Last Week’s Game: #10 Georgia vs. #22 Vanderbilt, win, 24-14.
General Comments: Ugh. This is just getting old. It was the same story for the Dawgs last Saturday: another respectable but unimpressive win. I basically spent the entire game in a state of agitation, hoping the Dawgs would take over at some point, but seeing Vandy continue to hang around every time that Georgia appeared on the verge of putting it away. It became clear fairly early on that the Dawgs weren’t going to blow Vandy out. I was fine with that but I really wanted the Dawgs to put the game out of reach at some point. I wanted it to be comfortable in the end. For one thing, I knew that if it was still a game at the end something fluky could happen and lead to disaster. But of course I was also concerned about the final score. The Dawgs were never able to clinch the win, however, until they kicked a field goal to extend their lead to 10 points with just a few minutes to go. And the 24-14 final score wasn’t going to impress anybody.
As a Georgia fan, I was happy with the win and relieved. But again I found it hard to be satisfied with the Dawgs merely winning ugly. I’ve told myself over and over again that I’m going to forget about winning impressively and style points and all of that but I just can’t do it. As long as the Dawgs have a shot at the stupid National Title I guess I’m going to worry about how Georgia looks and not just whether or not they win.
All that being said, at this point I would just like to say that the Dawgs have had a really good year so far. I just thought I needed to go ahead and give Georgia some credit because the Dawgs have gotten nothing but criticism from fans and the media. Look, the Dawgs haven’t been as strong a team as I had hoped they would be but they’re still really good. I try to be reasonable and realistic about things but I know fans are going to be irrational in their expectations. That’s normal, I mean, that’s why they are called fans—short for fanatics—and not supporters. Hell, even the local media has been a bit cuckoo for co-co puffs lately in regards to Georgia. It got to the point this week that Atlanta Journal and Constitution columnist Mark Bradley wrote in an article about how disappointing the Dawgs had been that he wasn’t even sure if they were the best team in the state. Huh? Gosh. If I didn’t know any better I would think Bradley was some disappointed fan lashing out at the team he loves in response to the hurt they have caused him by not living up to his dreams of 14-0 and a National Championship. But no, Bradley is just a journalist who takes pride in being neutral and objective. So there’s really no logical explanation for Bradley’s stunning overreaction. It’s hard to imagine how he could be so in the dark on this one. There should be no confusion here, right? Okay, Georgia isn’t perfect; they got blown out by Bama at home and they have been unable to pull away in games against South Carolina, Vandy, and Tennessee, but stop acting like they’re some average team. I don’t know what the problem is, Mark. You must be misunderstanding things in some way, but there shouldn’t be any question in your mind whether Georgia is the best team in the state. The Dawgs are 6-1 and ranked 9th in the country; their only loss came to an undefeated Bama team ranked 2nd in the country; and they’ve won each of their games by at least 7 points. That other major program in the state—Georgia Tech—is having a fine season, but let’s not get carried away here. The Jackets are 6-1 and ranked 21st in the country, but 2 of their wins have come against FCS teams Jacksonville State and Gardner-Webb; 2 of their wins have come against Mississippi State and Duke; and their best wins are against a couple of average ACC teams in a down year for the conference. If you are truly considering that Tech is on a level with or better than Georgia then you may want to just stick to your Final Four Fiasco or whatever because you’re obviously struggling to grasp the game of football. And that Fiasco thing could use some work anyway.
Okay, I just had to clear up the confusion. Georgia is still on a different level than Tech, everything’s fine, the sky isn’t falling, don’t worry. The win over Vandy wasn’t overly impressive but it was solid. They didn’t play a complete game but they definitely didn’t play poorly. We assume that Vandy isn’t as good as their record suggests but they aren’t bad and they may actually end up being a team worthy of a top 25 ranking. Either way, beating Vandy isn’t a given anymore and the Dawgs took care of business. They didn’t control the game scoreboard wise but they controlled it in every other way just like they did against Tennessee. It’s been 7 games now and we still don’t know what this team is capable of doing. We still don’t know what kind of a season they’re going to end up having. But there’s still time for this team to blossom. There’s still time for this team to put it all together.
The Good: Well I was going to start by saying the best thing about the last game was that nobody got seriously injured, but then on Thursday the Dawgs suffered a game’s worth of injuries to negate that. Anyway, the Dawgs only won this game by 10 but they never trailed and they were never really in jeopardy. They pretty much controlled the game and if not for a few mistakes they would have won a lot easier. Georgia held Vandy to 245 yards of total offense while putting up 425 yards of offense, outgaining the Dores by 180 yards. UGA had 11 more first downs than Vandy (25-14) and the Dawgs rushed for 231 yards, averaging 5.8 yards a carry. The offensive line did a good job opening holes for the backs and they also protected Matt Stafford. Vandy came into the game leading the SEC with 20 sacks but the young Georgia offensive line held them without a sack. For once this year the Dawgs really did not have a lot of penalties, just 5 for 47 yards. Vandy’s strategy against any of the SEC heavyweights is always to run clock and limit the opposing offense’s chances to score but the Dawgs were still able to control the ball for 5 more minutes than the Dores.
The Bulldawg defense had only intercepted 3 passes all year and Vandy had thrown only 3 INT’s all season but the Dawgs picked off a pair of Vandy passes on Saturday. The Dawgs shut Vandy out for almost the entire first half before Vandy scored with 23 seconds left. And Georgia held Vandy scoreless in the 4th quarter. Knowshon Moreno really got off in this one, rushing for 172 yards and 1 TD on 23 carries, averaging 7.5 yards a carry. He made some sweet plays in this last game. I’m not one to get all excited over amazing athleticism. You won’t find me scouring You Tube for highlight films of some high school prospect. All I care about is that you get the job done; I don’t care how you do it. But Knowshon put a stiff-arm on a Vandy defender in this game that got me pretty fired up. AJ Green had another huge day, catching 7 passes for 132 yards and a TD. Late in the first quarter he hauled in a 49 yard pass to get the Dawgs to the Vandy 17 and then made an impressive catch to bring in a 17 yard TD pass two plays later. In the 3rd quarter, Green caught a ball for 33 yards to take the Dawgs down to the 11, setting up their 3rd score. Brian Mimbs helped the Dawgs out with a couple of punts placed inside the 15, including one that pinned Vandy at their own 6.
For the second week in a row, the Dawgs put the game away with a long, clock eating drive late in the 4th quarter. The only difference this time was that the Dawgs didn’t score on the drive but it was still quite useful. At a point when the Dawgs’ offense was struggling and Vandy trailed by just 7 points, Georgia took over at their own 5 with 8:29 to play. They went 77 yards in 11 plays, taking up 5 minutes and 39 seconds of clock and forcing Vandy to use their second timeout. Had they made the field goal at the end of the drive it would have really put the game away but it still meant that Vandy would have to go 80 yards for a TD in 2 minutes and 50 seconds with only 1 timeout just to tie Georgia.
The Bad: The 3 main negatives about Georgia’s performance last Saturday were turnovers, missed scoring opportunities, and struggles on 3rd down offensively. Those first two problems were repeats from the week before. After taking excellent care of the ball in the first 4 games, Stafford has thrown 5 picks in the last 3 games. Now, you could say that 2 of those picks were really not his fault but the others were bad. His second pick against Vandy came on a tipped ball. Never the less, it did give Vandy the ball at the UGA 36 and set up their second touchdown to cut the Georgia lead to 21-14 in the 3rd quarter. In a way, Stafford’s first interception cost a touchdown as well. The Dawgs had a first and 10 at midfield, leading 7-0 early in the 2nd quarter. Stafford wanted to go deep down the right sideline for AJ Green who had a couple steps on his man and was open for a TD. But Stafford’s technique deserted him again and the ball hung up on him and Vandy’s stud defensive back DJ Moore picked it off at the 2. There are a couple of things to note about the increase in Stafford’s interceptions. First of all, obviously the competition has gotten better. In the first 4 games the Dawgs played an FCS team, a MAC team, a Pac-10 team, and an SEC team. Their last 3 games have been against SEC teams. Another interesting thing is that the last 3 games have come against the teams ranked 1st (Tennessee), 2nd (Vandy), and tied for 3rd (Bama) in the SEC in interceptions. Also, in the Bama and Tennessee games he threw more passes than normal, although against Vandy he threw just 23 times, completing only 13 passes, and throwing 2 picks.
The Dawgs continued to have difficulty cashing in on scoring chances in this game. The offense had problems finishing off drives as usual but what made things worse this time was that Blair Walsh wasn’t on his game on Saturday so the Dawgs couldn’t even get field goals out of it. On Georgia’s first drive of the game, they moved the ball down the field steadily with completions to AJ Green and runs by Knowshon Moreno. They had a first down at the Vandy 26 but then Moreno was stopped after a gain of 1 and Stafford threw for Green incomplete to bring up a 3rd and 9. On 3rd down the Dawgs went with a counter handoff to Caleb King that gained 3 yards to bring up 4th down and 6 from the 22. Now, I have no real idea what the Dawgs’ coaches are trying to do. Maybe they saw something on film that led them to believe they could pick up 9 yards on 3rd down with that play. But to me, even if you do think you might be able to break a long run on 3rd down, you still should throw the ball on 3rd and 9 on the first drive of the game. I mean, if you’re going to get 9 yards on a counter to your second string running back it has to be the absolute perfect play. Even if you catch the defense on its heels they still will probably stop the play after 7 yards or so. It’s just not a very aggressive call and gaining 3 yards doesn’t accomplish much. If your kicker can make from 40 he can probably make from 43. This was all made worse when Walsh just missed from 40 yards out and the Dawgs got nothing from their first drive. The Dawgs then got the ball at the Vandy 30 following an interception and they cashed in that time to go up 7-0. When Stafford under threw Green it wasn’t the end of the world because it did put Vandy near their goal line and the Dawgs ended up getting the ball back at midfield. But they lost 2 yards a piece on their first two plays of the possession and then Stafford threw incomplete on 3rd and 14 and they had to punt. The Dawgs’ defense picked off another pass and the offense started their next drive at the 43 and they scored a TD that time. For most of the second half the Dawgs didn’t have good field position but they finally put together that long drive in the 4th quarter. The drive ended up stalling at the 18 when Stafford threw incomplete on 3rd and 4. That was no big deal because a 37 yard field goal by Walsh would virtually ice the game. But Walsh’s kick hit the upright and Vandy was still alive. The Dawgs stopped Vandy and Georgia took over at the 29. This time they just wanted to kill the clock and Walsh was able to make a 39 yarder to clinch the win and gain some confidence going forward.
Third downs were a major problem for the Bulldawgs against Vandy. Georgia has done well on 3rd down for most of the season but they converted just 1 of 8 into 1st downs on Saturday. Part of the problem was that they were stuck in a lot of 3rd and long situations. Those are always tough to convert but even more so when you have a young, inexperienced line that has to hold off a defense that knows you’re going to pass. But it wasn’t always 3rd and long. Right after Vandy got back within 7 in the 3rd quarter the Dawgs had a 2nd and 2 from their own 29. They ran Brannan Southerland for no gain on 2nd down and then Caleb King lost 4 yards on 3rd and 2. That was one point where the line did not do the job.
There were a few other problem areas in this game. When the Dawgs scored to go ahead 14-0 late in the first half they were in complete control of the game. There was only 2:45 left on the clock and if they could hold Vandy for the rest of the half they would be in good shape, as they would get the ball first in the second half. But the defense allowed Vandy to go 75 yards in just 2:23 for a TD to get right back in the game. The Dawgs were hurt badly by a horrific pass interference call but still it was a let down. It started off badly when Walsh’s kickoff only traveled to the 7 yard line. They only returned it to the 25 but the Dawgs have got to be able to at least get the kickoff to the 5 yard line. Another recurring problem that was back again in this one was a lack of a pass rush for the Dawgs. Vandy QB’s dropped back 37 times and the Dawgs failed to record a single sack in the game. Also, Bryan Evans continued to have issues in the secondary, as he was beaten for both Vandy TD’s. Now, both plays were the result of great passing and catching by Vandy but Evans was still responsible for letting it happen. It’s not totally Evans’ fault a lot of the time, he’s just short. But again we’ve seen that Georgia’s secondary is a bit of a weakness and it can really be exposed when the Dawgs don’t get any pressure on the quarterback.
Next Week: @ #11 LSU
Preview: This Saturday the Dawgs begin a grueling stretch of games with a road trip to LSU for a 3:30 game at Tiger Stadium. For the first time this year the Dawgs will not be the favorites when they kickoff on Saturday. The Dawgs are slight underdogs against the 5-1 Tigers, who won at South Carolina, 24-17, last week. Going into this season I think a lot of people hoped the Dawgs would go into this game undefeated. It looked like this would be a bigger challenge than the Dawgs had faced to this point. I know the Dawgs already have a loss and that Bama turned out to be a much more difficult matchup than nearly anyone predicted but I still think this will be Georgia’s biggest challenge so far. Hopefully they’ll respond better than they did against Bama at home. Honestly, I’m surprised that the line in Vegas has shrunk the way it has during the week. For some reason LSU has been a little bit forgotten since they were blown out at Florida a couple of weeks ago but they are still the defending champs and playing in Baton Rouge is a major factor. Thank Darwin the game stayed in the afternoon slot rather than moving to a nighttime start.
The Bayou Bengals started the year by blowing out 3-time defending I-AA champion Appalachian State. Their second game was scheduled for September 6th against Troy at home but the hurricanes forced the game to be rescheduled for later this year. After whipping North Texas, the Tigers opened SEC play with a come from behind win in Auburn. They got by Miss State at home after that and then had a bye week prior to the trip to Gainesville but it didn’t help. They got torched 51-21. Last week’s game with South Carolina was very competitive but they finally put it away in the 4th quarter, winning 24-17. They’re now 3-1 in conference this year and 3-0 at home. It seems kind of strange to think that the Tigers have now lost 3 of their last 10 conference games considering that they’re the defending national champs and they’re currently ranked 11th in the country. I guess that speaks to the wackiness of last season and the respect people currently have for the SEC.
Georgia’s recent history with LSU is fresh in the minds of most of us. The Dawgs lost twice to LSU during the Tigers’ first National Championship season of the decade back in 2003. That year the two teams hooked up in the 4th week of the season with the Dawgs 3-0 and ranked 7th in the country and a slight underdog against the 3-0, 11th ranked Tigers. It was a classic defensive struggle that saw the Dawgs tie it late, only to see LSU take the lead back on a long touchdown pass. The Tigers ended up winning 17-10. The two teams met again at the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship. Georgia entered the game 10-2 and ranked 5th in the country, while the Tigers were 11-1 and the #3 team in the country. LSU was only favored by 3 points but they ended up routing the Dawgs, 34-13 to take the conference title. The Tigers went on to beat Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl to claim the BCS National Championship. I’ve got a couple more quick comments about this. Looking back, isn’t it ridiculous the way that LSU’s championship was essentially almost invalidated and was completely pushed aside by the national media because of the fact that they beat Oklahoma and not USC? Maybe the Trojans would have beaten LSU but they didn’t make it to the championship game and the rules say that the winner of that game is the champion. This is the same media that completely ignored an undefeated Auburn team when USC won the NC the next season. Anyway, I always thought that was unfair to LSU. I mean, it wasn’t just a split National Championship; the media took LSU’s title and gave it to USC. But regardless of what the uninformed media wants to think, there was no split NC, LSU won the title, not USC. So USC has won 1 National Championship under Pete Carroll. That’s it. Sorry, had to get that out of my system. I have one other interesting note. The only team to beat LSU in 2003 and the only team other than LSU to beat Georgia that year was the Florida Gators who finished the season 8-5. The Dawgs would get revenge on the Tigers in 2004. The next season the Dawgs got to host LSU in the fourth game of the year. LSU was 2-1 and ranked 13th while the Dawgs were 3-0 and ranked #3 in the country but Georgia was only a 2 point favorite going in. This turned out to be the high point of Georgia’s season as the Dawgs laid it on LSU, winning 45-16. Nick Saban left for the NFL after that season but the Tigers made it to the SEC Championship Game the next season where they played Georgia for the second time in 3 years. Georgia came in 9-2 and ranked 13th while the Tigers were 10-1 and the #3 team in the country. LSU was a slight favorite but the Dawgs completed their payback of the Tigers, blowing Les Miles’ team out, 34-14, to win the SEC Title. That has been LSU’s only game against Georgia under Miles, while the Dawgs are 2-2 against LSU under Mark Richt and 0-1 on the road.
After Georgia’s win over Vandy last Saturday one of the most positive things for Dawg fans to think about was the fact that no further injuries had surfaced and it looked like the Dawgs were starting to get a tad bit healthier heading into this tough stretch beginning at LSU. That sentiment has been obliterated by more injuries this week as well as off the field problems. Hours after Georgia’s win over Vanderbilt last Saturday, sophomore defensive tackle Brandon Wood was spotted driving without his lights on and wound up getting a DUI. Now, let me say first that I’ve done numerous things that are so much stupider than that you wouldn’t believe it. So I understand. I’m just saying, that’s retarded. If you’re a Georgia football player what the hell are you doing driving after drinking at all? Anyway, Wood has 10 tackles this season, a half sack, and some QB hurries but it’s not his stats that you should be concerned with. Wood had played in every game this season and he’s just another body that will be missing from that defensive front this weekend. Big Jeff Owens’ injury really hurt this defensive line and Kade Weston’s health problems have also been an issue. Weston has played in only 4 games this season but coaches are hopeful he’ll be up for this one. Even if he’s limited in what he can do, just having him available to be in the game for a couple of snaps would be big. During this past week the Dawgs also lost sophomore linebacker Akeem Hebron to a season ending ankle injury. Again, it’s not missing Hebron’s ability that will hurt as much as it is just not having him available to provide depth. He had played in 6 of 7 games this season but is now gone for the remainder. The Dawgs really need senior middle linebacker Dannell Ellerbe back for this game and it looks like he might be ready. Still, he won’t be anything like 100%. Everyone knows about the problems Georgia has had on the offensive line but injuries have also hit the tight end corps. Senior Tripp Chandler missed last game with an injury and is questionable for this game. Sophomore Bruce Figgins put off surgery to help with the situation and tackle Kiante Tripp had been moved to tight end but had to move back when the line was further decimated. Things got worse this week when redshirt freshman Aron White was lost indefinitely with an injury. Junior WR Kris Durham has missed a number of games and may not be back for Saturday’s game. The injuries for Georgia have piled up to a higher point than any time in recent memory and that ain’t good heading into this very challenging stretch of games.
I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty worried. For one thing, the Dawgs are going on the road to play a very good team in a very hostile environment. That’s hard enough when you have an experienced offensive line. It’s going to be an enormous challenge for a very inexperienced and now very thin offensive line. And what makes it worse is that they’ll be going up against a very talented, very experienced, and very deep defensive line. If Stafford had time to throw, the Dawgs would be able to take shots downfield to their great receivers AJ Green and Mohamed Massaquoi against a secondary susceptible to giving up big plays. But the Dawgs will probably have trouble protecting Stafford long enough to play that kind of offense. Keeping guys back and max protecting seems like a must but that takes away the advantages Georgia might have against the secondary. It helps LSU’s cover guys out a lot. But the offensive line is going to find it a challenge to run block too. As tough as it was for Georgia to run against Alabama, it could be that tough again on Saturday. The Georgia offense will have to use the horizontal and screen passing game to perfection this week. On the other side of the ball we also have some major issues. The defensive line has been unable to get pressure on the quarterback all year and now it will be going up against one of the best and most experienced offensive lines in the SEC. With the lack of depth in the D-line it could get worse as the game goes on and if the linebackers are having to deal with a lot of traffic it will take away the biggest strength of the defense. If the Dawgs have to blitz a lot in an effort to get pressure it will leave Georgia’s biggest weakness—the secondary—vulnerable against a very talented receiver core. The one thing that helps the Dawgs is the inexperience of LSU’s quarterbacks but the Dawgs defense must make big plays and cause mistakes when they have the chance. Namely, dropping interceptions probably won’t get it done this week. Unfortunately, I see problems for the Dawgs on special teams as well. Freshman kicker Blair Walsh had been 10 of 12 on FG’s and 8 of 8 from less than 50 yards going into last week but he missed on 2 of 3 field goal tries, failing to connect on kicks of 37 and 40 yards. I thought it was huge for Richt to get Walsh another chance to kick a field goal there at the end and take some confidence going into this week. You just have to hope it was a one game thing. LSU has an excellent and experienced kicker in senior Colt David. The other big problem the Dawgs have been having is on kickoffs. To me, it would almost be worth it for the Dawgs to try some squib kicks at this point. They have not been able to get the ball to the end zone more than once a game and that will be dangerous this week with Trindon Holliday and others returning kicks. It would be huge for the Dawgs to get some kind of big play from their return teams in this game. Unfortunately, the Dawgs have been average returning kickoffs and the Tigers have one of the best kick coverage teams in the country. LSU has allowed some punt return yards this season and perhaps Georgia can break off a good return there.
In the last few weeks the Dawgs have really controlled the action on the field but have been unable to take complete control on the scoreboard due to mistakes and an inability to maximize opportunities. Obviously, that won’t be good enough this week. The Dawgs need to get in the end zone when they have good field position and when they have field goal chances they must make them. Matt Stafford has got to be careful with the ball this week. Turnovers play a big role in every game but it’s more important this Saturday because the Dawgs will be on the road. And the Dawgs need to repeat last week’s effort in regard to staying away from killer penalties.
I think this is a tough matchup for the Bulldawgs. I’m not real confident to be honest. The only things that make me feel a little positive are Georgia’s 27-4 record on the road under Mark Richt and the fact that confidences don’t seem to be overly high on the LSU side either. But it’s confidence that I’m a little concerned with. It just seems like the Dawgs have lost their confidence and swagger since the Bama game. In the last two seasons the Dawgs have struggled to play with emotion and attitude early on and then found themselves late in the year. That really needs to happen again. A couple of years ago there was talk of the Dawgs looking for leaders to step up during the early part of the season and I wonder if this team isn’t having that same problem. I’ve usually felt that the off the field problems and the penalty issues were overblown but I’m starting to rethink my stance on those things. I mean, how did 2 Georgia players get arrested for different driving violations last Saturday night? I’d like to give Vince Vance the benefit of the doubt for driving with an expired license or whatever but I can’t because he’s fucked up before. I hope I’m wrong about these things and that the Dawgs do play with attitude and confidence on Saturday. And I hope that there are leaders on this team and that most of the players look out for each other and try not to hurt the team by being stupid. I guess we’ll find out in the next month or so. As for Saturday, I think the Dawgs need to play by far their best game of the season to win. They can’t make any mistakes and they must force LSU to make mistakes. They can’t allow any big plays and they have to make a few big plays. They can not fall behind early.
This game is very big for both teams. While the winner doesn’t necessarily jump into contention for the National Championship right away, the loser is absolutely, positively out of the NC picture for good. While Georgia would still be okay as far as the SEC East title is concerned if they should lose, LSU really needs to win if they want a shot at the SEC West title. I’m going on pure hope in this one. My biggest fear is that we will be blown out again. I just think this is a tough, tough matchup for our Dawgs. What’s scary is that we’re going to find out a lot about what this season is going to turn out to be on Saturday. If they lose it’s not like the season is over but they will have to readjust their goals. If the Dawgs win, on the other hand, then things get a whole lot more interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment