Dawg Nation sits at home to rest this weekend as we finally get to a much needed open week before the Cocktail Party next Saturday at Mercedes Benz Stadium. After a first half of a lot of good, now is the time to look back on what has happened, who has made it happen and what needs to change for this team to get where we want to go.
Let’s start with the grades:
Offense – A–
Against the early season overmatched foes, this offense especially the first teamers looked unstoppable. As the season has wore on a couple of warning bells are going off, first, turnovers. Beyond the first loss of the season last weekend in Athens, this team has had some pretty good turnover luck over the last couple of games. We put the ball on the ground too many times and had a potential interception overturned in Tuscaloosa. We pretty much gave Oklahoma their first touchdown with a bad interception early in the 3rd quarter. Second, the running backs. I love Peanut Dwight Phillips, but he is not an every down back. Nate Frazier has not been his early season dominant self since coming back from a rib injury, and no one knows if we’ll see Chauncey Bowens again this season.
Even with all of that, we’re averaging 43 points per game and almost 470 yards of total offense per game. The turnovers from last Saturday notwithstanding, Gunner Stockton has played much of this season as a potential Heisman Trophy contender. In particular, his willingness to stay in the pocket to wait for his receiver to break open has been real growth. Except the last game, the Georgia offensive line has been dominant. The tight end still seem to come and go in this offense.
If you gave me those scoring and yardage stats before the season as where we would be at the bye week, I would tell you we have a national title contender on our hands.
Defense – A
The first team defense generally has not messed around this year. They have been more disruptive with 22 sacks through 7 games … more than they had in 14 games last season. They had 5 sacks last Saturday even though we (including myself) complained about the inability to control the QB outside the pocket and put Keelon Russell on the ground 4 times in Tuscaloosa. One warning sign for this side of the ball has been the run defense the last 2 weeks. Alabama popped a long run against us on the way to 160 yards on the ground, and, of course, the 190 yards given up on 46 attempts. We’re going to see some running QBs and some good backs over final 5 games. Tackling in the run game has to get better. The other concern is KJ Bolden … we need him on the back end healthy for the stretch run. He makes a lot of plays and erases a lot of other stuff.
Would you take giving up 16 points a game from this point of the season through Thanksgiving? I would and that would be likely enough for this team to have a chance to defend its SEC championship in December.
Special teams – C
I thought about going lower here. The blocked field goal in Athens and the miss in Tuscaloosa were not good, but overall, Peyton Woodring has been money. Drew Miller has not been the field position weapon we have become used to in the punting game. Sacovie White-Helton has had some adventures the last couple of games fielding punts. Other than Tyriq Green’s kickoff return against WKU, the return game has been just ok although I think the schools are just fine with practically eliminating kickoff returns.
We have grown accustomed to special teams creating momentum plays, and we just haven’t seen that to date.
Honors:
Most Valuable Dawg: Gunner Stockton
Other than really 5 plays, 14 has been the straw that stirs the drink. A lot of people doubted Gunner entering the season. He has answered the bell. Just respect the ball more than you did last Saturday, and we’ll be fine.
Best Nickname: Chris “Tarantula” Cole
I could have said best defensive player, but this category gets to the same thing. Cole has been everywhere through 7 games. He leads the team in tackles for loss and is 2nd in sacks and total tackles. If he’s not on a bunch of midseason All-American lists and the current favorite to win the Butkus Award, I would be surprised.
Breakout Star: Dwight Phillips
Peanut has been explosive in almost every game this season. His performance against Alabama with Bowens hurt and Frazier a game time no-go will go into Bulldog lore. We’re going to see him take one a long way before this season is over.
Best Freshman: Craig Dandridge
The young man is leading the team in yardage and average per reception while only 2 receptions behind Talyn Taylor who has probably gotten more accolades this season (without Phillips’s performance in T-town, I would have had Taylor as the breakout star). In an offense that likes to spread the catches around, those 2 are quickly becoming WR1 and WR1A. Terrence Edwards gushes over Dandridge at every opportunity.
Close runner-up … Zykie Helton. Warrior. That’s all.
Unsung Hero: Blake Stewart
Does Georgia win in Tuscaloosa without Stewart’s heads up play to beat multiple Tide coverage guys to the ball White-Helton muffed? My answer to that is probably not. DGD.
Looking Ahead
Can this team win every game currently remaining on the schedule? Absolutely. Could they lose a game in this stretch? If they play distracted and uninspired and turn the ball over as they did last Saturday, absolutely.
The games that concern me are the next 2. If we’re completely focused on destroying anything in orange and blue, we will probably beat Florida handily. If not, we’re going to be in for a fight with a team that did put up a fight in Jacksonville in their first game after losing their head coach. The following week at Oxford has me concerned. We have not played well in Oxford since Kirby has been in Athens. They will be on their 5th straight week of SEC games when we come calling. Here’s to Auburn making their game the week before a 4-quarter affair.
I expect this team to be in Atlanta in December at 11-1 and playing for a number on the wall.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Excellent first half review wouldn’t disagree with any of it, My biggest surprise group is the entire WR room. What once was weakness is now strength.
The running game on both sides of the ball going forward concerns me. The Oline has really played well too.
I’ll add an A for both the Bobo’s.
I think the record totally depends on the injury situation. No Bolden, Chauncey and a limited Nate and we lose at least 1 more. Add any injury to the front line defense or Gunner and that solidifies the prediction. Get those for the most part back and we can definitely be 11-1.
KJ is the key. I think we can manage without him against Florida if we have to. We need him back for the trip to Oxford, though, as things get WAY more complicated back there against that offense.
Great summary. Thanks.
Believe our weak link is running back. Bowens is out for the year. We’re was Walker in the last game?
Is he insured? Down to Frazier & Phillips & neither are short yardage backs.
Injured
I think you are spot on. Last game was a perfect storm. I also agree with others here that injuries could muck up a game or maybe two. We all know Kirby is on it, so that gives me comfort! Let’s just do the Kirby way and keep the main thing the main thing!! Go Dawgs!!
Good review, can’t disagree with your ratings and choices. I’m actually more worried than most apparently about the handbags. They’re basically Auburn with better skill players. If Georgia isn’t healthy in 8 days, they’ve got another huge fight on their hands.
Georgia had a 97% win expectancy against Auburn at the end of the game. The matchup actually wasn’t much of a problem, the dumb mistakes and weird plays were. If we clean those up, we beat Florida.
Agreed but they’ve made these mistakes 2 weeks in a row, so I’m concerned this is a trend.
i would throw some love towards the O line.
any awards for Bobo.. quickly ducks under desk
Three of the five teams left on our schedule have looked like world-beaters at some point this season. Ole Miss looked hot after beating LSU, then got handled by UF. Then everyone was on the UF hype train until they got trounced by Mizzou. Mizzou was picking up steam until they only mustered 3 points in a loss to Ole Miss. Any of those teams could beat us if we don’t play our best ball.
I have confidence in our coaches to get the best performance out of our players, but it’s a tough road ahead.
Yeah, the season is significantly harder from here on out. We can certainly win out but we can just as easily lose 2 or 3 if breaks go against us.
Ole Miss worries me the most.
Just a question here….would anyone have replaced Stockton with Puglisi last week at any time during the game? I admit that after that 1st play and I saw Puglisi go in, I was very concerned, but he looked pretty good. I was wondering about Gunner on the field goal play when he didn’t go on the field. Was he concussed or injured? It seemed like maybe something was off the entire game and he wasn’t as sharp as we’ve seen him be thus far this season. I also thought that Kirby should have called time out on that FG attempt as you don’t rush long FGs. Yes, it still could have been blocked, but I think it’s less likely if you’re not rushing the play. It felt like the team did everything that Auburn needed to be able to win that game and that’s a sick feeling when you know that your team is better than the other team. There’s nothing I hate more than losing before an off week where the loss lingers a week longer and I don’t want to watch the daily college football shows or read online content.
No. None of the doctors or the coaches thought there was a physical issue with Gunner. Before and after the bone headed plays, he made really great plays.
Then the damn fumble… For me that’s the most frustrating thing. I get having an off day and having a loose series or two, but when the game is in hand, worse case is OT, take care of the damn football.
Kirby has explained why he didn’t take a time out. Said they practice lining up and kicking a fg in a hurry every week. It appears that Gunner thought punt team was going out there.
The hurry up FG practice is when they know they have to run out there and kick it while the game clock winds down. This was not one of those. The coaches let the players know they are going to have to do it as a hurry up attempt.
Gunner was the only player who was late to his position and it wasn’t intentional. He thought we were going to punt. It was poor awareness on his part.
Kirby said after the game, he had a stinger, and in his weekly press conference, he said again it was a stinger in his shoulder. Once he was cleared, there was never a doubt he was going back in the game.
He was 22 for 34 for 270 and a couple of TDs. He also had the INTs. It happens.
Agreed Gunner was going back in. Great QBs always push as hard as they can, even to the point of not sitting out when they likely should. Some bobblehead was rambling that leadership from Gunner would have been sitting out with his injjury. BS, what legendary QB would do that? QBs and racecar drivers don’t give others the time to take their job. Right or wrong , that is the way it is.
WIth that said the stinger likely lead to an INT or 2. It happens, knowing the result it is easy to say the coaches should have had Pug in. It happens, the team’s goals are still on the table.
No one wants to get Wally Pipped.
Agreed with others, injuries will play a big part in how far this team goes. They can certainly win out. A few key injuries and they could miss the playoff.
Pleasantly surprised with the use of TEs in the passing game. Dwight has been more of an around RB than his siZe would make you think. D looked rather good until last weeek.
I was concerned about OL down the stretch as stories popped up on how many snaps the sstarters take. OL is always the foundation but especially on good Bobo teams. Bobo is doing very we’ll this year but, I’m not sold he is as elite as Kirby thinks. As always hope I am wrong on that.
Other commentors mentioned other injuries and all are valid.
Auburn has some dudes. Our guys were dinged up, out, and not focused. Credit to Auburn for arriving ready to play. Take away an error in any of the 3 phases of the game and UGA likely escapes with a W. Hopefully it was the punch in the face to focus the team.
I see the team making the payoff, likely 1 more loss before the playoff, hopefully less. The Crocs and Ole Miss are both very capable competition. I don’t see the team making a national title game due to depth. That would be my wager if I were placing money on the season, any money lost I would consider well spent.
I’m not sure anyone has the depth to make a national title game any more. Going forward, and especially starting next year, load management is going to be the name of the game. Get ready for resting starters in the Georgia Tech game.
One special teams note, if Beamer ball comes to an end for the Chickens. I’d welcome him back to Athens.
I see us losing one more in the regular season and then losing to Tennessee in the final SEC championship game. We will only be in the championship game due to the most convoluted four team tie breaker ever seen.
Good summary.
Not being negative, just concerns:
My two cents and it ain’t worth that.
We play man on the outside almost exclusively. Backs are going to be to the ball unless you play deep zone. The key to man is the player knowing when he’s in position (in phase) and can play the ball or not and needs to play the man. Ellis had a clinic pick a couple of weeks ago in man. Too often we’re in position and don’t get our heads around. But we ain’t never not playing lots of man as long as Kirby is around.
If we can get, stay, be relatively healthy AND Gunner can play like he did in T-town, we have to be the odds on favorite. What we can’t have are stretches of poor qb play and expect to make a run. We’re good enough at TE/WR to overcome a struggling run game or even a tough day on defense. We don’t have to have exceptional qb play every series/week. We need solid, consistent qb play that takes whats there and takes care of the ball.
My concern is that injuries on d crank up our margin of error and injuries at rb puts more of our success/failure in the qbs hands. Gunner was a steely eyed killer in Tuscaloosa, save one terrible decision. We need more of that version if we’re doing the confetti dance in Vegas. Not whatever that was this past Saturday.
Hopefully, we’ll be on the mend and get that bully mentality going again in ATL and beyond. When we’re right, I don’t think we can be beat. In fact, I think we can embarrass everyone they put in front of us. When we’re right.
I was concerned about a let down game Saturday and then I thought we were going to overcome it and move forward unscathed and then we beat ourselves. Annoying af.
Idk, looks like the same trends continue. We can score on the nobodies and we get ~20 points when we play a team with a pulse.
I know, I know, Bobo was runner up to an award nobody cares about not to long ago.