The Gators played well, but they also exposed a number of
problems for the Bulldogs, and quarterback Matthew Stafford said Georgia had
only itself to blame for the loss.
“We just had
too many missed assignments,” Stafford said. “We weren’t getting on the right
guys when we were blocking, we weren’t running the right routes, maybe missing
a check. Everybody’s guilty.”
This week,
everybody has paid the price with a week of practice Richt said earned his
praise and respect. He said he actually thanked his players after practice
Wednesday for their immense effort, and wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi said
the answers to the Bulldogs problems are all within reach.
“Everything’s
correctable,” Massaquoi said. “Not taking anything away from Florida, they
played a great game, but at the same time, we had some mental errors, we turned
the ball over and we had way too many penalties.”
That, however,
was just the start of things. There were plenty of other errors that earned
Georgia’s focus this week.
The kicking game
Freshman kicker
Blair Walsh began the season with a bang, connecting on a 52-yard field goal on
his first career attempt. For the past three games, however, Walsh has shown
his inexperience, missing five of his past eight tries, including four kicks of
40 yards or less.
Walsh said he
feels fine and the problems are just a minor flaw in technique.
“I just need to
keep my head back,” Walsh said. “I’m looking too early. I want to see the
results before it actually goes through.”
Walsh’s two
misses in the first half against Florida last week were costly early, but Richt
remains confident in Walsh’s ability. More importantly, Richt said, his kicker
hasn’t shown any signs of freshman jitters – a good indication the slump
is just a temporary thing.
“He’s a pretty
confident kid,” Richt said. “I really don’t believe his confidence is shaken.
I’m sure he was down about what happened, but I don’t see him shying away from
wanting to kick a 55-yarder if he has the chance.”
Red-zone offense
Georgia ranks
fifth in the SEC in red-zone offense, but far too often lately, the Bulldogs
have settled for threes and zeroes inside their opponents’ 20-yard line.
Against
Florida, Georgia’s only red-zone touchdown came late in the game against the
Gators’ second-string defense, and the Bulldogs failed to find paydirt in any of their three trips to the red zone in the
first half.
“You play LSU
and do a pretty good job of it then the very next week you can’t get the
touchdowns,” Richt said.
Georgia has
scored touchdowns in 22 of its 35 red-zone appearances this season, but has
done so on only nine of its past 18 trips. The task won’t get much easier this
week, as Kentucky features the SEC’s third-best red-zone defense.
The key to
changing the Bulldogs’ fortunes, Richt said, is simply execution. He said the
coaching staff has called the right plays, but the team simply hasn’t made them
work.
“You watch the
film, you see that the plan for the most part gives us a chance,” Richt said.
“There are some plays that we look at and say, ‘That wasn’t very smart,’ or we
thought the defense might react a certain way and did not. Most of the time we
had a chance if we executed.”
Red-zone
defense
The Bulldogs
haven’t been much better in the red zone on the other side of the ball.
Georgia ranks
ninth in the SEC at stopping teams inside its own 20, having allowed 21
touchdowns in 35 chances. Florida was a perfect five-for-five scoring touchdowns in the red zone last week.
“Most of the
time, it’s off of a turnover or a special-teams play, so they pretty much have
all the momentum,” linebacker Darryl Gamble said. “They go into the drive
having a lot of momentum, and it’s a short field, so offensive coordinators’
eyes are opened up a little wider when they have so little field to work with
and have more options of what plays to use.”
That doesn’t
ease the pain for the defense any, senior Jeremy Lomax said. While Georgia’s
offense has backed its defense into the corner on too many occasions, Lomax
said any touchdown the unit allows is unacceptable.
“We’ve been
kind of getting the short end of the stick, but still, if there’s an inch to go
to the goal line, they’ve still got to get that inch,” Lomax said. “It’s still
on the defense.”
Kentucky’s
offense is 10th in the conference in red-zone scoring, however, so
the Bulldogs may get a break this week, but the long-term fix has to start with
better play by Georgia.
“We have the
red-zone blues,” Lomax said. “It’s trouble. On both sides of the ball, it’s
trouble. The red zone is killing us. We need to go out there and really hone in
on it, get the right plays and just execute.”
The
interceptions
Against LSU,
Georgia had a turnover differential of plus-three and
won the game handily, but for the season, the ration is a less encouraging
minus-one, including four turnovers last week.
The biggest
culprit has been Stafford, who threw three interceptions against Florida and
has at least two picks in three of his past four games.
Richt said many
of the turnovers weren’t Stafford’s fault but rather a function of a strong
pass rush by the defense or a bad rout by the receiver.
“Ultimately
it’s his responsibility to avoid the picks, but there are some circumstances
that are a little bit out of his control, too,” Richt said. “I have not lost
any faith in Matthew whatsoever.”
Stafford said
his top priority against Kentucky will be protecting the football, but that
won’t be easy against an aggressive Wildcats secondary. For the season,
Kentucky has the second-best turnover ratio in the SEC.
“They make some
great interceptions,” Richt said. “A lot of guys can catch it when it just
comes to them, and they’ll do those, too, but I’ve seen them make some
acrobatic interceptions.”
Missed assignments
On both sides
of the ball against Florida, too many Georgia players weren’t where they were
supposed to be.
On offense, the
line failed to pass protect or open significant running lanes, while running
backs – Caleb King in particular – failed to pick up blocks on
passing plays.
“We definitely
didn’t play as well as we’re capable of playing, and we’ve got to do a better
job up front,” left tackle Clint Boling said. “We’ve just got to do a better
job of opening up some more holes and giving Matthew more time. We know if we
do that, they can make plays. Overall it was just not a very good game.”
The same was
true on defense, where Lomax said the game plan was strong, but the execution
wasn’t, meaning the Bulldogs spent a bit more time in the film room and more
practice on the fundamentals this week.
“Every play,
somebody’s assigned to something,” Lomax said. “You have a gap, and even if
it’s a bad call, you can make it a great call if you just execute the play.
It’s just hard in the red zone. You’ve got to bow your neck.”
The post-Florida let
down
Of all the
concerns Georgia had to address this week, perhaps none was bigger than the
team’s emotional wellbeing following the 49-10 loss that put an end to many of
the Bulldogs’ preseason goals.
With an early
kickoff against a lower-tier opponent, defensive tackle Corvey
Irvin said there’s a chance Kentucky could post similar numbers to Florida,
which is why he has concentrated on making sure his teammates are looking ahead
rather than focusing on last week’s loss.
“We’re going to
wipe our emotions off and get ready for Kentucky,” Irvin said. “Florida’s over.
They beat us. We’ve got to make a statement against Kentucky.”