What pieces need to fall into place for the Dawgs?
Aaron Murray has gotten off to a slow start in games but has finished strong. (Associated Press)
So, with Georgia having won the first of what are likely to be its three or four most challenging games this season, what needs to happen for the Dawgs to live up to preseason expectations?
In other words, what needs fixing, improving or tweaking?
Several folks I’ve heard from this week have pointed fingers at quarterback Aaron Murray’s slow starts in the first two games, and that’s certainly an area that could be improved. But taking into account the patchwork, hobbled, inexperienced offensive line Murray is operating behind, his early jumpiness and tendency to overthrow receivers is understandable … and his smooth play as the game progresses has been impressive.
Murray threw some really fine passes against Missouri, including a couple of touchdowns and several of the passes that were dropped by open receivers. As Buck Belue put it, Murray “delivered a big-game performance. … He was under constant pressure, in the first half. The O-line and John Theus had some issues providing a clean pocket, but Aaron stood in there strong and threw some nice balls. I was impressed.”
Despite the continued false starts (which really need to be addressed), the offense seemed much more in sync in the second half after Mike Bobo started going much more to four- and five-receiver sets that allowed Murray to get rid of the ball quickly, making the offensive line less of a liability.
Still, the OL is where the greatest improvement is needed, especially if the running game is to become more consistent (which also would take more pressure off Murray). If Theus and company can get healthy and stay that way, we should see improvement in both pass protection (which would free up the tight ends to become part of the receiving equation again) and run blocking.
The latter is especially important, because the Bulldogs need opponents worrying about the run in order to keep them from locking down the passing game. Georgia has three talented tailbacks, but their production has been spotty so far. As Mark Richt said this week, “We have to get better. We missed some opportunities this last game maybe more than game one as far as hitting it in the right spot. We missed some good blocking a couple of times I thought, more than a couple of times actually. It wasn’t just one guy. I think all three of them really, there was probably a run or two that all of them had that could have gained some yards.”
As for the defense, I’ve heard from a couple of fans who’ve been alarmed by the number of yards the Dawgs have given up in the first two games, particularly in the air. But keep in mind that Georgia has been operating without four defensive starters, mostly in the secondary. Considering that fact, I think the defensive showing so far has been remarkable. (Thanks in large measure, of course, to Jarvis Jones.) Just think what it’s going to be like in a couple of weeks when Todd Grantham’s troops are full-strength.
As for special teams, generally there’s definitely been improvement so far (with the occasional hiccup like Malcolm Mitchell’s ill-considered attempt to field a bouncing punt against Mizzou), but the kicking game remains a little shaky. That’s to be expected, though, with two true freshmen. Placekicker Marshall Morgan has shown a strong leg, and I think consistency will come as he gets more game experience. Let’s hope he gets plenty of PAT opportunities to work on his timing the next three games!
What else do you see that needs to happen in order for the Dawgs to be operating at peak efficiency?
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157 comments Add your comment
Dawg Haus
September 13th, 2012
5:27 pm
An outside opinion of Georgia’s D: http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/50445/no-excuses-georgias-d-gets-it-done
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
5:28 pm
yeah, but the vol’s always play us better in athens than they do in knoxville. We did knock bray out…but he was having a pretty good game before that. He was moving the ball up and down the field…we stopped him once he got close to the redzone…we might not be that lucky this time
Bill
September 13th, 2012
5:34 pm
Dirty Dawg, Bill King is a closet GT fan. He will eventually come out. . .
Dawg Haus
September 13th, 2012
5:37 pm
I have the UT game circled on my calendar. I think the last time the Dawgs lost to the Vols at home was 2006, but they crushed our boys in Knoxville in 07 and 09. Man, those both hurt. I’m confident that a defense at full strength will be up to the challenge of keeping Bray in check. Rambo and Tree will be looking to prove themselves and regain the confidence of their coaches and teammates.
Dawg Haus
September 13th, 2012
5:39 pm
I think the game this weekend in Knoxville will give us a good idea of what we’re looking at with UT. Granted, Florida’s D is banged up, but they’re still a capable bunch.
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
5:39 pm
Put fear in other teams eye’s huh? I guess having a defense that is last in conference will do that huh? geez shwan williams hasn’t made any plays this year so far worth noting…only jenkins and jarvis jones have…the question is hen jones leaves..where are we going to find the next jones that will save granthams job…i will believe grantham is for real if we shut down the overated lattiomore and we put jeff driskel in the hospital!!
Thank God for Reggie Ball
September 13th, 2012
5:51 pm
@joe jenkins
I will ask the same question that you, and the other knuckleheads failed to answere earlier, what did Mizzou, who I will AGAIN remind you is ranked 2nd in the nation in rushing offense the last 3 years, do after the TD on the blown coverage at the start of the 3rd quarter?
que the jeopardy music…
Thank God for Reggie Ball
September 13th, 2012
5:52 pm
apparantly Grantham’s D didn’t shut down Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, Georgia Tech, or hold LSU to 0 first downs in the first half. nor did they hold Mizzou to 2.7 rushing yards per attempt.
nope. Grantham doesn’t get it done.
morons
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
5:56 pm
Yeah you are right…we did hold them scoreless in the fourth quarter….But we can’t have these blown coverages against the better teams in the sec. my gawd…mizzo is practically still a big 12 team. We have to play the full 60 minutes…not just the second half
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
5:59 pm
The four teams you just mentioned he only shut one of those down….and that was auburn. Whats the defense going to do when the offense goes a game without scoring forty points…we wont score that many points once sec play starts…we shall see want we.
Thank God for Reggie Ball
September 13th, 2012
6:03 pm
well according to Mizzou, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech, we don’t have to
21 will be plenty
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
6:09 pm
It’s a fact we haven’t had a shut down defense since the great Erk Russell left us. BVG was good but ol richt let him go….BVG was actually better than grantham is now…but now bvg is worse than a sack of dodo……My dawgs will have to show me on the field that we are for real and time will tell and its coming fast my friends…the defense can’t wait or depend on the offense to get better or bail them out….because of our horendus poorus O-line once again
Thank God for Reggie Ball
September 13th, 2012
6:11 pm
by the way we absolutely did shut down Florida, Tennessee and Georgia Tech.
Florida scored on basically a hail mary 4th and 19, other than that all of their scores were directly related to kick returns and turnovers creating field position. give them the ball on their half of the field and they could do NOTHING.
Tennessee was shut down. You can’t even play the “played bad in the 1st half” card for that game. They were shut down. they moved the ball well on 2 drives but were held to long field goal attempts which they made. the offense struggled in that game but the defense pulled it out.
Georgia Tech literally had ONE good drive when the game was actually in question. one, 1, uno. I think you can at least count THAT high.
Auburn just got embarrassed. simple as that.
LSU looked like deer in headlights offensively in the 1st half. Honey Badger TD return and a Murray fumble later and the D was getting put on the field at their own 20, TD LSU, then getting put back on the field at their own 40 3 plays later.
Your 5:59 was just flat out incorrect
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
6:15 pm
Well it will have to better than 21 to beat fla and tenn as they Are better and tech also….auburn is garbage and mizzo still is not a example of defense being great…because they are still a middle of the road big12 team
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
6:18 pm
Yeah you are right we did basically shut those teams down….but can we do it this year? I have my doubts…we have looked suspect so far….
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
6:24 pm
Maybe when rambo and tree come back we will finally have the dominant defense we all have been wanting to see since the 2002 and 2003 seasons….I sure hope so…would be great to sock to spurrier and lattiomre…..I just hope I have that feeling where you know when the defense is on the field that they are going to get the stops we need and some three and outs….just don’t have that feeling yet about this years defense
Thank God for Reggie Ball
September 13th, 2012
6:25 pm
we have. I’m not debating whether or not the D has shown some things that could potentially be worrysome. I’m just amazed at how stupid you would have to be to try to argue that it was awful last year and that Grantham is garbage. Grantham’s Defene was top 10 last year and I haven’t seen anything that shows me that once we are at full strength personell-wise we won’t be right back there.
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
6:39 pm
Alright, i’m done debating too. I just think grantham is just a little overated and not as good as bvg was in his tenure at uga. but we all have a different opinions. All in all i’m happy about our win against mizzo…my favorite plays were when jones was killing franklin…besides that i loved when big jenkins ran franklin down fromm behind and sacked him…had to be the high light of the game. I wonder if it was true what jordon jenkins said…that he heard franklin tell jj to quit hitting him so hard!!lol
Chris
September 13th, 2012
7:01 pm
BP, you’re an idiot, and obviously don’t know anything about football. You say Georgia scored 41 point against Missouri, and try to imply how the offense is so great and the defense is so bad.
The defense gave the offense the ball on the 1 inch line for a very easy touchdown, and the 6 yard line on the next possession for a second straight easy touchdown. I think the defense did okay against Missouri and will only get better. To argue how Bobo’s offense is ranked so high is pretty lame. While he hasn’t called his worst games ever so far this year, they should have been better, and he is notorious for being one of the worst offensive coordinators in all of football.
We will win close games this year because of our defense, not in spite of it.
Chris
September 13th, 2012
7:10 pm
joe jenkins,
You’re not much smarter than BP evidently. Georgia’s defense was ranked #5 overall in the country last year. That’s pretty good, especially considering how bad we were with Willie. The defense will be fine barring any major injury’s.
On another note, many of us complain about Richt and Bobo’s blatant neglect for the run at times, because if you can’t run the ball, your not going to win any championships. It is that simple. The same rule doesn’t apply in the NFL because they have so many great QB’s, but you must be able to run the ball and control the clock in college.
If we don’t realize this, and soon, we will not improve on what we did last year.
Snake Plisskin
September 13th, 2012
7:26 pm
@Thank God for Reggie Ball…”Then factor in the interception, which might have been the worst decision for a throw Murray has made in career, just flat out did not see the linebacker playing zone.”
The LB didn’t bite on the play fake, actually he didn’t move at all, Murray had his back to the line and that play was designed to clear out that area…flat out the LB made a great play by staying home, but what was the “Tell” that told him not to go after the RB…kid made a great play, juggling the ball and still coming up with it…hey, that’s football
BP
September 13th, 2012
7:38 pm
Actually, the defense was ranked LAST in the SEC in scorign against ranked teams in 2011. Gave up @39 points a game, 35 to Boise, 45 to SC, 42 to LSU, 33 to Mich St.
joe jenkins
September 13th, 2012
7:45 pm
you would be correct again BP…the stats don’t lie…grantham is vastly overated…yeah grantham is top five defense against unranked foes….chris, grantham has improved the defense to an extent…by not where i would say we are on par with bama/lsu…or even sc and fla
Mobile Dawg
September 13th, 2012
9:28 pm
Kudos Columbus Dawg, I believe you nailed it on the running game. If I can piggyback just a little, football is a game of strategy, you measure your opponent, you take advantage of their weakness, be it depth, lack of a secondary, poor punt protection, etc. I’m still critical of Richt as a tactician. I think pounding the DL with Gurley, Malcome, and Marshal wear them down. If the other team isn’t scoring on your D, continue with the pounding to the midsection. It will show as the game progresses. We had to resort to the passing game to beat Mizzou, that will hurt us down the road if we can’t run the football. Sometime I wonder if Richt understands that the longer the game goes on, the better your running game gets if you’re committed to it. Richt’s weakness is that he can’t play chess, a game of strategy, and patience.
Just Sayin
September 13th, 2012
9:29 pm
Hey guys, I think Bama gave up almost 500 yards last year to Ga Southern. Based on BP’s logic and several other meatheads…….Bama should have fired Kirby Smart!!!
croomy
September 13th, 2012
10:06 pm
we r 2-0 starting out and some people r still complaning!!! we could win a national title and some would still complain about the way we won it.A championship team finds a way to win(special teams,runing game,pass game,offence,defence).LSU beat bama last year by feild goals and voters still thought they were the 2 best teams in cfb.give them some time and they’ll figure it out.our freshmen r only gonna get better as the year goes on.by the time were playing SEC football all our starters will b back.as for the mizzo game,they were ready and wanting to win there first SEC game really bad.we done a good job to go into a hostile environment and get a win.so sit back enjoy the season!!!!!! it’s ours to loose!!!GO DAWGS!!!OLD MAN FOOTBALL!!!!
Teniia Dog
September 14th, 2012
1:13 am
south carolina is the only team on Ga’s schedule with similar talent—Ga can pull the upset and beat them in columbia. Mark this down: Ga’s D will shut down alabama and upset them in the SEC title game. This dog team is for real!
AAAAA Athens Bail Bonds R Us
September 14th, 2012
6:45 am
Any more dawgs arrested today?
Northern Sympathizer
September 14th, 2012
6:59 am
Good article Bill-This generated some good discussion. I am inclined to agree with BP in terms of being critical of Grantham. The D looked very bad against Buffalo. Remove Jarvis Jones from the picutre and the defense hasn’t played well at all. I think Grantham is overrated and a potential liability.
croomy
September 14th, 2012
8:10 am
when all our suspended players comeback it’ll b a different defence.then maybe we can run the score up so we can pull all our starters out so our freshmen can get some playing time.that way when the seniors go to the NFL we wont look so bad
Dawg Tired
September 14th, 2012
8:20 am
Main concern – QB play is like Russian Roulette. You just never know what’s going to happen.
joe jenkins
September 14th, 2012
8:33 am
@teniia dawg….pull the upset against carolina…haha that was a stupid post. A team where we are ranked ahead of…..and a team we lead the series 46-16. and u say it would be an upset to beat them…I don’t think so…its a upset if we lose to them. We should never lose to them our population is more than double the amount…If richt is going to get us in the sec title game we must start beating the chickens again… columbia sc is the hottest place in the world…and its boring
AltamahaDawg
September 14th, 2012
8:56 am
As they say, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
I thought this past weekend was actually one of the better strategized games we have seen in a while. A Check Mate as far as I could tell.
.
MA English 1975
September 14th, 2012
9:11 am
AAAAA Athens Bail Bonds R Us, Would you please stop already with the “arrest” jokes? We’ve had problems, certainly. But I think the guys are trying hard to do the right thing and stay out of trouble. And try to remember all the guys who’ve never been arrested.
AltamahaDawg
September 14th, 2012
9:12 am
The D had 2 bad series against Buffalo, which was completely, obviously, a matter of energy. Thats fine to critisize the effort. Shouldn’t even have 2 bad series against a Buffalo type team. We all agree.
BUT
They came out and gave up 16 yards on 5 possession in the second half, playing the equivalent of one hand tied behind thier backs as far as what they were allowed to do.
And this is “looking terrible” in your opinion?
AltamahaDawg
September 14th, 2012
9:19 am
sorry, “looked very bad”
joe jenkins
September 14th, 2012
9:27 am
@AltamahaDawg- have you heard anything on how tj stripling is progressing… dexter morant? Plus how you think Corn is dong at DE this season so far?
joe jenkins
September 14th, 2012
9:46 am
what about sterling bailey….corey moore i thought he would be getting better….connor is a liability
FLA DAWG
September 14th, 2012
9:57 am
1. Replace Richt with Chizik.
2. Replace Bobo with an experienced, run-oriented OC.
3. Keep Grantham.
4. Replace McGarity.
5. Get an O-Line coach who can train our big, talented guys on pass and run blocking.
Al
September 14th, 2012
10:14 am
@Fla Dawg
Surely you jest about Chizik replacing Richt. I’m not a big Richt supporter buy Chizik is a joke.
Yes he won a NC but that team was all Scam Newton.
i would like to see the TE’s more involved the offense and what has happened to Conley. I thought he played really well last yr. I do not see him that much on offense.
AltamahaDawg
September 14th, 2012
10:16 am
DB, if you are going to cherry pick stats……I believe IF you were to list 2011 points allowed vs TOP 10 teams, (not just ranked) UGA would be nearer to the top of the SEC, and the #1 east in that category.
We simply never played any of the #23 in the final poll types.. If we had….. logic (and every other stat NOT top 10, ie: conference games, D1AQ, winning records) would lead any reasonable person to conclude that we would have ranked quite a bit higher in “ranked” points allowed too.
Actually…….I think we did play some lower ranked team (at that time), and beat them fairly convincingly. (under 20).
joe jenkins
September 14th, 2012
10:25 am
what about ray drew and jay rome…damn drew needs to step it up and show what he has……I have not seen zack debell take the field this year….we need more backups on the o-line and d-line to step it up…their is a big drop off from starters to backups. I think for us to win a mnc these guys will have step up 1.corey moore. 2. ray drew 3. jay rome 4. zack debell 5. xavier ward 6. let kolton houston play for god’s sake
AltamahaDawg
September 14th, 2012
10:33 am
joe, really? going to start dropping names at this point? We all got your take on the deal. Wake you up when the crystal trophy gets here.
“We should never lose to them our population is more than double the amount”, ………..THATS your objective analysis?……….and you want to quiz me to see if I know about the progress of a reserve player?
FLA DAWG
September 14th, 2012
10:36 am
Al,
Auburn is obviously down. But Chiz is the man to bring it back again.
Chiz came in and turned that program around in two years.
That team had a hell of alot more than Newton.
Just like our Dawgs when Walker was on the field, he ran behind possibly the finest O Line in the country. The D was the original “bend but don’t break” D.
Anyway, I think we can do better than Richt and Bobo.
I hope I am proven wrong this season though!
Fan talk: Early-season optimism, Jarvis for Heisman, praising Bobo and more! | UGA: The Junkyard Blawg
September 14th, 2012
10:47 am
[...] capability. You’re right, there’s plenty of room for improvement. But as I noted in Thursday’s Blawg, I thought Georgia’s defense did a remarkable job controlling a fast-tempo spread offense [...]
Mad Dog One
September 14th, 2012
11:00 am
@macclenny I for one don’t care what you are tired of. GATA was coined by one of the greatest coaches in UGA history and some DA wants to change UGA history get over your self. GO DOGS & “GATA”
joe jenkins
September 14th, 2012
11:45 am
Hey atl…i thought you had the inside scoop, according to these people you do…i guess i was wrong. i guess you didnt read that we lead the series by thirty games.
murry>shaw
gurley>lattimore
uga wrs> sc wr’s
uga o-line < sc oline
uga d-line sc lb’s
uga secondary > sc secondary
joe jenkins
September 14th, 2012
11:46 am
well i think the chickens have a better d-line than we do…sorry
joe jenkins
September 14th, 2012
11:47 am
plus our lb’s are alot better than sc
i-dog
September 14th, 2012
12:14 pm
Chris,
Agree with you and don’t forget the the offense turned the ball over at our own 25 yard line on Murray’s interception and the defense gave up a grand total of 5 yards on that drive. It still costs them 3 points when Missouri kicked a field goal, but giving up 20 and more like 17 or less against MO is a very good nights work.