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Published Nov 25, 2019
Film Don't Lie
Dayne Young  •  UGASports
Staff
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@dayneyoung

Every week, Dayne Young and Brent Rollins will collaborate to show you the nuances of Georgia's technique and tendencies. This recap focuses on Georgia’s 19-13 win over Texas A&M.

*All grades and other data via www.PFF.com*

Dayne: Georgia took care of business; Georgia has further magnified its offensive issues. Both of those notions can be and are true. As we always do on FDL, we try to show you why the game ended the way it did. This week, however, we are going to attempt to shed light on some of the offensive problems.

Brent: The Bulldogs survived the physical four game stretch. They now will have the opportunity to put themselves in the playoff with victories over Georgia Tech, then LSU in the SEC Championship. It's the SEC Championship that all the positives and negatives we'll discuss this week impact—particularly the offensive inconsistencies we've all witnessed over the past four weeks.

Special defensive effort

Dayne: Georgia's defensive front continued to impress, and it started early with Monty Rice arriving right on time with the snap for an easy stop behind the line of scrimmage.

Brent: Great opening play aggressive defensive call and stop by Monty Rice. Interestingly, notice only one running back on the field, whereas the talk and the Aggies previous game featured heavy doses of two running backs. It was obvious, especially after the first few series, that Jimbo Fisher knew he was going to get minimal traction on the ground. If any damage was going to occur, it would be through the air.

Dayne: We're seeing Dan Lanning become increasingly aggressive with star and nickel blitzes. Mark Webb was in line to make this play, but he was beaten to the ball carrier by Tyler Clark, who executes a beautiful swim move.

Brent: Tyler Clark is starting to put together a portfolio of high-quality film for NFL scouts. The one-on-one win you see above is happening on a more frequent and consistent basis (we saw it against Auburn last week as well). Clark is now tied for second on the team in stops with 16 (solo tackles resulting in a loss for the offense). Further, his run-stop percentage (looking at run defense performance on a per-snap basis) is now among the top 20 interior defenders in the FBS.

Dayne: Travon Walker is becoming a weekly highlight. You can see his basketball roots in this defensive footwork. It's all after he shoves his blocker to the ground with sheer brute force. He shuffles from side to side, ensuring a running lane does not become available. Walker is a special player.

Brent: I mentioned this specific play yesterday in my post game thoughts and observations. This is how I suspect we'll see Georgia defend LSU frequently: three down linemen with three stacked linebackers (Richard LeCounte serving as the third linebacker) and five other defensive backs (Stokes, Campbell, Divaad Wilson, Stevenson, and Reed), maximizing their ability to cover while also having enough box players to defend the run. I'd also bet that more often than not, it would be these specific three down linemen—Trayvon Walker, Tyler Clark and Malik Herring. These are the best three down linemen who can hold up physically in the run game while also being athletic enough to make the play you see here. As Dayne mentioned, Walker is truly a unique talent. It will be interesting to see how he progresses in the strength and conditioning program, but he has the athletic ability to develop into a DeForest Buckner-type force along the defensive line.

Dayne: I love seeing Tyson Campbell's track speed on full display from the corner blitz. Divaad Wilson does a good job to cover the flat as well.

Brent: Blitzes and more blitzes are what the doctor ordered against the Aggies. Mond was blitzed on 22 of his 47 drop-backs, and though he completed 13 of those 22 attempts and was not sacked, it worked to disrupt the Aggie offense and forced Mond to get rid of the ball quicker than he wanted, just as you see above.

Special teams

Dayne: Rodrigo Blankenship and Jake Camarda deserve more FDL kudos for outstanding kicking game performances. Brian Herrien also gets an "atta boy" for this second quarter kickoff return. One interesting note: That's Zamir White as the other return man.

Brent: This is how you draw up a kick return (I've graded special teams multiple years at PFF). The gunner, the safety away from the kick direction and the kicker are the players most often left unblocked, so you can set up double teams at the point of attack. In this return, those are the only unblocked players and, if not for the good angle by the inside player chasing Herrien, he would have been one-on-one with the kicker. Any positive return yardage such as this is a game-changer for a struggling offense.


D'Andre Swift

Dayne: Charlie Woerner nails an edge block coming from the other side to help spring D'Andre Swift on this big gain. No. 7 needs to touch the football as many times as he can handle it. He is by far Georgia's most explosive and elusive offensive weapon.

Brent: We've seen a lot of inside zone—all blockers working play-side and the RB attacking the guard; and some outside zone—same blocking, but attack point for RB is the edge. Now we're seeing Georgia mix in the split zone play you see here and below. The line works zone blocking to the play side, and the H-back (Woerner) peels back for the backside edge defender. Overall, no matter how it gets in D'Andre Swift's hands, I'm all for it. His short area cutting and vision is second to none. I would expect to see him in the 10-12 carry range this week, to setup a heavy workload in the SEC Championship.

Dayne: As you will see in a moment, Texas A&M aggressively attacked Georgia's offensive line and often won. Here, the Aggies bring down a safety to slow Swift, but he patiently waits and stutter steps to make a positive gain. Swift should be getting more national love (and more total carries).

Brent: Exceptional work from Ben Cleveland here on A&M's best defender, Justin Madubuike, even while losing his balance. The Bulldogs forced him into his lowest graded game of the past two seasons. Again, Swift's cutting and start-and-stop ability are just special. As you'll also see further down, the Bulldogs must begin to make teams pay for continually bringing the extra defender in the box.

Run blocking

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