Georgia Blog

December 30, 2009

Independence Bowl Review: Bulldogs End Season
A Different Team
By: Patrick Garbin of the About Them Dawgs! Blawg

All season long, Georgia was a team plagued by errors and mistakes, namely turnovers and penalties, and some misfortune.  However, in their final game of the season against Texas A&M in the Independence Bowl, the Bulldogs, not their opponent, played nearly flawlessly and were the team to catch the breaks.

In what was forecasted as a high-scoring affair was instead a 0-0 tie late in the second quarter.  Georgia, who had not punted against Georgia Tech in its last game and only 12 times in its previous four contests, was forced by the Aggies to punt five times in its first six drives; the Bulldogs’ other possession was a Joe Cox interception.

Following the first score of the game—a touchdown pass from Texas A&M’s Jerrod Johnson to Jamie McCoy—Georgia’s Brandon Boykin took advantage of poor Aggie kickoff coverage and raced 81 yards for a touchdown.  On the next possession, Texas A&M had a punt blocked and, one play later, Georgia’s Caleb King rushed for a score.

At halftime, despite having a 14-to-4 disadvantage in first downs and being outgained 260 to 99, Georgia had a 14-7 lead.

Midway through the third quarter with the Bulldogs leading 17 to 14, the Aggies’ special teams unit had another breakdown—their fourth since early in the second quarter, joining a blocked field goal, Boykin’s return, and the blocked punt.  A bad Texas A&M snap over its punter’s head gave Georgia the ball on the Aggies’ 24-yard line.  Three plays later, the Bulldogs had a 10-point advantage.

From that point on, Georgia simply pulled away for a convincing victory.  Following their first six drives which ended in punts and Cox’s interception, the Bulldogs scored on six of their final seven offensive drives, excluding the game’s final possession that ran out the clock.

Personally, I thought for sure Georgia would have a relatively easy time running on the Aggies; I was correct in my assumption, that is, for the second half.  After rushing for only 27 yards on 14 carries before halftime, the Bulldogs rushed 26 times for 181 yards in the second half, gaining 146 yards in the fourth quarter alone.

Georgia fans had heard for weeks about Aggie quarterback Johnson and, among other things, his extraordinary performance in his last game against one of the best defenses in the nation in Texas.  Against the Bulldogs, Johnson passed for 362 yards and guided the Texas A&M offense to 26 first downs and 471 total yards.  Nevertheless, he completed only half of his throws (29 of 58) and the Aggies’ gaudy yardage total came in a whopping 92 plays; their 5.1 yards per play ranked only ninth best this season for their offense in 13 games.  More importantly, Johnson threw two costly interceptions inside Bulldog territory on consecutive possessions in the third quarter—costly mistakes Georgia was used to committing itself instead of gaining.

I’m a big supporter of the yards per play (YPP) statistic—a telling ratio indicating how efficiently a team and its opposition performed to score points.  If a team is allowing easy touchdowns unconventionally through poor special teams play, turnovers, penalties, etc., without yielding a lot of yardage, like Georgia had for most of the year, its opposition would have a favorable YPP. 

Georgia entered the Independence Bowl with a defensive YPP of a dismal 12.43—the 12th lowest in the nation and the absolute worst at Georgia since it began keeping official statistics in 1946.  The Bulldogs’ turnover margin of -1.42 ranked next to last in the FBS and, besides the team’s -1.90 margin in 1951, was the worst in school history.  In addition, the Bulldogs were averaging nearly 70 penalty yards per contest. 

Against Texas A&M, the Bulldogs gained two turnovers while losing only one and were penalized for just 39 yards—its second-lowest amount this season.  Above all, Georgia’s defense may have given up a substantial amount of yardage but allowed only three touchdowns, all hard-earned by A&M’s offense, in the Dogs’ 44-20 victory. 

For the game and seemingly for once all year, it was Georgia, and not its opponent, that played relatively error-free football and took advantage of the Aggies’ misfortune after a season full of miscues.    

Read more from Patrick at his BLOG and find out about his books and writings from his WEBSITE.

December 28, 2009

Independence Bowl: What to Expect from Georgia
By: Patrick Garbin of the About Them Dawgs! Blawg

In Shreveport’s Independence Bowl, Georgia and Texas A&M will meet for the fifth time in history.  The teams first faced off in the 1950 Presidential Cup and then during the regular seasons of 1953 and 1954—all three Aggie victories.  The last time they played in 1980, the Bulldogs, led by freshman Herschel Walker, pounded A&M, 42-0.

This is Georgia’s second Independence Bowl; the first was a 24-15 win over Arkansas in 1991.  Texas A&M is making its third postseason trip to Shreveport. In 1981, the Aggies defeated Oklahoma State 33-16 and, 19 years later in the acclaimed “Snow Bowl” of 2000, lost to Mississippi State 43-41 in overtime.

OFFENSE:
In the first half of the season, Georgia’s running game and offensive line were considerable disappointments while the offense relied too much on easily-rattled quarterback Joe Cox and superstar receiver A.J. Green.  After averaging only 97.2 rushing yards per its first six games, 3.4 yards per gain, and just four rushing touchdowns, Georgia averaged 217.0 per contest, 5.5 yards per carry, and rushed for 10 touchdowns the last half of the regular season.

The Bulldogs’ drastically improved offensive line allows only one sack per contest—tied for 12th best in the FBS of 120 teams.  This strength will be pitted against a Texas A&M pass rush that is recording nearly three sacks (2.92) per game—eighth best in the nation—and includes lineman Von Miller, who is leading the FBS with 17 sacks.

In its last game, Georgia rushed for 339 yards and threw only 14 pass attempts in an upset victory over Georgia Tech.  The Bulldogs will likely attempt to establish the same rushing attack against Texas A&M.  Since the Aggies have struggled to stop the run, allowing 4.5 yards per rush, expect Georgia to easily gain 169 yards or more for the sixth time in seven games. 

Green returns after missing three-and-a-half games with an injury.  In the Independence Bowl, he and quarterback Cox should only have to be components of the Bulldogs’ offense, instead of its entirety as was seemingly the case earlier in the year.

DEFENSE:
What grabs one’s attention regarding Georgia’s defense is it is only allowing 328.4 yards per game, ranking in the top one-fourth of the FBS, but the Bulldogs yield 26.4 points per game.  For the second straight season, Georgia’s yards per point (YPP) was one of the worst in the nation while its YPP for 2009 (12.43), is the lowest ever at the school since UGA began keeping official statistics in 1946.

In other words, Georgia, by losing turnovers while forcing very few, constantly committing penalties, and often giving its opponents good field position, is allowing the opposition to score points without it having to work very hard for them.  This was a major factor why the Bulldogs recently fired three assistants, including the defensive coordinator and the coach in charge of kickoff coverage.

Texas A&M’s offense, guided by recording-breaking quarterback Jerrod Johnson, seems fit to take advantage of the Bulldog defense’s shortcomings; however, the Aggies’ gaudy offensive figures are somewhat misleading.  Although A&M is averaging more than 465 yards per game, it also averages more than 80 plays per game—second most in the FBS only behind Houston. 

Georgia’s 12 opponents this season averaged less than 65 plays per game while just one, South Carolina, ran 80 or more plays against the Bulldogs.  Texas A&M’s up-tempo attack is averaging only 5.81 yards per play.  In comparison, Georgia’s offense, who ranks only 73rd in the FBS with 361.8 yards per game, is gaining 5.99 yards per play.      

SPECIAL TEAMS:
Georgia has one of the better special teams units in college football, ranking 10th in Phil Steele’s special teams ratings in the FBS.  If not for the 26.7 yards the Bulldogs allow per kickoff return, the next-to-worst average in the FBS, Georgia might have the best overall special teams in the nation.

Because of Blair Walsh, Georgia has Steele’s second-best rating for placekickers while punter Drew Butler and the team’s net punting have the top averages in the country.

Texas A&M’s special teams rank only 84th according to Steele.  If their place-kicking is included, the Aggies’ total special teams rating ranks 74th in the nation.

INTANGIBLES:
For the most part, Coach Richt teams have performed well in bowls, recording a 6-2 mark straight up and 5-3 ATS.  Texas A&M has lost 10 of 12 bowl games since 1991.

Texas A&M’s biggest advantage might be its crowd support.  The Bulldogs sold only approximately half of their 12,000 allotted tickets; the Aggies sold all of theirs and even started purchasing tickets from UGA.  The Bulldogs might be disappointed in only appearing in the Independence Bowl after playing in January bowls in six of the previous seven seasons. 

WHAT I EXPECT:
The Bulldogs rushing attack gained steam as the regular season was winding down.  Using the Georgia Tech game as the perfect example for the bowl game and even next season, I expect Georgia to continue its running ways against Texas A&M and into the 2010 campaign.  Next year, the Bulldogs lose just one starter on offense (Cox), returning their entire line and top two backs (Washaun Ealey and Caleb King) from this season.

I believe strongly Georgia will have one of its best rushing outputs of the season and, in doing so, will move the chains often and keep the Aggies’ offense and quarterback Johnson off the field.

Although Georgia’s defense has given up many easy scores, I look for them to hold strong and exhibit the discipline and intensity, which lacked this year, they have displayed in recent bowl games.

"Everybody thought Georgia Tech was going to run on us, and we were able to shut it down," said senior defensive lineman Geno Atkins.  “We take pride in that and we're going to try and keep [the Independence Bowl] a low scoring game."

The line on the game is currently Georgia -7 with a total of 66.  Expect the Bulldogs to win by at least 10 points and perhaps by as many as three touchdowns in a game not quite as high scoring as the “experts” think.

GEORGIA 38, TEXAS A&M 23

Read more from Patrick at his BLOG and find out about his books and writings from his WEBSITE.

September 25, 2009

Georgia Recap
BY: Jason Nafziger

After sputtering in a loss to Oklahoma State, Georgia regrouped and won shootouts against South Carolina and Arkansas.
Stats so far: Georgia is 77th with 3.76 yards per rush attempt and 12th with 9.2 yards per passing attempt. Overall, they have scored 34.3 points and gained 365 yards on offense per game. Defensively, they are 57th with 3.63 yards allowed per rush attempt and 88th with 7.5 yards allowed per pass attempt. Overall, they have allowed 34 points and 406.3 yards per game. Coming up: The Bulldogs welcome Arizona State before two big SEC games against LSU and Tennessee. They need to win at least two, but have the ability to take all three.

Jason Nafziger writes about Pro and College Football at
http://onfootball.wordpress.com

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