer to Steve Spurrier would have stopping Lattimore in the first place. But considering that Spurrier’s shot at Grantham came out of nowhere, Grantham was fully within his rights to shoot back. Grantham’s players may have been “timid” on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean Grantham had to be too.
STOCK DOWN
Almost everybody else – Neither of the coordinators could’ve been happy with how their gameplans worked out. Drew Butler’s punts were low-hanging. No one on defense tackled well. The offensive line couldn’t run block. And we could go on.
Tackling – It’s been well-chronicled. What more can you add.
SEC East title chances – It’s not over, especially if the Bulldogs rebound with a win against Arkansas. But a loss at South Carolina makes the road very tough, since the Gamecocks now own a tiebreaker, and look like a contender.
Aaron Murray the runner – After looking like Steve Young in the opener, Murray looked like Steve DeBerg at South Carolina. And now he’s saying he doesn’t like to run. Well, if things keep going like this, he may need to alter his outlook.
Mark Richt and Mike Bobo synchronization – Richt spent three days saying the offense would be opened up, and Bobo followed that up by saying he wasn’t sure how they’d do that. Maybe they disagree, maybe they’re trying to confuse Arkansas. I guess we’ll know Saturday. Maybe.
The tight ends – Weren’t they supposed to be a major part of the offense? Orson Charles has made a few catches, but Aron White and Bruce Figgins haven’t been a factor yet. (Although Figgins did make a really nice one-handed catch in Tuesday’s practice.)
Cordy Glenn – The offensive guard was an All-SEC candidate, but now could be in danger of losing a starting spot if the run-blocking doesn’t improve. Glenn missed a couple weeks of preseason practice after contracting mono, so that may explain his struggles.
HOLDING STEADYA.J. Green – I haven’t heard anything that has made me change my perspective on the chances for his appeal: I’ll put the odds at him playing this weekend at under 25 percent, and slightly better for him to play at Mississippi State.
Grantham as a defensive coordinator – One great game (the opener) does not make him a genius, and one poor one does not make him overrated.
The pass blocking – It was supposed to be good, and so far it is. One of the few bright spots offensively in Columbia.
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14 comments:
Why is Grantham already being considered overrated? Okay...they didn't tackle very well. However, Grantham adjusted to South Carolina in the second half. Anyone remember that South Carolina only scored 3 points on us in the second half? Does anyone remember that we held them in their endzone for only a field goal in the 2nd half? Hello! Martinez could never adjust or make changes in the second half. Grantham has.
In my book, we really do have a decent D coach.
I've been thinking about this "Can't Tackle" tag being hung on the D and here is what I see.
The D line got pushed around as did a few of the LB's. Lattimore has a quick step to go with his power. As a result he had a pretty good head of steam once he cleared the line of scrimmage and our undersized secondary took a pounding.
I suspect we will see a vastly improved UGA on the field Saturday at least from a defensive standpoint. My skepticism on offense remains. I don't think BoBo is up to the task in a word he scares me.
I really disagree with the Grantham piece. The D didn't even have a bad game. A "SEC East Contender" scored 16 points on us in their house. Lattimore looks very good and has incredible balance. Despite the only drive they scored points on in the 2nd half, he was contained. Our D-line rotation wasn't very good and probably was a big factor in the performance of the line, which goes on the coordinator, but it's the 2nd game since he's been here. Let's not forget we gave up 30 something points to SC last year in our house to a much less potent offense. They may have controlled the clock, but the offense had just as much, if not more, blame than the D.
where does Gamble #50 fit in on the stock assessment? I saw him lay 3-4 good hard licks on some folks but I dont know his overall numbers for the game? I vote to add him to the rising stock group.
Spurrier and Lattimore= Lucky coincidence. Spurrier didnt know what he had with Lattimore and is the first TB of memory Spurrier has ever had. Spurrier had better cut that boys steak for him cause Spurrier has zero to do with Lattimores success. It reminded me of a class A High School coach with one offensive weapon. But Lattimore is a great TB. Nothing against him.
The gameplan on defense was much better than the execution of it. Grantham put the players in position to make a tackle. I don't know where you get off critisizing the defensive gameplan.
Re: SEC East
Contender? South Carolina? Given past years of folding during the last half of the season? Really?
While yes, Georgia's chances would either go up or down due to a win/loss, I'd say the SEC East is still very much wide open.
At least 4 passes were directed to the TE's, and there may have been more times where they were the primary target but weren't thrown to because they weren't open. Charles dropped one on the goalline, though it wasn't an easy catch, and bobbled another that possibly cost us a first down inside the 10. He caught another for a first down in the 3rd quarter. White was open across the middle late in the first half, but Murray couldn't connect with him. TV view doesn't allow us to see what other patterns the TE's were running, but they may not have been open.
BTW, Drew Butler needs to pull his pants down over his knees. When I played, that was a penalty, not sure about now, but it's begging for an injury.
Quick thought about rotating on the DL. With the much smaller rosters in the NFL, and no feeling of needing to bring along inferior players to get them ready for next year necessarily, you probably don't rotate quite as much, do you? The speed of the popcorn popper is probably something Grantham isn't used to. Maybe?
"It’s not over, especially if the Bulldogs rebound with a win against Arkansas. But a loss at South Carolina makes the road very tough, since the Gamecocks now own a tiebreaker, and look like a contender."
Not over? Has it really even begun? Pardon the Denny Green reference, but are we ready to crown the Gamecocks at this point? This USC team is going to reach new heights after wetting the bed the second half of the season the last few years? Please.
The Dawgs clearly were not ready for the physical running game USC threw at us, and I commend the Gamecock staff for the gameplan (very similar to what we did to GT last year). However, I have been woefully unimpressed with Garcia's supposed maturity, and Spurrier won't be able to hand the ball off 37 times a game. I want to know what happens when this USC team faces some adversity. Go beat Auburn at Jordan-Hare or the Gators in the Swamp, then come talk to me about USC being a contender.
Stock Down: Rodney Garner.
We knew we took a big drop in DL talent from last year. However, we were going to make up for it with a greater focus on fundamentals, a greater amount of player rotation, and a more aggressive scheme.
Not seeing it yet, buddy.
Coaches said after the first game they would coach Aaron Murray not to try to finish his runs and put his body in a vulnerable position.
I like Gamble. He was one of the few that had an impressive showing Saturday. I just wish he'd stop celebrating every tackle like he just won the Super Bowl.
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