Way late Keys to the game Review - Vandy

Sorry for the lack of posting the last few days but I, as well as my family, have been a bit under the weather so that took priority. Here is my review of the keys to the game as well as what I saw from re-watching the game.

1. Show up - Result - Georgia as a team did not show up for this game. The offense put up points but none in the first quarter. The offense settled for 6 field goal attempts. Put just a couple of those six in the endzone and the game is not close. As for the defense, they gave up 200 yards rushing to Vandy. That is awful. The team simply did not come out focused on the task at hand.

2. Don't turn the ball over. Result - Georgia won the turnover battle 4 to 1. Winning the turnover battle made the difference in the game. The one turnover did hurt though as Georgia was in field goal range with the chance to make it an 8 point game.

3. Nail the coffin shut. Result - What can you say about this. Georgia took at 23-7 lead and had the chance with a stop to really put the game out of reach, instead Vandy returned the kickoff for 96 yards and a TD. Georgia then drove the field and had a chance to get that TD right back and steal away any momentum Vandy had gained but instead settled for a long field goal. Late in the game Georgia was driving down for at least a field goal when Murray threw his only interception of the game. What would have been an 8 point game stayed at 5. Right after the turnover by Georgia Geathers did a great job of breaking into the backfield and getting a hold of Rogers, if he tackles him there Georgia is up 7 and getting the ball back. Rogers instead broke the tackle and got a good gain to give Vandy a chance. Rambo intercepted a pass with 1 minute left in the game. He was trying to make sure he didn't give the ball right back to Vandy and took a knee. Only problem was Georgia couldn't run the clock out simply by taking three knees. First down, penalty. 1st and 2nd down loss of yards on a sideways play, to me when the other team knows you are going to run the ball to try to run clock, don't get fancy, go big and run it right at them. Then on third down we did what we should have on first and second and ran right at Vandy leading to a 4th down with not much time left but enough that we had to punt. Get off a punt and the game is over. We had it blocked and Vandy almost had a scoop and score that would have lost the game for Georgia. Time after time Georgia had the chance on offense and defense to put the game away and it was not until the final seconds ticked off that they did this.

Prediction - 34-10 - Result - 33-28

As for the tape review there is not much I can say other than it was an ugly game, which is just what Vandy wants. The good was that despite not having his best receiving threat Murray was able to throw for the most yards in a game of his career. The offensive line did a good job of giving Murray time to throw. Funny how it works out that Murray has time and has his best game of the season.

The biggest problem on defense to me appeared to be a defensive line that was almost too aggressive. Getting some pressure from the front three is nice in the 3-4 but if the line is giving up their gap integrity to get that pressure it can cause huge holes for the other teams running games. There were multiple times when a linemen would get great push only to have the running back run right into the spot that the lineman just vacated.

Basically though the game boiled down to two things. First Georgia has not reached the point where it is mature enough to not overlook a game like this. Second it has matured enough from last year to win a game like this that it almost certainly would have last year. The good news from the game is that it hopefully served as a wakeup call to the team that they still have a long ways to go. They have improved from game to game each week this year until this game. Hopefully with two weeks until the Florida game and a reminder that they still have to work their butts off this close victory can

Vandy by the numbers

As anyone who pays attention to SEC football knows by now Vandy's defense is pretty darn good. They also know that their offense is bad, but after looking at a few numbers they are worse than even I thought. Here is how Vandy ranks offensively on the national level:
scoring 98th at 20.4 points per game
rushing offense 100th at 115.2 yards per game
passing offense 114th at 129.2 yards per game
total offense 117th at 244.4 yaards per game (40 yards per game WORSE than last year)

How bad is that? Well Ole Miss, the next worst 1A team Georgia has played this season ranks higher in every category, though not by much. Vandy would need to surpass the number of yards a game it averages by 16 yards against Georgia to reach the number of yards Georgia's 7th ranked nationally total defense averages giving up. To put that differently, Georgia's defense is the 7th best in the nation and would actually improve their defense if they gave up the number of yards Vandy is averaging. Georgia's worst offensive total of 315 yards is 70 more yards than Vandy averages per game. They have only surpassed Georgia's worst offensive output in one game. Their points per game is helped greatly by the fact that they have scored 3 touchdown's on defense. If you take that away from them they are averaging 16.2 points per game on offense. Their defense has more yardage in interception returns than their top two receivers combined and have almost as many TD's (3) as they have passing TD's (4). Vandy does not have a passer, receiver or running back in the top ten in the SEC. The good news for Vandy's offense is that they are not the worst in the SEC, that honor would belong to UK. We will cover that train wreck later in the season.

The opposite of Vandy's offense is their defense. Here is their ranks nationally:
scoring defense 22nd at 19.4 points per game allowed
rushing defense 29th at 108 yards per game allowed
passing defense 29th at 199 yards per game allowed
total defense 21 at 307.2 yards per game allowed
Vandy leads the nation in interceptions with 14 (2.8/game).

Without having to dig much deeper there are two things that can beat Georgia when they Vandy; complacency and (lots of)turnovers.