Dawgs Beat Bizzaro Dawgs

If you say Gerald Robinson only scores five points in 40 minutes, you have to assume Georgia loses any basketball game they are playing in. In the same week he goes off against Arkansas for 27, Mississippi State kept him off balance to the point he only managed five points in 40 minutes.  KCP has something to say about that now, though.

Kentavious goes off on both ends of the court, Georgia out rebounds an opponent again, this time an opponent that is very good at rebounding (3rd in the conference at nearly +4 margin on the season) and Georgia forces Mississippi State into overtime, where the Gerald Robinson show began.  Gerald comes up big with 8 of Georgia's 11 points.  The other three? KCP's long distance dagger to win it.

Importantly, Georgia played another full (or full+5 minutes) of solid basketball. We are hustling and everyone is playing tough and aggressive defense.  Yes, some shots are falling, but yesterday, we took nearly 20 more shots than Mississippi State and had nearly our same % of shots fall. We have to keep out rebounding teams to have a chance at winning these games.

Right now, all Georgia has is playing to ruin other team's post season plans. Keep this up and it could be more than that. As I said the other day, I don't know what Coach Fox told them after the double tech in Knoxville, but he needs to write it down and make posters.

TD

Mississippi State Review

The Good:

• The defense.  I could have a whole section on their play, but Washington was a beast, Rambo continues to impress, the interior line was spectacular. Oh, Jarvis Jenkins Jones was everywhere.  I am a little surprised he wasn't there to stop Nickoe Whitley from peeing on the hedges.
• John Jenkins: Body slam artist.
• Crowell's running in the first half.
• Run blocking.
• Not getting rattled on defense.  Mississippi State had over a quarter of their offensive output during the FG drive in the first quarter, with well over 90% of those yards on that little screen thing they ran.  We stayed the course, brought the pressure and didn't allow them to have anything close to that kind of drive again.
• Play calling in the first half.  We had them off balance from the start.  Crowell's running was a factor in that, but the two TD passes were perfect calls at the perfect time.  With the one to Orson, three guys were open and the first read was the easiest, since Charles had position on his defender the whole time. As for the second half, as long as we see the defense play like this and we have a 2 or more score lead, get used to it.
• Figgins and Thomas' blocking.  Carlton blocks like a much bigger player.
• Five more sacks.  

The Bad:

• Gates false start on 3rd and 6 during the long drive in the fourth.  You knew Bobo wasn't going to let Murray throw another ball. Samuel had a 7 yard run.  Walsh trotted out and missed the FG. Instead of continuing a drive that had the potential to make this a game we'd all go Yes! about, the 5+ minutes was just time off the clock.
• Conditioning.  The offensive line looked gassed in the second half. The starting tailback looked completely uninterested in fighting for extra yards in the second half.  The game isn't won getting to 100 yards of rushing, despite what some pundits go to bed wishing for.  The game is won on getting stronger as the game goes on.  We didn't do that on the offensive side of the ball.
• [insert obligatory offensive line pass blocking snark here]
• The hurry up and wait no huddle.
• Walsh's shanks.  He didn't miss a single second half warm up (that I saw).  His attempt in the second half was pure wiffage.  We all know he is a spectacular kicker.  As Blutarsky put it: "there’s a young lady out there who needs to step up and do the right thing by her man."

The Ugly:

• Murray's throws to the players in white, particularly the one returned for a TD.  The first took a decent play to come up with it. The second was a nice mental play on an ball that needed more arc. But that third one.  Wow.  About four things went wrong, the worst of which is under throwing a sideline route to a 6-3 manbeast that might be able to flatfooted jump over a truck.

Boys, we are back in this thing. No one is ready to proclaim all is awesome, but Grantham's defense is playing very well and in the SEC that will get you places.  Bobo's offense is playing competently, especially when strong plays are called.  The play calling has significantly improved, for that matter.  The players looked coached up.

What did I miss?

TD

Mississippi State Preview

Mitchell with the catch (Image:Hipple)

Here we are, another game that we have more talent than the team coming to Sanford Stadium, but not confident we have enough of the other stuff that it'll take to win.  Last year, Mississippi State was, well, Mississippi State.  They came into the game at 1-2 (0-2) in the conference with a close loss to Auburn and getting dominated by LSU.  Mullen had his team ready to play and they donkey punched Georgia, 24-12.

They would go on to reel off 6 straight wins, with the only really big win coming against the Florida team that looked terrible in their worse home game in years, 10-7.

Mullen will have his team ready to play again. On paper, this is a simple win for Georgia. If being a Georgia fan has taught me anything, there rarely is such a thing as a simple win the past few years.

The biggest source of concern is the one drive that the defense allowed a TD last week. Two misdirection plays that allowed receivers to be open way behind our D backs and bam! Touchdown.  Maybe it because I still get the shakes when someone mentions a wheel route, or maybe it is because Relf is a very dangerous misdirection weapon, but I am worried about how we handle those plays.  Bacarri Rambo was the source of many of those very plays I am worried about, and he is a big key in this game.

I didn't trust him at the beginning of the season.  I was wrong. He is leading the nation in interceptions and is sixth in passes defended.  His play is notably improved and he plays like the guy we thought we'd see based on his Freshman year.  It isn't an overstatement to say Bacarri is very much the biggest defensive surprise of this team.  Between the edge rushing threat of Relf and Ballard, and the ability of Relf to force defenses to decide early to stop a run or a pass, Rambo's new mindset and approach will be put to the test.  Getting CRob back to provide run support and edge contain will help, as the Dbacks will have to respect Chad Bumphis' ability to get separation and Relf's ability to plant and throw to him at nearly any time.

On offense, it is simple: Four yards at a time.  Runs or passes.  Murray needs to be sharp.  Orson, White, Figgins, Crowell, and Samuel need to catch what is thrown to them.  Crowell, Thomas and Samuel should focus on extra yards, not the home run.  Louisiana Tech wore Mississippi State out with its short passing game.  The 17 year old starting QB for Tech was 29/40, averaging just over 5 yards per pass.  Tech was effective enough neutralizing the Bizzaro Dawg's speed.  Add in the Mitchell/King/Brown deep threat and that is a pretty good recipe.  That and scoring TDs anytime we can, instead of running three times and settling for the FG inside the 20.

Finally, we are going to see a fake punt, onside kick attempted and/or some other trickeration.  Count on that.  Hopefully, the 'extra focus' on special teams will pay off this week.

In the end, I am far more hopeful about this game than I was sweltering on the Marta platform for an hour after the Boise State game.  Georgia isn't quite the super team we've seen the past two weeks.  Mississippi State isn't the slogging mess we've seen the last two weeks. We'll have a good idea which team Georgia is by about 4pm on Saturday. I think we win, but don't pull away until late because we don't do anything easy.

TD

Stat Worth Watching

Figgins on the move, something I hope we'll see against MSU (Image: Hipple)

Digging around, looking at Mississippi State's season, something really jumped out at me.  Teams are completing 71% of pass attempts against them.  It isn't as if they have faced a low number of attempts, as they are in the middle of the pack in that regard.

Considering the need to get the ball delivered quickly and the speed of the Bizzaro Dawg's defense, it wouldn't surprise me to see Georgia focus more on Orson and screen passes to establish a short passing game.  I hope Bobo doesn't forget that running past speed rushers and swing passes are another way to neutralize that threat.

How do you think Georgia is doing if Murray is 14/19 at the half with 103 yards?

TD

Mississippi State - 3 Questions

Unlike other games this season, there were way more than 3 questions rolling around in my head.  This article literally could have been 13 questions.  It took some doing to get this down to just three.

1. Does last year's loss, and all the malaise that resulted from it, play into the game this year? Other than the Florida game, which is too much of a long term pattern to be mere coincidence, I don't put too much stock into what happened last time we played some one.  Sure, there are lessons to be learned, but on the mental side of the equation, the games are independent events with independent actors.  For whatever reason, I don't think that is the case this year.  Way more than Georgia's pride was wounded by the loss in Starkevegas. The 2010 Georgia Bulldogs will to fight was demolished.  Does that mean anything this year?  I hope so.  There is no doubt this team plays with more passion and want to than last year's team did.  I think we'll see that translated into much more level headed, and hard nosed, play this week.
2. Can we make Relf look like he did against LSU? I am not saying our defense is as good, fast or strong as LSU's.  The level of their competition is higher, to this point in the season, than ours.  I am saying that in order to be assured a win, we have to hold Mississippi State to under 250 yards offense.  I worry about our defense's ability to edge contain. Last year, we didn't contain him (or Ballard, for that matter) at all, allowing Relf 107 yards rushing on 20 carries.  We have to make him make tough decisions and do so often enough that his first thought is 'get the ball to Ballard because one of these big mofos is about to treat me like the pretty girl in her first day on the cellblock.'  Relf's confidence is as shaky as a Jim Donnan investment scheme.  We have to shatter it.
3. Can we game plan competently enough on offense to counteract Mississippi State's very active defense? Think back to the Boise State game.  Spit the throw up out of your mouth.  Now remember their defense bring pressure from everywhere, even from seemingly behind Murray.  That is what we'll see from Mississippi State.  Now, last season, we handled that well enough...until we got close to the goal line.  Just to refresh your memory, we settled for two short field goals in the second quarter.  We put either or both of those into the end zone, we have a different game.  However, going back to the issues discussed in question one, can we do that this year?  With the TEs and FBs, coupled with a much better running back option, I think we can.  We have to be able to for a win.

Look, if we lose to Mississippi State again, the sky will be falling again.  If we win, we will have beaten a 2-3 (0-3) team that needed a miracle to beat LaTech.  I don't believe a win, other than another total domination game, changes the fans' mind set.  I do believe it changes the emotional and mental state of the team for the rest of the season.

TD