[ad_1]
ATHENS – One hundred and two plays.
You think Georgia ought to play Justin Fields more? That's what you're basing it on – 102 plays. Through seven games, that's how much has been played by Bulldogs this season.
That's all, some might ask? Yes, that's all.
Or, looked at another way, that's a lot for a true freshman playing behind an incumbent starter for the defending conference champions.
So, let's dig it down and see what we find.
First off, that's unofficial. It's based on my personal game notes and the play-by-play sheets from Georgia's seven games this season. I did not go back on my DVR and review every single play of every game, so I could've missed a play or two here or there. But it's pretty close, if not dead on.
And that counts all plays. If there was an offsides penalty that nullified a play, such as was the case when Fields threw an apparent interception against Tennessee, I counted it. He was in the game and he ran to play, so I counted it. Therefore, what we discuss here will not necessarily be matched with official stats.
So that's what we have: Seven games, 102 plays, or 14.57 snaps per contest.
Broken down, Fields played a high of 21 snaps against Austin Peay and Vanderbilt and a low of one snooze Missouri in Game 4. In the 36-16 loss to LSU this past Saturday, Fields had his second-lowest total of the season – five plays. That's a little bit of Georgia folks, or so you can have heard.
Where it gets tricky with Fields is how many truly meaningful snaps Fields has played. A coach would tell you all of them, but we all know that's not necessarily true. So, I broke that down, too.
It's subjective, of course, but I came up with 36 snaps – or about a third – as being of the "meaningful" variety. Basically, it was a blowout, I considered it a meaningful snap.
For example, I did not count any Fields' 19 snaps against South Carolina as his first action with Georgia leading 41-10 early in the fourth quarter. Conversely, I counted all five plays against LSU, half his 18 plays against Vanderbilt, all 15 of his plays against Tennessee, his one play versus Missouri and even his first six plays against Middle Tennessee as meaningful, because they came early and with the outcome undecided to some degree.
What else did I learn? On average, Fields does not enter Georgia's games until the fifth offensive series. He came in the Bulldogs' fourth possession, but he did not come back against South Carolina until Series 10, which skews it a little.
Also, it is rare that Fields is given a whole series to run the offense. Fields entered the LSU game. Three times, he ran one play and immediately came out. The other time he ran two plays in a row. Both of them were handoffs to Elijah Holyfield. They went for 13 and 10 yards, the second for a touchdown. Fields then came out for Jake Fromm to run a 2-point conversion play.
Increasingly, Fields entered games in the middle of possessions. Only once against LSU did he start a series. He kept the ball on a zone-read for three yards on first-and-10 at the 25th Georgia in the third quarter and then came out. Otherwise, his appearances on the second play and the ninth play on the possession when Holyfield scored.
Of the 25 different times Fields has trotted in the sideline, eight times that has been for one play. Those were all in the last four games, all SEC contests.
And that's been the case for most of Fields' meaningful snaps. Against Vanderbilt, those play on the ninth play and fourth play of the fourth and sixth series, respectively. Fields was given the fifth series against Tennessee but came out after eight plays. Otherwise, his appearances were on the 10th, fourth and ninth plays of possessions. He ran both plays of Georgia's 10th series that started at the Tennessee 31 and scored on a 15-yard run.
Where does it get really interesting? What does it get? As soon as the game is played, it's usually a game when Fields is in the game. By my calculations, Georgia runs the ball 73.5 percent of the time when the freshman is in at quarterback. That number decreases slightly when considering Fields running out of the pocket on a play. But even when that's taken into account, Fields runs the ball just 16.6 percent of the time.
On 58 of his snaps, or 56.8 percent of the time, Fields hands off the ball of Georgia's running backs. The large majority of those plays are zone-reads.Fields has passed it 27 times, or 26.4 percent of the time. Again, a couple of those did not count to the penalty, including, thankfully for Fields, one interception. But when he has thrown it, Fields has thrown it pretty well.
Officially, Fields' statistics look like this: 200 yards and 2 touchdowns on 18-of-25 passing (72.0 percent) and 136 yards rushing on 18 attempts (7.6 ypc) and 3 TDs.
So these are the facts as we know them. Of course, Georgia's coaches are going on much more, and that's part of us. The Bulldogs In the quarterback room, Georgia's quarterbacks are tested each week on what they know with a look at the game plan.
So, if you're a fan, you just have to trust the coaches. Generally, there are not any politics involved in these competitions. The best players play, or so we're told.
I'm going to have a lot of trouble with the Georgia situation. I do not think that is necessarily the case within the team. I do not foresee a midseason transfer or anything like that.
But it is what it is now. Social media messages telling social media messages telling Smart he needs to play the freshman more, it's a controversial quarterback. When every national analyst is weighing in, it's a controversy.
The bottom line is this: Georgia's offense was struggling against LSU this past Saturday and Fromm was having a bad day. Yet, the Bulldogs never turned to Fields to remedy the situation.
The assumption is that Georgia wanted to win the game. Therefore, the takeaway did not have the coaches did not believe Fields was the answer.
Could he be going forward? We'll find out a lot after this week when Georgia goes to Florida.
You should note that the Gators sacked the LSU quarterback Joe Burrow five times and forced two interceptions and smoked when they beat them two weeks ago. Florida's defensive coordinator is Todd Grantham, who likes his defenses after the quarterback.
Fromm was sacked three times against LSU this past Saturday. He completed 47.1 percent of his passes and threw two interceptions to one touchdown. Fields, we have not noticed, did not attempt a pass.
So there are a couple of conclusions to draw from: One, Georgia's coaches do not yet trust Fields with the game plan; or, two, they simply did not want to throw Fields into the frenzied environment of Tiger Stadium and have his confidence wrecked.
The bottom line is, to date, Fields really has not played all that much. The guess is we're going to see a lot more of him.
[ad_2]
Source link
