Georgia searches for answers to offensive woes

ATHENS -- Georgia senior receiver Malcolm Mitchell had just one word to describe the offense the past two games.

"Scoreless," Mitchell said. "That's all I got."

While the last two games ending without a Georgia touchdown is just the culmination of the problem, it goes much further than just those two games.

Since the calendar changed to October, Georgia has slipped in pretty much every offensive category. In scoring offense, they've slipped to 63rd in the country and saw just five touchdowns the entire month after averaging 45.5 points per game in September. Rushing offense has slipped from a top-15 attack to 35th, going from almost 258 yards per game in September to 137 in October.

The passing offense now ranks 86th out of 128 FBS schools, total offense has slipped to 67th and red zone offense is now 100th.

And, admittedly, the players aren't sure why.

"I don't know," sophomore tight end Jeb Blazevich said. "If I knew I'd probably be making a lot of money. We're searching for answers."

"I don't think there's any player out there purposely not trying to score," Mitchell said. "I don't know. I wish I had an answer, to be completely honest. And maybe the coaches do. I don't."

The problem has finally reached its tipping point, and the coaching staff has begun desperately looking for any changes that might fix the problem.

Last week saw Faton Bauta, who had been third-string on the depth chart for much of the season, get the start in an attempt to spark something offensively. Although not completely to blame on Bauta, the plan failed.

This week, Georgia will continue to look at its quarterback situation, and it seems that the most likely candidates are former starter Greyson Lambert or Brice Ramsey, who have gotten the majority of the first-team reps, according to head coach Mark Richt.

"If it's up in the air, then I'd like to work with all of the guys just equal amount and the same with them in terms of getting the timing down, the feel, the rhythms and the routes and things like that," Blazevich said. "That's the only thing I care about."

Before getting benched Saturday, Lambert went 48-for-88 for 543 yards in October but managed just two touchdowns and had two interceptions. Bauta fared worse in his debut, going 15-for-33 for 154 yards with four interceptions.

"It would be nice to get more stability at that position, but it just hasn't played out that way," Richt said. "We're basically competing this week at a lot of positions, especially on offense, just making sure the guys aren't too comfortable."

While the quarterback play has been the most volatile this season, it hasn't been the only unit to struggle to find consistency.

Especially since sophomore Nick Chubb tore his PCL against Tennessee, the running game has been almost nonexistent. Since then, Georgia's rushing yards per game has dropped from 244.8 to 118 with a paltry 69 against Florida and the team saw just one rushing touchdown the entire month of October. None of those have come since Chubb's injury.

"It's definitely important," senior tight end Jay Rome said. "We've been looking at what's been going wrong and we've just been trying to get better every day and the running game's a part of that."

This problem has finally prompted the coaching staff to make some drastic changes.

The first, and much more minor change, will see Keith Marshall see an increase in carries through the rest of the season. He hasn't seen more than five carries in any game since Chubb went down.

"I've seen him improve basically weekly," Richt said. "I think he's in a good position to get more totes. That would be my guess going into this week."

The second change will be a total reshuffle of the offensive line. The new group will have Isaiah Wynn go from left guard to left tackle, Kolton Houston go to left guard from right tackle and John Theus go from left to right tackle. Sophomore Dyshon Sims will also join the group, replacing Greg Pyke at right guard.

The change represents a drastic change in approach to the unit with an apparent focus on the future, getting Wynn reps at left tackle and putting Sims in after not having started a game this season. Sophomore tailback Sony Michel said that he didn't think the changes were necessary, although he understood them.

"I feel like we've been going against some fairly good defenses and sometimes you might struggle," Michel said. "It may take some time. It's all about patience."

At the end of the day, it falls back on the coaching staff to put the right players on the field and making the necessary adjustments to correct the offensive woes.

"If they have an answer, I'm pretty sure they discuss it among themselves to find a solution and implement that solution in practice," Mitchell said.

Even though the last few games haven't shown much improvement offensively, the players still showed confidence in the coaching staff to find the solution.

"The coaches are always going to make the best decision, who's going to play," Michel said. "If they feel whichever guys is the right guy to play, I'm OK with it because I know coach will make the best decision."

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Georgia searches for answers to offensive woes ."