DDT: The State of the Season – Georgia Post Bye Week

Home >

DDT: The State of the Season – Georgia Post Bye Week

DDT: The State of the Season – Georgia Post Bye Week
Oct 17, 2020; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Georgia running back Kendall Milton (22) runs the ball and breaks a tackle by Alabama defensive lineman Christian Barmore (58) during the second half of Alabama’s 41-24 win over Georgia at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr/The Tuscaloosa News via USA TODAY Sports

The SEC appears to have a clear hierarchy at this point in the season. Alabama’s offense is the single most powerful unit in the conference and the entire country as a whole. Georgia, when they play on brand football is a close second as a team overall, and then there is everyone else. The Dawgs and Tide completely control their destiny for a rematch in December. Given the level of play out of Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt, along with the COVID & defensive woes of Florida, Georgia will likely be a heavy favorite in each contest until the rematch.

Obviously Georgia cannot take anyone for granted. One of Kirby Smart’s favorite sayings is that, “humility is only a week away in the SEC.” However, every team in the league now has 2 losses other than Alabama, Florida, and Texas A&M. Florida is going to have their hands full with Missouri next week for no other reason than lack of practice and reps due to their COVID outbreak which reached all the way up to Dan Mullen. It’s unknown how many, if any Gators will be unavailable by the time they’re set to kickoff Halloween Night at 7:30.

Despite throttling Tennessee in Knoxville for a 14th straight time, Alabama is even now facing some adversity. Jaylen Waddle is hands down one of, if not the, most electric and fun to watch players in college football. The Crimson Tide will now have to adjust to life without him after he suffered a broken ankle that will require surgery. Now, obviously, Alabama has tremendous wide out depth and DeVonta Smith, John Metchie III, and others are ridiculously talented, but impact of losing a playmaker like Jaylen Waddle cannot be overstated. Should Georgia and Alabama face off again, the Tide will be well versed in life without Waddle by then, but the fact remains that the most talented player on the field in the first matchup will not be participating.

 

 

 

 

It’s incumbent upon Georgia to focus on the tasks at hand and lean into their identity and strengths as a team. The Georgia offensive line is playing really well under Matt Luke and of course the defense is deep and super talented. I seriously doubt there is another game all season in which Georgia throws the ball 40 times. In fact, if Georgia gets up north of 31 or 32 pass attempts, it’s likely that the contest in which it happened did not go according to plan.

Georgia has the backs to be not only a good running team, but they’re on the verge of being explosive in the run game, which is a killer for defenses. Kendall Milton is going to play a bigger role from this point out and I had a source simply tell me, “he’s special.” Milton, White, Cook, and McIntosh all will be a big part of the Georgia passing game as well. Simply put, the running back unit is the best unit on the Georgia offense, followed closely by the tight end group, and both should be treated as such.

Stetson Bennett IV, despite some fanbase and media overreaction, is perfectly capable of distributing the ball to Georgia’s playmakers. He’s perhaps spread things out a little too well. George Pickens hasn’t been a huge factor so far this year and I’d look for that to change after this bye week. Kirby Smart’s messaging, and information we at Bulldawg Illustrated are gathering, suggests that Stetson is going to be guy for Georgia going forward. If that statement causes you anxiety, it shouldn’t.

 

 

 

 

I’m sure there was no bigger critic of some of the things that actually were Bennett IV’s fault than Bennett IV himself. The bye week came at a good time. Look for the Georgia quarterback to have learned a lot from the game at Tuscaloosa. Trusting and navigating the pocket, finding passing lanes, and either getting the ball to his check downs quicker or creating with his mobility when the first and second reads in the progression aren’t there will all be points of emphasis.

The reality is, despite the sky is falling attitude that can often times surround the Georgia program, the Dawgs have everything out in front of them and everything they need to go and get it.

 

 

 

 

share content

Daily Dawg Thread Sports UGA Football 236 Comments

236 responses on “DDT: The State of the Season – Georgia Post Bye Week”

  1. WalkedtheDawgWhisky

    Looks like firing Jimmy Brumbaugh didn’t straighten things out for the Vols. #### I don’t think there is any doubt that Pruitt is creating a better roster… only problem is that the teams he has to beat.. are doing it as well.

  9. 1mandawgpack

    Good gosh – yet another tropical depression that will strengthen into a hurricane has developed and is expected to move into the gulf and make landfall somewhere around MS or LA. That means that it’ll follow the typical track and the remnants will hit our area with more violent thunderstorms later this week. 2020 just can’t end soon enough for me.

    2. Bob Miller

      We had 2 inches here last night, and a couple of weeks ago, weekend of the Tennessee game, when we had remanence of Hurricane Delta come through, had over 8 inches in just a 5 hour period. Really could use a couple of weeks of dry weather.

          1. 1mandawgpack

            A $15+m ‘buyout’ might also weigh in on that decision.

            Honestly, UT has a monumental obstacle to overcome to return to some sort of prominence – to close the gap, they need some recruiting classes with incredibly talented players and the states that UT used to raid for those players (largely GA as TN does not have great HS football) are no longer a viable option. That’s their issue, not necessarily the top guy wearing the whistle.

      3. 1mandawgpack

        The stupidity of fan bases never ceases to amaze me. While I’m certainly not defending Chaney, when a team is losing by 18 points at half and can’t stop the opposing team’s offense, any game plan that the OC had hoped to run is out the door and his offense largely becomes 1 dimensional.

          1. 1mandawgpack

            Why would we? The NCAA has already ruled that this season doesn’t count against any player’s eligibility and all players, including those who eligibility would have otherwise expired, can return and play next season. So the 85 cap on scholarship players on the roster is no longer a limitation and, other than financial considerations (i.e., the cost to carry a scholarship for an athletic association), I don’t see a situation in which Kirby doesn’t want as many players at his disposal as the rules allow.

        1. 1mandawgpack

          I think we would have been limited by the 85 scholarship cap this year (absent a bunch of underclassmen declaring for the NFL draft and several entering the transfer portal) but with that no longer in play, I see no reason why Kirby won’t sign the maximum allowed by SEC rules (25).

    1. Joe Kennedy

      Very physical game for Kentucky. With us having an off week . We should be able to wear them out

    2. 1mandawgpack

      My wife is a UK alum so I watched that game with her as she endured the misery of an awful overall performance by her cats. What’s nuts is that despite playing awfully (i.e., the offense was nonexistent and the defense couldn’t get off the field but still didn’t give up a ton of points), I kept pointing out to her that the deficit was only 1 possession and that a single big play could wipe out all of UM’s statistical dominance. As poorly as UK played, for UM to win by 10 points and really only secure the win with about 2 minutes remaining in the game tells me that they’re a pretty bad team this year as well.

      1. 1mandawgpack

        I was a little surprised at their productivity but offense hasn’t been the issue at LSU as they’re averaging 42 points per game this season.

        1. Asheville_Dawg

          Very true. It looks Azzez’s brother had a good game. I honestly thought his size would work against him but he looks like a solid player

          1. 1mandawgpack

            Agreed – he had a solid game. If he can have that type of game then our OLBs should feast on USCs line when we play later this year as our edge rushers are just as fast but bigger (all but A. Anderson) and probably more physical.

      1. 1mandawgpack

        That’s what he claims. Kirby never really addressed it so I suppose we’ll never know if Gran’s allegations are accurate.

  16. Greg Poole

    6. Kentucky has no idea what it wants to be on offense

    Pick a stat, any stat. It doesn’t matter. The Cats can’t throw it and they can’t run it.

    Saturday’s numbers were skewed by the fact Missouri held the ball for almost 3 quarters, but 8 first downs are 8 first downs.

    Terry Wilson was 3-for-9 for 35 yards.

    Kentucky didn’t throw the ball last season, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t try to. It had an identity with Lynn Bowden and stuck with it.

    These Cats have no idea what their identity is. Nothing is working.

    And now comes Georgia.

    Here’s what I would do: Go all in with Joey Gatewood.

    Nobody in the SEC needs a bye week to figure things out worse than Kentucky, but the Cats will have to absorb another beating before they get there.

    10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 5 in the SEC

    https://ift.tt/2To2Fpj

    1. 1mandawgpack

      To start, they could try to play with a bit of intensity and sense of urgency. I don’t know if Mizzou was a trap game after they crushed UT and were looking ahead to us but I watched the entire game and they looked awful in all phases of the game. I’m sure they’ll come out fired us to play us, though, so I don’t expect them to play as poorly against us.

  21. Milner

    They are turning on Jeremy Pruitt this morning on the radio up here in Tennessee. It is hard to listen to, even for a rival fan.

    1. 1mandawgpack

      Let them win a couple in a row and they’ll change their tune to ‘being back.’ Honestly, the most football illiterate, yet loyal, to the point of being delusional, fan base in the SEC and perhaps the country.

        2. 1mandawgpack

          Yep although, other than the OL, he’s still playing with all those ‘life champions’ and ‘5* hearts’ that Butch recruited.

        3. Rob Dawg

          If by level playing field they mean one that doesn’t slope too much to one side, they still got some grounds keeping work to do at Neyland

  23. DawgLeg

    Good morning guys. I was a bit surprised to read that we only practiced 2 days last week (Tu – Th). I thought we might use the off week as a week of “camp” – getting additional reps for guys and maybe even getting different people ready to play. Wrong again.

    1. DawgLeg

      Correction – 3 days. My NGa public school math failed me and I don’t know how to edit original post.

      1. 1mandawgpack

        Used those 3 days to evaluate issues from the Bama game and work on fundamentals. Too many players banged up to really do a lot of hitting, etc. Will work on UK game plan this coming week, so really got to use the time a lot like camp as the 20 hours of practice allowed during a typical game week is spent installing and practicing upcoming game plan so we got to work on some things that we typically don’t during the season.

        1. DawgLeg

          Good morning. I get it. I just thought they might maximize the opportunity get more reps for some of the young guys (QBs??)

          1. 1mandawgpack

            Kirby said that was the plan earlier this week so I see no reason that they didn’t do that. The coaches probably decided that a couple of days off was better for the remainder of the season than the 4 hours of practice time that they didn’t use.

            My bigger concern is that the player’s were turned loose to visit family and friends this weekend and so they’re no longer in the controlled bubble environment that the staff created. I understand the rationale behind letting them get away from football for a couple of days but just hope the players were smart and don’t bring the C-19 virus back with them into the BM complex.

        1. 1mandawgpack

          I’m confused by the last sentence in this post. Are you inferring that USC lost the game to LSU because of QB play?

          1. Jerry Stowers

            NO I Was Not.

            The Defense Was vey Bad Also.

            Bobo’ s transfer qb from Colorado is their best option than they have more problems than UGA does at that position.

            1. 1mandawgpack

              He had a number of balls that hit the WRs in the hands but were dropped and still averaged over 10 yards per attempt and only threw 1 pick. If that’s poor QB play then sign me up for that type of performance every week. They also ran for 170 yards and had 400 yards of total offense. In most games, that should be plenty to walk away with a W.

            3. 1mandawgpack

              Other than a few minutes of watching the USC v UT game this week when I was flipping channels during commercial breaks, I hadn’t seen USC play this year. Some on this board have talked at length about how great their CBs are and how they’re on the ‘rise,’ so I definitely expected a much closer game last night and thought that USC had a decent chance to win given how bad LSUs D has been all year. It seemed like USC was able to move the ball but bogged down inside the red zone so couldn’t keep up with LSU in a high scoring game.

              The rumor for TID is that we’re leading regardless of what USC does or doesn’t do, but I’ve learned that the decisions of 18 to 19 year old young men aren’t always logical. USC has had a lot of success keeping the top player in SC home many years, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

      1. Joe Kennedy

        Nope, because I don’t trust our offense. Saying they should or will beat em by 28 is two different things

        2. Jerry Stowers

          Joe K.,

          Please Have your personal trainer work on you mentally to make a
          positive guy toward our DAWGS.

          I for one hope we run for 225 yds and pass for 175 yds.

          get er done!

      2. Rob Dawg

        That was a still shot of where the kickoff went off Auburn player into endzone where Old miss recovered for a TD but ref said it was a touchback. Auburn cheated again

        1. 1mandawgpack

          Auburn didn’t cheat – perhaps the refs had money riding on the game (Arky game as well) but Auburn was simply the recipient of 2 awful calls.

    2. ScoreCheck

      The Barn was definitely given a gift on the muffed KO return which should have been ruled an Ole Miss TD. The “official” explanation was the review-refs took a quick look at it. WOW! Their review couldn’t have been more than 5 seconds. Also the Barn fumbled the ball late and no review took place. WOW!

      1. DawgDaddy

        It looked to me that the back had been told not to score watching his reaction to crossing the goal line.

        1. Jay212033

          Bingo! James Franklin had nothing to do with the RB stupidity but I will say he should’ve just taken a knee.

          1. Bob Miller

            To be fair, Georgia’s 2019 loss to South Carolina had more to do with the Dawgs beating themselves than anything the Chickens did. Hard to beat anybody when a team turns it over 4 times and the opponent doesn’t.

  48. Deltonadawg

    Another thing I like about this format is not having to load more comments you can just scroll to see all comments

        1. Greg Poole

          There are some things that are different and folks don’t like change.

          One of the other cool things to me is the little icon in the lower left. If you are at the top of the page and click it, it takes you to comments and if you are down in the comments, it take you back to the top of the comments section. I think that will help during busy gamedays, esp. for folks on phones or tablets.