Is a stay on bench answer to Dogs’ turnovers?
Turnovers have been a recurring problem for Joe Cox. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)
This turnovers madness has to stop.
Without the fumble and two interceptions against Arizona State, that wouldn’t have been a close game. Georgia was by far the more talented team.
And that’s really been the case in all four of the Dogs’ games so far. Mark Richt’s troops are squandering a tremendous talent advantage with their unfocused, sloppy play. Opponents have scored 54 points off the 12 turnovers by the Dogs, who rank 115th out of 120 teams in the country in that category.
On the other side, takeaways continue to elude the Georgia defense, and even when they get one, as with Bacarri Rambo’s interception Saturday, they’re not getting points out of them, with just six points off three recovered turnovers this season.
This is a week that trend needs to turn around, as LSU leads the SEC and is tied for fifth in the nation in turnover margin.
As the level of opposition rises, the chances of the Dogs overcoming multiple turnovers per game decrease severely.
So what’s the problem? Is this primarily players not taking care of fundamentals? You could certainly make that case about Saturday’s giveaways. Mark Richt said Caleb King’s fumble resulted from center Ben Jones’ pads bumping the ball. Obviously, King isn’t securing it properly. There was another notable example Saturday night when he was running down the sideline with the ball clearly in the wrong hand, as my brother Tim pointed out at the time and some blog commenters also have noted.
And while Joe Cox was hurried in his throw on his first interception, on the second he threw a ball he shouldn’t have while ignoring an open secondary receiver. Cox, considered one of the smarter players on the team, has been responsible for six turnovers, five of them interceptions.
So it’s player mistakes, yeah, but well-coached teams don’t turn the ball over repeatedly. As Richt put it to the Macon Telegraph, “I’d like to remove some of the drama if possible and just play a solid 60 minutes of football … but that’s coaching, too. I’ve got to do a better job of getting these guys prepared. It’s not only what I might say before the game or at halftime. It’s what we demand of them throughout the week, and maybe we need to do a better job of that.”
Obviously, whatever Richt has been doing, from harping on the need for improvement to making players run the bleachers, hasn’t been working. As Georgiadogs.com quoted him: “We can’t do a whole lot more than what we’re doing in practice. We may add some more ball-security drills or get our scout team to strip the ball. You can’t simulate a guy getting blasted or whatever it might be when it comes out. And not all the fumbles have been by running backs; we had a punt mishap, one on a kickoff return and some interceptions. We hope the guys who have had issues won’t have them again.”
If they do, perhaps the answer is an automatic in-game stay on the bench. Turn the ball over and you sit for one entire series. Even Cox. (The way things are going, that’s about the only way backup Logan Gray will get any meaningful playing time at QB before the Tennessee Tech game.)
I know, some folks think punishments like that are akin to putting a kindergartner in the time-out corner. But, hey, it’s effective because kids don’t want to sit in time-out. Just like football players don’t want to sit on the bench.
Maybe everything Richt needs to know about solving this problem he learned in kindergarten.
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111 comments Add your comment
Mike T.
September 29th, 2009
12:35 pm
Today’s Tallahasse Democrat reported that Mickey Andrews
told his players that either the mistakes stop or players
will become spectators.
I think the Dawgs coaches should adhere some to that type of thinking.
uuugh...
September 29th, 2009
1:44 pm
Mike T. Mickey Andrews is also a bada$$. That guy will light someone up on the sidelines for poor tackling or a missed assignment. Love to watch him on the sidelines…he looks one bad play from a heart attack the whole game!
Willie Martinez is…well…Willie Martinez, who apparently supports bad tackling and poor coverage. A coach that had a problem with poor tackling or bad coverage would probably do something to stop it right?
WildBill
September 29th, 2009
2:21 pm
Regarding the LSU game. I would bet my pet rock, my 2 buckeyes, and my lucky beer mug that the dawgs will do the following this weekend:
1. 3 turnovers
2. 11 penalties
3. 2 kickoffs out of bounds
4. See at least 1 hissy fit on the sidelines, by a player
5. See one furowed brow by CMR.
6. See 3 hours of abstract confusion by CWM.
7. Watch CMB hide in the coaching booth
8. See 2 players arrested following the game.
9. Dawgs lose by 7.
shards1967
September 29th, 2009
3:26 pm
Barrack Obama is not going to change his core beliefs and attitudes about the world and about the USA. These issues to him are irreversable. Richt is the same way. He coaches with kindness and The GOOD BOOK and a higher AUTHORITY being in charge of us all. That is CMR’s style and he will not change it. He learned it at the knee of Bobby Bowdon, who is the same way. That must have served them well in the old FSU days but with today’s braided hair kids and urban attitudes and INTENSE desires for the NFL, it ain’t working, at UGA or FSU. Great coaches change like Bear Bryant did and that is that. Woody Hayes could not win 7 games with today’s players and I do not think that Dooley could either. He was a Marine officer and was taught honor and pride and a sense of duty and today’s urban minded thug kids only wait for the NFL and that is that.
We are faced with an ugly 6-6 or 7-5 year and even if we luck out and handle LSU, then we will lay down vs U of T and so it goes. Been there and done that we have at UGA lately. See Tech 08.
December we will see some major changes coming down …………..period. Maybe we can get some coaching staff in here that will recruit kids that really want to play at UGA first and foremost.
UGA class of 73
WildBill
September 29th, 2009
3:57 pm
Shards, well said. I concur 100%.
UGAJAG
September 30th, 2009
1:24 am
….first late me state their is no excuse for the poor play on defense and mistakes the past season and now 4 games into 2009. This team has way to much talent on defense for such poor play.
In 2001 when Richt was hired our program was stuck in mediocrity after 11 dreadful seasons. Now our program is talked about on national stage year after year. He then got us our FIRST SEC TITLE IN 20 FREAKIN YEARS!!!……if Shockley did not get hurt in 04 we would have easily had three sec titles by now. I think we can all agree we would have beaten anyone in the country at the end of the 2007 season. People need to put some of these things in perspective. Richt is 86-23 in 8 years and 4 games at UGA. I’m sure tech fans would kill for that record over 8 seasons.
UGAJAG
September 30th, 2009
1:29 am
….and an 8-2 record in bowl games. oh and I almost forgot 7 straight victories over Tech.
Jeff
September 30th, 2009
6:59 am
Comment from COX: “so we do have to be smarter with the ball and respect the ball more this week,” quarterback Joe Cox said. “But it’s not something where we’re going to be freaking out all week about it.”
Here lies the problem- no sense of urgency to correct what will cost us dearly now that we are in the meat of the schedule. WRONG ATTITUDE and the coaches dont do anything about it./ who cares anymore- I dont
Georgia
September 30th, 2009
12:09 pm
all anti-georgia posters are here are so lame. Holding players out of the game? Cox has thrown interceptions, but he has also thrown a lot of touchdown passes that frankly Stafford wouldnt have put the right touch on. Stafford threw a lot of interceptions. Cox has had to throw more and in tough spots because the fumbles and defense put us behind early. You cant “manage” the game when you are down by 10pts. You have to go win the game and that requires risking passes down the field. I give Cox a pass on the first game of the year due to illness etc. Tough opening road game. Since then he has been very very good for most part. The O-line and running backs need to be better. The defense is getting better as expected. Just glad our D-coord is getting a week off from all the crap sent his way in the past 3 weeks. In week one and 4 the offense and special teams are the ones who gave up the leads, not the defense.
Georgia
September 30th, 2009
12:16 pm
shards1967.. keep your negative BS to yourself. “6-6″, 7-5″? what are you talking about? Are you remembering 1963 or 64? richt hasnt even been close to any of those records. Georgia has a couple plays away from possible national titles in at least 3 of his seasons. unfortunately when we lost 1 or 2 games we didnt get a shot at the title like LSU and FLorida did. Auburn is the only team to go undefeated in the league since Tenn in 98(which was a total gift) and they didnt even get to play for a national title. Get off the “success” thing.
Cedrick (Arlington, TX)
October 10th, 2009
7:01 pm
I just got home from work and WOW did we get blasted. I may not need to watch the game after looking at some of the boxscores. When will MR realize that Joe Cox is not the answer at QB, when will he realize Vangorder needs to change the defensive scheme or move on??? I believe MR needs to relieve BOBO of his poor play calling skills. I cannot believe we are a 3-3 team. There is some serious poor coaching going on here and it needs to be fixed quick, fast and in a hurry.