The Next Level

I figured it was time for some nuts & bolts talk here. I've had 48 hours to ruminate on the Dawgs thrilling win in South Bend and now that the honeymoon is waning, it's time to seriously talk about what our deficiencies are, and realistically, what improvements can be made this season. That means I don't want to hear 'fire Chaney' because that simply ain't happening in the middle of the season. To be clear, I'm not a Chaney fan. It's clear Chaney is running a conservative collection of post-it notes right now, and I guess with a true freshman under center, that's kind of to be expected. I'm not making excuses for him, I'm simply taking it at face value. He's not getting fired, so let's move beyond the Chaney sucks stuff. The Chaney issue will sort itself out by season's end is my guess.

The Defense I saw on Saturday night was a championship level defense. I beg anyone to show me a better linebacking corps in college football. The transition we were all hoping to see in our defense looks to have showed up in season 2 of the Kirby Smart era. What I saw out of that defense was just beastly. If we continue to improve upon what I saw Saturday, that defense will be terrifying come November. Whatever Kirby & Mel are doing, they can keep doing it. We are seeing what a real defense looks like now, and Georgia looked a hell of a lot like another team from the SEC West on Saturday night.

Fact is, we all said we wanted to see improvement in season 2, and so far, we're seeing it. Not all at once, but we're definitely seeing improvement. What is it going to take to get to that next level of solid top 10 football and getting into the playoff picture?

The real issues are on the offense, so let's talk about the offense....

Improvements:

1. Discipline - there were way way way way way way way too many penalties in this game. 127 yards in penalties? That ain't going to earn you a W in the SEC. The holding penalty on Holyfield's return was gut wrenching. The hands to the face penalties are just sloppy football. This has to stop, and I get the fact that there were nerves in that game, but still, after the first few possessions the team should have settled down into a comfort zone and got their minds right. That's just lack of focus and I was thrilled to hear Kirby call it out in his presser out of the gate. If we continue that kind of football, we can forget Atlanta.

2. Throw out the Wild Dawg - if I never see this crap again, it will be too soon. It doesn't fool anyone and all it does is try a sleight of hand to divert attention from the fact that we have no offensive line right now. Gauging by the fact that the wild dawg formation netted us about 24 total yards of offense, defenses aren't buying it either.

3. O-Line - I don't know what the hell is going on with the o-line. I really don't get it. We outsized Notre Dame on both sides of the ball and the line still wasn't getting any push. I refuse to believe this is purely coaching. I refuse to believe that Sam Pittman doesn't know how to coach up an o-line when his track record clearly proves otherwise. There were a few little bright spots, like when Sony found a huge gap on the left side in the 1st and made a 23 yard rush, but really no holes were being opened. I will give them a little credit and say that Fromm wasn't running for his life like Eason was last season, but that was against ND with an inferior line. Wait until we play South Caroilna, Florida, Auburn, or Tennessee with a formidable d-line. It's going to get ugly. Broken record mode here, but if we want to compete seriously on the national level, we have to get something out of this line.

4. Dropped passes - enough said. Receivers need to....receive. Fromm put the ball in the hands of at least 5 passes Saturday night that were bobbled. The game wouldn't have been nearly as close had the receivers.....received.

5. Tight Ends - Where is Issac Nauta? 3 receptions this season for 33 yards? Why is Chaney not working him into the play scheming?

6. Nick Chubb & Sony Michel - excuse me, but I don't think Nick and Sony came back for their senior seasons to get 13 carries a game. These guys have GOT to get more effective. I don't care if we don't have an o-line, they need to be pounding that ball again and again and again. Nick has always been a tailback that has become more effective the more carries he gets and it's that way for a reason. The guy beats down d-lines with time and then he makes his own holes.

There it is, from my seat.

Not to overestimate things right now or get too far over the horizon, but it is definitely coming together. You can see it and you can feel it. There's a LOT of needed improvements, but there's definitely something going on with this program now.

SD.....appreciate you taking time to breakdown your thoughts......agree that our OC isn't going

Anywhere....at least until season end..... can remember the Bozo posts from not to long ago..

Now same people would be happy to see his return..... funny how the night moves...

OL we all knew and posted that this was a challenge....this group gets better with the experience..

Group has good points....unlike the defense.....Which graduates a ton of players...and have depth

To gain experience this season.....

Nice to have another non conference game for Jake and O to gain experience before first SEC

Game.....Go Dawgs

I agree that Chaney will not be fired and will be given carte blanche to continue to make our offense underperform. He can't do much about the undisciplined penalties or the drops, but your other points are all his doing... it's hard to discuss improving when the main source keeping them from improving is not being held accountable. Either Kirby is so defensive minded that he doesn't recognize a poor offensive showing, or he does recognize it and is ok with it.

SD, great topic. Not much can be criticized on the D, although our coverage can be a little too relaxed at times. But that's only going to get better as soon as Parrish gets back. Front 7 is straight filthy and relentless! Love what I'm seeing from that group.

Where to start with the O since 95% of the blame lies on Chaney. I guess with the o line... as usual I rewatch the game and try to focus on what bothers me the most. Being an OC/QB coach it's always the QB first followed by the o line. From what I saw against ND the o line is showing some improvement in pass protection and little improvement on run/rush assignment. Now with that being said this unit does look better than last years and at least we/I am seeing slight improvement. I think they're only going to get better with every game and at some point hopefully it all comes together for them.

It's hard not to mention Chaney and his play calling here! Get Chubb and Michel more touches, a lot more! That will open up the pass game! Get the rock to Nauta! Nauta not getting receptions probably bothers me more than anything else right now! The dude is a straight freak and in open field he is as hard to bring down as Chubb, if not harder. I literally get pissed as the game goes on and Nauta is not getting involved. All that blame falls on Chaney and the non rhythmic offense he runs. Honestly I have no faith in Chaney, never have...

The Wild Dawg, hahahahahaha! That was first brought to UGA by Bobo and I think the first time I remember seeing it ran was by Washuan Ealey or maybe Logan Gray. The only time I can recall it paying off was when Gurley scored a 20 something yard TD out of it. Besides that it has never been effective and never will be under Chaney. I really hope it's canned for good!

ST looks really good, very pleased.

I still think we have the talent alone to win the East and possibly more. But we aren't going to look pretty doing it and us fans are going to age a lot more this season while watching it. Still the talent is there and I really think the O line is getting closer and closer to being average and that's all we need from them with all the talent on O beside and behind them. Hopefully the talent can trump the coaching this year!

(Edit) PS-To get to the next level we need a new OC. Couldn't help it SD!

GO DAWGS

sadlerdawg wrote: I agree that Chaney will not be fired and will be given carte blanche to continue to make our offense underperform. He can't do much about the undisciplined penalties or the drops, but your other points are all his doing... it's hard to discuss improving when the main source keeping them from improving is not being held accountable. Either Kirby is so defensive minded that he doesn't recognize a poor offensive showing, or he does recognize it and is ok with it.

I'm not saying don't blame Chaney, I'm just saying firing is not an option in mid-season and we all know that.

Yes I agree wholeheartedly that all of the deficiencies, sans o-line and pass dropping, are Chaney's doing.

I was in a discussion today with a level-headed Dawg fan who told me "well dude, I'm not on the Chaney bandwagon either, but it's pretty damned hard to have an effective playbook and play call a variety of plays when your o-line doesn't provide the stop or the push to make those plays run effectively."

I don't totally disagree with that. So I lay about 75% of the blame on Chaney for not being creative enough to work around the obstacles to effective game planning and 25% on the o-line. As an OC, you have to work around the deficiencies you're given, ugly as they may be.

As with all SEC ball, it all starts and ends on the lines. I'm not making some apologia for Chaney, but I do admit that if he had an o-line that was at least 50% more effective than it is right now, we'd probably see more effective play calling. I AM seeing some improvement on the o-line, but not nearly enough to have us go the distance and get to that next level.