The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: Georgia vs. Ohio State Drives 1 & 2
Drives 1 & 2 in the Georgia vs. Ohio State 2022 Peach Bowl.
This series of posts is not meant to be a descriptive play by play. Though at times it will be necessary to describe what happens, this is only done to set the context for my interpretation of why the play worked or didn’t work. The context, as we will see, is oft related to the fundamental constraints of football: numbers, space, and leverage.
The goal of analyzing the good, the bad, and the ugly of Georgia’s offense in this game is to uncover the truths that underly winning offensive football.
While there are “many ways to skin a cat” when it comes to winning, the working theory is that there is a particular nature to winning and that nature can be observed through the fundamentals of numbers, space, and leverage. Personnel is another factor not mentioned previously, but will show up here as it does in any game. Additionally, no play exists without context, and there is certainly context that I won’t be able to uncover (specifically, why Georgia is running particular plays, their game plan, personnel decisions, etc). So the focus will be through the context of the timeline of the game.
Growing up, my father always told me to “pay attention.” So that is what we’ll do here: pay attention to the themes of the game (i.e. the fundamentals) to seek to create a more complete understanding of how offenses score throughout a game.
Drive 1
2nd & 4 at the -43 (12:30 1Q)
This play was Georgia’s first explosive of the game. They hit the deep over against man coverage. They’d seen Cover 3 and Cover 2 on the two plays prior and had hit two quick passes.
The reason this play works is twofold: though Ohio State brings a five-man pressure, Georgia has a seven-man protection called off play action and is able to handle it easily. QB Stetson Bennett has to drift to his left, but the pressure is not a big deal and his eyes stay downfield.
Secondly, the route that gets the ball (the deep over) is a man-beater. It’s running away from coverage. The cornerback is playing over and outside while the route attacks under and inside. However, this route was probably third in the progression. The concept to the boundary was a post-wheel. Throwing a post into a MOFC closed coverage is not ideal so Bennett could’ve and should’ve been able to move off that route quickly. The second route, the wheel run by TE Brock Bowers, faced heavy collision so Bennet moved on. Smart choice.
So Georgia was able to generate an explosive on the third play of the game because they had multiple man-beaters built into the play, the protection was sound, and the QB kept his eyes down the field.
3rd & 1 at the +35 (11:27 - 1Q)
This play didn’t work because Georgia didn’t figure out the numbers problem. When facing MOFO Man (Cover 0) there is always going to be a numbers problem in the run box because now the defense can not only defend every gap, but also account for the QB run game. You see this issue play out because the defensive end that Bennett is reading crashes and takes the RB. The backside LB then is able to play the QB because he doesn’t have to defend a gap — they’re in 0, the numbers advantage is in the defense’s favor.
To figure out the numbers problem, Bennett could’ve taken one of the stack screens to either side. Though not ideal to risk the throw behind the line of scrimmage on 3rd and 1, he did have a soft side to the boundary. But it’s 3rd and 1 in fringe field goal range. Perhaps the higher probability move would’ve been to hand it to the RB and see if he could get a yard against the bad odds of the numbers problem. The RB’s track was the fastest way to get the ball across the first down line in this unideal situation.
So the fundamental that isn’t followed is that Georgia doesn’t have a good answer to the numbers problem they are facing. They’re out-gapped and do nothing to get numbers to one side in the run game or take a chance on the outside passing.
Drive Summary:
7 plays, 45 yards, missed FG (2:40)
Score:
OSU 0 - UGA 0
Drive 2
3rd & 10 at the -25 (6:45 1Q)
After a tackle for loss on first down and a screen, the Bulldogs found themselves in a 3rd and long situation facing MOFC Press-Man coverage. You can see Bennett signal to the two receivers after the shift, probably getting into this slot-fade concept which is great against press-man.
The threats to the play are the free safety somehow getting over there and a bad ball. Bennett looks left to hold the free safety and under throws the WR. But because the safety over the slot was playing over and inside, the ball placement worked since it was under and outside — the WR made a great adjustment to keep the leverage. Result is another explosive and a third down conversion.
2nd & 8 at the -48 (5:26 1Q)
As the late great Bobby Bowden said football is about blocking and tackling. So this is an explosive because Ohio State could not tackle this defender despite multiple chances. (Take note for later of the first failed attempt by the defensive end flying down the line of scrimmage).
The missed tackle by the defensive end allows the offense to bypass the numbers problem. They are showing eight gaps to the defense from 12 personnel. The TE on split flow gets the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl two-for-one meal deal — the weak linebacker and the safety playing man on him but this still leaves seven defenders covering seven gaps. This is so because the DE isn’t accounted for in the blocking scheme, Bennett’s fake is supposed to take care of him.
But that doesn’t happen so this play works in spite of the numbers problem because of missed tackles. Another fundamental of the game showing up and causing an explosive.
1st & 10 at the +35 (4:41 1Q)
The Bulldogs must have seen the defensive end crash on the last play and thought now would be no better a time to dial up a bootleg. From a slightly different look (shotgun and different bunch player in motion), the desired crash by the defensive end results. Bennet does a great job getting depth and then attacking downhill at the over since the flat player is out-leveraged.
1st & 10 at the +18 (3:59 1Q)
So here’s a play that doesn’t work. Another post-wheel concept against man coverage but this time, unlike the very first play in this post, there is not another good man answer for Bennet to get to. Once again, the post is difficult vs. MOFC especially in the red zone where space is limited. The wheel, a usual comfort against man, gets collisioned again like the first one and the safety plays with good over the top leverage.
While there is an over route run by TE Darnell Washington, he gets caught up in collision and is too late getting open — Bennett is facing a six man pressure and doesn’t have all day.
So once again we see the fundamentals of the game appear: WRs need to beat collision and create space and the QB has to get the ball out fast against pressure even though the offensive line and running back do a pretty good job picking it up. So call it a personnel problem here: the two TEs were not quick enough to get by their defenders without collision.
2nd & 17 at the +25 (3:15 1Q)
In a long yardage situation the Bulldogs call on the predictable screen to get out of it. They’ve already fought out of a long yardage on their first set of downs so this isn’t new to them here. The Buckeyes are in some variation of MOFC Zone and are playing deep with all their underneath defenders.
Pre-snap, then, this looks like it is going to be successful simply because of the space advantage that the WRs have — meaning, they can catch the ball and get upfield before anyone will be able to touch them. The space issue for the defense also rears its head when you see those elephants come rumbling down on the secondary. After that it’s pure speed that bullets RB Kenny McIntosh to the end zone.
Drive Summary:
8 plays, 75 yards, TD (5:01)
Score:
OSU 7 - UGA 7
Where Do They Stand
So far Georgia has been able to create explosives due to taking advantage of leverage against man coverage by taking shots, but then we’ve seen issues with their TEs defeating collision.
Here’s the interesting part: Georgia’s first two drives were six plays and eight plays respectively, and 35% (5) of their plays have generated 82% (102) of their yards. So already we are seeing how important explosive plays are. Outside of the explosive plays, Georgia only has gained 23 yards total. It’s remarkable to pay attention to how an offense actually pushes the ball down the field. Georgia hasn’t been getting these explosives by accident either — they are calling shots.
Tomorrow will be over Drives 3 & 4.
Until then,
Emory Wilhite
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