3 Things That Worry Me Thus Far

There is nothing that I’m not worried about. After a few lackluster performances on offense, uncharacteristic turnovers, injuries, a loss that flat out should not have happened… well, I’m just gonna worry about everything until the Georgia Bulldog football team gives us a game where they live up to the potential. A complete game. All 3 phases firing on 11 cylinders.

This worrying isn’t going to ruin my slumber. I won’t have heartburn over it. But I want the on-field success for these boys so badly, I look at things with a uber-critical eye. Still, I have a job to do, and that’s to enumerate 3 things that worry me about the season so far:

1) Wet ball-gate. There’s been quite a bit of discussion surrounding Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm’s comfort level with a rain-soaked pigskin. Was he scared? Was he recognizing limitations presented by the current conditions? Was he being smart? Is this something to be made much of?

All I know is I saw a fidgety football player. He was still flipping the ball on drop-backs. He was constantly shaking his helmet, possibly to get the rain from running inside his helmet/field of vision. He also didn’t give too much credence to anyone in a Georgia jersey that was more than 7 yards past the line of scrimmage.

With less than 10:00 left in the 4^th quarter, Georgia faced a 4^th down and 4 yards to gain from the Kentucky 29. We were up by 14 and Kentucky wasn’t doing much against our defense A first down continues the march and sets up almost a certain game-winning score. Fromm drops back for his only pass attempt in the 2^nd half, and throws to complete to George Pickens for a first down. But that throw was almost behind Pickens, and he certainly had no chance to catch the ball at speed and pick up yards after the catch. Almost as easy a pitch-and-catch scenario as you can get, with little pass rush, an open pocket, and a rangy receiver dragging across the middle and past the sticks. This is the example of I have no clue what is going down inside Jake’s head, but that precipitation really got to him.

2) We could not tackle Lynn Bowden in space, especially in the 2^nd half. Granted, we bottled the Kentucky quarterback up a lot and prevented big runs most of the time. But if he ever did escape around the end, or cut back up the field, he was sure to gain 10 yards, with 3-5 of those after contact. The kid only weighed 200 lbs because he was literally soaking wet. And we knew it was coming. But he always managed to spin out of the initial tackle, or squeeze himself between a couple of defenders and get out of bounds. To my untrained eyes, this meant arm-tackles. And arm-tackles in a downpour are, como se dice, not good.

Georgia is about to face the best skill players we’ll see. Florida may not be deep but they’re good enough to run through bad tackling form. So is A&M, so is Missouri, and so is Auburn. I hope Kirby and Dan Lanning are getting back to basics with the extra time off.

3 a) James b) ________ c) Coley

The Dawg Sports-igentsia isn’t super crazy about the Bulldog Offensive Coordinator either. So while OC James Coley is the logical answer to what worries me, the fun part is what we insert in 3 b) as his middle name. This wasn’t a staff-wide project, but a few did voice their suggestions.

Vote in the poll below, and share your most creative answers in the comments (usual language and content restrictions apply, as does the “play nice” mantra, plus the “your momma’s gonna read this” test).

And as always…

GO ‘DAWGS!!!