Georgia Football: Dawgs Offense Faces Huge Dilemma

No matter how you slice it, it's hard to be overwhelmed with the fruits of Georgia's labors in the passing game this season.  Though the prolonged absence of key playmaking receivers Malcolm Mitchell and Justin Scott-Wesley has hurt, it's still difficult for some to reconcile the general mediocrity of the Bulldogs' aerial assault.

Senior quarterback Hutson Mason is completing 69 percent of his passes—a perfectly respectable number—but through four games, he's thrown for a meager 566 yards.  And his two-interception performance against Tennessee has some calling for a change.

A change may in fact be necessary for the quarterback position in Athens, but it may not necessarily be regarding personnel.  As it stands, the huge dilemma the Dawgs offense now faces is more philosophical.

Recognizing Strengths

It should be noted, perhaps first and foremost, that Georgia's offense is not broken.  For every fan clamoring for offensive coordinator Mike Bobo's head, there are a handful of defenses praising his unit's execution. 

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The fact that Georgia is averaging over 45 points per game through four contests—all of which have come against FBS opposition and two of which came against ranked foes—is overlooked all too often.  And ironically, fans are quick to laud junior running back Todd Gurley as a Heisman Trophy candidate and demand that he be fed while failing to recognize that his workload will decrease efforts in the passing game.

And to both of those ends—Georgia's ability to score and run the ball effectively—it should be hard to question what Bobo is doing with his personnel.  After all, Georgia ranks eighth in the nation in scoring thanks to a ground attack that is also in the top 10.

To date, Georgia has recognized its strength, relied upon it and (for the most part) won football games.  Sure, the South Carolina loss was bitterly disappointing, and perhaps play-calling during that contest was situationally bizarre, but was that loss squarely on the shoulders of Bobo and Mason?  Defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt didn't think so.

"They ought to be raking me over the coals," Pruitt told Chip Towers of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the loss to South Carolina.  "You score 35 points, you're supposed to win."

What Could Come

As long as Georgia does score at least 35 points—something the Bulldogs have done in every game this year—victory will be expected.  But at some point, Georgia's impressive ground attack is going to meet its match.  It's just not feasible for this team to average seven yards per carry throughout the entire season.

The question when that time comes will be, how will Georgia's offense respond?  The question right now is, how does Georgia prepare for that day?

On paper, Vanderbilt is a fairly innocuous opponent.  Sure, the Commodores upset an injury-riddled Georgia team last year, but there's no tangible reasoning that would suggest Vandy keeps this game too close. 

And that's where the dilemma sets in.  Against Vanderbilt, Georgia will have two options on offense—both of which will likely yield a lopsided victory for the Dawgs.  Bobo could continue to rely on Gurley and a host of capable running backs to wear the Commodores down into submission.  Or he could place an emphasis on developing the passing game.

On one hand, why would he dilute a winning formula?  On the other, shouldn't this team prepare for a scenario in which a passing game is necessary to garner victory?

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Ultimately, the latter seems the more viable solution—at least for this game against an outmatched opponent.  Putting an emphasis on the passing attack may irk fans, but it will also give Mason and his receivers (potentially even Mitchell and Scott-Wesley) a chance to stretch the field in a relatively low-risk environment.  Further, such a game plan minimizes injury risk to the team's greatest asset, Gurley.

If things along these lines go well against Vanderbilt, fans and players alike will have more confidence heading into road showdowns with Missouri and Arkansas.  If the emphasis on moving the ball through the air doesn't pan out, then the team is back at square one—relying on a stable of running backs.

But don't forget that square one has been pretty impressive this season.