This Week’s Featured Team: Georgia Bulldog Defense
This week’s FirstDown PlayBook Featured Team is the Georgia Bulldogs defense. Congratulations to Kirby Smart, Dan Lanning and the entire Georgia coaching staff on the defensive game plan they put together. They had Clemson on their heels from the first snap and it really never eased up.
One of the first things we noticed last night was just a very simple defensive line pre snap stem. It was a basic over to under front stem just before Clemson snapped the ball. It was so simple that we thought our youth football coaches could install that. Little did we know that this was just a taste of what Georgia had in their bag for the night.
What you will see in our Featured Team section is this. Georgia was constantly showing a three man front and then becoming a four man front. Or not. They showed pressure and ended up in a three or four man rush. At times they did bring five or six. Without the ability to study the video it looked like they were playing variations of man (Man Free & 2 Man).
What also jumped out to us was how well they adjusted to Clemson’s formations. When you dial up different pressure packages like that in the first game, you normally have people running open at times. We didn’t see much of that at all. With the exception of a freshman corner going through the growing pains on man coverage, the secondary matched up very well.
Kirby Smart’s Halftime Comment Revealing…
One thing we thought was revealing was Kirby Smart’s comment to ESPN’s Holly Rowe on the way off of the field at halftime. As Rowe was applauding the Bulldog defense for essentially allowing no rushing yards in the first half, Smart commented that Clemson was not exactly committed to running the ball either. Defensive coaches love to dial up looks and pressures when there is little to no threat of a running game.
We will go back and take a closer look at the Georgia defensive package vs Clemson this week. We will install some of the looks in our new FirstDown PlayBook Featured Team section. This is just a bonus area on FirstDown PlayBook where you can go get schemes that you may have seen that previous weekend.
More Defense: JJ Watt Creates Pressure With A Plan
So whoever you are, UAB offensive graduate assistant, we feel for you. We doubt you got much sleep last night or you have had a brutal morning breaking down this Georgia defense. It will be one that gives offenses a hard time throughout the 2021 football season. We promise you that.
There are other ways to get to this type of content other than our Featured Team area. Also keep in mind that many of these defensive looks already exist in FirstDown PlayBook. You simply go to Varsity Defense and choose “Spread Beaters”. There are many three and four man looks that we drew up after visiting with SEC defensive coordinators a few years back.
