I have to say, getting ready to watch the first half of this game again isn't exactly something I'm in love with. I remember what happened - two whole field goals. Six Points. But, at least I know it gets better in the second half. I'm watching the pre-game guys right now, talking about how Tennessee has one of the better offenses in the country. At least Cunningham believed in us and our easy schedule. He just said something that makes my skin crawl. In talking about Isiah Crowell Cunningham said, "he's really changed this offense for Georgia. They've gone from more of a spread against Boise State to now being a power running team."
Haven't we ALWAYS been a power-running team? Ugh. What the hell was that Boise game all about? Ok, enough of that. Quarter One.
Kickoff, Touchback. UGA ball at the UGA 20.
1st and 10 Georgia at UGA 20. I Form, twins right. We go play-action to Tavarres King. Bean lets the DE straight through, and he blows up Isiah. Great Fake. King picks up 11.
1st and 10 at UGA 31. Shotgun Split TE left. TN sits in zone, Crowell can't handle the swing pass. It was a good pass. The first time, I thought it was too far in front, but if it was, it was by 2 inches. Just bounced of Isiah's hands. If he catches it, it's at least 5 yards, maybe more as the LB was late getting outside. 2nd and 10. Shotgun Bunch Left. Tavarres King mishandles a 7 yard pass from Murray. It hit him square in the hands. 3rd and 10. Shotgun Twins Left. King runs a curl at 9 yards. You'd think he'd go 11. He went 9. Tackled immediately. 4th and 1. TN calls timeout before Murray snaps it and sneaks for the first. Instead, we wait. 4th and 1. Tackle Over Power-I Strong Right (man, this alignment suggests we are DEFINITELY running to the right...then we don't. Sneaky.) We run a weak toss. The blocking scheme on this play is great, and everyone gets his man. Zander's block springs Isiah to the outside where he runs through two guys after picking up eleven yards. First down. By the way, after the game, no one will talk about how great of a play design or a playcall this was - this is a piece of great playcalling by Bobo that no one will mention. They'll talk about Richt being a "man" and going for it on 4th and 1 from inside his own 40 on the opening drive. But, they won't talk about a play that set everything up to go to the right, and then shot around the left end for 11 yards. So damnit, I'm talking about it.
1st and 10 at TN 49. Shotgun Doubles. Branden Smith at HB. Swing pass out to Smith. This was a one-man route. All the other receivers were blocking. He didn't look too comfortable getting after the catch, never really got going. Gain of one. 2nd and 9. Shotgun Twins Left. Smith still at HB. Sprint Sweep left. Smith has the corner, but Tavarres King "Chicken Fights" with the DB instead of blocking him. Cunningham says "got a good block from his wide receiver". I disagree. The only good thing about this block is that he didn't get called for holding. I want our WRs to block like Hines Ward. If King puts a hat on that man, and turns him, Smith is off to the races. At is stands, gain of 17. Not too shabby, but we don't put Smith at HB just to get a first down. He's in there to break a big play for a score. We missed on that one.
1st and 10 at TN 32. Shotgun Twins Right. Crowell back at HB. Murray hits Crowell on a drag out of the backfield for five yards. TN was playing what looks to be a deep cover-3 or cover-4, and every route except the drag was 10+ yards (according to what I can see on broadcast). The checkdown was the only option. 2nd and 5. Ace Twins Right. This looks like it may have been a weak zone running play to the right. Unluckily, TN had a corner blitz (I think he's a corner...or an undersized LB) on. He blew it up immediately. Also strange, was the penetration by the DT at the "1" technique. Both Jones and Dallas Lee basically whiffed on him. This prevented Isiah from having any kind of cutback option. He didn't have much opportunity to cut back, but it looks like Jones put one arm on the DT, and then Lee just didn't get a body on him. Everyone else seemed to cover their guys up. Loss of 1. 3rd and 6. Shotgun Twins Right. Designed QB Draw. Ben Jones bellyflops at the feet of the MLB instead of blocking him. It does trip the LB, but he's able to stay up enough to force Murray into an ill-advised jump over him. Murray trips and falls just shy of the first down. 4th and 1. Tackle Over Offset Power-I Strong Right. The play is basically an ISO...no pulling, nothing fancy - just line up, knock the piss out of the guy in front of you, and let's get a first down. Which we did.
1st and 10 at UT 21. I-Form Normal TE Right. FB Fake, HB pitch weak. Crowell picks up three before fumbling the ball out of bounds. This is the play where Crowell hurt his wrist. 2nd and 7. Shotgun Twins Right. Branden Smith back in at HB. Sweep Right to Smith. This play was just plain not good. First, that same CB, #24, was either Spying Smith, was on a delay blitz, or had responsibility for the HB in pass coverage, because he was watching Smith all the way and came straight upfield at him. Smith evaded, but was bottled up immediately by the LB, #40. The strange part is, I don't see anyone who would have had a blocking assignment for #40. Some plays will leave a man unblocked and force the ball-carrier to go one-on-one against him. However, I've never seen a play that leaves two men unblocked to the playside. Dallas Lee pulls around, and it's possible that he's expected to get to the LB...but I doubt it, because there's a DE right there as well. Lee gets a good block on the DE, but since nobody blocked the LB, the play was done for. Could be that they called this play at the perfect time just like before, or, it could be that they are on alert for any Corner in the backfield. Smith picks up 2 on the play. 3rd and 5. Shotgun Twins Left. Carlton Thomas in at HB. Tennessee drops seven. Murray hits the top of his drop, and immediately goes to run. Chris Burnette had been beat by the DT and Murray must have thought he could pick up the 5 on his own. Instead, he was sacked for loss of 2 yards. It sucks, because one guy got beat, and that guy cost us the chance at points. But, I have a bigger problem with this play. At the onset of the play, We have twins left, and they have two guys lined up over top of them. The CB lined up on Tavarres King is playing 7 yards off the line of scrimmage, and a full 10 yards away from TK. How is there not a hot-route call that gets the ball into TK's hands very quickly? More importantly, at the snap, the CB DROPS. That means he's playing even further back. That makes a quick 5-yard hitch a LOCK and a first down. I don't know if that's not one of the reads on that play or what, but if we need five yards, and the DB is playing that far off, I'm gonna give my receiver a chance to play some ball. King does run a 10-yard curl. But, by the time he turns around, Murray is on the ground. 4th and 7. Walsh in for the fieldgoal, and the Dawgnation holds its breath. The kick is Good. 14 plays, 6:13 off the clock.
UGA - 3 TN - 0
Kickoff. Very high, taken at the 5. First man to him trips him up, down at the 18.
1st and 10 Tennessee at UT 18. 3-4 alignment. 4-man rush (Jones) with Zone behind it. They throw a Swing pass to Tauren Poole. Herrera and Boykin overrun it at the LOS, and he picks up 7. 2nd and 3. 3-3-5 alignment. We send 2 LBS and Boykin. Boykin takes a bad angle and doesn't make the play in the backfield. Gain of 3 - an inch short. 3rd and inches. They sneak it for the first.
1st and 10 at UT 30. 3-4 alignment. Jarvis Jones blows this one. He pursues straight down the line, and the ball comes on a reverse. He ignores the FB coming his way to block him...just doesn't read the play well. Neal takes the ball 11 yards, then fumbles. Herrera appears to recover the ball, having both the ball and Neal's leg securely in his hands. But, apparently because Neal had one hand on the ball that was under his ass, it's his. Official review says the ball belongs to TN - even in so much that it was "Confirmed." They play "Rocky Top" after the review. What an awful song.
1st and 10 at UT 41. 3-4 alignment. They run an ISO and find out why it's hard to run up the middle on us. They have to double Jenkins, so Gilliard is free to take the FB on man-man. Gilliard stuffs the block, Poole has to cut. Chase Vasser hits him in the hole, and he bounces off into the arms of Abry Jones. No Gain. 2nd and 10. 3-4. They try a quick slant but it's dropped. 3rd and 10. 2-4-5. We blitz both MLB in the A gaps and the safety as well, but get no penetration. We run a zone behind it, and they throw a quick-hitter to the TE, who had slipped between Robinson's and Gilliard's zones. Gain of 19 on the play.
1st and 10 at UGA 40. 3-4. We call a safety blitz from the weak side of their formation, but they toss it strong-side. Still, they can't string us out and we stop the run for a short gain. 2nd and 8. 3-4. We run a twist with Jones, but it doesn't get home. Bray throws over the middle, knocked away by Herrera. 3rd and 8. 3-3-5. They run a draw, and it works perfectly as Jones gets caught rushing upfield. Lane cuts back to wide open space. Pick up of nine.
1st and 10 at UGA 34. 3-4 they try a reverse again, but we blow it up for a four yard loss. 2nd and 14. 3-4. We run that same twist again with Jones, still gets nowhere. Jones then drops, and bites on a pump-fake by Bray. This doesn't hurt us, but if he'd kept his eyes towards Bray, he may have been able to pick off the dump-off Bray attempted to Lane. Instead, Gilliard knocks it to the ground. 3rd and 14. 3-4. Bray misses his TE on an out-route that would only have gotten them a closer field goal try, as he was about 6 yards shy of the first down. 4th and 14, field goal attempt NO GOOD. Turnover.
UGA 3 - UT - 0
1st and 10 UGA at UGA 34. Shotgun Twins Right, TE right. PA rollout right, Murray rushes for 2 yards, out of bounds. 2nd and 8. Shotgun Twins Left, TE left. We sweep it, but it's read immediately. Their safety was playing downhill all the way. Loss of 3. 3rd and 11. Shotgun Trips right. Carlton Thomas at HB. Deep out complete to Tavarres King for a gain of 11. 4th and inches. Ace Twins left. Murray takes a designed QB run around left end for 1st down.
1st and 10 UGA at UGA 45. I-Formation Normal. TE Left. Play-Action deep to Tavarres King. Overthrown by 4 yards. Commentator says Murray missed a wide-open Charles for about 15 yards. The angle isn't good on it...looks like the Safety is there, but had Murray made that read in time, he probably could have made the throw as well. But I can't speak to the route he should have thrown, I can only say that he needs to get a better feel for the speed of each receiver. He needs to know where to throw for Mitchell, and where to throw for King and where to throw for Bennett, because they all have different speeds and abilities. When are we going to have a QB again who truly knows how to place a deep ball? 2nd and 10. I Formation Twins Left. ISO weak for a gain of 3. Commentator says something about bulldogs bumping into each other in the backfield. That didn't happen.
End of 1st Quarter. UGA - 3, UT - 0
Well, 3-0 isn't exactly how I'd want the quarter to go, but I'll take it. Let's look at the positives - we picked up three 4th down conversions. We didn't give up any points. We stiffened in the redzone when we needed to. We moved the ball well with both the run and the pass. We did not punt.
These are good things. And, as the second quarter begins - we're near midfield and facing a 3rd and 7. Even though you know the ultimate outcome, you know you want to read the breakdown. So, come back for Quarter Two!!!
