Sunday, October 18, 2009

Jamie Graham returns to wide receiver

After moving to defensive back in the spring, Jamie Graham has returned to receiver, apparently in spot duty a la D.J. Moore. He started the game at receiver but I believe returned to defense in time to be involved in A.J. Green's 65-yard run after a catch.

Jamie on offense will make a lot of Vandy fans happy. Graham finished with one catch for 16 yards.

But did you notice our defense gave up 34 points? It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul, as they say.

Bobby Johnson said after the game that he plans to play Graham at receiver for the rest of the season because of the way the true freshmen Eddie Foster and Trey Wilson are playing. I assume he'll keep playing some DB too.

As for the Commodores' demoralizing 34-10 loss and current 2-5 record, there's no doubt that the offensive line has been the reason we're struggling so much.

Oh, and maybe you noticed that Mackenzi came into the game at the end and drove us into the red zone where we met our usual fate (no points). Johnson praised Mac's play, adding that the circumstances at the end of the game were different and that he's still sticking with Larry.

Bet Larry's sore this morning. The kid was running for his life.

One final thought: We're the only team in the SEC without a conference victory, thanks to Kentucky's gutsy win in Auburn.

4 comments:

Stanimal said...

I thought, for the most part, the defense played pretty well. Unfortunately, it's deflating when your offense can't help you out after big stops.

Georgia had the ball for almost a full five minutes more than we did. Cox completed just a little over 50% of his passes for 222, including that one big play of 65 yards. That's not a bad job by our secondary. When the other team gets the ball that much more than yours, a big play is more likely to happen. Especially with a receiver like Green.

Our run defense is leaving something to be desired due to our injuries. Giving up 4.7 yards per carry is not going to get you off the field. But let's be honest, if we had any kind of offensive help, this stat would be dramatically less important.

Once again, our offense is our achilles heel. I know we don't have the level of "talent" that other programs do, but I'm convinced that a lot of it is just bad coaching on offense.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Stanimal, I too have no complaints with the offense. Sure, we gave up 34 points, but that's fewer than South Carolina and Arkansas gave up to the Bulldogs.

Georgia has some serious offensive weapons, especially AJ, and Cox would have had a solid SEC career if not for the presence of Stafford. The way you beat Georgia is to score last (see LSU) or if you have a solid D, ring up some quick points and put them in a hole (see Tennessee).

We were much better this week in time of possession but we still didn't score any points.

You're exactly right: Any criticism of our defense would be almost non-existent if we had any kind of offense.

Hey, what's your take on the SC game? Don't you live over there?

Stanimal said...

I do. Frustratingly enough, I think keys to the game are real simple. I posted something about it on our blog at VSL (which if you don't mind I'll provide a link to at the end), but to sum it up:

This game is all about momentum and it has been for the past two years. South Carolina has a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. However, they are a fairly young team, and their play is dictated by that momentum. If it's going well, they can run with most of the big teams in the SEC, if it's going poorly, they don't have the maturity to dig themselves out of a hole.

So while the names have changed, the formula certainly hasn't. Get ahead, make a couple of big plays, and for goodness sake whittle down the clock. It doesn't have to be much, but we've gotta have some offensive performance. People down here are furious after two years of losing this game, and I doubt Spurrier is going to let his teams rest on his laurels.

http://www.vanderbiltsportsline.com/2009/10/next.html

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

At the least, we believe we can win in Columbia.

Of course, last time we did we had five seniors on the offensive line, and one of them was Chris Williams.

Thanks much for the good report. I'll check out more on VSL.