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Sony Michel

B

BAMARICH

All-American
Jan 9, 2005
3,668
487
482
Northport, AL
When UGA reviews the film from last night's game, they're going to be kicking themselves when they see how little they used #1 late in the game. Of all their RB's, he was THE beast. At the start of the 4th Quarter with UGA up by 10, Michel ripped off runs of 10, 5, and 13 yards... and by the way he was running it looked like he was getting into "the zone" dominant RB's sometimes find late in games. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, UGA replaced him with Chubb on that drive... and he didn't see substantial PT the rest of the game.

IMO, this is because of loyalty and a loaded RB roster. UGA has been forced to split time with 27, 1, and 7 all season long - and in THIS game I believe it came back to haunt them. If #1 had continued to stay in the game and play at the level he was showing on that drive, I think they score another TD and our job to come back becomes more difficult. In reality, I think this is something that has haunted us this year - there's just not enough PT/carries to go around when you have 3 RB's unless one of them is strictly a 3rd down player. The issue is that when a RB gets into a groove, you can't "ride him" in that scenario. I hope, going into next season, that we revert back to featuring 2 RB's rather than 3.
 
BAMARICH said:
When UGA reviews the film from last night's game, they're going to be kicking themselves when they see how little they used #1 late in the game. Of all their RB's, he was THE beast. At the start of the 4th Quarter with UGA up by 10, Michel ripped off runs of 10, 5, and 13 yards... and by the way he was running it looked like he was getting into "the zone" dominant RB's sometimes find late in games. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, UGA replaced him with Chubb on that drive... and he didn't see substantial PT the rest of the game.

IMO, this is because of loyalty and a loaded RB roster. UGA has been forced to split time with 27, 1, and 7 all season long - and in THIS game I believe it came back to haunt them. If #1 had continued to stay in the game and play at the level he was showing on that drive, I think they score another TD and our job to come back becomes more difficult. In reality, I think this is something that has haunted us this year - there's just not enough PT/carries to go around when you have 3 RB's unless one of them is strictly a 3rd down player. The issue is that when a RB gets into a groove, you can't "ride him" in that scenario. I hope, going into next season, that we revert back to featuring 2 RB's rather than 3.
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Yep. Next year should be the N Harris show with Jacobs on 3rd down or when Harris needs a breather.
 
BAMARICH said:
When UGA reviews the film from last night's game, they're going to be kicking themselves when they see how little they used #1 late in the game. Of all their RB's, he was THE beast. At the start of the 4th Quarter with UGA up by 10, Michel ripped off runs of 10, 5, and 13 yards... and by the way he was running it looked like he was getting into "the zone" dominant RB's sometimes find late in games. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, UGA replaced him with Chubb on that drive... and he didn't see substantial PT the rest of the game.

IMO, this is because of loyalty and a loaded RB roster. UGA has been forced to split time with 27, 1, and 7 all season long - and in THIS game I believe it came back to haunt them. If #1 had continued to stay in the game and play at the level he was showing on that drive, I think they score another TD and our job to come back becomes more difficult. In reality, I think this is something that has haunted us this year - there's just not enough PT/carries to go around when you have 3 RB's unless one of them is strictly a 3rd down player. The issue is that when a RB gets into a groove, you can't "ride him" in that scenario. I hope, going into next season, that we revert back to featuring 2 RB's rather than 3.
Click to expand...

Yeah and the Georgia boards were going crazy last night about it. It reminded me of some games this year when D.H. was maybe not utilized as we thought he should be. Fortunately, we were the beneficiary this time.
 
Every time Chubb came into the game I was excited b/c we shut him down all night. We Michel came in, I would hold my breath.
 
I understand trying to keep players “fresh” but Chubb & Swift playing as much as they did in the second half was puzzling.

Michel should have had more touches, but I’m glad he didn’t.
 
JTBama said:
Yeah and the Georgia boards were going crazy last night about it. It reminded me of some games this year when D.H. was maybe not utilized as we thought he should be. Fortunately, we were the beneficiary this time.
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Really how I felt all season with Damien & Bo. I understand keeping fresh legs and rotating, but more often than not I felt like we were killing Damien's groove in a game more than anything else by substituting so much. Georgia did the very same thing with those two last night.
 
Chubb and Michel remind me of McFadden and Felix Jones of Arkansas. They are an incredible duo of backs and the play calling by Jim Cheney in the fourth quarter was questionable. But whatever. We won and it's our victory.
 
CB4 said:
I understand trying to keep players “fresh” but Chubb & Swift playing as much as they did in the second half was puzzling.

Michel should have had more touches, but I’m glad he didn’t.
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That play he made in the first half when he converted 3rd and 20 by tight roping the sideline was incredible.
 
92tide said:
he may not be able to handle 20+ carries . damien was saying last week that his 19 carries vs clemson left him worn out.
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Agreed. How these two teams use their backs keeps any one back from being conditioned (like D Henry, K. Johnson from Auburn) from having a lot of carries in one game. That has it's pro's and con's. I loved being able to feed D Henry, Mark Ingram, T Richardson, or E Lacy 20+ carries a game. But the fact is they were used to doing it game after game. The direction we've gone on offense doesn't do this. Our backs aren't used to carrying the load for multiple games, heck, even one game.
 
Part of Sony's success was the fact we were making bad reads on the gaps, taking nothing away from his performance though, he was instrumental in helping them had the success they did last night. I'm just happy that we made the stops on him when we needed to.
 
BAMAVILLE said:
Part of Sony's success was the fact we were making bad reads on the gaps, taking nothing away from his performance though, he was instrumental in helping them had the success they did last night. I'm just happy that we made the stops on him when we needed to.
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Correct... however, his quickness and burst allowed him to improvise when needed - and 27 especially didn't have that same type of ability. If you think back to our NC teams, think about our combos...

2009: Ingram & Richardson (Upchurch 3rd down back)
2011: Richardson & Lacy (Fowler heavy-duty back)
2012: Lacy & Yeldon (Drake 3rd down back)
2015: Henry & Drake

Looking at the pure stats from those years, there's always been a clear-cut #1 and #2 in the pecking order and the #3 back always had substantially less PT/carries. The one year that was the outlier was 2012 when Lacy had 204 for 1322 and Yeldon had 175 for 1108. Granted, with Tua likely at the helm next year it seems reasonable to expect that we'll revert back to that type of system.
 
I must admit, as good as #27 is, #1 is better...I enjoyed when Chubb was in the game, but had concerns when Michel was in the game. I agree, after they look at the tape, they will second guess themselves...kind of like us not using Harris more.
 
Great observation and one that certainly mystified me. Chaney's second half play calling was in many cases infuriating to watch.
 
I was giving props to both of those UGA RB's leading up to the game. Last night, Michel shined and had me worried (and throwing stuff at the TV) at times.
 
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