Saturday, January 1, 2011

Why can't WE do that?

The subject line of this blog is a question I have asked myself about 30 times while watching the Capitol One Bowl. Alabama is a very very good football team- but their athletes aren't far and away better athletes than the ones at Georgia. Our receivers and quarterback are every bit as good as those at AL. Our LBs are on par. The DBs are geting there....but what I notice while watching this bowl is that the line play for UA is far above that of UGA. I hesitate to say their runningbacks are far far above ours. Ingram and Richardson are great talents, and I think they are a bit above Ealey, King and Thomas..however, I've been seeing GAPING holes throughout the whole game. I've been seeing a pocket that really doesn't collapse for Greg McElroy. After games when our coaches are asked why the runninggame didn't get going, they'll say that the blocking was basically there, but that we didn't do a good job of fitting in the holes.

Here's my problem with that:

Every man can block the man he's supposed to...but if he doesn't block him ENOUGH, there isn't going to be a very big hole. That seems to be the issue I see. When I watch NFL games, I see holes. I see big holes. When I watch AL play, I see holes. I see big holes. Usually, when I watch UGA play, I see small cracks of light. I don't know what that is.


People can talk about UGA crapping the bed against UCF because they weren't very excited about playing in the Liberty Bowl....well, let's look at Alabama. This is a team who was supposed to play for a second national title. Instead, they're facing a Big-10 co-champ in the Capitol One bowl...not even a top-tier game for the SEC. They are playing this game as if it IS the national title game.

Why can't we do that?


GO Dawgs.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice comments...you made some very good points.

One other aspect I see in a team like an Alabama is the relationship of the players between one another and the coaching staff. I sat 5 rows behind the Georgia bench for the Liberty Bowl and the same thought continued to enter my mind "our guys are flat". Plain and simple...Plus, I saw at least 3 guys yawning like they were sleepy! Freakin' YAWNING ON THE SIDELINE!!!

When you look at a team like AL you know the players respect the head coach...they respect him, and more importantly - they fear him! That respect and fear translates into motivation (which we clearly have none)....it is clear our players have little to no internal drive to play hard.

At some point, Georgia has to realize that while it is great to develop "good men"...we need to create football players - guys that are hungry and mean and have a drive to fight! WE HAVE NONE!!!!

Ben Dukes said...

I didn't notice the yawning, but having been on the victorious end of a couple of bowl games, I can say this - the bowl week is a long one, and it wouldn't surprise me if there were some guys who missed a bit of sleep.

As for fearing your coach, that's overrated. I've been on championship teams, and I've never feared a coach. That's horseshit that fans like to say because they perceive a firey coach as more intense than a calm one.

As for us having no guys that are hungry and have drive...I'd love to see you go head to head with the players on our team and say that. I understand the frustration, but that kind of hyperbole is assinine.

ecdawg said...

Ben, Sorry for using your comment section for this. I'm doing a podcast this week on the state of the program with 2 other UGA bloggers. I'd love to have you join in. Send your email address to Leather.Helmet.Blog@gmail.com and I'll return details.
Hope you can do it.