It’s been a whole 19 hours since No. 3 Georgia wore out Tennessee, 44-21, to set up the first of UGa’s two games with Alabama this season. Round 1 comes off next Saturday.
No. 2 Alabama beat Ole Miss, 63-48, in what was an SEC game that looked like a Big 12 game. The players didn’t take off their cleats after this one. They took off their skates, it was that fast. Alabama’s defense was lit up for 647 yards. The Bama coach, Nick Saban, blamed it on Ole Miss stealing Bama’s defensive signals, which is as smarmy as counting the change somebody you know just handed you.
But before we talk about whether Bama quarterback Mac Jones is Joe Burrow 2019 Redux—which should make UGa fans shutter—an introduction into why I know what I know about Alabama.
I wrote the book on The Process, which is what we call Saban’s formula for winning five titles at Alabama. Well, wait a sec. I’ll clarify. I listened to Phil Savage tell me everything he knew about The Process and I wordsmithed it into a book, Fourth and Goal Every Day.
Phil was the scouting director who helped build the Baltimore Ravens first Super Bowl champion. He was the GM of the Cleveland Browns. He was the analyst for Alabama while serving as Executive Director of The Senior Bowl. As part of his Bama radio gig, Sav did scouting reports on the opponent and emailed them to Saban, who distributed them to his coaches. That’s how good those insights were. Sav is an extraordinary NFL scout.
Fourth and Goal Every Day is the on The Process. It is by a New York publishing house, St. Martin’s Press. It came out in 2017. Snag a copy and you can see some of the blueprint for the kind of football Georgia is playing now.
I’ll post two more Alabama-Georgia stories later this week for Ball Atlanta readers. And about that wisecrack that Saturday’s game is Round 1? Round 2 is the SEC Championship Game here in Atlanta.
So, here are some things to think about with this game next Saturday. I’ll post Part II later this week.
*Alabama gets more explosive plays than Georgia because the Crimson Tide’s wide receivers….
…block better than UGa’s receivers.
You thought I was going to say they catch the ball better. You block on the wings to unlock big plays, all over the field, and Bama is superior to UGa.
One of the key tenets of The Process is no divas. Wideouts block. Getting blocked by Julio Jones was unpleasant. It still is. Calvin Ridley, the same way. All young wide receivers at Bama get a Hoo Jones tutorial on being a bad ass blocker. It is effort and devotion.
Jake Coker, the Alabama quarterback for the 2015 championship team, told me that at Mississippi State that season Ridley was lined up right, the pass went left, and Ridley came flying across the field to knock down a defender and clear a path for a touchdown. That’s devotion to blocking.
In the first quarter of Alabama’s win over Ole Miss on Saturday there was No. 8 for the Tide, John Metchie III, locking up with a defensive back to clear a path for wideout DeVonta Smith, who took a short toss, and scored on a 14-yard pass play.
I don’t know how many times I saw Georgia wide receivers whiff on blocks against Tennessee on the flanks. George Pickens, Kearis Jackson, and Jermaine Burton are not good blockers. When you make some blocks outside, big plays happen.
Mitchie and tight end Miller Forristall were out front blocking on Alabama’s touchdown that finally put away Ole Miss.
College football has learned how to defend the slip screen, but Alabama still makes it work because of superior blocking on the perimeter.
This will be no small thing Saturday. Georgia has to get great effort from all 11 on offense because its defense is going to be tested.
*Speaking of Pickens, who is from Alabama, this would be a good week to get him unleashed. In three games he has 6 grabs for 73 yards. He was projected as All-SEC. Teams are taking Pickens away and forcing quarterback Stetson Bennett to look to Jackson, right?
That’s not all of it. I’ve noticed a few things the time I have been able to see Pickens long enough on the TV screen.
Pickens is not turning any defensive backs to get open. You know, busting a move that makes them go whoops, and spin, and cross their feet and get off balance. He has no pop, no pressure step to get by the defender and separate.
Is he sulking because Jackson is getting open and getting catches? Considering his behavior on the sideline of the Tennessee game—squirting water on the UT quarterback while he was on all fours out of bounds—sulking seems like a thought.
Pickens needs to start winning on the line and not being a hood ornament and maybe the ball will start coming to him.
You saw what Ole Miss did Saturday night and what the teams that have given Alabama trouble since 2012 do: spread the field, run inside. Pickens needs to be a part of that scheme to get Alabama’s power spread out. He needs to be a threat.
*Is Mac Jones going to be Joe Burrow?
Georgia fans better hope not. Burrow threw for 349 yards in the 2019 SEC Championship Game against the Bulldogs, a 37-10 LSU win.
Like Burrow, many are exclaiming about Jones, “I didn’t know he was this good.”
After three games, Jones has already thrown for over 1,000 yards and is completing 80 percent of his passes.
Alabama, through Jones, gets the ball in the hands of its wide receiver playmakers better than any team in the country. The Crimson Tide layer the patterns. Crossing routes deep over crossing routes shallow. This is going to hamper Georgia’s ability to send linebackers after Jones because somebody has to always be in the middle to contend with those crossing passes. Catch-and-run is the most dangerous part of the Alabama offense.
*Georgia has to turn Alabama’s running back Najee Harris (6.7 yards per carry) into a blocker Saturday with one blitz after another. Force him to stay home because Mac Jones is not as mobile as Bennett. That is the best way to limit Harris’ effectiveness carrying the ball.
*Naturally, Alabama coach Nick Saban thought somebody had to be cheating to make his defense look like it was playing on skates. Saban didn’t even struggle with an answer why his defense was shredded. Ole Miss didn’t out-talent and out-scheme Bama, the Rebels were under-handed, that’s all there was to it, Saban said.
It was the Baylor offense, Nick, run by the dastardly Lane Kiffin, who is not really dastardly, just a smart offensive coach. The quarterback comes to the line, sees your defense, and they pick out the best play among three to run. And they did it lickety-split, series after series.
What was baffling to me was that Alabama sat there on defense without any chicanery. Here we are hit us, again and again. The Crimson Tide went into a look pre-snap and stayed there.
Now watch Georgia on defense. It’s like hiding a ball under a cup and sliding it around the table. Where is the pressure coming from? The Looks are all over the place. The Bulldogs have been spectacular at disguise and speed from all angles, which is one of the reasons they have the best defense in the country.
One other thing about UGa on defense next Saturday. Kirby Smart has to pick out the page in the rule book on Alabama’s pick plays with Forristall and wave it at the referee. Not all pick plays are illegal. The ones that are illegal are when the offensive player initiates contact with the defensive player. Forristall does that.
*Georgia QB Bennett better not miss on his shot plays downfield, if they are there. The run game is going to get safeties to come down, Bennett has to get those safeties to commit eyes to the run, and then throw the stinking ball on time, no more underthrows.
UGa play fast? You bet. Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M scored a defining upset in Tuscaloosa in 2012 by spreading out the Alabama defense and playing up tempo. It started a trend against the Crimson Tide. The Aggies did not allow the Tide to pause and tuck in their shirts, straighten their chin straps, and dig their cleats into the turf and take off. You don’t fight Alabama in the trenches in rock-em, sock-em football. The Tide has too many defensive linemen with the Bubble, you know, the big rear end that provides power. Alabama, after 2012, worked hard to contend with up-tempo offenses. They seem to have regressed.
UGa defensive lineman Jordan Davis (6-foot-6, 320) looks a whole lot like former Alabama All-American Marcell Dareus (6-foot-3, 330). He has The Bubble, but also the hand work. He steers offensive linemen. Saturday will be a big stage for Jordan to jump up and announce himself. I think bone-crushing defensive line play is the next element of The Process UGa is mastering this season.
We’ll see Saturday just where the Bulldogs stand.