Hot damn, that was a hell of a game, Refugees! No question that was the most entertaining regular season game since Bama last year (other than the final TD, of course). There’s a lot we can talk about when it comes to some of the play calls and disappointing execution by the young pups in the game yesterday, but no one can question the hearts of these Dawgs. You wouldn’t normally expect that level of grit from a team of first- and second-year players. Most teams of this average age typically would wilt in the heat and deafening noise produced by the Windbags of Knox County, or after the first quarter storm led by a freakishly accurate Joey Aguilar, or the gut punch TD bombs. But this team kept fighting and finding ways to win, which tells me that the coaching staff is starting to figure things out and that this group of guys has some serious potential. On to the bullets.
- Have to start with Gunner, who apparently came into this game decidedly focused on trusting his protection and willing to take risks with the ball downfield. He certainly wasn’t perfect, but he led with purpose and a lot of DGAS moxie, which seemed to spread to the rest of the offense, even when they struggled at times. A couple of his throws were magic, too.
- I thought the WR corps had a helluva day. Branch housed another WR screen (aided by terrific blocking again by Luckie, and Bell getting in the way of his guy lol), Humphreys had the spectacular over-the-shoulder TD, and Colbie Young just looks unstoppable after the catch right now. Would love to see more catches from Noah Thomas, but can’t complain with the results thus far.
- Nate Frazier had a really nice day, capped by that excellent run in OT that set up the game-winning TD by McCray. He protected the ball, ran hard as always, and is starting to show some patience with his blocking. I hope he learned from watching the UT back how that skill can open up bigger holes for him. Chauncey Bowens struggled again in SEC play, but I thought the OL had more missed assignments when he was in as well. Peanut was electric and continues to improve his ability to break tackles.
- The OL mostly played much better. On the one hand, when the better players were in, we got great run blocking and good pass protection. On the other hand, Michael Uini cannot be allowed to play OT, Glover is the best backup at guard, and Hughley needs to be the backup RT. I just don’t see how two freshman playing next to each other on the OL can ever work in SEC play. Also, embarrassingly, two guards ran into each other on one play in the second quarter. Yeesh. Gunner truly made the most of his brief time in the pocket and got several throws out while getting slammed to the ground, which hurt the offense. That said, it continues to surprise me that Greene hasn’t reallocated his weight in his 4th year in the program. I think it’s the source of his struggles and injuries.
- The magic of the two TD drives in the middle 8 of the game were old school Georgia things of beauty. 24 runs, 6 passes for 165 yards. Great mixes of blocking schemes, motions, play action. Bobo and Kirby really found what was working at that point and leaned in. UT was confused and tired.
- Unfortunately, Georgia shortly thereafter turtled up after they took the lead, and that allowed UT to load the box and play tighter coverage out wide. Would have been a nice time for a play action deep shot, especially with their DBs dropping like flies.
- Defensively, this was a struggle. I thought the DL had some good moments from Miller and JJA beating the UT line for some TFLs, but UT really handled the front 7 for long stretches of the game, and the pass rush was nonexistent. I counted only 4 pressures. Aguilar was allowed to bounce around looking for targets for far too long.
- Raylen and CJ had a couple missed assignments, but otherwise played and tackled extremely well. You cannot forget how difficult it is to play LB against this offense, given the amount of space they have to cover.
- The secondary probably played its worst game since Ole Miss last year. Daniel Harris continues to be a liability, and Kyron Jones struggled mightily in the first half. UT targeted him, Harris and Ellis all game with very good results. Even KJ had a couple missed assignments. The one bright spot was Aguero, especially that athletic pick. Glad they have two weeks to work this stuff out. I’d be fine if they just mugged the WR if they get beat. 15 yards is always better than giving up a long TD. Just sayin.
- I’ll be fine if we never have to see Chris Brazell again.
- How big was everyone’s exhale at halftime? I had hoped they would have tied it up, but just getting to within 4 felt like a huge win.
- Wilson’s big hit on Aguilar rattled the QB for the next couple of possessions, as he missed a few open receivers badly. Momentum had fully shifted by then, or so we thought.
- When the OL blocking started to weaken, Bobo called more basic runs and Gunner missed a few passes, Tennessee took advantage. Which made me appreciate even more the gift INT for KJ after the TE fell down.
- Also added to the things to work on list for Bama: goal-to-go play calling. McCray seems to be really strong on the short yardage stuff, but otherwise we don’t look like a confident bunch. My text thread coalesced around the idea of Colbie, Noah and Elyiss lined up trips to one side and throwing the ball up for one of them to catch it. Who will out-jump those guys? Worst case you get a DPI called and first and goal at the one yard line. BIG TRIPS trademark officially filed. Let’s do it, Mike.
- Tennessee had their own brain fart at the end of regulation, trying to be too cute and then getting a penalty to push them back 5 yards for the FG. The baby-faced kicker looked like he was about to shit his pants on the sideline, so we all held out hope for the choke job, and it came. Who needs Lorenzo Carter or Darris Smith or Jalen Carter? All we needed was a #collegekicker moment.
- The bowing up during OT by the defense was inspiring and the run by Frazier even more so. McCray punching it in was obvious at first glance, but the refs (who called 1 out of 28 clear holding penalties) started making me worry about a conspiracy as we waited for confirmation. All for naught, Dawgs win.
An emotional roller coaster of a game, with waxing and waning momentum, explosive plays and frustrating missteps. I was exhausted at the end and never played a down. The elation from the Dawgs and Kirby at the end said it all. They took UT’s best shot, regrouped and adjusted, then fired back in the most Georgia way possible. They refused to lose that game. Other than the reaggravating of injuries on the OL, everyone’s knees escaped that hellhole intact. And now we have two weeks to continue Gunner’s progress, heal up on the OL, fix the secondary, and prepare for the war that will be the Alabama game at Sanford. LFG.
I was totally wrong about how Georgia would play and I’m glad. Bobo called a good game and the defense has huge holes on the front and back. ILB is solid.
Georgia won this game because Kirby Smart build mentally tough football players. Tennessee melted when the kid missed the FG. Their sideline looked like a funeral home. Kirby is the best college coach coaching today. I pray he it their 30 more years.
I talked to a friend whose daughter was at the game. She said it was just silent there as everyone left the stadium.
The sweet, sweet sounds of Vol tears falling – music to my ears!
I pray he is there another 30 years.
Great Recap JP!!!
To your point GR, Kirby has built a WINNING Culture at UGA!!!
GO DAWGS!!!
BTW-How many Shirt Changes were there in this game?
Down by 8 Final Drive I had to put my retired1st Natty on…
Not JP but thanks!
My Bad… Great ReCap Dawg!!!
“I’d be fine if they just mugged the WR if they get beat. 15 yards is always better than giving up a long TD.”
Totally agree. If you’re headed for a DPI call anyway, just tackle them. If you can’t get your hand on a ball that is clearly on target, get your hands on the receiver and bring him down. So much better than a little push while you fall to the ground only to watch him waltz to the end zone.
To quote a great man, ol’ lady luck smiled on us yesterday. Junior, Lulu and all their kids/sisters/cousins will rip Gilbert Grape a new one. Feel sorry for the kid.
But our Dawgs are hell! No quit in them. Yesterday, against Texas in SECCG, 8OT against Tech, it doesn’t matter. They have to be BEAT. They don’t quit.
Gunner is the man! Herbie kept trying to nitpick his performance but all Gunner did was make clutch play after clutch play. He probably only took less than 10 snaps with the lead and was never rattled.
Was it JP that deemed him “Calmer than a Hindu Cow”? Senator worthy and right as rain.
Lots more fight in the face of adversity than we saw at times last year.
Excellent write up DIA, and totally agree on some of your finer points. Coming out of Kneeland relatively unscathed is a big plus for the rest of the season. As much as I see the value of manball and appreciate the irritation that the generation brought up on Madden football feels for not scoring on every possession, I feel that it must be noted that manball works best with a killer defense. We ain’t there yet. I’m hopeful that Kirby will do what he does best and get the defense sussed out. As someone else posted, I think we miss BOOM.
“If we’re going to be good this year. We’re going to have to run the ball. We’re not going to drop back 35, 40 times a game with Gunner and be a drop-back passing team. We can’t play behind in games. We can’t do that. We have to be able to play action, run, let our quarterback make some designed runs, which he did. It worked to perfection, other than the fact that we couldn’t stop them defensively.“
– Kirby Smart
I seemed to recall someone saying these things all off-season. It’ll come to me…
One thing we need to worry about is that not everyone is going to stubbornly play man coverage all day vs Stockton.
Someone is going to realize that zone blitzing him will cause some problems especially in obvious passing situations.
We have to get better at RT and in doing so, get better at running the damn ball. That will force teams to play more man and open things up.
Also need to eliminate opponent explosives. We don’t need to be chasing teams. We need to be like a boa constrictor and just keep tightening and tightening until the fuckers quit!
If we can do those things we can make a run at it.
Well I have been educated on the fact that bringing up outside sources who know football is verboten when those outside sources dont agree with hot take narratives. But I’m in the middle of a film study right now and disbelief is being expressed at the way Tennessee stupidly sat in man coverage and brought additional men into the box when our right tackle was a turnstile and it wasn’t necessary.
Worth mentioning that after starting the day a perfect fourteen for fourteen, Little Joey Aguilar was ten of twenty two with two picks innthe rest of his throws. I saw people talking about how Schuman is a stupid and cant coach. Yeah nah.
Agreed. When they realized the DBs couldn’t be on islands, Schuman pulled the safeties back and got enough pressure on Aguilar to shake him up.
How does Bobo keep his job when he only manages to get 500 yards of offense with a first time starter in a hostile SEC stadium containing well over 100,000 screaming fans?
Kirby simply does not get “it.”
Right? Searles too. I mean every knows Stacy Searles is a sucky offensive line coach. Yet with two starters out the offense goes for five hundred yards and zero false starts in that stadium. Why does Kirby stubbornly keep this guy employed?
We didn’t have a false start last time we went up there! Where’s the coachin’!?!?!
I messaged a vowel fan the good news that at least they didn’t have to buy new goalposts.
BWAHAHAHAHAH!
#FTMF.
Very nice. The waters of the Tennessee River shall remain unsullied by the Neyland goalposts, much like they were unmolested by their kicker.
Bobby Cox agrees, all the unnecessary complaints about being good with elite talent are annoying.
Aguilar has a problem and it’s throwing the deep ball. I’ve been telling everyone that would listen we would have 1 to 2 picks this game because he underthrows long balls really REALLY bad. We would have had even more had our DB actually turned around and tracked the ball instead of running up the ass of the WRs and not looking for the ball in the air.
Aguilar is good with running that system but we gifted them at least 2 TDs with blown coverage or just bad DB play. As they continue in SEC play, teams are going to pick him off left and right if he continues underthrowing like that.
Repeatedly bogging down in the RZ and settling for FG’s was nearly the end of us yesterday, but for Gunner and London’s heroics. Yet for a flawed performance in certain areas, I came away awed by the fight and will to win in this group. GATA!
This win for us reminds me of a zillion Alabama wins they had during the Sabaan dynasty.
Team played poorly.
Other team played out of their mind and got a ton of breaks.
But in the end… the evil empire wins…. but now that’s us. 🙂
Exactly. Nobody made a bunch of qualifiers when Bammer did it about how they didn’t deserve it and this and that cause Bammer. I ain’t apologizing for that win.
There are two kinds of people. One kind sees that game and pisses and moans because we didn’t “deserve to win.” The other kind sees it and says, good teams can steal one when they have to and “deserve” doesn’t mean anything because innthe end there’s one winner and one loser. A Mark Richt team is done innthe first quarter of that game. With Kirby Georgia is hard to kill.
I’ve read all of your posts for the last few weeks. You have a common calling card, in which everyone would know it was you even if you post anonymously. That calling card is: “innthe”.
I can’t even get this combination of letters to stay without manually doing it because autocorrect turns it into something else every time. Do you have something wrong with your keyboard? Or is it like your trademark phrase or something? Have you programmed your autocorrect to insert “innthe” at lease twice into every post? I don’t get it.
It’s probably been accidently added as a valid word to his dictionary.
Anyone else remember Booch falling to his knees in 2016 after the hail Mary? I do. A good dose of the Karmic Bitchez’ love (h/t Scorpio, if you’re out there) is exactly what ut deserved.
#FTMF
BTW, the Vowels are 104-103 in the SEC since the 2000 season. So they just barely hit .500 at the end of last season. Talk about mediocre.
We got back to our hotel after the game-watching party in London at 1 am. I couldn’t get to sleep until 2. I woke up yesterday morning still on cloud 9.
By the way, a bunch of kids from UGA at Oxford took the train in to watch part of the game.
Time to focus on beating the Tide.
I know I’m a day late here, but I have to admit I was wrong about how this game was going to go. Last week I commented that I didn’t think the offense had the horsepower to come back from a two-score deficit. That was proven wrong midway through the 3rd quarter. During the 4th quarter, I thought “if this game comes down to Gunner’s arm, we’re screwed”. Wrong again. I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been to be proven wrong.
I’ve still got some concerns. That sack-fumble on Stockton looked all too familiar, the O-line is still a work in progress, and our defense has a habit of making opposing QBs look like Heisman candidates. But it’s good to know this team never gives up. GO DAWGS!
We said the same thing in our group…better to tackle him & take the 15 yards than give up the long TD.