Sunday, September 4, 2011

Breaking down the Breakdown - Quarter 4.

So here we are, 28-14. I'm thinking...it's a whole Quarter. We've stopped them a bunch today. If we can pull off two more stops and get scores, we'll be in position to win the game. This is definitely possible. I think it's time to ratchet up the pressure on Kellen Moore...because what we CAN NOT do, is allow him to move them down the field like they did to open the third quarter. Shut that down, and we have a chance. This is what we preached all offseason - win in the fourth quarter. We're supposed to be conditioned. We're supposed to be mentally tough. This is what all the preparation was about. We need to shut them down on D, and out gas them on offense. We Have to win the Fourth in 2011!

1st and Ten Boise - Quick WR screen - only a 2 yard gain. 2nd and 8 - and the running QB comes in. Now, I personally say to my friends watching the game, "He's run it the last two times, so he'll be handing it off here, cause we'll be ready for the keep." At the snap, we win the line of scrimmage. But, Jarvis Jones blows too far upfield, and has to redirect. When he does, he's screened off by the man trying to block John Jenkins, who has also blown upfield. The result is just enough room for the Boise back to squirt through.Harper ends up getting about 18 on the play. The biggest issue was the failure of Jordan Love to maintain the integrity of the outside. He gave up contain, and we got killed for it. The hole was plugged. If Love keeps contain, it's maybe a three yarder.

First and 10 BSU - Moore gets flushed from pocket, throws what looks to be a pass deflected nicely by Love, but he's called for P.I. 15 yards.

First and 10 BSU - End around for 10 yards.We win at the point of attack, but our LBs over pursue down inside, and we lose contain again.

First and 10 BSU - Running QB hands off again, we stuff it for no gain. 2nd and 10 Pitch play...we get dominated at the point of attack. They simply get their guys out on the edge and in position, and we don't play through the blocks well enough to slow the runner down. First and goal at the 2. Easy pitch and score.

Boykin returns kickoff to 35.

First and 10 UGA - Roll the pocket right, throw deep over the middle to TK. Overthrown by five yards - and again closer to the DB than to our WR. 2nd and 10. Quick short pass to Malcolm Mitchell over the middle. 3rd and 5. Quick slant to Rantavious Wooten. First down Georgia at our own 49.

First and 10 UGA - Murray hits Malcolm Mitchell on the skinny post for a 51 yard TD. Georgia trails 35-21. I'm thinking "Ok, that was quick. Let's make a stop and we can do this." Forgive me, but I'm still believing. I'm still thinking that we can outlast these guys for some reason.

Kickoff - touchback.

1st and 10 Boise - Playaction middle screen. Ate up our aggressiveness. Gain of 16.

1st and 10 Boise. We win the line of scrimmage, but Martin picks up three on the ground. 2nd and 7. Moore throws the quick slant, gets 8 when he needed 7.

1st and 10 Boise - run up the gut, with a fairly gaping hole. Now, admittedly I didn't play under Grantham and don't know all the nuances of his particualr defense. However, as I understand it, it's a one-gap 3-4, meaning each man has a single-gap responsibility. Looking at this play, it appears that Christian Robinson had the B-gap (which is where the ball goes). Unfortunately, he steps in towards the A-gap and reads the play...then steps OUT to the B gap and is run over by Martin. He hangs on and makes the tackle, but we give up 8 yards. 2nd and 2. D-line crushes them, no gain. I found it interesting that there was then a shot of Murray on the sideline, mouthing "Please stop them." I will write more about Murray later, but I'll just let the "Jury's still out" label hang for now. 3rd and 2. Toss out to the left. Now, this time, there aren't a gang of blockers in front of him. We're supposed to have the all-world athletes. We're supposed to be conditioned in the 4th quarter. We have to WANT this play bad, right? Jones blew through the line, and it looked like he got held a little bit...but not enough to get the flag. (Just enough to prevent him from making a play) Branden Smith got chopped down on the corner, then run over by Martin. I thought that was why Commings originally took his spot.

1st and 10 BSU (so far, this drive is at about 4 minutes...btw, time is precious) - Pitch to right. Defense kills it at the point of attack, stops Martin 6 yards in the backfield. So, 2nd and 16. Middle screen for about 6. 3rd and 10. We blow pressure straight up the middle, and they try the middle screen. Incomplete. Punt fair caught at 9.

1st and 10 UGA - Quick hitch to Mitchell for 8 yards. We get up to ball, but it takes about 15 seconds to snap the ball. 2nd and 2 - quick pass to Richard Samuel for a gain of 19 (he fumbles it as he's hit out of bounds).

1st and 10 - End-Around to Malcolm Mitchel for a gain of 17.

1st and 10 - Absolutely no pressure, Murray scrambles and misses a wide open Mitchell, throwin over him leaping. 2nd and 10. Murray again plenty of time, and again throws too high for his receiver, this time Orson Charles. 3rd and 10. Murray hits Orson for a gain of 8 on a quick drag. 4th and 2, Murray throws way too high for Tavarres King. Turnover on downs.

1st and 10 BSU - Defense stuffs the run up the middle. 2nd and 9. They try the end around again, but Commings reads it, meets Burroughs at the line. 3rd and 9. Doug Martin cracks through a couple of tackles, but can't get to the first down marker. 4th and 2. Punt is a knuckle-baller and gets to the 9.

1st and 10 UGA - They run a twist, and no one touches the DE. Sack to the 1. 2nd and 18. Orson drops a six yard pass. 3rd and 18. we do the same play again, and this time Charles catches it. 4th and 12 - and I don't even know why we snap the ball. We snap it, Murray gets sacked as Cordy Glenn gets speed-rushed. Turnover on downs.

1st and Goal Boise - Kneel.

Absolutely unbelievable to way to go out of this game. We had a bunch of opportunities, and cashed in on basically none of them. The offense was a big-play offense. The problem is that we couldn't remain on the field consistently enough to create any more of those big plays. The defense looked confused far too often. The same problems consistently hurt us - we lost containment, we didn't get solid run support from the corner position. We couldn't create enough pressure - which appeared mostly to be by scheme. We took away the deep threat that Boise is known for...at least, they didn't go for it. But, we also took it away from ourselves by failing miserably to cash-in early on opportunities. In actuality, the defense didn't finish this game terribly, but they sure didn't play lights-out all game either. They'd play great for two plays, then get hit hard for three firsts-on-first in a row. That will kill a team. It's hard for me to call whether this is more a failure of gameplan or execution, but I'm really going to err more one side of execution. Upon watching it the second time, the runs that I thought were bad calls, weren't bad calls...but they were badly run. We did run better as the game wore on - perhaps that was Boise getting tired, perhaps it was Isaiah developing a better understanding of the game. I don't know. Still, when we needed playmakers most, they failed us.

Ugh.

Go Dawgs.

7 comments:

West Coast DAWG said...

Congratulations Ben on an edifying analysis of what happened in the fourth. I truly enjoyed it even though some of the terminolgy eludes me

I'll leave you with a single shibboleth: we played how bad teams play. They lose because they don't/can't execute when they need to do so. Something always happen to abort the score (see Notre Dame last Saturday as an illustration) goal line stand, etc.

And, furthermore, if they don't get better blocking up front, Aaron Murray is going to be killed.

I think we have a chance and maybe it's easier if we can make them one dimensional so that they have to rely on Garcia. But he has something to prove: that he can win. Lattimore, however, is a rampaging ox.

He'll have his chance.

DJ

Ben Dukes said...

Thanks, DJ! If you have time, there's always Quarters 1-3 listed lower in the blog. That's right...I don't tell you just how we screwed up at the end...but how we did it consistently all night long!

Huzzah!

aladawgy said...

Well, on to the next game, DAWGS and DAWG fans! Thanks for the analysis as being at the game only allows so much viewing of detail.I call Garcia "Mayhem", like the guy on the State Farm commercials. You never know who it is going to be mayhem for,though, the chickens or their opponents! Let's SIC 'EM, DAWGS!

Bob said...

Thanks Ben, we seem to be always a day late and a tackle short. Do you thing our guys are capable of learning and executing complex O and D. It seems that we have way too many mental let downs. The 20 hour rule and inexperienced players has got to equal bad play. Aaron has sure disappointed in the big games. Maybe he just gets too geeked up and it affects his play. So far he is 0 for winning teams. Do you really thing we can correct this in one week or you just wishing we can?

Bman said...

Nice analysis of the game. I was at the dome and refused to watch it again. I hope the coaches and players watch the film and correct the mistakes. The main thing I thought as I watched the game was that Boise executed their gameplan. They didn't play great but they had few mistakes and seemed to attack our weaknesses.

blakeuga50 said...

Loved the analysis of all 4 quarters. I thought it was very well written and full of detail. Please do this for every game this season.
Also what's your opinion of if we were to move Samuel back to inside linebacker because of Ogeltree's injury and since Samuel got 1.7 yards a carry?

Ben Dukes said...

Blake: my opinion of moving Samuel back to ILB is that it's not gonna happen. Then what? Crowell gets hurt and we move him back to RB? the kid is gonna finish his career at tailback. He's been banged up, and he didn't run terribly the other night. The O-line certainly didn't help him much, but he was running hard. With a little space, there's no doubt he's a burner. The problem is the space wasn't there.

I'd be a much bigger fan of moving Rambo to MLB, or running a base Nickel defense with an extra safety (Rambo) instead of an extra corner. This will give us someone else who is competent in coverage, a four man front, and some great athleticism. However, since I am not a coach on this team and do not know the extent of how the scheme works, I could be way off-base on the assumption that this would be a good solution.

I do know that Sulek is not the answer. He may understand the D better because of his 5 years' experience, but he made enough mistakes the other night to hurt us .