Tell me if you’ve heard this story before…Georgia plays rival conference opponent extremely close, makes a couple more plays in the 4th quarter and wins another heart stopper. Sound pretty familiar? The only thing that would surprise me in our remaining games (outside of Charlotte) is a game not in doubt going into the 4th quarter. I feel like every broadcast of 2025 Georgia Football should have a warning, “If you suffer from stomach ulcers, watching the 2025 Georgia Football team can produce dangerous abdominal discomfort, and even death in extreme cases.” I guess this is just what we’re going to do every game. On to the grades…
Quarterback: B-
- How can I describe Gunner’s day? Uneven? I thought he was in line for a big day following our first drive, but things cooled off a lot…for a while. I think Gunner owns 50% of the blame for the interception…definitely not the most accurate throw in the world, but Thomas is good enough to catch that ball. The deep ball to Roldan (that’s right…Roldan) looked like it was there to be had with an accurate throw. There was an inaccurate throw to Delp that was going to be a major explosive…at a time we really could’ve used the momentum. In general, not Gunner’s most accurate day and didn’t give me vibes of “Ole Miss Gunner.” Also, saw some signs of early season Gunner where he looked tentative to pull the trigger. Last thing…anyone else notice that Gunner almost always rolls right when he feels pressure? I can recall one spin to the left that produced an easy catch and gain to Elyiss…but that’s it. As far as the good…made just enough plays in the second half to get some scores, and produced a game winning drive in the 4th quarter. According to Kirby, Gunner made a check at the line for Chauncey’s go-ahead touchdown run…so credit to him for that. Gunner did enough to win…but not much more.
Running Back: B-
- This group produced 112 yards on 23 carries…not a terrible average, but nothing that makes me want to stomp my feet and light a match. Frazier can’t seem to break any run for more than 8 yards and was very much contained overall. Chauncey had the best day and produced the game winner on an excellent run…great vision and made all the right cuts to take it to the house. McCray curiously had zero touches. We had a Dwight Phillips sighting for two early carries…never to be heard from again. For an offense that struggles to produce explosives, I have zero clue why the fastest guy on the team (and a player who showed effectiveness early in the season) is being used less than Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari. And finally, we’ve got to talk a little Cash Jones. I said it earlier in the year and I’ll say it again…I have nothing but respect for this dude. I just don’t understand why he would get 22 snaps (31% of our total)…more than Bowens, McCray and Phillips combined. Are the coaches just overthinking player usage based on a given week (2 weeks in this case) of practice? All those snaps to produce five yards on two receptions (to be fair, he did have a nice gain wiped out by a holding penalty)…I really don’t get it.
Offensive Line – C
- Common theme…did not evoke memories of the Ole Miss game. Like the rest of the team, this group is game to game. Florida was able to get pressure on Gunner more than I would have preferred. We gave up 2 sacks and 4 TFL’s. Outside of the Bowens big run, the OL wasn’t giving the RB’s a lot of room to make plays, and from what I remember, our first down runs were not putting us in favorable down and distance situations. A bad first down snap completely wasted a possession. This was supposed to be as healthy as this group has been all season…just not a lot to show for it when you look at the game in totality. Question…is the musical chairs approach a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn’t tell you. I do know if we want to hang our hat on being a physical offensive team with a strong running game as the foundation, this group needs to play at higher level than Saturday.
Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – B
- For non-QB’s, Branch has to be the MVP of this team…guessing there will not be a lot of pushback on that comment. He’s quick, he can make people miss, he’s got acceleration to burn and plenty of top speed…been completely as advertised and we lose this game without him. Thomas atoned for his part in the interception by catching a touchdown pass in the 3rd quarter. Dillon Bell made his catches count and snagged our first touchdown…which looked unbelievably easy. Lawson Luckie got the McCray treatment and didn’t have any touches, following a 3 TD performance against Ole Miss. Elyiss continues to make at least one contribution per game…and would love to see us scheme more plays his way. Delp had a nice 20-yard reception and positively destroyed Cormani McClain on Bowen’s drive extending 3rd down run…pretty sure Kirby felt full release watching that block.
Defensive Line – B
- Super bummer losing Jordan Hall on the opening drive…not sure what the prognosis is, but we need him back at 100% for this unit to be at its best. Good to see Ogboko out there beginning to make more plays…going to need that if Hall is out for a while. Baugh only ripped off one explosive run on the day, which isn’t too bad. I don’t put the long Lagway run on the DL…thought it was just a good play call in that situation that caught us completely off guard. Still not getting a lot of pressure from this group, which is disappointing. I was worried as hell when Florida was up 20-17 and driving…but our DL stepped up HUGE with a monster 4th down stop…completely changed the momentum of the game. Better effort compared to the last time we saw this group against Ole Miss.
Linebackers – A-
- CJ Allen has been playing his ass off and was a tackling machine on Saturday (13 total tackles)…team MVP on defense and not really close. Raylen Wilson chipped in with a big game of his own (8 total tackles…1/2 TFL), outside of a DPI call…which was a tough matchup for him to cover. Cole was hurt (hopefully nothing serious) and went out early. Quiet-ish days for Justin Williams and Quintavious Johnson…but didn’t do anything to hurt us from what I was seeing. Bottom line…contained the run, limited their passing game and played infinitely better on 3rd down than we have for most of the year. I’ll take it.
Defensive Backs – C+ (maybe a B-)
- This is one of those where the defensive stats don’t tell the whole story. We only gave up 166 yards passing, so you’d think a better grade is warranted. But, complete coverage bust on Florida’s first touchdown. Complete coverage bust on the infamous “was it a drop, or was it a catch” 3rd down play on Florida’s final offensive possession (more in a minute). DPI in the endzone on Zion Branch to give Florida an eventual gimme TD. We lost our best Safety to a targeting call…and I think the officials got that one right according to the rule interpretation. Why am I open to a B-? I loved our final defensive play where we sent Aguero on a blitz and Ellis made a great individual, instinctive play to break up that pass (would’ve been cool if he turned it into a Pick 6)…really hope he’s feeling comfortable because you can see the ability. Also, I am a little sympathetic to the group for managing around injuries and having to play without KJ, Kyron and Demello at the end of the game…certainly wasn’t the disaster that was Ole Miss.
Special Teams – B-
- Thorpedo picked a bad time to execute the worst punt of his career…led directly to a Florida TD right afterwards. To be fair, the rest of his punts were in the good to great range. Woodring nailed his only FG attempt, and it was an important one to get us to even going into the half. We did allow a semi-long Florida kick return, which is not fun to see when we are capable of touchbacks in almost every situation. Branch didn’t do much with his two kickoff return attempts. Not our best game of the year, but didn’t cost us a win either.
Offensive Coaching – C+
- Not sure where everyone else is, but didn’t love it. I loved the first drive…beautifully scripted and put together some plays that allowed us to move the ball without having to rely on incredible individual efforts. The first drive of the second half was mostly a big play by Branch, but loved the design on the Thomas touchdown pass. Obviously, the game-winning drive was exciting and the coaches deserve credit for that as well. Here’s where I have issues…it felt WAY too hard for us to move the ball most of the game. We were a little stubborn and predictable with the running game…same can be said for Bobo falling back in love with the WR screen a little too much for my liking. It feels like we’re super content executing plays that have limited upside, but low risk. That leads to long drives and a lot of reliance on winning 3rd down. We haven’t been great at long downfield shots this year, but we have seen glimpses of a good intermediate passing game…not sure why we don’t incorporate that more in these games. I don’t know…I just think our offensive philosophy gives us little margin for error, and requires perfect execution for 12-14 plays if we need to get into the endzone…just one man’s opinion. Case in point…we had the bad first down snap and were looking at 2nd and 21…we hit them with an incredibly vanilla run that everyone saw coming and lose another yard…surely there was something over the middle they were giving us that could’ve generated 10+ yards and put us in a more manageable 3rd down situation. Alright…now I’m just bitching.
Defensive Coaching – B
- Major improvement from Ole Miss, right? We had some busts and penalties that helped them out, but for the most part, we made them earn the yards they got. After the Ole Miss disaster for 3 quarters, I said I would take a higher risk approach to get more stops, instead of playing soft and watching teams easily move the ball up and down the field…and I meant it. I didn’t see Lagway picking us apart and hitting wide open guys on the outside all afternoon. I didn’t see Florida hitting shallow crossing routes all afternoon. I’d love to see us figure out a way to get more pressure on QB’s, but our best pass rusher was unavailable for most of the game. I’m not crazy about coverage busts, but we were down our best Safety for most of the game and the other Safeties we have are not exactly 3-year starters. Let’s build off this and look to take another step forward next week.
Selective Officiating Outrage – A+
- For those outside of Bulldog nation, get over yourselves. All of you sound like a bunch of self-righteous jackasses. I thought all the bitching about the Auburn goal line fumble was bad enough…by the way, CJ punched the ball loose and the QB did not have control when the ball crossed the goal line. But all the outrage about the officials calling Sturdivant’s catch attempt as hitting the ground…it’s getting out of hand. Like others, I was at the game on Saturday and I can’t tell you why the broadcast didn’t show the best view of the replay, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal. When they showed a good front view of the replay on the scoreboard, I didn’t even worry about the call being overturned…completely clear that the ball bounced. Jesus, their coach even said he didn’t think it was a catch after the game (unless I’m getting fooled by some AI thing). Every college football media pundit with an X account believes Georgia gets favorable calls. Allow me to interject…we get called for more DPI than any team on earth. According to officials, our defensive line almost never gets held in 2025…seems a little curious. Cash Jones hits a chunk play and it gets wiped out by a Dillon Bell holding call…watch the play and explain those physics to me. Look, officials aren’t perfect and they’ll make some bad calls…some help us and some hurt us. Each favorable/unfavorable call affects the game in some way…regardless of when it occurs. Trust me, ask any Georgia fan how they feel about the Sanks “fumble” against Georgia Tech, ask them how they feel about Tyler Simmons being called offsides, ask them how they feel about the 2023 SECCG Bond “catch” on 4th down. I promise, officials are the furthest thing from Dawg fans.
Look forward to MSU this weekend…that’s a game we can easily lose if we don’t play well. Hope we can come out firing and get out to a comfortable early lead…but who the hell are we kidding?
Go Dawgs!
Coining it now. Rope-A-Dope Dawgs. Feel free to spread it far and wide.
I don’t understand our running game. Lots of backs not used. We don’t develop a hot hand back, we don’t seem to use the outside sweep (including jet sweeps) enough like prior years. I don’t understand our lack of a deep passing attack. Bobo used to love this especially with PA. Gunner and the WR’s don’t seem to execute well when we try but surely we’ve got a QB and gazelles to be better at this with more attempts. Has CMB not shown Gunner how to do the fake handoff, back to the defense, then turn and throw the deep post trick? The D is…not good, but we’ve got the horses to score 40 and this is not just an OL problem. It’s head-scratching for sure.
Heard someone on 680 saying that they should ask David Greene and Mark Richt to come to practice to work on hiding the ball on play action with Gunner.
I think it’s very possible this is a good offense…as long as it doesn’t go against a good defense. Just doesn’t scale and I think it mostly has to do with O-line play. We might score 40 against bizarro Dawgs only to score 13 against TX.
Agreed. Texas has recently been playing like a team that deserved to be in the top 5 to start the season (of course…just before Athens).
My sup, a Texas fan, said “anyone that has a defense will beat us”.
The continued coverage busts this late in the season are a head scratcher. I know some of the guys are young, but that is fundamental and I don’t remember it being this big of a problem before. I’m thinking there are at least three busts which resulted in a touchdown this season. If I’m wrong please let me know. Go Dawgs!
Just like every game this season, Saturday probably comes down to the 4th quarter unnecessarily. That stat on Cash’s number of plays is both inexplicable & inexcusable. It’s like Bobo is deliberately handicapping the offense to make them really work for it. All four of the other backs have a higher ceiling on any given play.
Which side of the ball is less capable at this point? Who knows. Every game it’s like watching a team in their first game of the season, don’t know where the problems will be or what to do to fix it, at least until the outcome is in doubt. That we are 7-1 is remarkable, proving the insane resilience this team exhibits. Will that hold up the rest of the way, including playoffs? Unlikely. But if it does this will be one of the most incredible teams to ever don the red & black.
Regarding the running back room: I don’t know what’s going on at practice that sets up the gameday carries AND is there internal discipline or punishment for injuries that we don’t know about? Because there was a lot of frustration about the drops with Cooley last season so it makes me think it’s on the coaches to figure out in practice to get dudes touches so it doesn’t end up where nearly 25% of our rushing yards comes on one play in the 4th qtr. It seems weird looking from the outside.
LOL, an “he just rubs it with a diaper!!”
I think your O-line critique is misplaced. At least people who have played and/or coached O-line think we have a pretty good O-line. The tandem of Glover and Gaston in particular. I get that O-line can be difficult to evaluate because there are a lot of moving parts and by design not always straight ahead, such as when one or more pull. I never played football either, but I pay attention to guys showing me film that makes them look pretty good. Pass protection also.
I’ve been meaning to mention that call by Gunner on Bowens’ TD run. I called it out as soon as Bowens broke free. Great read by Gunner and Bowens executed it perfectly.
Disagree about the Gunner/Thomas interception. It wasn’t a perfect throw, but Thomas gave it the short arms, which is strange because he’s made tough catches, like his TD later where he took a shot, and the long pass at Auburn where he took another shot.
Speaking of being tough, Zach Branch is one tough Dawg. He doesn’t look that big but he’s not afraid of contact.
Overall, not Bobo’s finest moment. I thought it was a little timid, but Florida has a good defense. 31 points is not bad, though.
Defense played tough especially given the injuries/DQs during the game. I was fully expecting us to make Lagway the next Heisman candidate, but we generally kept him in check. Even with the busts in the secondary, I hope we continue to play with pressure, rather than read and react after the catch.
“31 points is not bad, though.”
Exactly! I don’t care about what the official score was.
Two words to explain the number of snaps for Cash. Pass protection. That dude is tough as nails and will square up a DL or LB. They have to run some plays to him so it isn’t obvious that we are only going to pass when he is in the game.
I think Bowens had some type of internal discipline or something. It was odd he didn’t play in the 1st quarter and then as soon as the 2nd quarter began he saw the field. I’m surprised none of the reporters asked a question about it.
At this point I find it hard to believe that we do not have a RB on the roster who is able to pick up blocks in the backfield and is more talented with the ball in the open field than Cash Jones. In high school football I would explain this to myself by making the assumption that a kid like Cash had a Dad who contributed greatly to the booster club. In a college offense I have zero idea why he gets so much playing time. Someone please explain this to me like I am a first grader.
My less than 2 cent opinion on it– he’s been in the system so long now, he comes in at a time when 100% trust is needed– knows the play, the blocks , the schemes better than anyone else. That’s all I got.
That’s sort of what I figure. It’s the “safe” option. Kirby is still a conservative coach, as much as we’d like him to open it up. That was my point about the kneel at the end of the game.
I liked the kneel at the end of the game. It’s really rubbing it in their face. You know (that being FL) that we beat you by 11. The scoreboard doesn’t need to show it. You know it. You know it.
This year’s team should get the bourbon and TUMS salesmen of the year award. They have major flaws from top to bottom. What they don’t have is any quit in them. Often the will to win and a refusal to quit will mask a host of problems. Sometimes you just have to out will and wear down your opponents, make them quit. That appears to be this year’s bunch. It’s sometimes infuriating and often nerve wracking, but when they get the W at the end, it makes it all worth it.
They have certainly taught me patience.