Everyone here in Georgia knows I'm from Oklahoma. I'm already getting neighbors barking like Dogs at my Door. Sooner played tough like always! Love you guys
It was an exciting game, just came out wrong. That squib kick that failed & turned into a FG was a coaching mistake. Dumb play. OU has the offensive game down pat, but needs more defense. No excuse for gettng a FG blocked. Georgia has some fast, strong running backs. Baker or Riley will never say it, but I think his flu slowed him a bit.
He was fine in the first half. Took a hard - and, probably, late - hit in the second half that slowed him down. Shot to the back. Taking a hit to the lower back affects anything you do - run, pass, walk, sit.... Anyway, the squib was stupid when you have a kicker who regularly puts them out of the end zone, or close to it. And, the overtime playcalling was too conservative. Also, you have to go ahead and give Georgia props - they didn't fold. When they were down 17 in the first half, and when they squandered their fourth quarter lead on a turnover. They just didn't ever give up. Very well coached. There is a reason these two teams were in the playoff. Both are great teams, and they showed it yesterday night.
Squib kicks are used all the time. You're supposed to kick it in between the players, and we didn't. It was one of several things that just didn't go our way. Baker missed some throws he usually doesn't, we had some drops we usually don't, we gave up sacks we usually don't, poor punting, etc, etc. I don't think we expected the D to shut Georgia down, but giving up multiple long touchdowns on simple running plays? And then after the D gave us the lead, the O had several opportunities to take the win: just run clock with a few first downs, or get in FG position with :55 left and 3 timeouts, or score a TD in the 1st OT after the D got a stop. It's just so frustrating, because we're so used to Baker excelling in those situations, but not this time.
The squib.. why? Just no need for it. Kick it deep. Go to halftime up by 17. Pretty simple. .. The offense had to slow down in the 2nd half because the defense was so horrible and giving up points within seconds. Lincoln was covering for Mike. He (Lincoln) should have told Baker speed it up and keep scoring if we're going to have a chance to win this thing and hopefully the defense can eventually make a stop. But no.. and here we are still discussing what went wrong.
I guess Lincoln trusted Austin to execute the squib more than he trusted the return team to prevent a big return. I didn't save the game to rewatch, but I seem to remember he was having trouble kicking it out of the end zone on that side. I can't deny that the defense bears the brunt of the responsibility for this loss, but the point is, we've been in several shootouts this season, and the offense has always been good enough to keep pace and get the win. Georgia's D had a lot to do with it, but also Mayfield didn't look 100% in the 2nd half. That cheap shot sure didn't help either. He could hardly talk at the post-game press conference.
But still... you don't squib kick it. Wrong time for it. Had the kick gone deep chances are GA would have downed it and gone into halftime down by 17. No reason to think otherwise. Doesn't mean we still wouldn't have lost by some other way but at least we'd have had a better chance of it. Looking back on it it was just one of those nightmare games you wish would have never happened.
Well hindsight is 20/20... 5 seconds left in a half or the game is pretty much the ONLY time you squib kick. On the other hand, I read that some of the Georgia coaches were already heading to the locker room when we kicked, so maybe they didn't have a return on after all. Could just be a case of Lincoln overthinking the situation.
It's my biggest concern about this Texas Tech-heavy coaching staff now: brainfarts to the nth degree on defense and special teams. Just kick the ball out of the fucking end zone like we'd done all year and be done with it.
Gotta agree with you. Don't know what Linc was thinking or even if he was thinking anything at all. That was just dumb and nothing said can sugar coat it. Kick it out of the end zone and go to halftime. I'm not going to say that bone head play is what caused us to lose but it darn sure opened the door for the wheels to start coming off.
