Georgia football: Offense dealing with more problems than loss of Nick Chubb

By Michael Collins | Oct 18, 2015

The Georgia football team pulled of a 9-6 win against Missouri on Homecoming in Athens, but it’s not a victory the Bulldogs can feel great about.

A win over Missouri is a good thing for Georgia, and while their defense played lights out all night (against a team who has honestly been pretty inept on offense this season), Greyson Lambert and the Georgia offense had one of their weakest games of the season, putting up only three field goals (with one missed) against the Tigers.

Georgia’s quarterback play has been spotty, inconsistent, even ragged at times this season. Other than a standout, record-breaking performance against South Carolina, starting quarterback Greyson Lambert has looked precisely like a QB who lost his starting job on a fifth place ACC team.

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Against the Tigers, Lambert’s first pass from scrimmage ended up in the hands of Missouri safety Ian Simon.

But the quarterback play coming out of Athens is only small part of the offensive woes, and some of them may not be able to be solved this season.

All of the flaws that became evident on Georgia’s offense came against a defense ranked 6th in the nation in scoring defense (12.9 ppg), 11th in the nation in pass defense (165.3 ypg), and 21st in the nation in run defense (113.71 ypg), so it wasn’t going to be easy going for the Bulldogs by any stretch.

Glass half full…Georgia ran for 120 yards, threw the ball for 178 yards, and nine points was enough to secure the win. Those are all positives.

But it’s what the Bulldogs didn’t do that should be concerning to fans.

Yes, the Georgia quarterback play has been pretty ugly. Lambert looked like a statue in the pocket against Missouri, and his passes were off-target or so low that receivers had no chance of making yards after the catch. But those deficiencies aren’t being compensated for in the play-calling.

The complete lack of creativity of play-calling against a defense that sat in it’s base set nearly the entire game should be concerning, and there are a lot of weapons on the Bulldogs’ offense that are being left completely untapped.

When Brian Schottenheimer was brought in to replace Mike Bobo as offensive coordinator, the questions immediately popped up about whether or not someone who had limited success in the NFL was going to be able to put together winning game plans for a pro-style offense in the SEC.

Those fears were supposed to be put to rest by promises of two-tight end sets and use of those tight ends to take pressure off the quarterback, involving backs in the passing game, and not changing what Georgia has done best – rushing the ball and screen plays.

Against Missouri — a team that was begging for the Bulldogs to release tight ends into the middle of the field, and to maximize the screen game (one of the UGA staples) — the tight ends received precisely one target (an eight yard pass to Jeb Blazevich), and the screen plays were almost non-existent.

Instead, Georgia ran countless swing passes, stretch plays and toss sweeps against a base 4-3 defense which excels at lateral movement and covering sideline-to-sideline. The Bulldogs got 2.7 yards per carry, with their biggest gains coming when Keith Marshall and Brendan Douglas pounded the ball between the tackles.

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Jeb Blazevich, Jay Rome and Jackson Harris are some of the most talented tight ends in the nation, and through seven games they only have a combined 12 catches for 152 yards and one touchdown.

This is not what Georgia fans were expecting.

It was clear from the onset of the game that Lambert wasn’t going to pose any deep threat to Missouri’s defense (as was the case against both Alabama and Tennessee), and the Tigers caught on to that quickly and were able to shut down the long ball by playing man coverage on most downs and a two-deep zone on 3rd-and-long, holding Georgia to only 5.2 yards per completion.

Georgia has three wide receivers in Malcolm Mitchell, Reggie Davis and Terry Godwin who can potentially take the top off any defense in the league…the Missouri nickel and dime packages were almost never seen during the game, and every attempt to go downfield nearly ended in disaster for the Bulldogs.

Missouri should have had four interceptions rather than just the one.

What coaches and fans are seeing from Lambert is essentially what they’ll see for the remainder of the season. It’s what we saw from him at UVA, and he’s not going to suddenly have an epiphany on how to become an elite SEC quarterback over the next six weeks. The coaches need to plan and play-call around what they’ve got, just like Bobo did last season with Hutson Mason.

Oct 17, 2015; Athens, GA, USA; Missouri Tigers defensive back Kenya Dennis (7) and defensive back Logan Cheadle (28) break up a pass against Georgia Bulldogs wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell (26) during the first half at Sanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

With Nick Chubb, Georgia was a one-trick pony, but it was a pretty touch trick to stop. Sony Michel will fill in nicely and the Georgia running game will be fine, but without Chubb to be concerned with, defensive coordinators can really build up a solid plan to stop the Bulldogs.

There are some serious problems on this Georgia offense, and the loss of Chubb is only the start. If you watched the NFL Jets and Rams from 2006-2014, you can see the Schottenheimer is stuck in the same rut.

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If Georgia wants to beat Kentucky, Florida and Auburn, and salvage a shot at the SEC Championship game, head coach Mark Richt might need to take over the play-calling duties. Whether or not that means giving backup QBs Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta a chance remains to be seen, but some sort of change has to happen.

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