Georgia entered the game against the Hogs as the highest scoring team in the country, and they left Fayettenam in the same position. The offense continues to look efficient, and there are building blocks of explosiveness that could be scalable against top competition. The defense has few apparent holes and, other than at edge, has plenty of depth in the 2-deep. Special teams tightened back up and looked good. No other team in the country looks as good in all 3 phases. But the big tests are coming. On to the bullets.
- It was obvious from the first drive that Arkansas had no illusions about running the ball effectively against Georgia. So the question became whether they could throw. The answer? When they targeted Chris Marshall.
- Marshall has similar athletic traits as George Pickens and apparently similar off field issues. He was a 5-star and looked it.
- Arkansas also had a speedster in Watkins that beat our DBs to the edges a couple times. Something for Schuman to work on.
- That said, Khalil Barnes looks like he’s more comfortable with the scheme, playing faster. Looks like a great portal addition after last year’s inconsistency at star and safety.
- Mostly good choices by Gunner when completions weren’t there. I didn’t like him taking a sack at first and goal from the 2 yard line, but it worked out in the end thanks to the repeated PI bailouts from Arky.
- Also, the Hogs seemed to play a lot of man coverage which left no one in the flat to touch Gunner on his scrambles for at least 10 yards.
- Stockton was also incredibly efficient and again in full control. He would have had at least one more TD if not for the aforementioned PIs.
- Getting 3 sacks was nice, but we left a couple on the field with undisciplined rushes and not finishing. Was hoping we had that fixed from last year, but both of their QBs are pretty good scramblers.
- Nice to see Q getting healthier, although he’s lost a lot of weight being out. He had a beautiful read and react stop on the double pass trick play attempt.
- Really weird conversation on the broadcast about the QB shuffling not being communicated to them during the week. FWIW I thought KJ Jackson looked better than AJ Hill (from Warner Robbins), but I’m sure Silverfield knows what he’s doing…
- Regardless, the Dawgs starting defense had little trouble with either QB.
- The only recurring issue from the last 2 weeks is the inconsistency from the OL. They seem to have no issue man-blocking run plays, but they struggled at times with edge pass rushing, twists, and on stretch runs that required pulling. They will get beat by OU’s front 7 if their technique and communications don’t improve this week.
- Great pursuit by Cole and Wilson on the sack and fumble, and it’s fun to see Big Baby Hall running so well and getting that fumble recovery.
- Continue to love how low and compact Frazier and Bowens are running. So tough for anyone to tackle them solo.
- Even though Zykie Helton had some whiffs, his ability to disengage his block and shove Chauncey into the end zone was a little freakish.
Great gameplan by the coaching staff identifying what would work best, and the execution was mostly very good. No clock management issues, which is always nice. - Injuries to Canion and Frazier worry me, even if Kirby said at the presser they could have gone back in. Need them healthy for OU.
- A little odd that Talyn Taylor wasn’t targeted other than that PI on the 2Q pass in the end zone, and there were probably too many plays when the coverage was good on the WRs. Dandridge seems to be the only one consistently getting open.
- Luckie was a beast though in the pass game and blocking on the perimeter. The other TEs dominated blocking on the line and downfield as well.
- If you get a chance watching the defense, just watch what KJ Bolden does. His ability to disguise coverages and come down into the box to hit guys is elite.
The slow build of competition has been helpful as Georgia has been able to figure out who can help them when times get tough. Arkansas played a lot better at home than they did on the road late at night at Utah last week. Georgia still blew them out. This team has a lot of potential and yet, still can clean some things up. Good place to be for us fans. Even though OU has looked bad on offense, I still think we’re in for a war on Saturday. Might be a 17-9 type of game. I’d love to be surprised by an offensive explosion against their defense, but I think OUs DBs can handle our WRs, and it might be up to the TEs and run game to bring it home. I had planned to be there for this one in person but couldn’t make it work. For those that can, have a blast and be loud. Go Dawgs!
I was looking at the TV wrap up shows last night and UGA barely got mentioned. That’s a good thing. Vanderbilt, in contrast, got a ton of coverage after playing like crap and lucking into a bonehead play by the Wolfpack QB. Never mind all the LSU/Ol’Missus coverage, or UF/AU score-a-thon. The bottom line is we are boring and that’s a good thing, even if we do play with our food a bit towards the end of the game. We’ll know more after next week.
College Football Final on ESPN talked about Gunner a good bit. Even did a segment comparing him and Mensa asking which you’d would pick to start your team. One chose neither and said Trinidad, but the other guy said he loved Mensa, but would choose Stockton because he wins and felt he is the most underrated QB in the country. No one talks about him despite he and Mensa have the two highest completion percentages and neither has thrown an INT.
I think if Georgia beats OU they’ll start getting more attention. Up until now, the games have been boring and the competition weak. No scandals. That’s not interesting for viewers.
I was wondering where Hill had gone. He was a beast at Houston Co. He initially committed to Colorado, but there was some miscommunication about him reclassifying to graduate early. He wasn’t able to do that so ended up at Memphis. He was a 4 Star coming out, but I think that was more based upon his athletic ability than his passing ability.
Yeah, he’s got a funny looking delivery. He’s probably in the best place for him now, if he can beat out Jackson.
The only obvious (to me) areas of concern were pass protection and our seeming inability to generate a PR without blitzing. That said, Cole and Wilson were lethal out there yesterday. Bolden playing top notch ball. We need to continue to develop all the depth we can get. League depth really has turned this to a week-to-week deal. I’m not seeing any guaranteed patsy wins left on our slate.
Vandy and Tech should be easier than the rest, but I agree not patsies.
It seems to me we could have absolutely destroyed them passing to the tight ends and Thst woukd have opened things up for the receivers but it was clear that Kirby was determined to man ball so we didn’t. We didn’t have to. Im not too worried about the “pass protection issues”. There were a few times our tackles just got beat. But some of the times thry got penetration were times they sent extra rushers very late. Oklahoma has some men on their defense but I don’t think we are going to have too much trouble with them innthe end.
I never trust what Kirby says about injuries. He has lied to us too many times.
I understand the 2 high safety looks opening up the QB scrambles but I’m still discouraged pass catchers couldn’t get open against a bottom tier SEC team.
The pass blocking also didn’t seem to be what we’d expect against a bottom tier SEC team.
Bland play calls or weak areas? We’ll see and IMO likely a bit of both. I’m not all doom but I’m not sold on this team running the table. I do think the team needs improvement to lift the trophy in January. OLs can improve.
For sure but they have outclassed everyone so far by a country mile. OU was always assumed to be the first competitive test case, so we shall see soon enough.
Agreed
Offensive line pass protection is our obvious weakness. We keep rotating guys, either building depth or searching for the right group of guys.
Dawgs 35-3 over OU.
I was embarrassed for the Arkansas program yesterday. The place was a tomb and I’ve seen more excitement at a high school game. It was so bad the Georgia fans around me started answering “First Down!” whenever the stadium announcer would prompt “That’s another Razorback…” Otherwise, he was answered by crickets.
Also, I used to think thise scoreboard decibel meters were fake but yesterday proved it was real. It would ask for noise and barely move out of the 80’s. I had louder parties in my college apartment with a bunch of nerds.
It appears Arkansas AD (who is also the head of the playoff committee) might be on his way out. Their new coach looks like he’s in over his head–I mean Pittman would have probably put a better product out than this. A columnist I read today said that any guest recruits the Hawgs had on hand probably scratched them off their list after seeing a mostly empty stadium and fans with bags over their heads! I mean dumpster fire doesn’t begin to describe it.
Not much can be said about this game except it went as planned. Very vanilla as we didn’t do much by design, I’m sure. If you don’t have to put stuff on film for our future opponents, why do it? Now, once again, we ramp up another level in competition, as we’ve done week to week and see where we are. I expect that the team will be much more excited to play this coming Saturday than what we’ve seen so far. I’m sure that the home crowd will be hyped up to welcome OU to the SEC to give us the home field advantage and that we’ll see much more diverse offensive playcalling.
After 3 very easy boring games against weak competition. It’s nit picking expecting perfection.
I blame Bobo for leading the country in scoring.
I…I think…dammit, I think I like what Bobo is doing (with one exception). Running game is powerful and using rotating backs. We are getting the ball to our TEs! Seems like more variety and schemes in the passing game than last year. Gunner has been coolly in command although needs to not always try to make more out of a busted pass protection than what’s there. That pass play from short and goal brought back bad memories but the heavy package works beautifully. My guess is CMB now has a good feel for what can work to exploit a D and dictate moving the chains instead of probing and poking to start games.
Our D is going to be nasty and to be feared when blitzing.
Ole Miss & Trinidad Chamblis are gonna be a problem.