Georgia quarterback Carson Beck had an amazing opportunity to prove himself against one of the best teams in the country on Saturday as the Bulldogs faced Alabama. Instead, he failed miserably for the vast majority of the game, revealing his one fatal flaw that may plague Georgia for the rest of the season.
Yes, Georgia was without one of their star offensive lineman Tate Ratledge. And yes, Alabama is a tough opponent full of high pedigree athletes. However, that does not excuse the fact that Carson is simply not seeing the field well. That is his one fatal flaw and it's becoming a real issue now.
This is two games in a row now that Beck's inability to adjust post-snap to what opposing defenses are giving him has cost Georgia a significant amount of points. Against Kentucky two weeks ago Beck just simply refused to push the ball downfield, dinking and dunking, posting an average depth of target outside the Top 100 quarterbacks in FBS. This week against Alabama he started out with some of the same, but then wildly started launching the ball down the field as Alabama pulled ahead with a huge lead.
Watching every snap of the game back after it concluded, it became quite clear the Alabama was prepared for the fact that Beck simply does not make sufficient post-snaps reads. Credit to defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, because the Crimson Tide quite often would show man looks pre-snap when they were in zone, and vice versa all night long.
And when Beck misread the coverage bad things happened. Whether it was on his early interceptions, his incompletions near multiple defenders that probably should have been interceptions, or his fumble, his fatal flaw proved to be the difference in the game. Take the interception Carson Beck threw just before the first half ended for example.
Georgia was showing single-high or Cover-3 with some kind of man underneath, but five defenders dropped along the first down line in short zones after the ball was snapped and Beck dropped it right into their lap.
Even when Carson Beck looked like he was making the right post-snap read, his decisions were likely not actually the correct decision. There was multiple examples where Georgia was showing tight man coverage pre-snap, but then shifted to a Cover-2 look. On multiple occasions Beck completed a pass in this situation, but the placement of the throw clearly indicated he had no idea that the post-snap read was actually zone. On at least two occasions he just missed additional interceptions on throws like this.
If his field vision pre- and post-snap does not improve this fatal flaw is seriously going to mean trouble for Georgia. He began to adjust somewhat in the second half as he connected on four passes of 30+ yards that came on on back to back to back drives, but it wasn't enough. Beck played frantically throughout, forcing his first reads, and when he extended deep into his progressions quite often misdiagnosed coverage or leverage of defenders.
The final worst example of this came on the game-sealing interception at the goal line. Colbie Young was clearly not the first read on the play, but Beck saw that he had a size advantage with the 6'0", 195-pound Zabien Brown on the much larger X receiver. That part was fine. But rather than pushing the ball vertically over the top to Young, or placing it far outside, Beck almost looked like he intentionally under threw Young hoping for defensive pass interference or simply misunderstanding his player's positioning and leverage.
When it was all said and done Carson Beck had barely completed half of his throws, tossing three interceptions, and losing a fumble. In almost every case, every turnover, the majority of his bad throws, his inability to make the right post-snap read was the issue.
More teams are going to start to realizing Beck's issues in post-snap adjustments in the coming weeks and if he doesn't improve it's going to get ugly for Georgia. Yes, it was nice that Arian Smith and Dillon Bell broke free on some easy schemed up shots in the second half. Those types of layups won't always be there. Beck has to prove that his post-snap game isn't going to be his downfall. And he needs to prove it quickly.
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