A Few Final Thoughts

Image: When he catches it. Don't pull him. (Image: Hipple)

I've seen a bunch of good breakdowns of the game points, but I wanted to just give a couple that I thought about that I haven't seen addressed anywhere.

1. What are we trying to do on offense? Every offense needs an identity. For the most part, Georgia has historically been an I-formation/play action passing team. We ran, I believe, one play in the first half with a traditional I-formation and one play action pass (out of the shotgun). The result was not much offense, other than a long end-around. The first drive of the second half was a return to our traditional offense and resulted in the first sustained drive of the night for us. It stalled because of a penalty, drop, sack, and missed FG in succession. After that, we continued to go from under center and things were better, if only slightly so, than the first half. Drops and penalties short circuited any real sustained drives and eventually the score required more shotgun snaps. So, what are we, a spread shotgun offense or a power run, play action team? Our line didn't look like either, but we've got to figure it out and commit to it.

2. A.J. is long gone. We need to understand that. Throwing it up to a receive in one-on-one man coverage is unlikely to work with our current receivers. We tried that at least four times Saturday with zero success. They weren't even close. If you've got a receiver like A.J., you can do that and expect the receiver to make a play on the ball. We don't have a guy like that right now.

3. The defense still has schematic problems. Most of Boise's pass plays weren't long throws. I'd guess 80% of Moore's throws were within seven yards of the line of scrimmage. Most of those were to either a wide open receiver or an inside slant route. Simple stuff that's hard to defend with sheer talent. It's scheme and technique taught by coaches. Kids don't always listen, but the coaches have to make sure they listen. That's got to get fixed TODAY because Shiny Pants is going to run shallow crosses on us all night long Saturday based on that tape. If we can't stop that, we will have no hope.

4. No more alternate uniforms, ever. I like the black jerseys, but put them away. We should never wear another set of alternate uniforms. We've had our asses absolutely handed to us the last three years with that stuff. Retire all alternate uniforms indefinitely.

4. The season (and Richt's career) isn't over. It might seem so with last Saturday's performance, but a win this coming Saturday cures all. Will that happen? I wouldn't bet on it given current evidence.

Quinton