Xs and Os: Good and bad from Georgia's win over Kentucky

Georgia is now 4-1 on the season after taking care of business against Kentucky. The Bulldogs coasted to a 35-14 win over the WIldcats, covering the 20.5 point spread pretty easily in the grand scheme. They lead 35-7 going into the fourth quarter, and UK didn’t score it’s second touchdown until the final minutes of the game. Below, DawgsHQ breaks down what we saw on the rewatch with Xs and Os.

The little things…

Georgia wants to take a deep shot on this play but due to poor execution and an assignment bust, Gunner Stockton doesn’t end up with enough time. The breakdown here is between Drew Bobo at center and Dontrell Glover at right guard.

To help with the deception of the run action, Micah Morris is pulling off right tackle from his left guard position. The right side of the offensive line + the center are all in slide left/inside protection to fill the spot vacated by Morris. Bobo, however, gets beaten across his face, which isn’t the end of the world. He’s sliding to his left, opening himself to having his face crossed but his initial punch also misses. Glover leaves the A-gap wide open because he never steps down. He lets the three-technique get into his chest.

Ideally, Glover, Bobo, and Gaston all take the same step, building a wall to the right side with both Morris and Chauncey Bowens there to protect the edge. Georgia ends up with both A-gaps open, and Kentucky exploits one of them to apply pressure. Lastly, Stockton should be throwing this ball away a little sooner. There’s no reason he should take a hit on that play.

Getting the play started…

After pointing out something that went wrong with the Georgia offensive line, let’s point out something that went right. Bobo and the right side do an excellent job of getting this play started and resetting the line of scrimmage on this play.

The Bulldogs bring London Humphreys in jet motion, and it draws the attention of both safeties and the inside linebacker to the field side. That motion takes multiple guys out of the potential run fit. Then you look at the play-side blocking. Georgia gets a well-timed combo block from Bobo and Glover before the latter works up to the linebacker. Juan Gaston does a nice job of getting a hat on a hat here, but could have done a much better job of establishing position and maintaining his block. That’s the lone breakdown in the play but because the Bulldogs got it started so well, it’s a productive play.

Good call…

There isn’t much technical to break down about this play. Georgia took a shot on first down and the over-arching tendency, across the sport at both the college and professional levels, is to run the ball on second down to try and cut the chains in half, at least.

Georgia plays off that tendency really well with a well-designed RPO. Kentucky’s linebackers bite heavily on the run, Stockton pulls it, and hits Humphreys for a gain that gets the 96-yard touchdown drive started. The Bulldogs get away with one as Bobo is chasing downfield. Gaston, however, does not. He throws on the brakes and gets back to the line of scrimmage.

Won’t show up on the stat sheet…

Jesse Palmer pointed this out during the game, and we discussed it in the game thread, but I wanted to point it out again here because Demello Jones does such a great job on this play. This is the look Kentucky wants. It has the numbers as it motions into quads to the field. Jones, however, strings it out perfectly, allows the Georgia defense to rally, and the Bulldogs get a stop on third down.

It all starts with Jones attacking the right spot. He widens at the snap, allowing him to get on the outside shoulder of the receiver. Then he fights to maintain that leverage, eliminating the Kentucky receiver’s ability to immediately attack the edge. The forced indecision buys plenty of time for Georgia’s pursuit.

All out of sorts…

We’re going from a positive example of Georgia defending the screen to a very negative one. This is just ugly, and I’m sure the Georgia coaching staff got some mileage out of this during film review.

I can’t be sure where the bust is in terms of the adjustment to motion, but I suspect, based on the way I’ve seen Georgia handle this before, that Chris Cole is supposed to widen out with the motioning tight end. I say that because the first thing I noticed when rewatching this play is the fact that Cole and CJ Allen collide in the middle of the defense.

Either way, Georgia doesn’t give itself a chance with the numbers. When Kendrick Law catches the football, there’s a double team in front of him and no one else within 10 yards. KJ Bolden gets held pretty bad on this play, but, again, you just don’t see Georgia get beating by the numbers this badly very often. Due to the hold and lack of numbers, there’s no one present to force this play back to the inside.