When I sat in the stadium for the Georgia-Florida game I wasn't expecting much. I got even less. The game was awful if you are a Georgia fan, an SEC fan, or a fan of decent football. It wasn't fun to watch I would imagine even as a Gator fan because they were far from awesome on the field. They won, Georgia didn't, and that's what matters. However, I don't think anybody walked away entertained by this sideshow. I'll look at Georgia in depth, whereas I usually look at the winning team, because I think we all need to hopefully explain what went wrong. And I'm a Georgia fan, so screw it I'm making the rules here.
GEORGIA OFFENSE:
Georgia can't run the ball. Their offensive line is the reason for that, but the play calling and formations aren't doing them any favors. I'll even explain why the receivers are causing problems for the offense, and it all came in Georgia's first series on the goal line. Let me break it down for you.
This is Georgia on 2nd and goal from the 2. What I want you to note is the bunched goal line formation. This is a power running set with everyone close in, and Florida has responded by putting all 11 players in the box. After all, there's nothing for them to really cover right now. As it so happens, Georgia jumped offsides on a dumb penalty, so we'll never know if this would have worked.
Here's 2nd and Goal after the penalty. Note that Georgia is still in a power running formation with one WR on the outside. Everyone and their dog knows that Georgia is running the ball. Florida has put literally 10 guys in the yellow box because THEY know Georgia is going to run the ball. It's impossible to run against a 10 man box unless your offensive line is awesome, and Georgia's is far from awesome. So when Georgia does run the ball, here's what happens:
Note the yellow box. That's #83 TE Jeb Blazevich getting horsewhipped to the inside by a Florida defensive lineman who is about to blow up this run. On top you'll see two more Florida linemen overrunning our single blocker trying to take them on. Both of those guys are going to get home to Chubb as well and kill this play. Why? Because it's a predictable call and you have to check out of it to a pass. The formation begged for a pass. But Georgia didn't check out and instead got hit with a loss.
Here's 3rd and 7 to the goal, and we know it's a pass. Two receivers are circled on the bottom, and there's a TE offset on that side near the line, also there's a TE on top. I've circled what should happen. Florida is showing again a 9 man box with a blitz coming. The TE's should stay in there to protect, but they don't. They go out into pass lanes. The WR's at the bottom should run to different sides of the field to open things up. The ideal throw is a quick strike to the WR in blue as he streaks to the center on a quick slant. Again, because Florida is showing blitz. This isn't hard.
Here's what happens. Both TE's go into crossing coverage in the middle of the field running at each other. Both WR's at the bottom run down into each other. You now have Florida blitzing 7 and dropping 4 into coverage. And you know what sucks? Both Florida DBs have the space covered at the top, and ONE Florida DB can cover the bottom space. If Eason picks any guy right now, he's throwing into double coverage because the receivers are in the same area. You should NEVER have two receivers in the same area on a play, let alone have two in the same are in DIFFERENT AREAS. Eason now only has two choices, and he should have four because they are all in the same space.
And time is running out because of the blitz. It was supposed to be a pick-play that never developed because you can't run a pick with a blitz coming that far down the field. This is either terrible play design, or stupid receivers who can't run routes, or both. Either way, it failed and Georgia kicked a FG. And it went like this all day long. Florida's defense looked like they were stealing signs from the Georgia dugout.
The problem is that every time Georgia comes out in a power running set against Florida, that's a bad idea. If anything Georgia should have been more concerned about getting to the edge, spreading Florida out, and getting away from the disaster that Florida's defense can create in the middle, but they didn't. Georgia did have one drive in the 2nd quarter that ended in a TD, but that was because they decided to throw on 4 of the 6 plays down the field, and got a pass interference call to get to the end zone. That never happened again in the second half. In fact the Georgia offense never GOT TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FIFTY IN THE SECOND HALF. That should tell you what you need to know.
GEORGIA DEFENSE:
I'll give them credit, the Dawgs defense stood tall for a long time. In fact, Georgia had the lead until a Gator drive that started with five minutes left in the second half. That was because in the prior possessions, it went like this for the Gators: INT, PUNT, TD, PUNT, PUNT. Honestly, if you told me in 5 possessions that Georgia would only give up 7 points in the first half? AND get a turnover? That's great news and gives us a great chance to win. The problem is that Florida kept getting short fields thanks to the special teams totally botching the punting game. Here's Florida's starting field position in the game by possession: FL25, FL37, UGA39 (off a fumble turnover), FL25, FL 37, UGA 44 (bad punt), FL 34, UGA 49, FL 44, FL30, FL21, UGA 47, UGA 45.
If you're noticing that at no point did Florida ever start inside their own 20, that's correct. If you're noticing that five times Florida started in UGA territory, that's right too. If you're also noticing the average starting field position for Florida was around their own 40 yard line, welp, that's also correct. Which isn't a recipe for success. But let's take a look at the Florida TD before the half because it was a turning point in the game, and Georgia never led again. In fact they never SCORED again. So here we go.
It's 3rd down. Georgia has a chance to get off the field if they can make a stop. They've been playing in a standard nickel thus far for most of the protections, but the defense is about to make a gamble. It's single coverage at the top, and man on man at the bottom with the two WRs represented by the black boxes. There's 2 safeties behind the play covering the deep ball. I have two problems with this. First look at the orange circle in the middle with #35 CB Aaron Davis. I have no idea who he thinks he's covering. What he does is pull back to the left and leave Florida's #81 Antonio Callaway in single coverage at the top with #14 Malkolm Parrish. While I like Parrish okay, Callaway is by far the Gator's best receiver, and it's stupid to put one man on him with no help on a critical third down. But the reason he's alone is because Georgia is showing blitz in the middle with the yellow circle. When you blitz and you leave cornerbacks on islands, you better get there.
Georgia doesn't get there. This is the play about a second before Florida throws the ball to Callaway. Now, Parrish falls down on the play so it's an easy back shoulder reception for a first down, but that's not even the point. It's tough to defend that play standing up when the entirerty of your blitz package is literally still 5 yards away from the QB with no real shot at getting there. Look at the RB in the backfield. He correctly read blitz and is waiting in the middle to block somebody. EXCEPT THERE'S NOBODY TO BLOCK. Nobody got even close on this play so it was an easy pitch and catch completion. That was the problem all day long. Even though Georgia got 3 sacks in the game, they didn't get there on 3rd downs when it mattered most. And as a result Florida went 9-18 on 3rd down conversions. It's almost impossible to win a game if your defense allows a 50% conversion rate, unless your offense is just blistering hot. And Georgia's offense was far from hot.
This one is an example of how bad angles get you in trouble. It's a screen pass for Florida. #2 for Georgia has position on the blocker and just has to keep going to the sideline to cut off the RB. Right now the RB has two choices. He can follow to the sideline and try to get an edge, but #2 will meet him there if he keeps going, or he can cut it up behind his lead blocker who is actually behind the play right now and get tackled by #5 from Georgia.
Unless of course #2 tries to stop, runs into the blocker, and #5 goes around the blocker to the outside effectively taking himself out of the play. Both lose contain and as a result the Florida RB makes it to the edge and continues to run for another 8 yards, getting a yard short of a first down which Florida will then convert to get them in the red zone. The play breaks down because the defense doesn't know what it's supposed to be doing here, and one blocker in #65 effectively washes out THREE Georgia players on the play. That's not supposed to happen.
Florida eventually goes on to score on that series on a simple 2 yard run after a pass interference call. But really how many times could the Dawg defense stand up against these short fields? If anything it was a miracle they held the Gators to 24 points, and only 231 total yards of offense. Florida only ran the ball for about 2.1 yards a carry, but the Georgia offense was so horrific they couldn't even get out of their own shadow. Which meant eventually that Florida was on the field with the ball for 37 and a half minutes. And unless you're Baylor scoring at will, giving the other team the ball for 37 minutes is a recipe for disaster.
CONCLUSION:
It didn't matter what Georgia did in the second half defensively because the game was already over. Georgia scored all the points they were going to get in the first half, and they did it with passing. The only weapon Georgia has right now is Jacob Eason, and he's mostly running for his life. His receivers do him zero favors by running bad routes and dropping open passes. The line does him no favors because it's a pass-blocking disaster that has him fleeing to the edge without setting his feet. There is no "pocket" for the pocket passing Eason to throw. That means if the running game is stymied, Georgia is screwed. And Florida managed to hold Georgia to 1 yard a carry. One. Solitary. Yard. Per. Carry. That's how you lose a football game my friends, and that's how Georgia may lose a few more if they aren't careful and get their offensive act together.
My suggestion? You're not a power running team. Setting up in power running formations only gives the defense an advantage, not you. Which means to get things going you're going to have to spread teams out, get some lanes open, and use your edges. You are going to have to get Eason better at the playaction fake to get teams to respect it. Your TEs actually have to block instead of wandering down the field in bad pass routes that do nothing. And on top of all that, the running-backs actually have to hit the holes when they are there, and not juke around in the backfield because they will close fast. Does it sound like alot? That's because it is, but make no mistake if Georgia doesn't figure out how to score some points next week, Kentucky will beat them outright.
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