That isn't at all what he is doing. It is a play action protection. The best offenses have a play-action off of every run play. This is likely PA off of the "power read". Brailsford is supposed to be pulling here because the LG is covered up by the 3 technique so he can't pull. The RG is supposed to down block and he runs into Brailsford. So one of two things happened: 1) Formby with a bad down block or 2) Brailsford didn't get enough depth on his pull to get across to protect the edge. Formby's assignment was who came free.
sorry, but no.
The LG can absolutely pull when covered. The OC would have an easy down block onto the DT in that situation.
The RG had no one to downblock since there was no one on the LOS. The RG was also covered. He gave a quick look at the DT covering him that allowed the RT (Carroll) to reach and get a good block, before adjusting to the LB who was blitzing and he successfully picked up (see here).
RG had eyes on the play side backer the entire time, and the RT was staring directly at the playside DT. They were on the same page and picked up the guys coming on their side of the OL
The edge was already accounted for by the TE in motion. You can see here he takes a direct line to him, and in the prior pic, you can see he engages directly.
The problem on this play is Brailsford wasn't on the same page. He paid ZERO attention at the snap and never even appears to glance at the backside backer who is the one who applied the pressure. Everyone else seemed aware that the playside OLB was a coverage player and not rushing - he's pretty much watching the TE come in motion. We had Horton in the slot with the TE wide (pre-snap) on that side then coming in tight, with a CB, a S playing kinda deep and the OLB. I can't see a world where it makes sense to cover Horton 1-1 with no S, so it's a a simple read that if the playside ILB is coming, the OLB is in coverage. There wasn't going to be anyone for Brailsford to block out there. If Grubb and the O staff thought there would be, that's a bigger problem.
Even if he should have pulled, it's on him not getting enough depth. Formby is just barely deeper than Carroll, and Brailsford is not deeper than either of them.
This does illustrate a couple of things though. UGA only brought 4 and got pressure. LG, RG, and RT (at least on this play) all got decent blocks. LT and C blocked NO ONE. We simply have too many times where we have OL not blocking anyone. The hit against Um where Ty got hurt is was Carroll who blocked NO ONE and Miller had to try to clean it up himself, unsuccessfully.
The other thing is that on this play, we started with Bernard lined up 2-3 yards away from the OT, and Horton 5-6 yards outside, AND motioned the TE to about 2 yards off the OT pre-snap. We only had ONE player (williams)far enough away to pull a player outside the box That makes it incredibly easy for a D to disguise who they might send and who they might not. UGA literally covered Bernard with the DE/OLB right off the LOS because he was so close. Pull him a bit further outside and the backside ILB has to shift his alignment outside somewhat and either can't blitz because he does have coverage, or at least has to start from further away, OR if the do choose to pull the OLB out there, Proctor would have known to slide in to help VDM, who then maybe could have picked up the other inside blitzer. It was pretty much the same thing on the other side. With the TE motioning inside, it was a very easy thing for the OLB to pick him up so that the ILB was free to blitz. Everything bunched in like this just makes it WAY to easy. It makes ZERO sense.
All that said, I still think Brailsford simply wasn't on the same page as the other 10 guys on this one. This was a one route, hot read play. Ty saw 1-1 coverage out there and called it, and everyone else executed that. Had #5 or #1 been out there as the WR on the route, it's probably a TD or worst case a PI call. I love #2 and think he does a lot of things really well, but he's not a contested catch guy like #5 and #1 are.
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