2021 UGA Football: Week Five

 UGA Instant Analysis 

Week 5: W vs.Arkansas; 5-0

I had a coach who always told me nothing is as good as it seems, and nothing is as bad as it seems, when watching film. Basically, if I had a bad game, there’s gonna be positives to build on, and if I had a good game, there were still areas to improve. Today is one of the “not as good as it seems” days for Georgia. While a blowout against a top ten team is great, and Arkansas is a very tough team, there are some places Georgia must get better at. 

Offense occupies the bottom position today. You might see 37 points, especially with the backup QB, and think it was a good day, and it wasn’t terrible at all. But there were many missed opportunities on the field, and frankly many of the points scored belong to the defense and special teams providing short fields and a TD of their own. To be fair, the game flow and the advantage led to primarily running the ball (which I’ll get to in a minute) but when the passing game was called on Georgia lacked consistency and effectiveness. Throwing a 5-yard out on 3rd and 11, not cutting in beyond the first down marker, and an overall lack of position inside Arkansas’ zone are all troubling trends. Do I think JT changes that? A hundred percent. But so far it’s been tough to count on him to be healthy so with what we had out there it needs to be better to compete for a championship. I was also disappointed in the end of the first half, where three timeouts and three minutes on the clock failed to inspire the staff to hunt for more points. Certainly it was enough to win, and the run game made up for the passing game, which was tremendous to see. That leads me to my moment of personal joy; I love mean, physical offensive lines, and for the first time this season, Georgia showed just that and it was beautiful. The line was punishing Arkansas’ front, and even after Arkansas dedicated an additional defender to the box, the Dawgs moved the line of scrimmage at will. There were textbook combo blocks, tremendous reach blocks, and an overall pounding performance by the offensive line. One significant observation with line personnel is the use of Broderick Jones. I do not know if injury forced it, but Broderick played a lot with the 1s at left tackle and moved Jamaree Salyer into right guard, his natural (and future NFL) position. If that’s not an injury issue, and Jones continues to be effective at left tackle, Salyer can play the bruiser role at right guard he is absolutely built for. To compliment the line, the tightends blocked well to include Darnell Washington coming off injury, and the backs ran extremely physical. If Georgia can clean up the mistakes and get sharper in the passing game, this offense will continue to put up huge numbers. 

I really wanted to give special teams the top spot, but I couldn’t pull the trigger. The ST unit was tremendous today. Blocking a punt for a TD, providing the offense with great field position, and pinning Arkansas back on the few punts and many kickoffs only added to what was Podlesny’s best game. Jack put through his field goals with ease. Including one from almost 50. That field goal came from the middle of the field and looked extra comfortable, so that’s something to keep an eye on moving forward. I talked about it enough in the past so without getting too into it, how selfless is it for a kid with two ACL tears to get in on the punt team? By the way that is Zamir White, the starting tailback, who puts in that effort in special teams and found another score through his effort. A tremendous performance today from this unit that will continue to serve as a force in future matchups.

Another SEC shutout, another sub-200 yard game, and another unreal performance by this Georgia defense earns them the top spot this week. Despite only four sacks and zero pure turnovers, the defense kept an explosive offense moving backwards and under constant pressure. We don’t know for sure how healthy Jefferson and Burks were, Arkansas’ best players, but regardless this team is well coached and physical, and Georgia made them look like Vanderbilt. These kids continue to fly to the ball, make tackles in the open field, and communicate pressure and coverage so well. There were some minor coverage busts, and one noticeably missed tackle on the sideline, but overall this defense plays so hard for one another and for the team. They’re gonna see some talented offenses with Tennessee and Florida, so they’ll need to watch particularly for tailback wheel routes, but the defensive front’s tenacity and the speed of the back end makes it difficult to find a weakness. My only real concern on defense is if the opponent starts having success and running hurry up with effectiveness. One of Georgia’s biggest strengths is depth, and if you notice Coach Lanning brings in four or five fresh bodies every three plays or so. If an opponent has success and doesn’t huddle, it will be hard to get those players rotated on, and Georgia just isn’t used to it yet. I imagine they work it in practice, but something to keep an eye on against teams like the ones mentioned earlier.

I am not ready to crown Georgia the East champs yet, only because Florida is a little better than I expected, and that is a road game for the Dawgs every year, however, the college football landscape is shaping up to be a two-team race and I would not be surprised to see Bama and Georgia play twice at the end of the year. Georgia has to figure out quarterback play and continue to build depth at o-line and receiver, but the future looks bright and if not with this team, when? Over the last ten years or so, the most definitive measure of a National

Champion is a formula involving number of returning starters, number of returning players who were borderline draft picks, returning coordinators, and overall recruiting performance. Basically, a team needs 7+ returning contributors on both sides of the ball, both returning coordinators (at a minimum returning systems), and an average top ten recruiting class over the last four years. Georgia checks all the boxes and must seize this season’s opportunity.

For the Arkansas fans out there, y’all have a lot to be excited about. I love Sam Pittman — he’s the best coach at the most important position group in football, and he’s got a great attitude towards the game and life. After the game, most of the Georgia players ran over to Arkansas’ bench to say hello to old coaches who used to be on Georgia’s staff, Pittman included. That shows how high character that staff is and it’s going to lead to many victories this season and beyond. I would not be surprised to see this team in a NY6 game or at least an Orlando bowl. 

As I started with: not as good as it seems, certainly not as bad as it seems, but there’s an excitement building that Georgia fans cannot and should not ignore.

Go Dawgs.