Vanderbilt Review

The Good:

• Pass offense. Vandy came into the game only allowing ~200 yards per game.  Murray had 326.  We are still plagued by the missed connections on the down field plays, including one off the hands of one receiver and another catch out of bounds that should have been in bounds.  
• Pass blocking. I didn't give the line enough credit.  Murray had plenty of time to throw nearly the whole game.  It showed.
• Pass defense.  Vandy wasn't going to light it up by going down field, but we held them to season lows in completions and QB rating, against season highs in attempts and interceptions.  All of that with the punter and RB a combined 2 for 2 and 78 of their 149 passing yards.
• Abry Jones, where passes go to die.
• Jarvis Jones. He only creates havoc and gets held.  Nothing less.

The Bad:

• Misdirection and delay recognition on defense.  I wondered when this game was going to happen.  One of the downsides with an aggressive, but young, defensive squad is that they can get caught out of position on QB runs.  We saw that happen time and again on Saturday.  I have confidence in Coach Grantham to work this out, but the problem is the need to do so quickly, since we'll face at least two QBs and offenses that dream about these kinds of defenses before we are done.
• Run defense in general.  Zac Stacy was lonesome on some of his runs.  I mean he wasn't even looked at until he had five yards.  
• False starts on the wildcat.  Dudes, stop screwing up our trick plays.

The Ugly:

• The spirit of Fabris.

The day after Drew Butler's eligibility runs out, Coach Richt should by him a gold watch.  Drew might have literally have saved his job with that tackle on the blocked punt.  

Also, you will note I didn't include the personal fouls and such in here.  I am not saying we should ever commit those types of penalties. I am saying, after watching the replay, I can't find grave fault with the players for committing them.  There was a crew of folks out who didn't perform their job very well that could have nipped a lot of this in the bud early, but didn't.  That John Jenkins got warned for his tackling is a good sign of what that crew was looking for.

Finally, and clearly, we aren't at the level I thought we were.  Vandy exposed our run defense.  I'd hate to be on the defense this next week two weeks with the way they played.  Can't think Grantham is going to be a pleasant person to be around.

TD