Xs and Os: What went wrong with Georgia’s run defense vs. Auburn
Georgia won again on Saturday but, again, it wasn’t pretty. The Bulldogs trailed Auburn 10-0 in the first quarter and 17-10 in the third before racing back and winning 27-20. Two turnovers played a big role but so did surrendering over 200 yards on the ground for the first time since the LSU game in 2018. DawgsHQ has gone back through the game and we’ve picked out a few plays that illustrate what went wrong, what Auburn did right, and we even provide an example of the Bulldogs adjusting. Let’s get to the Xs and Os.
Tip of the cap but could have been played better
Georgia did plenty wrong on defense on Saturday but we’ll kick this thing off with a tip of the cap to Auburn, at least when it comes to this being a positive play. The Bulldogs could have played it better and limited it to just a good gain and not 61 yards, but it’s hard to put this on any of the guys at the line of scrimmage.
The Tigers used counter action to the defenses’ left here with two pulling linemen. Everything about this looks like counter. Smael Mondon closes on it and plays the running back. CJ Allen hesistates some but he’s still in position to fire on the counter.
But what neither of those guys know until its too late is that the pullers are bypassing everything to lead the quarterback out to the edge. They get out there and wall off all pursuit from the inside and the wideout takes care of Daylen Everette one-on-one. This is a well-designed play and I can see why it was successful.
But where I’m critical is the reaction of Javon Bullard and Malaki Starks. Starks is dropping and moving back toward the middle of the field when I can’t see a single indicator that would cause him to do that. Javon Bullard moves that way as well. With the way this plays was set up, those two are the only ones who had a chance to bottle this thing up for a good but non-explosive gain and they just didn’t see it.
Another miscue from the secondary…
I can’t tell if Tramel Walthour is wrong on this play or not without knowing the call. Instead of playing the counter block, he goes upfield and gets into the mesh between the quarterback and running back. He appears to disrupt it a little despite getting picked off at the last possible second.
But whether that’s right or wrong, what I know for a fact is that Kamari Lassiter plays this poorly. By jumping inside, he allows this play to bounce when Bullard is running the alley and has a bead on the runner. If Lassiter strikes that blocker and keeps his outside arm free, Georgia has a chance to limit this to a short gain with Bullard coming up to make the tackle.
Mondon could have done a better job taking on the block of the puller, too. He kind of gets swallowed up rather than striking with his outside arm free to potentially get off the block and make a play.
Auburn causing problems, Georgia taking bad angles
The Tigers deserve another tip of the cap here because this is a great design. The Tigers get the edge on Georgia here with a down block and a puller. When the edge defender, Xavian Sorey, sees that, he’s flying down and trying to close because he thinks counter is coming. The problem is that the pulling lineman is leading directly up to the linebacker in case the quarterback gets a chance to keep it. Sorey is the guy they’re reading and he crashes, like he’s supposed to, even if he does a pretty pitiful job of actually taking on the block.
The quarterback reads it right and gives it on the edge. Tykee Smith is in position to make a play but there is one thing I have to mention here. He’s in man coverage and he has to follow his man inside in case this is an RPO or a release of some sort. That gets him out of position a little but then he pauses, takes a bad angle, and the run breaks out. Bullard exacerbates the situation by, like Lassiter earlier, jumping inside the block. If he’s going to eventually jump inside of the block, he would have been better served to go ahead and run the alley.
Good, old-fashioned mixup…
If Georgia had ended up giving up points on this drive and losing this game, this play was going to go down as a killer. The Bulldogs have Auburn in third-and-long and Payton Thorne is able to escape and run for 17 yards.
Why did that happen? Well, it’s because two veteran inside linebackers had a miscommunication on who was spying. I know that because they both cover the same running back and neither of them is on the quarterback. Georgia gets a pretty decent rush and they affect thorn, but he spits out. Mykel Williams gets held on the play but this one doesn’t go very far if there’s a spy. One of the inside linebackers is supposed to be that guy.
Georgia does know how to play it…
This is how you play it and Georgia did a much better job with this particular concept after going down 17-10. Auburn is using the same counter action in hopes of either having the crease open up for the quarterback to keep it or having the defensive end crash and the running back get to the edge on sweep.
Well, Georgia plays both. Chaz Chambliss crashes and basically takes out both pulling linemen. He closes the crease by striking the first and the second has no where to go and no one to block. Allen does a really nice guy scraping over and quickly picks up on the handoff, using is speed to make up ground out to the edge. Then you have Everette coming up in support by blowing past the block and giving the ball carrier nowhere to go. Much better execution here.
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