Episode 9 - 4th & 3 Dudes

This episode may be sensitive for any Texas listeners. If you or someone you know suffers from the Georgia pass rush, seek professional help. And also grow a pair!

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National landscape, week eight shakes things up!

Perhaps last week I was a bit hasty in saying "the waters are a little less muddy." Bama was wildly inconsistent on the road and Texas didn't bother showing up until the 3rd quarter. And even then, only had spurts of success. Let's dig on in shall we?

1. Oregon (bye)
2. Clemson (bye)
3. Georgia (bye)
4. BYU (bye)
5. Penn State (hosts)
6. LSU (hosts)
7. Ohio State (hosts)
8. Notre Dame (hosts)
9. Iowa State
10. Texas
11. Miami
12. Boise State

I watched Miami beat Louisville on the road. I'm still not sold on them winning the ACC, but it was a win in a hostile-ish environment. Clemson however still has the better resume, and I believe the better overall team. Let's not forget, Miami was the beneficiary of bad calls against VA Tech, Cal, and now Louisville. They could easily be 4-3. So the Canes move into the rankings, but that's all I got for them right now.

ACC-lite: Notre Dame looked impressive against GA Tech in the Benz. But again, they'll need to beat Navy this weekend and Army late next month to stay in.

Georgia's win in Austin moves them up into a bye. I debated on how far Texas should slide and landed on (newcomer to the rankings) LSU hosting and Texas moving into a first round trip to Columbus. Alabama's lackluster performance in Neyland was more than enough for me to move them out, especially given it is their second loss in the state of Tennessee. Did the Vols show me enough to move back in? Nope. Keeping the SEC at three teams.

What about A&M, the SEC's other undefeated team (in conference play)? I decided to be as fair as possible. I took to social media and asked followers to vote on these five teams as a third entry for this week's rankings - A&M, LSU, Missouri, Texas, and Vanderbilt. LSU ran away with more than 50% of the votes. (If you don't follow me, here's the FB page and here's my TXitter.)

Moving on, Oregon benefitted from Texas' beat down to move up into the top spot. And they may not give it back as they have #20 Illinois this weekend, and after that their next ranked opponent could be in the Big10 Championship game. I didn't like the idea of both Penn State and Ohio State hosting a 1st round game, but with Bama and Texas Tech dropping out it was hard not to. They play each other in a couple weeks anyway. It'll sort out.

What about Indiana you say? They are undefeated, but the schedule seems soft to me. If they keep winning and take down the Buckeyes next month... 

In the Big12, BYU remains atop the conference with Iowa State. I keep BYU as the conference winner and it seemed time to move the undefeated Cyclones in.

As far as true contenders for the whole enchilada...Dawgs definitely showed they can put things together. Again, I don't think Oregon is going to move much, so I have them as a true contender. And then I guess you have to include Ohio State as well since their game with the Ducks could've gone either way. And I think they're my only three at this point. Everyone else either hasn't impressed me enough to put on that level, or they are simply suffering from a weak schedule so far. We'll see.

Anyway, as always, we close this weekly post with this: Those are at least some intriguing matchups in Round 1. $till not $old on making the $ea$on thi$ long. But I'd watch, and I gue$$ that'$ why they expanded, right?

Digesting Texas

First of all, I need to own up. I was one of the ones not just thinking but also espousing that this Georgia defense was not up to the standard we've seen the last few years. And yes, there's still a long way to go.

But Saturday night was special. Our offense turned the ball over twice in the first quarter and the Longhorns still went into halftime with zero points. There's a reason their quarterbacks looked like this on the sideline just before half:

"Did...you see the size of that dude?"
"Yeh."
Yeh."

Jalon Walker was impossible to defend Saturday night on his way to 8 tackles and 3 sacks. Mykel, Wilson and Everette added 4 more sacks. The pressure threw off Ewers timing with his receivers, and their running game was a non-issue. Take away the negative sack yardage and the Longhorns struggled to 64 yards on 17 carries.

In short, Georgia's defense quickly put their offense in a box with one hand tied behind them. And when Ewers was able to get the ball off, the secondary (and linebackers...hello Chris Cole!) were more than up to the task. In 49 dropbacks, the Longhorns managed just 230 yards.

By the time the clock hit zeroes, the Georgia defense had limited the Sarkisian offense to 4.69 yards per pass (that is roughly half what they were averaging coming into this game) and 3.76 yards per run (again, taking out ALL of the sack yardage).

Rumor is Muschamp really stepped in to help the secondary prepare for this road trip. Maybe that was because of Schumann's wife giving birth Wednesday to their 3rd kid, or maybe Coach Boom just needed to scratch an old itch. Regardless, the end result was domination.

Offensively, it wasn't domination but I felt like we executed at a much higher level. Yes, Beck had a few bad reads. The receivers had some drops. And a couple more times pretty sure  they are running wrong routes. In short, the offense as a whole is still not completely in sync.

On the plus side, the offensive line had a great night when Jared Wilson returned to the lineup. Gave up just one sack (which may have been as much on Beck) and provided a steady pocket from start to finish.

Etienne remains a bright spot. It's always nice to have a three down back that can run, catch and block. Delp had his best game of the season.

If I were to quibble, I hope the focus going into the off week is downfield blocking. Sure would be nice to spring Etienne on a few long ones at the WLOCP! But on a night that saw Bobo calling in plays on our own walkie talkies, an enjoyable performance to say the least.

Kirby said it post-game. No one believed in those guys. Word is Gameday was a clean sweep for the Longhorns. They scrambled our comms. Threw bottles at us. And then the refs tried to take matters into their own hands. (sidenote - when will the SEC hire full time referees, and make them face the press after games) And still, the Dawgs more than handled their business road trip.

Lastly, thanks to all you Road Dawgs! You sounded great and added an exclamation point to the win with all the horns down pics around Texas Memorial Stadium that floated onto social media. Go Dawgs!