There is beauty in unintentionally great timing, and one of those moments came late in Saturday night’s broadcast of Georgia’s game at Tennessee. ESPN color analyst Todd Blackledge was talking about Georgia’s defense using more line stunts, shifts and late movements this season.
“Kirby Smart wanted to create more negative plays,” Blackledge was saying as the play began, “what they’ve been terming the havoc-type plays, and part of that is increasing the stunts that they — ”
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Blackledge had to stop talking at that point because Eric Stokes had just clobbered poor Tennessee quarterback Brian Maurer on a cornerback blitz, prying the ball loose. Tae Crowder picked it up and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown.
Stokes’ hit became Georgia’s highlight of the night. It also flipped the score from indicating a solid Georgia win but not convincing victory — especially if Tennessee had scored on that drive — into a 43-14 “yeah that’s what we expected” rout.
It’s only appropriate that it was a havoc play, the most memorable one of the game, that set the final impression of the game. We’ve dealt a lot with the subject this season, so I hesitate to attack it once again unless there is a compelling reason. The way this game played out, it’s compelling. Let’s go:
Havoc and Georgia’s pass defense
Before Kirby Smart’s first year at Georgia, he downplayed the secondary that he inherited, which had ranked first nationally in pass defense, by saying that Georgia had “protected” that secondary.
Fast forward to this year. After Georgia gave up 205 first-half passing yards to a true freshman, first-time starter, Smart downplayed what seemed to be the struggles of the secondary by saying that they put more pressure on that secondary because of all the blitzes.
The natural question: Does Georgia need to protect this secondary more? Is all this emphasis on havoc leading to a bit of feast-or-famine? There are the Stokes-type plays, but are there also more explosive plays for the offense? Last year Georgia ranked third nationally in terms of the fewest 20-yard plays given up by the defense. This year the Bulldogs are tied for 23rd, and that hasn’t exactly been against a murderer’s row.
The Bulldogs are getting more sacks and more pressures. Their overall pass defense numbers (5.9 yards per pass attempt) are about the same as last year (6.0), and that’s without Deandre Baker, and the last few weeks without Tyson Campbell. But what happens when better opponents come along? Is this a secondary that can be exploited, and perhaps a more bend-but-don’t-break philosophy would work?
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The answer from the Bulldogs would probably be no since they’re so committed to the havoc philosophy at this point, and several players did say they became more aggressive as the Tennessee game went on, realizing that Maurer could be spooked. I went through every pass play over the first three quarters, and didn’t see any obvious schematic changes: Georgia had nine four-man rushes, nine five-man rushes and three six-man rushes in the first half. The first six passes of the second half, meanwhile, saw all but one be a four-man rush. But two of them resulted in sacks. Azeez Ojulari had both of them, and on the first one he stunted, but on the second one, he just beat Tennessee’s left tackle.
Stokes’ sack and Crowder’s ensuing touchdown? Yeah, that was aggressive.
Richard LeCounte’s interception came when Georgia was rushing five but the pressure wasn’t really there yet. It was just a poor decision to throw.
There isn’t an obvious answer at this point on whether the havoc rate approach is working. It does appear to be a work in progress. When it works, it looks like a great strategy. When the other team passes well, you have to wonder.
Georgia’s great run defense and other defensive observations
• More stout run defense from Georgia, even after losing Jordan Davis early in the game. The start was inauspicious: Tennessee’s Ty Chandler went right up the gut for 16 yards on the very first play. But after that the Volunteers only had 18 yards on nine carries the rest of the first half. Yes, they’re the SEC’s worst-ranked rushing “attack.” Maybe South Carolina, which ranks second in the SEC in rushing average, will be a much stiffer test. (Florida, if you’re looking further ahead, ranks 11th in the conference in that category.)
But however you rank it, Georgia’s rushing defense, which ranks first in the SEC, has been very good: The list of teams nationally that have not given up a rushing touchdown this year: Georgia. That’s it. That’s the list.
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• The re-watch doesn’t change any view of the 73-yard touchdown reception by Marquez Callaway. D.J. Daniel appeared to be in zone coverage, which is why he didn’t stick with Callaway. LeCounte got sucked in for a critical couple steps when Callaway went in at first, and that was the difference in Callaway zipping past him.
As for the second touchdown, LeCounte was also involved in that, as the pass went between him and J.R. Reed, who had been in coverage at the line. LeCounte came over immediately upon the snap but not quick enough.
• The underrated big play of the game was by Crowder and Malik Herring in the second quarter: Tennessee, leading 14-13, had driven to Georgia’s 42 and had third-and-2. Crowder came free on an inside blitz and Herring blew his man off the ball to make the tackle for a loss. If Tennessee converts there and keeps driving, this remains a game for a little longer. (Of course, that play didn’t have much of a chance to begin with, considering Tennessee’s lack of a running game.)
Georgia’s play-calling
The macro takeaway on Georgia’s offense on re-watch is that penalties stopped it as much as Tennessee did. Georgia’s second drive saw a pass interference call on Lawrence Cager — a good call — take Georgia from first down at the 25 to first-and-25 from the 40. The eventual result: Field goal. The second drive of the second half, which also ended with a Rodrigo Blankenship field goal, saw a pair of drive-killing penalties, illegal use of hands on Matt Landers and then a false start on George Pickens, which took Georgia from third-and-2 to second-and-21.
The Bulldogs only had one three-and-out, the opening drive of the second half. That was also affected by a penalty: Andrew Thomas false-started on third-and-5.
Ah, but something about that three-and-out leads to a greater point: First down was a pass that gained nine yards. Very good! Second down was a run that lost four yards. Not good! Predictable!
So I delved further into James Coley’s run-pass tendencies on first and second down situations. Predominantly, first-down passes worked better than runs, and second- and third-down plays that went against the grain also tended to be more successful. Some examples:
• On the first drive, Georgia ran the ball three times on first down for a total of 6 yards (there was also a 1-yard Zamir White run that resulted in a holding penalty), but passed the ball on three plays for a total of 50 yards.
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But it was on second down that Coley had Tennessee fooled that drive: They ran the ball on second-and-medium or long (6 and 8 yards) and gained 11 yards both times.
• The third drive saw two first-down runs for a total of 4 yards. But a first-down pass was nearly a long completion to Cager — it was the one overruled on replay — and a play later on second-and-10 was when Coley again called a run and Brian Herrien went for 40 yards. (Of course, that run was all Herrien, who somehow pushed through a glob of six defenders.) And on the next play, a first-down run to Swift gained nothing. But going back to Swift on second down produced a respectable 5 yards.
Georgia’s second drive of the second half, which ended in another Blankenship field goal, saw two first-down passes totaling 19 yards, and a first-down run by Swift that gained 8 yards. But the drive stalled with that Landers penalty, which came on a second-and-2 run play that didn’t gain any yards anyway.
• The final touchdown drive (to make it 36-14) was almost all run plays — 8 out of the 10 overall — but one of the passes was a first-down pass to Cager for 12 yards. The other was the 33-yard pass to Demetris Robertson on third down.
• There has also been great consternation about the handoffs to Tyler Simmons. Interestingly, Coley told the ESPN crew that they hadn’t given the ball enough to Simmons. So they clearly made an effort. And I came away not really blaming Simmons for the two times it didn’t work.
The first Simmons run, which lost 2 yards, was actually an inside handoff that was snuffed out right away. It didn’t help that it was second-and-2, so the defense was playing the run. The second Simmons run, a jet sweep that gained 4 yards, came on first down when the defense was again ready for the run. Simmons actually did well to shake an initial tackler, but then there were four orange jerseys against two outside blockers — one of whom was Kearis Jackson, just back from a hand injury.
The third Simmons run, which went for 17 yards, was a double end-around, or double-reverse, whatever you want to call it, and featured good downfield blocking from Swift as well as Cager.
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Georgia doesn’t have Mecole Hardman to run those end-arounds and jet sweeps anymore. It has been trying to get the ball to James Cook more in space, and perhaps if Robertson’s groin hadn’t been bothering him earlier this season he would be involved more. Simmons, meanwhile, does have track speed, too, hence Coley’s desire to get him the ball more.
• One more play-calling observation: Yes, I’m as befuddled as everyone else as to why teams, Georgia included, keep running short-yardage plays out of the shotgun. When Swift was stopped on two straight plays, third-and-2 and then fourth-and-1, both were up the middle out of the shotgun.
Maybe those plays work with Solomon Kindley in there. Who knows. But earlier in the game Georgia did convert on a third-and-1, with Swift getting 4 yards. So perhaps Georgia just felt confident it would work again.
My takeaway through five games of the Coley era is that he’s been hesitant to do much drastic, or to take many chances, but that you can’t argue with the overall results: He’s playing to the strength of the offense, which is Swift, Fromm and his timing, and an offensive line that can protect. Players, not plays, is what Coley said in August, and he’s holding to that so far.
More offensive observations
• When Fromm hit Swift for the 44-yard pass — when Swift was the fifth read — Fromm had 4.6 seconds from snap to pass. As a point of comparison, when Fromm hit Demetris Robertson for a 33-yarder in the fourth quarter, Fromm took 2.6 seconds from snap to throw.
• There was a beautiful play design, and then execution, on Robertson’s 28-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass. Robertson got the ball on the outside after motion to the left, and then four linemen and Charlie Woerner formed a quick pocket for Robertson to run through as he cut upfield.
• For all the Swift-making-defenders-miss highlights, he’s just as good, probably better, in how he gets extra yardage after contact or in traffic. He turned what could’ve been a 2-yard gain on the first drive into an 11-yard gain just by rolling off a tackler and finding open space. A few plays later he took a screen pass in open space and got 3 extra yards at the end by falling forward into the defender, realizing he was about to go down but not trying to barrel over him. Those are subtle little things that get you valuable yards.
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Other observations
• On the one hand, you have the struggles of punter Jake Camarda. Sometimes you get in a rut and the only way out of it is to take some time off. Maybe they do that with Camarda, who has the leg — as he has often shown — but is really struggling and it’s costing the team.
• On the other hand, you have Blankenship. He is now 11-for-11 on field goals this season, and only four teams in FBS can say they have attempted at least 10 field goals this year and made all of them.
• David Marshall’s late hit was really late, really unnecessary and out of character.
• Dominick Blaylock quickly learned from a mistake. After letting a ball roll for 25 lost yards of field position against Notre Dame, Blaylock fielded all four punts his way in this game, three for fair catches and another that he returned for six yards.
• Yes, the officials had a rough night, but most of the chaos came in the second half, after head referee David Smith had to leave with a calf injury, and roles were shuffled. (The center judge moved to referee, and ESPN’s rules expert guessed that the side judge moved to center judge, and the alternate referee moved to side judge.) But I will defend the crew on the back-to-back targeting calls: They’ve been told to err on the side of throwing the flag, especially now that replay has the ability to completely overrule the call.
It’s all part of cleaning up the game. And as someone who has actually sat in the SEC’s replay room in Birmingham and had to simulate making that call, it’s not an easy one to make off video, so it has to be that much harder to make in person. This is all about trying to make the game safer and keep football around for future generations, so as clunky as it may seem, it’s for the right reasons.
• Still, I was glad the targeting call against Tennessee’s offensive lineman was reversed. It would have been a shame if that was the end of the road for Wayna Morris. But it was overruled quickly enough that Morris did not have to get on bended knee to beg.
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Final thoughts
Tennessee may have made things interesting for a bit, but Georgia still looks like a team that will sail into Jacksonville unbeaten in four weeks for what will be the biggest cocktail party game since 2012. Florida’s win against Auburn basically ensured that it will be the SEC East championship, even if Florida loses at LSU on Saturday, because Florida can still win the division by beating Georgia and then winning out.
The Bulldogs will still be the favorite, and they should be. They have more talent, and on the whole, that talent is being fulfilled. But there are still some kinks to work out, especially against the pass.
(Top photo by Bryan Lynn / USA TODAY Sports)