It was deja vu! I seem to remember the team w the U on their helmets trying a few of those.
Did the "U" fake those punts on 4th and 11, with several minutes remaining on the clock, at midfield, during an SEC Championship game with a ticket to the playoffs on the line, while knowing full and well that Saban and company had left their base defense in the game suspecting a fake punt was in the cards?
Had Kirby punted, there was a high likelihood of pinning the Tide deep in their own territory that would have forced a little-used QB to move the team 60 to 70 yards for a game-winning field goal attempt. In fairness, that little-used QB had equated himself very favorably after he replaced Tua Tagovailoa.
Sincerely not trying to be argumentative, just to be argumentative, but after two years of reading countless comments designed to further deride Mark Richt by holding up Kirby as a super coach ring hollow after last nights Ron Zook-ish coaching decision.
DawgNation
ATLANTA – Kirby Smart said he called for a fake punt on fourth-and-11 at midfield because he
“wasn’t coming here to play to tie.”
Nobody bothered to tell the Georgia coach at that moment that games aren’t settled in ties anymore.
As it was, Smart’s decision to try to win the game in that moment, in fact, ensured that the Bulldogs would lose it. And that’s what they did.
“We’ve got to play better in the fourth quarter,” Smart said.
Yes, and that needs to start with the head coach, who is now 0-for-3 on fake kicks this season.
He called for a field goal – coincidentally on fourth-and-11 as well – in Georgia’s only other loss of the year at LSU. Kicker Rodrigo Blankenship was slammed for a two-yard loss trying to run the ball on that one.
Against Auburn last month, Smart called for a fake field goal in the final minutes of a game Georgia led 27-3 at the time. Blankenship overthrew tight end Isaac Nuata that time.
This one was worse than both of those because of the time, score and situation, not to mention the magnitude of the game.
In a word, it was stupid.
When Georgia lined up in a punt formation on fourth-and-11 at the 50, backup
freshman quarterback Justin Fields went into the game and lined up at the up-back position, designed to protect the punter and provide the snap cadence.
It should be pointed out here that Fields does not normally play that position for the Bulldogs. Hence, Alabama recognized his presence immediately.
“I wanted to be aggressive,” Smart said defiantly. “
Look, I wasn’t coming here to play to tie, to play to keep it close.
But punting the ball, backing up the opponent, playing defense and trying to get the ball back, is “trying to win the game.”
Smart panicked, and his postgame comments only validate that.
Then he tried to justify the call, again!!
“
I felt like that was a great call because it was there,” he said. “We’ve seen their [punt] safe. We know exactly what their [punt] safe is. They line up, and they don’t cover a guy. We’ve got a guy wide open, and he’s not going to be covered. But in the last second they saw it. And we had a way to check out of it, but we took too long to get it snapped, and I felt like it was a really good play call. It was there.
It got taken away at the last second, and we didn’t make the play.”
Here’s what they could have done: Not call it! It comes down to poise, intelligence and playing the percentages. That means sometimes punting for field position and asking your defense to go out and stop the other guys.
Georgia had done that plenty of times Saturday. Alabama was forced to punt five times. The Bulldogs punted six times, but it should have at least once more. Maybe then we’d be writing tonight about a Georgia win for the ages instead of
one of the great chokes of all time.
