Rewatching the first half (long)

[bpalmer28]

This is me processing the game. Skip if you don't like long reads.

Through four series, two for each team. We already have three false starts, and two of them are questionable. Despite being behind the sticks due to penalties, the difference in the game is Bennett made a perfect pass to set up a touchdown and Hooker overthrew Hyatt. Hooker so far has had plenty of time to pass, but so has Bennett. 7-3 UGA

3rd drive for UGA. 3 & out. But then they hit that 75 yard punt. Easy to see upon rewatching the game how much impact this play had on the first half.

3rd drive for Tennessee. We were able to give Hooker a little space with two consecutive run plays but on 3rd down he simply waited too long.

4th drive for UGA. They get the ball on our 37 yard line. First play of the drive, Slaughter bit on the play fake and got torched. When I saw this live I thought he slipped but he didn't. He just got badly beaten.

At this point it's 14-3 and we need an answer. Wright picks up 11 yards on first down. Here comes the tempo. Hooker can't find anyone open. Scrambles for 4. Game slows down again... ugh. 3 yards on 2nd down. 3rd & 5, Hooker bounces it to Hyatt. Hooker has completed that pass maybe a hundred times in 2022. Not today.

**Agreeable comment from Danielson. Up to this point in the season Tennessee has been the hunter. They've been building and climbing the ladder. This is the first game where the spotlight's been on them. You can feel they that they feel tense in this game.**

5th drive for UGA. We stuff them on 1st down. 2nd down Bennett avoids pressure and connects with McIntosh on a wheel route for a 49 yard gain. We actually had him double covered with Banks and McCollough. Banks took the underneath coverage and McIntosh runs right by McCollough. Bad play by McCollough, IMO. UGA scores on just a perfect pass by Bennett. No way to defend it unless we're allowed to hang a player from the goal post.

5th drive for Tennessee. Need someone to make a play. Hooker hitches and gets sacked 4.5 seconds after the snap. High throw on 2nd down handcuffs McCoy from getting anything after the catch. PI gives us a first down on 3rd down. This is our chance to get back in the game. 3 yard run by Small on first down. Ineffective WR screen and 2nd down. Hooker connects with Warren, first down.... here's come tempo. 2 yard run. Must score on this drive. Another PI. Ball now on 32 yard line. Hooker to Tillman takes it inside the 20. Must score here. QB draw gets it to the 11. 2 yard run by Wright. BACK-TO-BACK FALSE STARTS. 3rd & 12. Middle of the field wide open, Fant can't get any separation on the slant. Pass broken up. FG.

6th drive for UGA. We desperately need a stop at this point. Georgia NOT taking foot off the gas. They fake an end around on 1st down, but Turnage had great coverage. We stuff them on 2nd down, they get a false start and we get off the field on 3rd & 14.

6th drive for Tennessee. It's 21-6. We can make this a 1 score game at the half if we just score here. 17 yard pass complete to Tillman. Ball at midfield. Hooker has had time to throw this entire half. Wright picks up another first down on back-to-back runs. WAIT WHAT? They didn't give Wright the first down. Then we get stuffed on 3rd & 1. Feels like we got screwed on previous spot. 4th down, Hooker gets first down. Here comes the tempo... deep ball to Tillman!!! Intercepted. This was obviously a huge play. How might the game have changed if Tillman wins this 1-on-1?

7th drive for UGA. Big run by UGA down to the 45. Few plays later Bennett completes pass to McConkey down to the 25. Couple plays later McConkey beats Harrison to take it inside the 10. Defense stiffens. FG.

Halftime. UGA 24, Tennessee 6

 

[bpalmer28]

It's easy to see who the better team is, but it seems to me like the first half was much uglier than it should have been. Bennett made two perfect throws. One to set up a TD and one that was a TD. We had both covered well (Turnage is actually really good). The punt basically took a possession away from us. And Tillman didn't have much of a chance on the jump ball that resulted in the interception. Long story short, Georgia made several good plays and we struggled to just make routine plays. The back-to-back false start penalties in the red zone may have also took points off the board for us.

They have the better team and were mentally more prepared for the big stage (our first time in the spotlight as Danielson pointed out) but I think we'd be much more competitive in a rematch on a neutral field.

 

[Firebirdparts]

That does sound like what I saw. Hooker had a lot of time to throw, which is very good. So many times that just wasn't enough. Watching the game, you may not see very well how, for instance, they're taking Hyatt out of the quarterback's consideration way downfield somewhere.

So at least we see that the offensive line is truly great. Hooker's had very good vision all year. They really did a good job of making him not like what he saw.

 

[WillOverstreetFanClub]

If hendon don’t doesn’t start throwing the ball away I’m gonna throw my remote through the tv. Only critique I have of him is he consistently doesn’t get rid of the ball when under pressure. 7 sacks isn’t all on the line. Many of those he could have dumped off and saved yardage. I’m still waiting on him to throw one away this year instead of taking the sack.

 

[bpalmer28]

One big glaring difference between them and us is they have a true playmaker at running back. No knock on Small & Wright, but neither of them are capable of making some of the plays McIntosh makes.

 

[morristown vol]

That perfect punt was a killer.I still say a safety instead a punt out of the end zone might has kept them from getting a touchdown but you never know

 

[bpalmer28]

That perfect punt was a killer.I still say a safety instead a punt out of the end zone might has kept them from getting a touchdown but you never know

No doubt. I feel like they knew they had something with the McConkey vs Slaughter matchup. They were just waiting on the right time to call that play and they timed it perfectly.

 

[obxvol]

Hooker took way too long. Needs to understand that throwing it away and losing a down is better than getting sacked, losing 10 yards and the down. I honestly can’t say I’ve seen him purposely throw it away.

 

[wtmvol]

On that throw to the back of the end zone that threaded the needle, Bennett actually missed that there was a wide open guy about 10 yards to the right of where he threw it. If he threw that about 4 inches lower, he would be getting roasted for a terrible decision leading to a pick. Instead, he looks like Joe Montana.

 

[agent|orange]

I don't think it can be understated how impactful the following were:

* Small getting injured. He was cleared to return but I don't think he did. He's critical on 3rd Downs as a blitz reader and safety valve. Wright is significantly worse at blitz pickup and reading when to release and catch or lead block.

* Hyatt rolling his foot. He came back in the game but I don't think ran many more deep routes. He looked slightly hampered.

* The crowd. This team hasn't seen a lit crowd this year and honestly hasn't ever seen a crowd like that. They didn't overcome it until late in the 4th. I think we made adjustments at half but the rain destroyed those adjustments. Richardson and Young overcame our hostile crowds, Hooker didn't until late.

* The punt. That punt combined with the crowd really rattled our team. I've never seen a punt like that.

* Bennett was on fire. He just was. We didn't give him as many wide open passes as we did Richardson and Young and we definitely keyed in and shut down Bowers/Washington but he hit his open throws.


You can't go into a place like Sanford and play a B game against them and come out with a win. We gave a C game on Offense at best. Team was rattled, clearly.

 

[Arrested Devolopment]

Instead of rewatching the game, I'm giving myself a break and hitting my junk with a hammer.

 

[turbovol]

My big takeaways are that, in the first half, yes, Hooker had plenty of time to throw--but either our receivers were not getting separation or Hooker
was making bad decisions--or both. Indeed, on our first drive after the georgia fumble, we faced a 3rd and 10 or so and Hooker completed a 5-yard pass. Field goal.

The officials seemed to slow us down on a couple of occasions in the first half. I'm not sure why but they were not letting us get up to the line quickly. There was at least one movement call against us in the first half that was BS--no movement at all. Just a combination of things--and our defense did not play well in the first half. We gave up some big plays

 

[VOLfrombama]

On the play where Tillman goes deep and it get picked, the bomb to Hyatt where he turns his ankle, as well as the overthrow to Bru, it looked like Hooker was just throwing the ball as far as he could instead of throwing it to a spot.

The CB played Ced perfectly on the INT. He never let Ced get behind him and used his body to shield him from making a play before the INT. If that ball hangs up a little longer, Ced can catch it or at least knock it down. 50/50 balls should at least give the WR a chance. Ced had no chance.

The ball to Bru was 3-5 yards too deep. If he puts a little more air under the ball, that's a TD.

The one to Hyatt was also badly overthrown. Hyatt's route was inside the hash and he ended up running almost to the sideline and still was 2-3 yards short of the ball.

Hooker was panicking in the pocket a little iyam. I assume it was all the pressure since that's the biggest game he's ever played in.

 

[McDad]

On that throw to the back of the end zone that threaded the needle, Bennett actually missed that there was a wide open guy about 10 yards to the right of where he threw it. If he threw that about 4 inches lower, he would be getting roasted for a terrible decision leading to a pick. Instead, he looks like Joe Montana.

The only P5 QBs who didn't look like Joe Montana against us were Levis and Daniels

 

[65YearsAVol]

This is me processing the game. Skip if you don't like long reads.

Through four series, two for each team. We already have three false starts, and two of them are questionable. Despite being behind the sticks due to penalties, the difference in the game is Bennett made a perfect pass to set up a touchdown and Hooker overthrew Hyatt. Hooker so far has had plenty of time to pass, but so has Bennett. 7-3 UGA

3rd drive for UGA. 3 & out. But then they hit that 75 yard punt. Easy to see upon rewatching the game how much impact this play had on the first half.

3rd drive for Tennessee. We were able to give Hooker a little space with two consecutive run plays but on 3rd down he simply waited too long.

4th drive for UGA. They get the ball on our 37 yard line. First play of the drive, Slaughter bit on the play fake and got torched. When I saw this live I thought he slipped but he didn't. He just got badly beaten.

At this point it's 14-3 and we need an answer. Wright picks up 11 yards on first down. Here comes the tempo. Hooker can't find anyone open. Scrambles for 4. Game slows down again... ugh. 3 yards on 2nd down. 3rd & 5, Hooker bounces it to Hyatt. Hooker has completed that pass maybe a hundred times in 2022. Not today.

**Agreeable comment from Danielson. Up to this point in the season Tennessee has been the hunter. They've been building and climbing the ladder. This is the first game where the spotlight's been on them. You can feel they that they feel tense in this game.**

5th drive for UGA. We stuff them on 1st down. 2nd down Bennett avoids pressure and connects with McIntosh on a wheel route for a 49 yard gain. We actually had him double covered with Banks and McCollough. Banks took the underneath coverage and McIntosh runs right by McCollough. Bad play by McCollough, IMO. UGA scores on just a perfect pass by Bennett. No way to defend it unless we're allowed to hang a player from the goal post.

5th drive for Tennessee. Need someone to make a play. Hooker hitches and gets sacked 4.5 seconds after the snap. High throw on 2nd down handcuffs McCoy from getting anything after the catch. PI gives us a first down on 3rd down. This is our chance to get back in the game. 3 yard run by Small on first down. Ineffective WR screen and 2nd down. Hooker connects with Warren, first down.... here's come tempo. 2 yard run. Must score on this drive. Another PI. Ball now on 32 yard line. Hooker to Tillman takes it inside the 20. Must score here. QB draw gets it to the 11. 2 yard run by Wright. BACK-TO-BACK FALSE STARTS. 3rd & 12. Middle of the field wide open, Fant can't get any separation on the slant. Pass broken up. FG.

6th drive for UGA. We desperately need a stop at this point. Georgia NOT taking foot off the gas. They fake an end around on 1st down, but Turnage had great coverage. We stuff them on 2nd down, they get a false start and we get off the field on 3rd & 14.

6th drive for Tennessee. It's 21-6. We can make this a 1 score game at the half if we just score here. 17 yard pass complete to Tillman. Ball at midfield. Hooker has had time to throw this entire half. Wright picks up another first down on back-to-back runs. WAIT WHAT? They didn't give Wright the first down. Then we get stuffed on 3rd & 1. Feels like we got screwed on previous spot. 4th down, Hooker gets first down. Here comes the tempo... deep ball to Tillman!!! Intercepted. This was obviously a huge play. How might the game have changed if Tillman wins this 1-on-1?

7th drive for UGA. Big run by UGA down to the 45. Few plays later Bennett completes pass to McConkey down to the 25. Couple plays later McConkey beats Harrison to take it inside the 10. Defense stiffens. FG.

Halftime. UGA 24, Tennessee 6

Good observations & write up. Thanks for sharing.

 

[FBtime]

If hendon don’t doesn’t start throwing the ball away I’m gonna throw my remote through the tv. Only critique I have of him is he consistently doesn’t get rid of the ball when under pressure. 7 sacks isn’t all on the line. Many of those he could have dumped off and saved yardage. I’m still waiting on him to throw one away this year instead of taking the sack.

Yeah my biggest complaint from the game, ESPECIALLY on 4th down. You just cannot take a sack on 4th down. Throw it to a covered WR and hope for the best. Even an INT is better than a sack.

 

[FBtime]

This is me processing the game. Skip if you don't like long reads.

Through four series, two for each team. We already have three false starts, and two of them are questionable. Despite being behind the sticks due to penalties, the difference in the game is Bennett made a perfect pass to set up a touchdown and Hooker overthrew Hyatt. Hooker so far has had plenty of time to pass, but so has Bennett. 7-3 UGA

3rd drive for UGA. 3 & out. But then they hit that 75 yard punt. Easy to see upon rewatching the game how much impact this play had on the first half.

3rd drive for Tennessee. We were able to give Hooker a little space with two consecutive run plays but on 3rd down he simply waited too long.

4th drive for UGA. They get the ball on our 37 yard line. First play of the drive, Slaughter bit on the play fake and got torched. When I saw this live I thought he slipped but he didn't. He just got badly beaten.

At this point it's 14-3 and we need an answer. Wright picks up 11 yards on first down. Here comes the tempo. Hooker can't find anyone open. Scrambles for 4. Game slows down again... ugh. 3 yards on 2nd down. 3rd & 5, Hooker bounces it to Hyatt. Hooker has completed that pass maybe a hundred times in 2022. Not today.

**Agreeable comment from Danielson. Up to this point in the season Tennessee has been the hunter. They've been building and climbing the ladder. This is the first game where the spotlight's been on them. You can feel they that they feel tense in this game.**

5th drive for UGA. We stuff them on 1st down. 2nd down Bennett avoids pressure and connects with McIntosh on a wheel route for a 49 yard gain. We actually had him double covered with Banks and McCollough. Banks took the underneath coverage and McIntosh runs right by McCollough. Bad play by McCollough, IMO. UGA scores on just a perfect pass by Bennett. No way to defend it unless we're allowed to hang a player from the goal post.

5th drive for Tennessee. Need someone to make a play. Hooker hitches and gets sacked 4.5 seconds after the snap. High throw on 2nd down handcuffs McCoy from getting anything after the catch. PI gives us a first down on 3rd down. This is our chance to get back in the game. 3 yard run by Small on first down. Ineffective WR screen and 2nd down. Hooker connects with Warren, first down.... here's come tempo. 2 yard run. Must score on this drive. Another PI. Ball now on 32 yard line. Hooker to Tillman takes it inside the 20. Must score here. QB draw gets it to the 11. 2 yard run by Wright. BACK-TO-BACK FALSE STARTS. 3rd & 12. Middle of the field wide open, Fant can't get any separation on the slant. Pass broken up. FG.

6th drive for UGA. We desperately need a stop at this point. Georgia NOT taking foot off the gas. They fake an end around on 1st down, but Turnage had great coverage. We stuff them on 2nd down, they get a false start and we get off the field on 3rd & 14.

6th drive for Tennessee. It's 21-6. We can make this a 1 score game at the half if we just score here. 17 yard pass complete to Tillman. Ball at midfield. Hooker has had time to throw this entire half. Wright picks up another first down on back-to-back runs. WAIT WHAT? They didn't give Wright the first down. Then we get stuffed on 3rd & 1. Feels like we got screwed on previous spot. 4th down, Hooker gets first down. Here comes the tempo... deep ball to Tillman!!! Intercepted. This was obviously a huge play. How might the game have changed if Tillman wins this 1-on-1?

7th drive for UGA. Big run by UGA down to the 45. Few plays later Bennett completes pass to McConkey down to the 25. Couple plays later McConkey beats Harrison to take it inside the 10. Defense stiffens. FG.

Halftime. UGA 24, Tennessee 6

Came to make a snarky comment about it being too long. Read the whole thing and enjoyed it. Good stuff.

 

[CAVPUT]

It's easy to see who the better team is, but it seems to me like the first half was much uglier than it should have been. Bennett made two perfect throws. One to set up a TD and one that was a TD. We had both covered well (Turnage is actually really good). The punt basically took a possession away from us. And Tillman didn't have much of a chance on the jump ball that resulted in the interception. Long story short, Georgia made several good plays and we struggled to just make routine plays. The back-to-back false start penalties in the red zone may have also took points off the board for us.

They have the better team and were mentally more prepared for the big stage (our first time in the spotlight as Danielson pointed out) but I think we'd be much more competitive in a rematch on a neutral field.

You bust a QB in the mouth a few times and you're gonna impact his performance. UGA was going to bully us across the board and they were going to hit Hooker. They did and we flinched. Now that we've tasted that, I suspect...well...hope we'll respond differently when and if we get on the big stage again. As the saying goes, you gotta lose one before you can win one. I think that applies here. Gotta get beat up so next time you're better prepared to fight back.

 

[DaddyChad]

Hooker took way too long. Needs to understand that throwing it away and losing a down is better than getting sacked, losing 10 yards and the down. I honestly can’t say I’ve seen him purposely throw it away.

To be fair he’s really never had to throw it away. Hooker trusts his line to protect him and his WRs to get open, that just didn’t happen. Hooker did have plays that could’ve been made. He had a touchdown to Hyatt, and McCoy and another open wr when he went opposite side of the field (DA Danielson pointed that one out), also had Fant that would’ve been a long completion.

We had several drives influenced by the false starts as well, and the punt basically just was a concession for us to even be able to get out of the endzone without a safety (really was a safety though). Georgia absolutely positively beat us in every phase of the game but we didn’t help ourselves out either. Plays were there scheme was still good even against this defense; we still have significant roster limitations. Have to add linebackers, DBs, and rbs this class

 

[VolBricks]

I'm re-watching the game as well, only it's the KY game. I couldn't take watching the GA game again, once was enough.

 

[agent|orange]

On the play where Tillman goes deep and it get picked, the bomb to Hyatt where he turns his ankle, as well as the overthrow to Bru, it looked like Hooker was just throwing the ball as far as he could instead of throwing it to a spot.

The CB played Ced perfectly on the INT. He never let Ced get behind him and used his body to shield him from making a play before the INT. If that ball hangs up a little longer, Ced can catch it or at least knock it down. 50/50 balls should at least give the WR a chance. Ced had no chance.

The ball to Bru was 3-5 yards too deep. If he puts a little more air under the ball, that's a TD.

The one to Hyatt was also badly overthrown. Hyatt's route was inside the hash and he ended up running almost to the sideline and still was 2-3 yards short of the ball.

Hooker was panicking in the pocket a little iyam. I assume it was all the pressure since that's the biggest game he's ever played in.

One thing I noticed is how much Hooker was throwing high ALL GAME LONG. That played a HUGE factor in us not breaking tackles against them because the guys were over-extending.

I glanced at quite a few of these and these are usually ones that he hits. You throw high and a WR will come down tight bracing to be hit. Very hard to break a tackle if you're over-extending to get a high ball.

 

[Ned Ray McWorkher]

Yes, road games in this league are loud when the home team is good, and winning.

As far as Athens Saturday, we were not emotionally prepared for what was coming. It wasn't quite an ambush, but it was a vigorous assault indeed. We acted like it was just a game, and came in there playing. But that **** was war to them!
I just hope we learned our lesson. We have to be that strong and that tough. And talented. Georgia will not be any weaker any time we play them in the future. We have to chest up.

 

[bpalmer28]

One thing I noticed is how much Hooker was throwing high ALL GAME LONG. That played a HUGE factor in us not breaking tackles against them because the guys were over-extending.

I glanced at quite a few of these and these are usually ones that he hits. You throw high and a WR will come down tight bracing to be hit. Very hard to break a tackle if you're over-extending to get a high ball.

You're correct. When our WRs had to leave their feet to make a catch, UGA closed the gap quickly. By the time we came down with the ball and got our feet reset, there was no space to make a move.

 

[agent|orange]

You're correct. When our WRs had to leave their feet to make a catch, UGA closed the gap quickly. By the time we came down with the ball and got our feet reset, there was no space to make a move.

100%. This is a game of milliseconds and inches and Hooker was off by .5-1s and 1-2' at times. Just not as crisp as usual making unforced errors like bad reads/throws under -no- pressure. And there is no way normal Hooker forces that pass to Tillman that was picked. Lunacy.

I honestly think it was far more the stage and the crowd than it was UGA's D, at least early on.

 

[bpalmer28]

100%. This is a game of milliseconds and inches and Hooker was off by .5-1s and 1-2' at times. Just not as crisp as usual making unforced errors like bad reads/throws under -no- pressure. And there is no way normal Hooker forces that pass to Tillman that was picked. Lunacy.

I honestly think it was far more the stage and the crowd than it was UGA's D, at least early on.

Couldn't agree more. The thing about UGA's defense, however, is they do force you to play nearly perfect... which is very difficult. They're not going to get an insane amount of pressure on the QB or just dominate you up front, but they're also not going to give you big windows to throw too. They aren't going to give you *all day* to pass. And they're not going to give you huge running lanes. It's possible to move the ball against them consistently but if you don't execute well it's hard to score because they're good enough everywhere to keep coverages tight, they don't blow assignments, and they don't miss tackles. All we need to do in the rematch is be crisp for 60 minutes!!