Mike Bobo’s playcalling didn’t do his young QB any favors
Aaron Murray did get to use his running ability a bit more Saturday. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)
We talked here earlier this week about Georgia’s game against Arkansas as something of a test for Dogs offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.
Well, it was.
And he failed.
Yes, there were defensive lapses Saturday that the Razorbacks capitalized on, including biting on that play fake on Arkansas’ first score, but thanks to too many three-and-outs again this week the Georgia D was on the field entirely too long to try and keep a high-powered offense led by a talented QB like Ryan Mallett in check.
And showing a lot of grit the Dogs did battle back from a 24-10 deficit to tie it up 24-24 with 3:55 left in the game.
But after a fine defensive series got the ball back for Georgia and the Dogs had moved to midfield thanks to runs by Washaun Ealey and Carlton Thomas, the bizarre playcalling by Bobo that had plagued them all day reared its ugly head again.
Third and 4 and rather than a quick slant pass across the middle, or sending Ealey or Thomas wide, or rolling Aaron Murray out with the option to pass or run, instead Bobo sends all the receivers at least 20 yards downfield and has his QB standing back there way too long. The result is a sack that took Murray’s helmet (and nearly his head) off and the Dogs let a chance to win the game get away from them.
I’ll grant Bobo that Murray has a tendency to hold on to the ball too long in some situations. As Bobo said after the game, “We need to work on getting rid of the ball a little bit quicker.” But that’s to be expected of a redshirt freshman and Bobo knows that. So why put Murray into those situations?
And the play of Georgia’s offensive line continued to fall short, with run blocking up the middle virtually nonexistent and Murray’s protection falling apart too often.
But time and time again Saturday, Bobo showed a lack of a short-yardage game outside the red zone. On an earlier third and 1, Murray was sacked waiting on receivers to get open on long routes. All they needed was 1 yard and he’s looking to throw long??!!
This wasn’t a great defense the Dogs were facing in Arkansas, but at times Georgia made them look that way.
Yes, the Dogs missed suspended ace receiver A.J. Green on some plays, but especially in the second half Dogs receivers, including Kris Durham, Tavares King and the little-used Israel Troupe, came up with clutch receptions.
And because of the poor line play, the running game was inconsistent, though it occasionally showed flashes of what we had expected.
I’ll also give Bobo credit for at least loosening the reins on Murray and allowing him to take off with the ball, which resulted in Georgia’s first touchdown. But where were the tight ends for most of the day? Why didn’t Georgia make more use of the screen and quick hits over the middle?
And there was the predictability factor again in Bobo’s playcalling. When fans in the stands are consistently calling out what the Georgia play is going to be before the snap, you know your offense has a problem.
And I hate to say it, but I think that problem is Mike Bobo. Absent the superior talent of playmakers like D.J. Shockley, Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, who made Bobo look good in the past, he is revealed as a rather pedestrian offensive mind.
I’ll have more on Sunday, but for now, have at it. …
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612 comments Add your comment
Kmarcel3
September 19th, 2010
10:20 am
Couldn’t agree more. At the end of the season, either Richt realizes that he has to get rid of another friend like he did with Martinez, or Richt may be on his way out.
Chris
September 19th, 2010
3:06 pm
BoWeevil
Either 1) you misunderstood what I said or 2) you don’t know what you are talking about. Before I explain let me ask you a question. How did what we did work out for us, huh? My whole point is managing the clock is part of good coaching and we didn’t need 1:04 to get the yards we needed to get for the potential winning kick. I didn’t say try to kick it 67 yards. My point was let the clock run down as far as we could from 1:04 before calling the timeout (we had 2 time outs). Petrino would have been satisfied to go to OT so he wouldn’t have stopped the clock. We only needed 10 yards to get us in field goal range. 57 hit from 65 yards in warm-ups kicking towards the bridge; and I was sitting in Sanford Stadium when Butler kicked one from 100,000 miles to beat Clemson in 1984, so I had thoughts of the same kind of finish. Bottom line is, all things being equal, if we had run some time off before the third down play, ARK gets it after a punt with maybe 10-15 seconds left.
RAH3DAWG
September 19th, 2010
3:35 pm
To the Sandy Spring Jacket Idiot If i lost as much as ya’ll did to UGA i would keep my mouth shut.
Fat Lady Sings
September 19th, 2010
4:19 pm
Turn out the lights, the party is over. You lost to 2 teams that are extremely over rated. YOU’RE NOT RANKED AND DIDN’T EVEN RECEIVE ANY VOTES. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAA!
Stinger
September 19th, 2010
4:23 pm
You may as well hang it up. The Fat Lady has already sung. That is the kiss of death to your team this year. Oh well, you won’t have to spend money during the bowl season. You can watch us and others on TV.
DJ Shockley
September 19th, 2010
6:02 pm
Bill, Bobo wasn’t my OC.
rock
September 19th, 2010
8:58 pm
in reply to sandyspringsyellow maggett,at least we did not lose to the kansas jayhawks . bottom line is that A BAD DAY IN ATHENS IS STILL BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT tech. acc will never be better than the SEC . how bout them clemson tigers sat night . no matter how bad the DAWGS look now , they will have enough left in the tank to beat the yellow maggetts when they come to ATHENS on nov 27 . 30-24 – WE RUN THIS STATE
droopydawg
September 20th, 2010
4:11 pm
We need to blow up the rest of the coaching staff we blew up the defense last year. Bobo and Searles need to be fired, the strength and conditioning people need to be fired. Then if we are still bad next year, with a second year DEF scheme and a second year QB, maybe Richt is the problem. Right now though, I am willing to blame Bobo and a new defensive that actually looked much better than a week ago.
Vick=Dog killing thug
September 21st, 2010
8:11 am
Bill, so glad to see you calling out Bobo. Keep it up man. It’s exactly what UGA needs.
john
September 21st, 2010
2:53 pm
bobo is terrible. he’s been terrible for years. it wasnt as obvious in past years because martinez’s got all of the bad headlines. [which he deserved]. now that the defense is better everyone is realizing that our offensive play calling is horrendous. when he needs to be creative, he calls it simple. when he needs to be simple, he tries to be creative. we have no effective short yardage plays. why we dont have murray roll out on 3rd and short is beyond me. and why are the tight ends not the focal point without aj???? charles is a match-up nightmare, but we refuse to isolate him against inferior defenders. and white is a great pass cathcing TE lining up on the line. white and charles should both be on the field the majority of the game. bobo gets the least out of the talent around him. with stafford, moreno, massaquoi, and green we should have scored 50 a game. with this group we should be able to muster at least 30 a game. we need a new offensive staff if we ever want to capitalize on these incredible players.
Gabulldawg47
September 22nd, 2010
1:26 pm
Amen, The play calling was awful all day long, not just the 4th quarter. Earlier in the game GA had the ball on the AK side of the 50, 3rd and 1, and Bobo calls for a 20 yard pass downfield that fell incomplete. We should have let Bobo go with Martinez.
Alpharetta Jon
September 22nd, 2010
11:19 pm
Last year everyone was concerned with Defense and pointing the finger at Martinez when we should have been asking ourselves why is the defense always out there on the field. The problem was Bobo’s poor play calling and it still is. Yeah, he looks great when a reciever pulls down a bomb but how often does that happen? Once maybe twice a game? We’re throwing bombs when we need to be throwing 5 or 10 yard passes for a first down. Hey Mike! A short pass has a higher percentage of being caught than a bomb does you idiot! I could easily call a better game offensively. This article is finally saying what I’ve been saying for two years and I’m glad someone finally wrote it. Last year, you could have fired Bobo or Martinez and old Willie got the ax. Should have been both of them. People just don’t get it though. A slow driving offense is defensive in that it keeps the other team off the field. Duh! Just look at the Falcons under June Jones. Yeah, they could score points and tons of yardage quickly with the pass but their defense would get worn out from being on the field too long and would get beat in the end. I’m convinced and certain that Bobo is not an offensive genius and is not good for UGA. If Mark doesn’t do something about him soon it will be a really bad year. Mark needs to get involved in the play calling and do some more polishing on his protoge.