Georgia football: what went wrong and right in the ugly loss to LSU

What else went wrong

Big plays allowed on defense

475 yards of total offense allowed looks bad, and is certainly uncharacteristic of Georgia’s defense. But 229 of those yards came on just five big plays. All of those plays led to points. Otherwise, Georgia’s defense played a great game. But the big plays they allowed changed the complexion of the game early.

Questionable coaching decisions

It’s easy to criticize the coaches as a fan, and hindsight is always 20/20. But Georgia’s staff made choices yesterday that didn’t make any sense. Starting with the first long drive. The Dawgs dominated LSU on the ground. They had nine-straight handoffs for 71 yards.

The last of those plays was a one-yard-run. And in any other situation, that might be reason enough to pass. But Georgia’s offense had faced a second-and-long twice on that drive already, and they kept the ball on the ground in both instances. Clearly, a first down wasn’t too far behind. One of the big running plays of that possession was a halfback draw. LSU was just waiting and practically begging for passing situations. Instead of staying with what worked, Jim Cheney gave LSU what they wanted with two passes.

Two incompletions led to the next questionable decision, the fake field goal. If it had worked, Cheney and Kirby Smart may have looked like a genius. But it didn’t work. Georgia failed to score in a 3-0 ball game, and Rodrigo Blankenship was put at risk of getting injured.

Then, on Georgia’s next possession, rather than establishing the run again, Cheney called three pass plays. Just like LSU wanted. In 2016, when Cheney was on the Bulldog Nation’s bad side, I pointed out how he always called what the opponents wanted. The exact same thing happened Saturday, and I just do not understand it.