VTTW Board Index

First, while waiting for the team to arrive met Andre Butcher and his family - nice young man, said his recovery was going well, but needed to add some weight
Also met several other families including TK's, CMacs, the Wolfs, and more.  Very enjoyable.
(don't you just love the name dropping?)

Offense:
QB:  Dobbs had his usual WTF pass pick but otherwise played a very good game.  He sometimes needs to improve his pocket awareness.  However, two straight 300+ yard games is very good, not to mention his running ability.
RB:  I think we got a bit away from the run game.  We were opening holes.  Hurd is developing into a weapon as a receiver out of the backfield.  Kamara got a lot of work as Hurd stood on the S/L for the 4th quarter (with his helmet on).
WR:  Hit and miss.  We were getting open fairly consistently but at times had some difficulty getting separation.  However, we are getting far better.  Fewer drops as well.  There is no doubt that Dobbs is getting more confidence in his receivers.  We rotated more yesterday, including a Brandon Johnson sighting for a couple of plays.  We sub'd Williams in for Malone at times.  We had both Smith and Byrd on the field together at times.  Didn't seem to target the TEs yesterday though Wolf had a long sustained block on the goal line the enabled Dobbs' TD at the end of the 1st half.  On our final drive of the 1st half the FJ got in Jennings face inside our huddle, very weird.
OL:  Perhaps their best game of the year and for sure its most consistent.  They opened holes all day, mostly by using zone blocking techniques though there were a couple of flat hit the man in front of you plays.  Even when the blocking seemed to break down they had moved the line 2-3 yards.  We weren't getting that earlier this year.  The right side tandem has the potential to be great as they seem to play well together.

Defense:
DL:  Was disappointed. Inconsistent as hell and got pushed around for about a buck/fifty in the first half.  Far more effective in the 2nd half, again.  The use of Kongo as a DT in passing situations is not working IMO.  We failed to get an inside push when he was in the game, allowing the QB to step up from the DE rush (see their last TD).  As an aside, unlike in previous games (and showing our total lack of depth in the secondary) we had four DL in the game in obvious passing situations.  At DE both Burnett and Vereen excelled, Kongbo and Lewis not so much.  Most of the game they were chipping Burnett with a TE.  In obvious passing situations where they had to fle wide the need for that was shown as Burnett just pinned his ears back and went hard.  Interesting sub package as Burnett most of the time stayed in the game when the 2nd DL (Lewis, KMac and Tuttle) came in and then got his blow when the first team came back on, with Kongbo in his place.  Unitl the 4th quarter we only played 8 DLs.
LB:  I know that Jumper had 12 tackles but frankly I would give the LB performance a D, at best.  Out of position all freaking day and for the most part being reactive.  Vastly worse than last week.
DB:  Except for a series when Berry sub'd for Micah we played the same 5 DBs all day.  A LOT of interesting DB lineups all day.  We rarely played press coverage, tending to settle into 1 or 2 safety over the top look.  Led to some easy first downs in my view.  As we know Forman had an up and down game but IMO their TD bomb was more Micah's fault than his.  I as surprised that Buchanan did not play DB yesterday.
FWIW I think we were more effective, even in run situations in the 4/2/5 formation than the 4/3/4.  Gaulden is far better in both run and pass situations than Bynum in my view.

ST:  Other than two plays we were far superior than uga in the special teams.  one bad punt, that really didn't hurt us but the last kickoff after we went ahead was a diaster in coverage.  The kick itself looked good depth, height and directionalality, just broke down on coverage, forcing Medley to make the saving tackle.  KS mentioned our superior STs in his post game news conference.

Coaching:  I thought we had a good plan but poorly executed.  There is no doubt that adjustments are being made, just wish they would be made earlier.
As I noted last night, this team does NOT quit.  I was watching our sideline and missed their unsportsmanlike penalty.  The staff and team were focused.  While there was some head droops the overwhelming majority were working on a way to come back.  Very impressive to watch.  I've noted it before but Butch WORKS the officials.  In the opening moments yesterday he was already in the white hat's ear.

Overall we were fortunate but a win is a win is a win.  The VOL nation showed up and it was surprising to hear ohow loud we were at the end.  Watching the stunned looks on their fans faces in the stadium and on the walk back to the car was worth every penny  :thumbup:

We are 5-0, control the East, and headed for Texas.  Go VOLS! :powert:

After watching the tape a couple of notes:
Or LBs were getting their asses blown off the ball.  Change my grade to D- at best.  The TE TD was clearly CMac's man - interesting that both LBs bit on the play action on that play.
Our coverages seemed to get more complex as the game went on I think.  We tended to leave the middle of the field open.  Mosley is getting better and more confident.
Twice on their last drive we went for picks (Gaulden and Moseley) and gave up first downs as a result.
Gaulden was our defensive MVP Saturday IMO.  I suspected it real time and confirmed it watching the replay.  Early on he was about the only consistent tackler in the run game.  If we had more depth in the secondary and he was bigger he could perform well as a Will IMO.  He is a head hunter who likes to hit, especially QBs.  If he stays healthy I see Shoop using him in a variety of ways to help the defense.

I saw Dobbs throw receivers open a couple of times, the throw and catch to Smith in the 3rd was one example.  Dobbs is throwing the ball better and for the most part made better decisions Saturday that in the past.  He still has his  :wtf: moments but they are getting fewer.
I firmly believe that Hurd not playing was a coaching decision.  Why?  I have no idea (medical or otherwise) but his demeanor on the sidelines and that he was always wearing his helmet when we had the ball plus that fact that Kamara was tired and still playing with but one brief appearance by #4 indicate that to me.  I have seen elsewhere that Hurd was in for the last KO but I didn't notice it at the time.  It was interesting that Kamara was in for the last play as a blocker, shows a lack of confidence in the OL in my view.

Just watched CBJ presser.....He said Hurd will practice today with no limitations. On Martin....CBJ said it depends on how he does in practice if he makes the A&M trip or not. Looks like he just might be in the doghouse? Kirkland has been running and they will put him through drills early this week to see if he has a chance to play or not....CBJ is getting more info on JRM and he'll know more about his status later in the week. (IMO, JRM has little chance to play going forward...in the near future anyway).

IMO our slow starts can be blamed on the defense as much as it can the offense....If your offense is struggling early on the defense needs to man up.....But our defense has gotten us behind the 8 ball way too many times in the first half of games....We've gotten down 14-17-21 points on big plays and drives without much resistance. Very concerning to me. We have issues that must be addressed and improved on if we are going to get to where we want to be.

We got the 8th ranked team in their house and the 1st ranked team the next week.....We better strap them on tight and play damn football from the opening kickoff. A&M and Alabama are different animals than Florida and UGA.  

 

I have a friend who had a high ankle sprain (like Kirkland) and he said it was 6-8 weeks for recovery.  Kirkland has been out a bit over four now.  Given that he is getting a much higher level of rehab than my friend, who is definitely not a D1 athlete, he might just make it this week but my guess is NLT (No Later Than) bammer.  Agree that JRM is out this week.  That's my read on the Butch speak anyway.

Agree that the D needs to do better early.  I saw way too many broken tackles in the first half against uga.  I saw lots of complaints about the "uga OL pushing the DL around" but that's not what I saw for the most part (maybe 2-3 times there was a big hole).  What i saw was guys in position to make a play but the uga back would just run through or by them.  Have to tighten that up.  I will say that I think uga has, as always, a ton of talent at RB, and I am not sure how the Tamu back (who looks good) matches up against us.  Does Tamu have a change of pace back?  Will their main guy get tired? 

I suspect JRM may need more surgery

When your entire D-Line gets moved several yards (backwards, right or left - it doesn't matter) then you are getting pushed around.  Early, the uga line was moving the front 6 where they wanted to.
In the 2nd half we became aggressive.  Actually we started to improve in the 2nd quarter  but weren't as aggressive as we were in the 2nd half.  As soon as we started showing resistance in the run game Chaney defaulted to his preferred passing game.

On D a lot of the times we aren't attacking....we are standing and letting them attack us. Most of the time the one who hits first....WINS.

I just didn't see that on TV.  I saw guys often even in their backfield but the RB would just break their arm tackles.  I may go back and look again, but i didn't see us getting knocked off the ball so much as guys bouncing off the RBs.

According to Fred White, the problem was no one (he said a safety) was not coming up to seal the end to stop the back from going round the end. He said when UT started to seal the end, that forced the back to turn back up field into LB. Also said the LBs were to passive at first and let the back come to them. When the end or DB seal the outside and LB came up into the holes, backs stopped gashing. Sounds reasonable. When defense got aggressive, they started passing more. Our DBs really bit on play action though as most do (that is how it works).

As always, great write-up Pirate. My only question is if we should expect to see more of (Kevin?) Burnett?  :smile:

Sounds about like what I thought I saw