From what I gather, success in the trenches is more dependent on gaining/maintaining leverage than brute strength. Flexibility, balance, explosiveness, quickness, speed, smarts (knowing where to go and who to hit every time no matter what) all play into that equation. But as CPJ says, "big and fast is better than small and fast."
He also says "Physical superiority cancels all theories." Well, our theories weren't cancelled this year were they? What does that tell you?
But physical superiority entails a whole lot more than size/weight. In fact, all the things I listed in my post are physical except for smarts.
That is a huge assumption against that defense. We had the ball other times but completed only two drives. I mean, give 'em credit. Outstanding defensive team and DC. (Whom I love to watch on the sideline, by the way. So intense that the team's strength and conditioning coach was assigned to physically remove him from the playing field after he got a couple of penalties in last year's bowl game. And when he got picked up and moved back, he just kept coaching. Really funny. Next time they're on TV look for that big burly guy standing right behind him the whole game.)
Truncated to shorten it, but I'm with on Clemson. It is a great rivalry with two loyal fan bases, though Clemson stacks 'em into Death Valley. But there is a respect there that extends to the coaches. One of the really great images after the '14 game was that glimpse of Swinney searching Thomas out in the post-game scrum and talking to him. Had to be hard for him, knowing he had a shot if his QB wasn't lost in the first quarter.
IIRC wasn't the pick right after a 75 yard scoring drive? I'm speaking from memory but I recall we changed our blocking assignments in the second half and made Clemson's DTs look normal. Also, I recall CU having trouble stopping Smelter.
One of the funniest, or saddest for Uga, was the fat mall cop snatching pieces of hedge out of the hands of our players as they made their way off the field.
Without re-watching it I am not sure, but I think I recall one TD in the first half and one in the second on offense. Truth is though that Johnson's halftime adjustments make a lot of defenses look normal. (When he was hired as I recall the moderator of the Navy blog "Bird Dog" -- beats me -- in answer to a GT fan's question said something like get ready for a lot of miserable first halves, or a lot of first halves that will drive you crazy, or some such.) Keep in mind: that was a run defense that gave up an average of 90 ypg through very late in the season. We got 250. That was in relative terms a good day for the offense. Had we gotten only 90 they would still be playing. Smelter & /Thomas did drive 'em crazy with back shoulder throws the D back could not get turned around on. A guy who was in the locker room at halftime said Venables was giving him a coaching clinic there. All told, take the win and run like a thief.
Nothing we did made #50 look normal. He basically did whatever he wanted and out-quicked every guy we put in front of him. What happened was CPJ recognizing that he was cutting off the A gap by slanting in pretty much every snap. So, CPJ asked Braun to go ahead and push him in since he couldn't beat him to the spot and shield him to the outside. Then we ran the dive right off his behind. At that point we started having a little success.
Yes, that was what I remembered. We began having success inside and that changed the complexion of the game for our offense.
Great point/post. Little nuggets like this is what makes this board great. I have to do a whole lot of "mining" on other boards to find something like this...
