Here's what CMR had to say specifically to the idea of emotion relating to execution:
Emotion is important. But we also have to have better execution. If you take good execution and add emotion to it you have something special. But we've probably had more emotion than execution so far this season.
By that quote alone the component that is lacking the most is execution. And while that may be hard to argue after Saturday's pathetic performance in Knutsville, it also begs a chicken or the egg type question.
Maybe we relied too much on playmakers in years past to provide the emotion for our players to feed off of. And I'm thinking specifically of Knowshon; few running backs in the history of tackle football could instill such emotion with an 8 yard run the way Moreno could.
On the other hand, Coach Richt hints that the emotion has been lacking as well. I would argue that that is a direct indictment to the lack of preparation. Even the best pre-game speech is only worth peanuts if the other team is better prepared to execute the plays necessary to win the game.
Flashback to Saturday, I'm sure we can all remember more than a handful of play-action bootlegs and roll-outs that were uncontested. The accolades the last couple days being handed out to that moustached hillbilly should all have an asterisk: performed against Willie Wonder.
Hale has a post up today with some quotes on the state of the defense. Here's Martinez's take:
I just think they executed really well and we didn't....We had opportunities to make plays and we didn't. We got outcoached, outplayed, and they played really well and Tennessee deserves a lot of credit....It kept us off balance.
Our defense is at a stage in it's regression development where the play of the game is dictated to it. Gimmicks can help emotion swell within our veins, but my guess is it would be fleeting. We lack the playmakers to sustain it. On second thought, I think we have the playmakers to sustain it, but they haven't earned the opportunity. For a great post on that issue, I'd direct you back to the Senator's point on faith based personnel decisions.
Back to executing emotionally, it hasn't been that long since we had a balance of emotion and execution. There are players, coaches and fans who were 'tween the hedges and in the stands when the Dawgs used 28 unanswered 2nd half points to bury the Auburn Tigers in a sea of black. On that Sanford afternoon, emotion and execution found a perfect balance, a symbiotic harmony that was both beautiful and awe-inspiring. And yet less than two years later it seems as if it were playing back in our minds in grainy black and white.
Because today we are a different team. Engaging in grandiose histrionics after a tackle 14 yards north of the line of scrimmage is where we are right now. We need to get back to revving up the crowd after an 8 yard loss on a sack.
While the coaches throw the word execution around as an indirect way of saying the players didn't make the plays, I see the word as a two way street. We just recalled all of the bootlegs and rollouts by Crompton Saturday. How many weak side blitzes did we see? If you saw one, please remind me. I'd like to go back to the tape to cherish the moment.
Two years ago we had Stafford, Moreno and Howard. We may have players who six games into the season are still trying to fill those cleats, but we also have the same coaches, the same off-season workout regimen and at least a similar daunting task after an embarassing rocky flop loss. In 2007 we ended up with over 40 sacks. That was a lot of emotion.
And it was even more execution.
4 comments:
We have all said it before, but if the player is not executing, give someone else a chance. Keep plugging them in their until someone keeps their job.
If nothing else, that will create some emotion!
And sometimes it is the less experienced player who has had less time to be coached down in Athens...
How does it go? Boom... Roasted
Speaking of coaching down, an interesting point was made on the radio yesterday about the lack of progress our defensive players have made in recent years. More to the point, several of them, like Prince Miller, played rather well past years but have seemed to regress as had more time under Willie. So the point they were making is that we probably need to make a change soon to protect the likes of Rambo and Boykin to be sure they actually have their skills move in a positive direction in their coming years 'tween the hedges...
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