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Self scouting: Why UGA's offense struggles between the tackles

Stat gawkers beware.

Georgia's 44-carry, 230-yard performance against the University of Mississippi will force most to look at another facet of the game in an attempt to decipher why the Rebels took the Dawgs out back on some Old Yeller ish (Radi won't let me curse), but for those living by the stats sheet hear me out.

I'm a big proponent of quality production. I used to cringe when former Atlanta Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking was touted as elite based on the amount tackles he collected, as the majority of his tackles came after the offense produced a sizeable gain.

While those tackles did stop the offense from producing a touchdown, for the most part, he was rarely effective at or behind the line of scrimmage like a truly elite linebacker.

When Kirby Smart took over this great program, I was thrilled to think that his core philosophy would center on collecting defensive souls in the between-the-tackles run game. And I was assured of that with his eventual hire of former University of Arkansas coordinator Jim Chaney as his offensive co-pilot.

My assurance stemmed from Arkansas' performances against the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide defense, where the Razorbacks equalized the talent discrepancy due to sheer physicality.

But I was also well aware that outside of having a host of talented running backs, like Chaney previously had, he wouldn't receive the benefit of having linemen who truly fit what he did at Arkansas.

Denver Kirkland (6-foot-5, 340 pounds), Dan Skipper (6-10, 319), Sebastian Tretola (6-5, 334), Frank Ragnow (6-5, 319) and Brey Cook (6-7, 328) weren't walking through that door.

Instead, he was inheriting smaller, but talented, players that were recruited to function in a scheme based off area blocking.

Now the Smart-Chaney pairing is tasked with trying to win ball games while establishing a standard they know will achieve sustained winning .

On one hand, you have a team that previously won 10 games. On the other, that team was fool's gold, as it didn't beat anyone with any type of credibility.

So do you succumb to the pressure and go outside of your philosophy and run zone schemes and other edge-bending concepts, mostly? Or do you set the tone for what's to come and try to squeeze blood out of a turnip? (Is there blood in a turnip?)

I'm for the latter, because once it all comes together...it's curtains.

Bang it below for further analysis -- in the form of video-- of why UGA's power concepts aren't working against teams with pretty good talent in its front seven.

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