Just asking

Late to the scene as usual, but really have tried to sit back and read. Saw a lot of post about the LSU game. First and Foremost. What a win. Great football game. Lot of thoughts about the threads I have read, but not going to get into all of that.

UGA defense. Couple of things that I have seen. We have been pretty stout against the inside running game. We have also gotten progressively better in defending the edge against the running game. Seems are young puppies really struggled with angles. We seem to be getting much better there. As far a dumbing down the defense, I don't think that seems to be the problem. Seems to many times, IMO, players are just getting beat. Then, here comes the miscommunication excuse. Swann, just got beat Saturday. Langley, just got beat against usc. It happens, part of football. To me, problem now, is no coach or teammate is going to throw anyone under the bus, which is a good thing in the public's eyes. Handle those matters internally. Last, I don't like using rules as an excuse, but the NCAA has solely put emphasis offense. The targeting rule is a joke, but its deeper than that. Ex. is this. I watched Landry run a 5 yd drag across the middle over and over. When I played and coached, which wasn't too long ago, you stopped that really quickly. Used to be ok to earhole a WR coming across the middle. That was the risk involved with trying to match-up a WR against a ILB. Now, the only thing the ILB can do is try to run with the WR. Under today's rules about the only way to defend that, is to drop a d-lineman, and hope a qb doesn't read it. That is just an example. College football is trying to imitate the NFL. All emphasis on points and offense. Personally, makes me sick, but it is what it is.

I think I have seen improvement each week. We have chances to make plays on Saturday, but just didn't. We stopped the last drive, and yes, that was the most important one, but they all count. Make plays when you have opportunities. We will get better at that.

GO DAWGS, I am going. Not time to over look an opponent. Believe 2004 game has already been noted. I suggest all players watch a replay of that game.

Great points AD5.

When you mentioned the short drag across the middle and to earhole a WR coming across, I immediately thought of Percy Harvin doing that very thing and why didn't opponents earhole him when he ran that play.

That one play certainly helped TT's stats when throwing it 4 yards and Percy taking it 70.

AllDawgs5, dropping the defensive lineman into coverage . . . . Clemson. Good read Brother.

AllDawgs5 wrote: Last, I don't like using rules as an excuse, but the NCAA has solely put emphasis offense. The targeting rule is a joke, but its deeper than that. Ex. is this. I watched Landry run a 5 yd drag across the middle over and over. When I played and coached, which wasn't too long ago, you stopped that really quickly. Used to be ok to earhole a WR coming across the middle. That was the risk involved with trying to match-up a WR against a ILB. Now, the only thing the ILB can do is try to run with the WR. Under today's rules about the only way to defend that, is to drop a d-lineman, and hope a qb doesn't read it. That is just an example. College football is trying to imitate the NFL. All emphasis on points and offense. Personally, makes me sick, but it is what it is.

AD5, that was exactly what I was talking about. I agree completely. In an effort to protect players from certain injuries, they have made certain plays do-able that were not commonly done when I was a kid. As a result, it's much tougher to play on defense without drawing a flag.

When I was playing you couldn't drag across the middle of the field because a linebacker was liable to
actually separate your head from the rest of your body.

So no one did it... period.

It was real easy to avoid that injury.... didn't need a rule to prevent injury as common sense did the
trick well enough.

The rule changes do make it really hard on the defense as it's almost impossible to defend that play
man to man, and if you are playing straight zone you have to be careful of a hit that will cost your team 15 and
it's pretty easy to run underneath it. You can drop a lineman back into coverage, but if it's read you may end
up having that lineman running vertically, and that doesn't work out so well either.



Personally, I don't care for it. The trend is to make American football look like the Canadian or the
Arena game. It almost looks like 7 on 7 drills at times. I was fine with the more defensive game I grew
up knowing.

Wartdawg wrote: When I was playing you couldn't drag across the middle of the field because a linebacker was liable to
actually separate your head from the rest of your body.

So no one did it... period.

It was real easy to avoid that injury.... didn't need a rule to prevent injury as common sense did the
trick well enough.

The rule changes do make it really hard on the defense as it's almost impossible to defend that play
man to man, and if you are playing straight zone you have to be careful of a hit that will cost your team 15 and
it's pretty easy to run underneath it. You can drop a lineman back into coverage, but if it's read you may end
up having that lineman running vertically, and that doesn't work out so well either.



Personally, I don't care for it. The trend is to make American football look like the Canadian or the
Arena game. It almost looks like 7 on 7 drills at times. I was fine with the more defensive game I grew
up knowing.

Good stuff WD.

Geez, when I played if the bridge of your nose wasn't split, the coaches berated you that you weren't hitting hard enough and you weren't "drilling" the player properly with your helmet.