Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Expect Defense to Dominate

Yes, I expect the defense to dominate Saturday night. After watching the Carolina "tivo", I came away very optimistic.

Mallett is big, slow, and may even be dumb, but all I care about is the slow part. Last week Garcia didn't exactly carve Willie's boys up like the stats would seem to indicate. With the exception of the big tight end always being open on the 10 yard curl, and a couple of long routes that got behind us, the vast majority of Garcia's completions were after scrambles.

I do not have any stas on the COck's yards after reception, but rarely did the do any damage after catching the ball. Furthermore, ralrey did the catch the ball moving towards the goaline. Most receptions were made coming back to the scrambling quarterback.

We cannot expect to maintain coverage on receivers for more than 4 seconds. This week, we will not have to. Unless Mallett can stand in there and throw it with Dawgs draped all over him, a la Jared Lorenzon, we should be able to increase our sack total for the year exponentially.

Arkansas has a good corps of SEC talent receivers, but they will not have all day to get open. Mallett will have to get rid of the ball quickly, allowing the Dawgs to tighten up on the edges and provide the opportunity for some interceptions.

Georgia should also be able to blitz. Garcia routinely side stepped the blitz. Do not expect the same from Mallett. Expect Mallett to eat the ball or throw it up for grabs. I'll take either, because I do not see their receivers out battling our corners on jump balls.

Petrino has an excellent offensive mind. Certainly he will have a game plan to expose some of our weaknesses, but Willie has faired awfully well against stationary QBs in the past.  Throw in the talent level advantage Georgia's defense has and it adds  up to a great performance by the Junkyard Dawgs.

6 comments:

Stephen said...

YES!!! I was told I was crazy for saying the same thing, but I believe this Mike.

Justin Houston back at defensive end will allow Jeff Owens and Kade Weston to slide back inside and play the interior line.

Maybe Quentin Banks will be back, and we can do some head hog hunting in the secondary.

I already have my pork ribs ready to cook!!! GO dawgs

Sports Dawg said...

Mike, you mentioned the 10 yd. curl always being open for SC. I noticed our LBs played about 7 yds off the LOS & then dropped off further into coverage. That curl will always be there. Any idea why our 'backers play so deep?

MikeInValdosta said...

I believe the linebacker's depth at the snap is down and distance situational call.

The deep linebacker drops have been a constant under the Richt regime. I must admit, having linebackers with the speed to get that deep has been a huge plus for us over the years.

I would much rather the opponent have to complete 6 - 8 ten yard passes to get to the end zone as opposed to beating us deep down the middle.

Ultimately, Richt and Van Gorder/Martinez prefer to keep everything in front of them and make the tackle. It can be frustrating, very frustrating, but it has been very successful for us.

Bernie said...

But me likes a little press coverage, man up, balls to the wall D mixed in.

Just sayin.

Sports Dawg said...

But we do miss the Van Gorder half-time adjustments.

Hunker Down said...

I'm feeling it! Dawgs D GATA with 6 sacks and a pick six.