The Bulldawg Blog: Weeks 9, 10, and 11 Reviews

Due to some technical difficulties, I haven’t done a review of the last 3 Georgia games. Obviously a lot has occurred over the last 3 weeks that deserves attention. I’m going to do a review of each game, starting with Georgia’s biggest win of the season, back in week 9.

Week 9: #7 Georgia @ #13 LSU, win, 52-38.

General Comments: Finally, in the 8th game of the season, the Bulldawgs got a victory that everyone in the Bulldawg Nation could feel good about. As I expressed in my preview of the LSU game, I was very concerned about the matchup. I wasn’t very confident and, truth be told, I was probably expecting us to lose to some extent. I thought this was an important game for this particular group of Georgia Bulldawgs. If the Dawgs had lost the game and then lost to Florida, I knew that there was a chance they could finish the year 10-3, with wins over Tennessee, Auburn, and Georgia Tech, no losses to bad or traditionally weaker teams, and a bowl victory, but their season would still be viewed almost as a failure. This game was a signature win for this team that they would always have regardless of what happened the next week in Florida. And at the time of course, it kept all of the Dawgs’ original goals (other than winning every game) alive. For Georgia to be able to go into a place like Tiger Stadium, against a good LSU team, and pretty much beat them handedly was pretty impressive.

As I mentioned, I was really worried about this matchup because I thought the offensive line might struggle against a deep and talented defensive front, especially on the road at Tiger Stadium. But O-line opened up holes for the running backs all day and allowed Stafford time to throw and throw deep, allowing only 1 sack all game. In my preview of the game, I said that I thought the Dawgs could not afford to fall behind because it would keep the crowd loud and put too much pressure on the line to have to protect against a defense that would be expecting the pass. And as it turned out, I think it was absolutely huge that the Dawgs jumped out early, lead for most of the game and led big for much of it, and that they never trailed. I had said that the Dawgs couldn’t afford to make mistakes and that they needed to cause LSU to make mistakes. As it turned out, Georgia’s winning the turnover battle, 3-0, was probably the biggest key to the game. I had said specifically that dropping INT’s wouldn’t be good enough and all 3 turnovers were interceptions. I had said that Matt Stafford needed to take care of the ball and he did an excellent job of that, while at the same time not being too cautious. I also said the Dawgs needed to make some big plays and they obviously did, with 2 INT’s returned for touchdowns of 40 and 53 yards, rushes of 47 and 68 yards (1 for a TD), and pass completions of 33, 48, and 49 yards (1 for a TD). I had said that the Dawgs had to take advantage of scoring opportunities and they definitely did so, scoring touchdowns on all 3 times inside the red zone, and getting a field goal on 1 of their other 2 trips inside the LSU 40. I had said I was worried about the matchup of special teams because the Dawgs had struggled kicking the ball deep on kickoffs, because the Tigers had some dangerous return people, and because the Tigers had a good and experienced kicker, while the Dawgs had an inexperienced kicker who had struggled the week before. But the Dawgs didn’t allow the Tigers any long returns on kickoffs or punts and Blair Walsh hit a 50 yard field goal and his only miss was a 55 yarder. I had said that the Dawgs needed to stay away from the penalties that had troubled them all year long and they pretty much did. They committed 7 penalties for 59 yards but that was better than normal and most of them weren’t killers. I had been concerned that the Dawgs would be unable to get any pressure on the quarterback, as the team had struggled in that department this year, and LSU had a good, experienced line. But the Dawgs did a pretty good job of hurrying the LSU QB’s and they got a pair of sacks for losses of 17 and 12 yards.

First Quarter Comments

I thought Darryl Gamble’s 40 yard interception return for a touchdown on the first play of the game was maybe the biggest play of the season to that point. The Dawgs had gotten another short kickoff from Blair Walsh and the Tigers had good field position at their 37. Gamble’s pick took away a lot of that start of the game energy that the crowd had and it put Georgia up right away. In a way, I felt like the 7 points he gave the Dawgs was really a “Get out of Jail Free Card” if you will for the defense. As said before, I was worried that LSU would have a lot of success blocking for the run and the pass, and I was worried about Georgia’s secondary. LSU’s 10 play, 72 yard drive on their second possession was basically the full embodiment of what I had expected might happen. I really feel like if Gamble drops the interception—which was not an easy catch—LSU goes down and scores a TD just like they did on their second drive. I think that would have changed the game dramatically because the Dawgs would have been playing from behind and the offense would already have pressure placed on them. Lastly, Gamble’s pick made it almost like the Dawgs won the coin toss twice, because they scored a TD as if they had had the first possession of the game, and they would be getting the first possession of the second half.

I was worried again after LSU’s TD because I thought they might be able to move the ball like that all day, and at this point Georgia hadn’t proved it could move the ball on LSU yet. But on Georgia’s first possession of the game they went on what I feel like was maybe the best drive of the year, going 78 yards in 14 plays over 6:31 for a touchdown. Obviously the drive was huge because it answered the LSU drive and put the Dawgs back up by 7. But it also proved that they could handle the LSU defense and the crowd noise. The Dawgs converted three 3rd downs on the drive and they did not settle for a field goal once they got into the red zone. They had a 1st down at the 12 and then were able to score with 3 straight runs. The Dawgs have often been able to run the ball down close to the goal line this year but they were able to do it there.

Stopping LSU for a 3 and out on their 3rd possession was enormous because it showed that the Dawgs could stop LSU’s running game. LSU had run for 39 net yards on 7 carries on their long touchdown drive but on their next possession the Dawgs stopped the run for a 1 yard gain on 1st down and then for only 2 yards when the Tigers tried to fool them with a run on 3rd and 9.

Second Quarter Comments

After a couple of big plays got the Dawgs a 1st down at the 8 on their next possession, I thought it was huge that they were able to get 7 points again rather than settling for a field goal. You could have said that Georgia’s interception return for a touchdown was fluky but after LSU’s long TD drive the Dawgs had answered with a long TD drive, a defensive 3 and out, and another touchdown, and there couldn’t be anything fluky about that. You knew that the Dawgs most likely weren’t going to dominate like that all night but there was no longer any doubt that the Dawgs could win this thing.

On LSU’s next possession I thought the Dawgs did a good job of limiting LSU to a long field goal try after it looked like they were moving right down the field. LSU had gone 37 yards on 4 plays, and then the Dawgs stuffed the run for no gain and a loss of 1 on first and second down and then broke up a pass on 3rd and 11 to force a 51 yard field goal. That was huge because, again, it meant that the defense would have a 4-point safety net. LSU scored easily on the possession after that but instead of tying the game it only made the score 21-17.

If Gamble’s pick-six on the first play of the game was the biggest play of the day, I think Reshad Jones’ interception with 4:19 left in the 2nd quarter was maybe the 2nd biggest play. It came at such a crucial point in the game where the Tigers were on the verge of taking control. LSU had gotten back in the game and was now threatening to take the lead. Over the last 10 minutes of play they had driven for a field goal, gotten a defensive 3 and out, driven for a touchdown, and gotten another defensive 3 and out. They had just converted a 3rd and 1 and they had the ball at their 40 and all the momentum in the world. I was very worried at this point. Then Jarrett Lee made the mistake and Jones did not let him get away with it. And just like Gamble’s first pick, this one was not an easy catch. He had to make the play on the move right by the sideline and keep a foot in bounds while securing the ball. It was a huge play.

Blair Walsh’s 50 yard field goal following Jones’ pick was also very big. For one thing, it meant that the Dawgs were able to take advantage of the turnover. If he had missed it might have given LSU some of the momentum back. And again, it gave a protection net to the offense and defense because now a touchdown for LSU would only tie the game, where as moments before it looked like LSU was on its way to taking the lead. Also, it was a very long field goal in a pressure situation on the road, and Walsh had been shaky the week before. It had to give everyone more confidence that he could be relied on if needed. I also thought that getting to halftime with a 7 point lead was huge because it meant that the Dawgs were still up by as much as they had been after Gamble’s touchdown. LSU may have cut the 14 point lead in half but in reality they weren’t any better off than they had been following the INT for a TD on the first play of the game.

Third Quarter Comments

For all of the first half the thing that had been the security blanket in my mind was the second half kickoff. Georgia would have the ball first in the second half, so if they were behind by 7 they could come back and tie it right away, if they were down a few points they could take the lead, if they were tied they could go back up by a touchdown, and if they were ahead they could go back up by two scores. That’s another reason I thought getting to the half with a 7 point lead was huge. If the Dawgs could just get something on their first drive of the second half they would have a 10 point lead, meaning LSU had to score twice in a row to catch them. With this in mind, Georgia’s 3 and out on the opening possession of the 3rd quarter was probably my low point of the game. They lost 2 yards on a run on first down, then on 3rd and 6 they got an illegal formation penalty that made it 3rd and 11. That was a very bad penalty, not only because it would take 5 more yards to get a first down, but also because it would be an obvious pass and make it harder to protect Stafford. And on 3rd and 11 the Dawgs allowed their only sack of the day, a 9 yard loss. At that point the momentum had shifted to LSU.

It wasn’t one specific play, but Georgia’s ability to stop the Tigers on their first possession of the second half was definitely one of the biggest “plays” of the game. It started with Brian Mimbs’ punt. LSU figured to get good field position and they had the always dangerous Trindon Holliday back to return the kick. But Mimbs came up with a tremendous boot. The dude’s standing at his own 15 and he sends one in the air to the other 20 yard line. He outkicked his coverage but the Dawgs coverage team did a great job, stopping Holliday at the 30 for only a 10 yard return. Then the Dawgs stopped the run for a loss of 1 on first down and stopped the pass on the next 2 plays for a 3 and out. Prince Miller fair caught the punt at the 28. So basically, all that had happened was 3 and a half minutes came off the clock. Stafford’s 6 yard completion for a 1st down to Massaquoi on 3rd and 5 was huge. Instead of having to give the ball right back, the drive continued, and 4 plays later Stafford hit AJ Green on the slant for a 49 yard TD pass to make it 31-17, and from that point in the game the Dawgs were pretty much in control.

On LSU’s next drive Justin Houston and the defense came up with a big play. LSU had a 2nd and 6 from the Georgia 25 when Houston got the Dawgs’ first sack of the day. The 7 yard sack plus an intentional grounding call combined for a loss of 17 yards. That effectively ended the drive and LSU had to settle for a long field goal try which they missed. On the next play, Moreno busted loose for a 68 yard TD run to make it 38-17 with 4 minutes to play in the 3rd quarter.

That should have basically put the game away. You would expect Georgia to be able to protect a 21 point lead with 19 minutes left against anyone. Unfortunately, the Dawgs opened the door right back up by allowing a quick touchdown. Part of this had to be a letup or lack of focus that has seemed to follow Georgia throughout this season. It started with a horrible kickoff by Walsh. I don’t understand how Walsh can kick so far out of a hold and then not even get the ball to the 15 off a tee but it happens all the time. He only got the ball to the 16 here and that allowed LSU to return the ball to their 41. A 15 yard penalty on Logan Gray gave LSU the ball at the Georgia 44. If you figure that Walsh’s kick cost at least 10 yards, it’s basically like the Dawgs just gave them 25 yards. On the 2nd play of the drive, Charles Scott ran 42 yards to the 1, and the Tigers scored on the next play. It took just 1 minute and 8 seconds for the Tigers to score, so Moreno’s touchdown was pretty much negated.

The apparent lapse in focus didn’t end there. On the ensuing kickoff, Remarcus Brown fumbled the ball at the 8 yard line and was only able to take the ball to the 11 before going down. That gave the Dawgs terrible field position and got the crowd further into the game. If the Dawgs had gone 3 and out here, who knows what might have happened. Luckily, the Dawgs offense came up with a huge play, with Stafford hitting Aron White for 48 yards, taking the Dawgs out from deep in their own territory and all the way into LSU territory at the 41. Unfortunately the Dawgs could only get to the 38 for a 4th and 7 and Richt brought on Walsh for a 55 yard field goal try. This I felt was a mistake. I understand why Richt really, really wanted a few more points here. A field goal here would have given the Dawgs a 3 score lead with 40 seconds left in the 3rd. That would have been huge. But I thought there was very little chance of Walsh actually making the kick. And when you’re trying to kick that long of a field goal there is an even better chance of a block. Plus, if he missed it would give them good field position. I thought there were 2 better options here. I think the best option would have been to punt. I know that there’s a chance Mimbs might have punted it in the end zone for a touchback and it would have only been 18 yards better than giving them the ball at the 38. And in a game like this 18 yards might not have seemed like much. But LSU had to go for touchdowns at this point, and making somebody go 80 yards rather than 62 yards is a big deal in my opinion. Plus, 80 yards would have been the least amount of yards they would have to go; Mimbs might have made them start at the 10 or even the 5, and that would have been great. Another option would have been to go for it. The Dawgs had gained at least 7 yards or more on a lot of plays already. I thought there was a significantly better chance of them picking up 7 yards than there was of Walsh making a 55 yard field goal. And if they did pick up the first down here they could take more time off the clock at the least, and maybe get a field goal or even a TD out of the drive. But they ended up trying the field goal and Walsh, well…let’s just say he didn’t quite make it.

Fourth Quarter Comments

Let me say that even though the Dawgs didn’t get any points out of it, White’s catch was still big. It took the Dawgs out from their own end zone and gave them a first down. He wasn’t even supposed to play in the game and his catch was still important. After the miss, LSU got the ball back at their 38 down 14 points and at that point just 38 seconds had come off the clock since Moreno’s touchdown made it 38-17. With 40 seconds left in the 3rd quarter and the entire 4th quarter left to play, LSU had plenty of time to score 2 more TD’s. But Georgia’s defense came up with another big stop. The Tigers tried to trick the Dawgs with a run to Holiday on first down and they read it for a loss of 2. Then they stuffed the run for a gain of 1 on 2nd down. On the first play of the 4th quarter, the defense made a huge play, as Jeremy Lomax and Jarius Wynn combined to bring Andrew Hatch down with Georgia’s second sack of the game for a 12 yard loss. The Dawgs got the ball back and went on another touchdown scoring drive. The big play of the drive was Stafford’s 33 yard pass to Green that took the ball from the LSU 44 to the 11. Once again the Dawgs converted their red zone opportunity into a touchdown, scoring on a 7 yard TD run by Stafford on 3rd and 6. When the designed QB run doesn’t work it’s annoying but when it does work it’s pretty sweet. And I like the call in this situation because you have to at least get a field goal in this spot and you have a very good chance of doing that as long as you don’t turn the ball over. This was a fairly safe call.

With the score 45-24 with 11 minutes left in the game, you figured it was over, but it wasn’t. This time Walsh did a decent job on the kickoff and LSU had the ball at the 27. All Georgia’s defense needed to do was make LSU take some time off the clock. They could allow 5 yards a play if they had to but they had to make sure they didn’t give up a big play. But somehow on 3rd and 9 from the 28, the secondary allowed Keiland Williams to get behind them for a 66 yard pass completion, taking the ball down to the 6. On the next play LSU scored to make it a 2 score game again. Incredibly, LSU had gone 73 yards for a TD in just 2 minutes and 2 seconds and they were now down just 14 again with still almost 9 minutes left in the game.

LSU gave Georgia a big gift at that point with a kickoff out of bounds. That gave the Dawgs good field position at their own 40. All they had to do was pick up a first down, take a few minutes off the clock, and punt the ball and make LSU go 80 or more yards again. But on first down Chris Davis got penalized for a chop block. There are worse things that could have happened but other than turning the ball over or losing 10 yards on a sack, that was about as bad as it gets. Now it was 1st and 25 from the Georgia 25. Now there was almost no chance of a first down. The Dawgs ran 3 times to take 2 minutes off the clock and force LSU to use their first time out. Then Mimbs got off a good punt and the coverage team did a good job of holding Holiday again but LSU would have the ball at their 38 with 6:24 still on the clock. Now Georgia’s defense needed to do more than just keep LSU from scoring quickly. At first it didn’t look good, as LSU moved 43 yards in just 3 plays to the Georgia 19 with only half a minute coming off the clock. Then the defense came up big again. Lee fumbled the ball on first down for a loss of 4 and LSU had to burn their second timeout with 5:35 on the clock. That really helped and on 4th and 4 from the 13 the Dawgs broke up Lee’s pass to take over on downs with 5:06 to play. The Dawgs ran the ball 3 straight times and they were able to force LSU to use their last timeout but a personal foul penalty on Justin Anderson turned a 3rd and 7 into a 3rd and 16 and basically took away any chance of getting a first down. Georgia had to punt and LSU returned it to midfield with 3:30 on the clock.

There wasn’t much time left and the Dawgs still had a 14 point lead but LSU wasn’t dead. They’d have to score, recover an onsides kick, and score again but it was definitely possible. Fortunately, the Tigers made a mistake and a 15 yard personal foul backed them up to their 34. Then Gamble made another huge play, intercepting Lee’s pass at the 47 and taking it 53 yards for his second pick-six of the game. Gamble was only starting because of the injury to Dannell Ellerbe, but I would say that he did a decent job filling in. That TD, finally, sealed the deal.

The game was almost definitely over now. LSU would have to score a touchdown, recover an onsides kick, score another touchdown, recover another onsides kick, and then score another touchdown, all in 3 minutes and 19 seconds. Still, the way the Dawgs played right after going up by 21 again demonstrates that lack of focus thing that has been around all year. I definitely wanted Walsh to squib the ball rather than kick it deep because you don’t want to give LSU a chance to return it for a touchdown. But he ended up kicking it out of bounds to give them the ball at the 40 with no time coming off the clock. LSU ran on the first two plays and gained 17 yards to the Georgia 43. That isn’t great but it’s okay because it makes the clock run. But then the Dawgs somehow allowed Brandon LeFell to get behind everyone and score on a 43 yard touchdown pass. True, all that did was make it a 14 point game with only 2 and a half minutes left on the clock but I have to wonder how that could happen. The game really wasn’t over until the Dawgs recovered the onsides kick with 2:27 left. I know that even if LSU had recovered the onsides kick it’s incredibly unlikely that they would have gone 60 yards for a touchdown, recovered another onsides kick, and gone 60 yards for a TD again, but it still wasn’t over until that onsides kick failed.

The Good Numbers

Georgia never trailed in the game and they were never outscored in a quarter. They led 24-17 at the half and outscored LSU 28-21 in the second half. Georgia racked up 443 yards of offense, throwing for 249 yards, and rushing for 194 yards on 36 carries, an average of 5.4 yards a carry. The Dawgs really rushed for 6.1 yards a carry if you take out minus 7 yards on 4 kneel downs at the end of the game. The Dawgs did not fumble or throw a pick and they turned LSU over 3 times with interceptions, returning 2 for touchdowns. 9 different players caught at least 1 pass in the game. Georgia recorded 2 sacks and allowed only 1 sack. The Georgia offense had 3 red zone possessions and scored a TD each time. The Dawgs were inside the LSU 40 on 5 trips and they scored on 4 of those trips. Georgia had 3 touchdown drives of at least 71 yards.

Matt Stafford played tremendously, completing on 17 of 26 attempts for 249 yard, 2 TD, and no interceptions. He took only 1 sack and also ran for a TD from 7 yards out. He completed passes of 16, 22, 33, 48, and 49 (TD). Knowshon Moreno had a huge day, rushing for 163 yards on 21 carries, averaging 7.8 yards a carry, and scoring 1 touchdown. He had a 47 yard run and a 68 yard run (TD). He also caught 2 passes for 9 yards. AJ Green was shutout in the first half but he was huge in the second half, catching 3 passes for 89 yards and a touchdown. He had a 33 yard catch and a 49 yard catch (TD). He also ran once for a 22 yard gain in the first half. Michael Moore caught 3 passes for 38 yards, including 1 for 22 yards. Kenneth Harris caught 2 passes for 17 yards and a touchdown (12 yards). Aron White caught 1 pass for 48 yards. DeMiko Goodman caught 1 pass for 16 yards. Mohamed Massaquoi caught only 3 passes for 16 yards but he made huge catches on what were probably Georgia’s 2 biggest drives of the game. On Georgia’s first drive of the game, Massa caught a pass for 9 yards on 3rd and 5 from the LSU 36 to give the Dawgs a first down at the 27. Then on Georgia’s second drive of the second half he caught a pass for 6 yards on 3rd and 5 from the UGA 33 to give the Dawgs a first down at their 38. Both drives resulted in touchdowns. Darryl Gamble intercepted 2 passes and returned both for touchdowns, the first one was 40 yards, the second was 53 yards. Reshad Jones had the other UGA interception. Blair Walsh had some problems on kickoffs but he made a 50 yard field goal and his only miss was from 55. Brian Mimbs was brilliant in the game, punting 5 times for an average of 50.4 yard, and a net average of 41 yards. Remarcus Brown flubbed one kickoff but he did have a nice 36 yard return to open the second half.

The Bad Numbers

As we all know, Georgia didn’t play a perfect game. In fact, though it was certainly a wonderful win, there were some troubling things that occurred. The Dawgs had committed only 7 penalties for 59 yards which wasn’t bad but they committed 2 more personal fouls and also got called for a chop block. The defense allowed 38 points, and LSU gained 497 yards of total offense! The defense surrendered 309 yards in the air. LSU ran for 188 yards on 41 carries, averaging 4.6 yards a carry. LSU achieved 21 first downs. The defense allowed 6 completions of at least 15 yards, including completions of 35, 43 (TD), and 66 (TD) yards. The defense allowed 7 runs of at least 11 yards, including runs for 20, 22, and 42 yards. Georgia’s defense kept LSU from scoring touchdown on 3 of their 7 trips inside the 40 but they allowed LSU to score touchdowns on 4 of 5 trips inside the red zone. LSU had 3 drives for touchdowns of at least 72 yards. The Dawgs did a good job covering kicks and punts, but Walsh continued to kick short kickoffs, turning average returns into good ones. He also kicked the ball out of bounds once. And Remarcus Brown fumbled one kickoff and returned it just 3 yards to the 11.

Final Comment

As stated in the introduction, this was Georgia’s biggest win of the year and it was a very good win. But the problems that showed up again even in this big win have been present all season. The Dawgs still have a chance to have a great year but those problems are part of what has kept Georgia from having a truly “special” year.


Week 10: #6 Georgia vs. #8 Florida, loss, 49-10.

General Comments: I think this would probably surprise a lot of people but for me this game was not anywhere near as painful as the Alabama game. It actually doesn’t make much sense, because this was a 39 point loss to our big rivals, it was labeled “pay back” for the “stomp”, and most importantly, it ended Georgia’s National Title and SEC Championship hopes. And to be sure, the Dawgs played much worse and got beaten much worse in this game than they did against the Tide. But for me this loss didn’t hurt as much and I think the main reason is that I was much more prepared for this one. Anyone that read my preseason reviews and predictions knows that I thought the Gators were the strongest team in the country coming into the season. I didn’t think they’d win the NC because of their schedule, but I thought they’d beat Georgia and win the SEC Championship. I’ve said this before and I know that some may not like this but I have always felt that the Dawgs would not have won last year if Tebow had been healthy. Also, I knew that this year they would have more of a running game and their secondary would be much better. I also knew that the Dawgs would be coming off a tough game at LSU while the Gators would be coming off a relatively easy game at home against Kentucky. For all these reasons and others I did not go into the season thinking Georgia would win this game. Going back to the comparison with the Bama loss, before the season I never thought the Dawgs would lose to Bama and I would never have imagined they’d be down 31-0 at the half, so that was much more of a shock to me. And because of that 31-0 deficit against Alabama I was more prepared for the possibility of the Dawgs being blown out by Florida, so I wasn’t as stunned when it happened. Actually, the time I felt the best about Georgia’s chances against Florida was right before the Bama game when Florida lost to Ole Miss. They had not played up to my expectations at that point and the Dawgs hadn’t been exposed by Bama yet. But ever since the loss to Ole Miss the Gators had been playing like I expected they would. Georgia was coming off a big win against LSU but they weren’t playing anywhere near as good as Florida was. This was obvious to see, hence the Gators being 7 point favorites on a neutral field.

The thing that bothered me the most about this game actually had to do more with perception than reality. I could accept the fact that the Dawgs played a very bad game, that the Gators destroyed them, that the Gators were much better than Georgia, and that the Dawgs were not going to have the type of season everyone had hoped for. What bothered me the most was the way that everyone acted as if Georgia got blown out because they danced in the end zone after a touchdown last year. That actually had nothing to do with the outcome of this game, absolutely nothing. Florida’s fans and even their players and coaches may have enjoyed blowing out Georgia more because they felt like they were avenging what Georgia did the year before. But that didn’t give them any sort of edge in the game. If Georgia hadn’t stomped in the end zone the year before Florida would still have beaten them just as badly. The Gators did not run up the score. In fact, it was Georgia’s mistakes that forced the Gators into scoring a bunch of points. It’s not like the Gators called a bunch of flea flickers and reverse passes at the end of the game, they had a backup quarterback in the game. Now Urban Meyer may have had a purpose in calling those 2 timeouts to make the Dawgs stay out on the field longer but that’s got nothing to do with how the score got to 49-10. For me, the worst part about this season has been the way that everything Georgia did last year on their way to a great season has been turned around and blamed for their disappointments this season. The blackout and black jerseys which were a very special thing last season were totally defamed this season in the Alabama game. Then the end zone celebration was defamed by the Florida game. Worst of all, both of those things were pointed to as the reason that Georgia got beat this year. I guess it makes sense, because people wanted to say that those things helped motivate Georgia to win last year. I didn’t like that Georgia brought the black jerseys out again this season but I’m still glad they did it last year for the Auburn game. I didn’t like the end zone celebration last year but if it helped Georgia beat Florida last year in any way then it was more than worth the cost of those 2 timeouts called by Meyer.

Right before this game I actually felt pretty good because everyone was picking us to lose, and whenever everyone starts saying a team will definitely lose, it seems like the opposite happens. I knew there was a chance Georgia might get blown out but I didn’t think that would happen. I expected it to be close and I definitely thought the Dawgs could beat Florida if they played their best. As it turned out, the Dawgs played their very worst. This was Georgia’s worst performance under Mark Richt. And it wasn’t just the worst loss in terms of the final score, it was also the worst any Bulldawg team has ever played under Richt. They did very few things right and a whole lot wrong.

To win this game the Dawgs really needed to get off to a good start and they had chances to do so but they didn’t. The Dawgs never led in this game and they trailed for the final 45:20. To win this game, Georgia needed to take advantage of all of their scoring opportunities but instead they wasted almost all of them. The Dawgs couldn’t afford to make a lot of mistakes against Florida and they ended up making more than they had in any game all season. Georgia was going to give up some big plays but they ended up giving up way too many. They had to play a great game in order to win and they played an awful game and got killed.

Matt Stafford had to have a great game for Georgia to win and he ended up having his worst game of the year. Knowshon Moreno obviously had to have a big day for the Dawgs to win and he had his worst game of the year. The defense had to play well against Florida and keep Tim Tebow from doing too much damage but he ended up throwing 2 touchdowns and scoring 3. The Dawgs couldn’t afford to hurt themselves in this game and they really needed to force Florida into making mistakes. Instead, Georgia committed more costly penalties, turned the ball over 4 times, and never turned Florida over. The Dawgs had to play well on special teams but Blair Walsh had his worst game of the year. The year before, Georgia seemed to make all the right coaching decisions, but that was not the case this time.

First Quarter Comments

Early on the game was as close and competitive as I expected. There was nothing early that hinted at a blow out. However, the Dawgs’ first possession did not go well. Remarcus Brown returned the ball just 16 yards from the 2 to the 18 on the opening kickoff. The first play of the game was a pass to Moreno for a loss of 3. Knowshon then got stopped for no gain, taking a wicked lick from Brandon Spikes. After a false start penalty, the Dawgs had to try and protect themselves and Moreno ran for 4 yards on 3rd and 14 to leave the Dawgs with a 4th and 10 from their own 14. The safe call was understandable. Luckily Mimbs got off a solid punt that Brandon James had to fair catch at his own 42. And the Gators didn’t have a good first possession either. They were hit with 2 false start penalties and had to burn a timeout. They gained 1 first down but only ended up gaining 4 yards on 6 plays and had to punt. Georgia got the ball right back at their own 19 and on 1st down Stafford threw a 32 yard completion to Massaquoi for a 1st down at midfield. Then Florida got called for roughing the passer, yet another mistake. The Dawgs had a 2nd and 3 at the 10. It looked like they were going to take the lead. But then the Dawgs gave up sacks on back to back plays, losing 10 yards. This was obviously disheartening but not the end of the world. They still had a very make-able field goal of just 37 yards. This was a chance to take the first lead. But Blair Walsh missed it and the Dawgs got nothing. That was a bad sign and everyone knew that the Dawgs couldn’t do that sort of thing in this game.

The Gators started to move the ball on their 2nd possession but they still weren’t playing all that well. On 3rd and 2 from the 29, the Gators went with a designed Tim Tebow run and the Dawgs stopped the play pretty well and it looked like Florida had gotten a very generous spot. The Dawgs challenged and replays showed that Tebow had indeed been stopped a half of a yard short of the first down but the officials did not reverse the call. Richt was incensed on the sidelines, but to be honest, I wasn’t that upset because I figured the Gators would have gone for it, even at their own 30. They needed about a foot and they had a fairly good QB to do a sneak with. But after the first down Percy Harvin got loose on consecutive plays to give Florida a first down at the UGA 30. Florida still wasn’t firing on all cylinders though. Another false start backed them up 5, Louis Murphy dropped a pass on 2nd down, and then on 3rd and 6 from the 27, Tebow threw a dangerous lob pass to the left flat and Prince Miller made an excellent play to read it and wrestle it away from the receiver for a huge interception. But a flag was down. This was a tense moment as the officials sorted things out and it seemed to last forever. Everyone knew how huge this was. It turned out that the penalty was for illegal hands to the face charged to Jarius Wynn, a personal foul that would not only negate the INT, it would give Florida a 1st down at the 13. This was obviously the type of thing that the Dawgs have done all season and it was yet another bad sign. After stopping the run for no gain on 1st down, there was hope that the Dawgs might hold for a field goal, but on 2nd down the Gators ran an option left and Tebow pitched to Harvin who was so all alone he was able to jog in from the 10. It was a busted play for the Dawgs defense, allowing an easy touchdown to give Florida the lead, 7-0 with just 20 seconds to go in the quarter.

Second Quarter Comments

The 2nd quarter began with Bruce Figgins’ 17 yard reception on 3rd and 4. So far the Dawgs had shot themselves in the foot and gotten a couple of bad breaks but they weren’t being outplayed. After a wide open Kenneth Harris dropped a pass on 2nd down, Stafford hooked up with Massa for 26 yards on 3rd and 10 for a 1st down at the 23. But then just when the Dawgs were rolling, they got a false start penalty. On 3rd and 13, Stafford took off running and gained 9 yards to put the Dawgs in better field goal position. Walsh made the kick from 35 this time to get Georgia on the board but again the Dawgs had had to settle. They weren’t being outplayed. They just needed to stop hurting themselves.

Unfortunately, they killed themselves again with their very next action on the field. The Dawgs lined up for the kickoff. But instead of kicking deep, Walsh kicked a little bloop to the front row of the Florida return team and it was recovered easily by the Gators. Apparently, the Dawgs had gone for a surprise onsides, though it was tough to tell exactly what Walsh had been doing. This was a highly questionable coaching decision by Richt. Sure, if it works, everyone thinks it’s great, but the problem with that sort of thing is that normally it doesn’t work. You can’t really use the old “well if worked I’d be a genius” excuse in this situation. You can’t use that excuse if you throw deep on 3rd and 1 when behind late in the game if it gets intercepted. This would be like using that excuse if you called for a halfback pass on 1st and goal from the 5 when you trailed by a field goal with 2 minutes left. If the chances are great that it isn’t going to work, you can’t use the “well if it worked” excuse. At this point in the game, the Dawgs weren’t behind by a few scores and running out of time or something. If they were tied with Florida and feeling like they could risk it that would also have been a little more defendable. But at this point they were behind by 4 and giving Florida great field position would mean possibly allowing the Gators to go ahead by more than 1 score. And the Gator offense is not the sort of offense you want to give a short field to. And the Dawgs couldn’t afford to go down by 11 points. They weren’t going to get the ball first in the second half, Florida was. If they got themselves into a big hole they were not going to win this game. But even if you do make the call despite all of those things, Walsh’s effort was just flat out horrible. The odds went from 1 out of 5 to 1 out of 100. And the Gators took over at the Georgia 41. 3 plays later they were at the 10. On 3rd down from the 2, Tebow scored but Georgia challenged. This time the Dawgs won the challenge but again I wasn’t that excited. Everyone knew Tebow would get 6 inches on the next play, which he did to make it 14-3 with 7 and a half remaining in the half.

Well, things weren’t going well but I was still fairly calm. The Dawgs did need to answer on their next drive though. And once again Georgia started to move the ball. Another penalty on Florida gave the Dawgs a first down and Knowshon started to get going, rushing for gains of 7, 12, 9, and 6 yards. The Dawgs had a 1st down at the Florida 21 but a sack for a loss of 9 yards brought up 3rd and 19 from the 30. Then Stafford hit Massa for 24 yards and a huge first down at the 6. At this point Stafford was really playing well. But on 1st down, Stafford saw a wide open Tripp Chandler in the middle of the end zone and he threw behind him. He just didn’t make an accurate throw and it cost a touchdown. Caleb King lost 4 yards on the next play and suddenly it was 3rd and goal from the 10. Stafford almost got the touchdown anyway, but on 3rd down Moreno couldn’t hang on to a pass at the back of the end zone. That meant the Dawgs would have to settle again for a field goal they way they already had twice in the game and they way they had all year. I was barely paying attention, as the field goal was just 27 yards, but I heard a loud bang and realized that Walsh had hit the left upright and missed. Well, that was about the time that I figured Georgia wasn’t going to win. I thought they might stay in the game, but at that point I started preparing myself for the loss. They had simply done too many things wrong.

Third Quarter Comments

The worst thing about not getting any points on that last drive of the first half was that Florida was going to get the ball first in the second half and you knew that if the Dawgs didn’t at least hold Florida to a field goal the game would be just about over. The Gators took the kickoff and marched right into Georgia territory but then they stopped themselves. On 3rd and 6 from the 38, Brandon James dropped a pass that would have given Florida a first down and the Gators decided to punt rather than try a long field goal. Even now, the Gators still weren’t playing all that well. They were leaving the door open. Florida downed the punt at the 2 but the Dawgs moved out from their on goal line quickly, with Stafford hitting Massa again for 16 yards and a first down at the 21. The Dawgs flew down the field, with Moreno running for a gain of 18 and AJ Green catching a pass for 17 yards and a first down at the Gator 30. If the Dawgs could go in and score here they would be right back in this game. But on the next play Stafford made his first big mistake of the night and one of his worst throws of the year, short arming a deep out to his right attend for Green, a pass that should never have been thrown in the first place, and Joe Hadden intercepted at the 11 and hauled it back up the sideline. It looked like a sure pick-six but in a tremendous show of hustle, pride, heart, and all of those other things that I never had, Mohamed Massaquoi ran from the other side of the field at an angle and finally brought Hadden down at the 1. But of course even Massa had to know that even in catching Hadden his efforts would ultimately be fruitless, as Tebow simply pushed his way for 1 yard into the end zone on the next play to put Florida up 21-3 with just 7 and a half to go in the 3rd. And that was basically the end of the competitive portion of the game.

I’ll be honest, I had a hard time watching the rest of the game. I got on the computer and looked at other scores while listening to the TV from the other room most of the time, coming in only to see the replays whenever I heard Verne raise his voice. After a while I even stopped doing that because it was never good. After the Dawgs went 3 and out on their next possession, Tebow threw a 44 yard bomb to Louis Murphy who burned Asher Allen on the play for a touchdown to make it 28-3. Murphy grabbed Allen’s jersey on the play and it was blatant pass interference but you still can’t allow yourself to get beat like that and it’s happened too many times this year to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Now I realized that this was going to be the blowout that some had predicted but that I had only imagined in my worst nightmares.

All I was really hoping for after that was that the Dawgs wouldn’t embarrass themselves too badly over the final 20 minutes. With that in mind, the low point of the game for me was Moreno’s dropped pitch on the next possession, which Florida recovered and returned to the 10. Even a 3 and out and a punt would have made the Gators work for another score but this basically gave them another touchdown with no time coming off the clock. And it wasn’t like they made a good play, the Dawgs’ best player turned into a
Special Olympiad and dropped a pitch that hit him right in the hands and then he couldn’t even fall on it. On 2nd down from the 8, Tebow ran untouched up the middle and through the Georgia defense. This was one play where I wondered if the Dawgs had let up for second. I mean he wasn’t even touched. That made it 35-3. On the next Georgia possession they moved the ball quickly to midfield before Stafford was picked off on 3rd down at the Florida 41 on a nice play by the Gator linebacker. The game went to the 4th quarter with Georgia fans just hoping it wouldn’t get much worse.

Fourth Quarter Comments

Georgia’s defense was able to stop Florida despite the good field position this time. On the Dawgs next drive they got a false start and a delay of game before AJ Green made a remarkable catch for 54 yards on 3rd and 12 from 13 to take the ball all the way to the Florida 33. But on the very next play Stafford’s pass was tipped and intercepted at the 11 and returned 64 yards to the Georgia 25. That’s when I started wishing the Dawgs had just run the ball 3 times and punted. On the very next play, Tebow dropped back, looked down field, took a bite of a sandwich, filed his nails, and then found Percy Harvin who was wide open to an inexcusably degree, and Harvin made the catch for the touchdown to make the score 42-3.

Richard Samuel did something good for the first time all season on the ensuing kickoff, returning it 60 yards to the Gator 34. But the Dawgs couldn’t even do anything with this. Stafford threw a pass for no gain and then threw 3 incompletions to give the ball up again with the score still 42-3. Tim Tebow didn’t even come back out for the next Gator series. We’ve found out since that Tebow was hurting a bit from an ankle injury or something but at the time I hoped that him not coming back into the game would at least put to rest all of the talk about the Gators doing something to “get back at” Georgia for the end zone celebration. Not that John Brantley (whoever the hell that is) couldn’t score on Georgia’s defense. They went 66 yards on 6 plays in just 3:03 to score another TD. The Dawgs were now down by the unfathomable score of 49-3. Got to tell you, folks. Not in my wildest nightmares. No way. I never thought we’d see Georgia on the wrong side of a score like that again. Even after 31-0 against Bama I never thought something like this could happen. I can remember thinking at times over the last few years how incredible it really was that it had ever gotten as bad as it had when it was Spurrier vs. Goff. I remember thinking that that could never happen again. And yet here we were, in the very season in which Georgia had begun the year ranked #1 in the country, and Florida was beating the Dawgs as bad as they ever had in the mid-90’s.

Mercifully, Richt put an end to Stafford’s day after that. He’d had the worst game of his life and he was banged up. There was no reason to keep him in any longer. The reserves went on an 80 yard drive and scored the Dawgs’ first touchdown with 3:09 left in the game. All that did was make this historically bad performance slightly less horrendous.

Urban Meyer called a couple of timeouts with 44 seconds and 30 seconds left. This was obviously his way of sticking it to the Dawgs, assumingly for Georgia’s celebration the year before. Oh, well. It didn’t bother me. I’m all for that sort of thing. And if the Dawgs were ever on top and Florida in the other position I would hope we would do the same thing. But man, that’s a scene that’s sure hard to picture at this moment. The 49-10 loss ended the Dawgs’ National Championship, SEC Championship, and even SEC East title hopes. But it also reestablished Florida as the team in control of this rivalry, a rivalry Georgia once dominated, but one that has been undeniably one-sided over the last 20 years. And in all honesty, friends, what hope do we have things being any different in the future?

The Good Numbers

Georgia gained 398 yards of offense, 292 through the air and 106 on the ground, and they achieved 21 first downs. Mohammed Massaquoi had a great game, catching 5 passes for 112 yards, including catches for gains of 24, 26, and 32 yards. AJ Green also had a good day, making 5 catches for 91 yards, including 1 catch that went for a gain of 54 yards. Aron White caught a 17 yard TD pass in garbage time. Richard Samuel had 60 yard kick return and carried the ball 4 times for 40 yards in garbage time. Joe Cox completed 2 of 4 pass attempts for 27 yards and a touchdown and ran once for 13 yards in garbage time. Matt Stafford completed 10 passes of at least 16 yards, including completions of 24, 26, 32, and 54 yards. All things considered, when you take into account the onsides kick, I suppose you have to give the Georgia defense credit for only allowing 14 points to Florida in the 1st half. But obviously I’m grasping for straws.

The Bad Numbers

The Dawgs ran for 106 yards on 29 attempts, averaging just 3.7 yards a carry. Florida racked up 373 yards of offense, throwing for 188 yards, and rushing for 185 yards on 38 carries, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. The Gators achieved 22 first downs against the UGA defense and they were able to convert on 4 of 9 third downs and went 1 for 1 on 4th down. Georgia gave up 3 sacks for a total of 19 yards lost, all 3 sacks coming in the first half. Georgia’s defense sacked Tim Tebow just once for a loss of 6 and that didn’t come until early in the 4th quarter with the score 35-3. Georgia turned the ball over 4 times and did not turn Florida over once. The Dawgs committed 8 penalties for 49 yards, including a very costly personal foul for illegal hands to the face. The Dawgs were just 4 for 12 on 3rd down and 1 for 2 on 4th down. The Dawgs were outscored 7-0 in the 1st quarter, 7-3 in the 2nd quarter, 21-0 in the 3rd quarter, and 14-7 in the 4th quarter. They were outscored 14-3 in the 1st half and 35-7 in the 2nd half. At one point the Dawgs surrendered 42 unanswered points. Matt Stafford completed just 18 of 33 passes for 265 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions. Knowshon Moreno ran for just 65 yards on 17 carries, averaging 3.8 yards, and scoring 0 TD’s. Remarcus Brown returned 2 kicks for just 37 yards and Prince Miller returned 2 punts for a combined total of 6 yards. Blair Walsh went 1 for 3 on FG tries, making from 35, and missing on kicks of 27 and 37 yards. Tim Tebow did not make mistakes and he was rarely stopped. He completed 10 of 13 passes for 154 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 INT’s. He also ran 12 times for 39 yards and 3 touchdowns. Percy Harvin burned the Georgia defense as a receiver and a runner. He caught 3 balls for 52 yards and a touchdown, while also running 4 times for 37 yards and a touchdown. Emmanuel Moody ran over the Bulldawgs in garbage time, rushing 7 times for 71 yards, averaging 10.1 yards a carry. Georgia’s defense allowed runs of 21 and 28 yards, and allowed pass plays for 23, 25 (TD), and 44 (TD) yards. Georgia had 4 possessions inside the red zone and they scored on just 2 of those trips, only once for a touchdown, and that didn’t come until there were 3 minutes left in the game. However, the Dawgs had 8 possessions inside Florida territory and they scored on just 2 of those 8 possessions, again scoring just 1 touchdown. Here’s how Georgia’s 8 drives into Florida territory ended: missed field goal, field goal, missed field goal, INT, INT, INT, stopped on downs, TD. On the other side of things, Florida went 5 or 5 scoring touchdowns on their 5 trips inside the red zone against Georgia’s defense. Florida scored on 6 of 9 trips into Georgia territory, each of those scores was for a touchdown and they punted twice. They really went 6 for 8 because they other possession they didn’t score on was when the clock ran out in the 4th quarter after Moody’s 9 yard run to the Georgia 36 on 1st down. The Georgia defense deserves some criticism for sure but you can’t put it all on them. Georgia gave Florida great field position time after time. In the first half, Florida’s 4 possessions began at the Florida 42, the Florida 20, the Georgia 41, and the Florida 20. Florida’s 8 second half possessions began at the Florida 30, the Georgia 1, the Florida 44, the Georgia 10, the Florida 41, the Georgia 25, the Florida 34, and the Florida 8. Georgia’s defense may have greatly underperformed this year but even a great defense would have a hard time holding down the Florida offense with that kind of field position.

Final Comments

Obviously this was Georgia’s worst game and worst loss of the season, and it is my belief that this was Georgia’s worst performance under Mark Richt. The Dawgs once again find themselves having to readjust their goals. They still have a lot to play for and in my opinion they still have a chance to have--not a good season--but a great season. It won’t be easy, however, as we would learn in week 11.

Week 11: #13 Georgia @ Kentucky, win, 42-38.

General Comments: I was anxious to see how the Dawgs would respond to the crushing and embarrassing loss to Florida. I was encouraged by what they were saying during the week but I was still a little concerned that they might come out flat. I knew it was possible for them to lose and that if that were to happen the season would become worse than disappointing. I felt that they still had a chance for a great season but not if they lost a game like this. I wasn’t too worried, however, because while I knew Kentucky was a decent team, I also knew that they had lost some of their best skill position players to injuries and that they had struggled to win games against Middle Tennessee State and Mississippi State. I felt the Dawgs would be fine.

The game didn’t turn out anything like I expected. It wasn’t all that surprising that Georgia couldn’t put Kentucky away in the first half or early in the second half because they hadn’t been doing it all season. I was surprised when Kentucky took the lead on Georgia and was surprised every time when they continued to answer every time the Dawgs seemed on the verge of getting things under control. There were a number of times where I could feel a loss coming and my mind was even starting to devise ways in which to help me cope with and come to terms with a loss. Thank Darwin everything turned out alright in the end, and when it did, I was actually able to appreciate that it had been a very exciting game. During the game there were definitely a dozen times when I was absolutely disgusted, but when the Dawgs won it in the end I was able to feel joy and satisfaction in way that I hadn’t felt since last year’s Sugar Bowl. Honestly, if the whole winning “impressively” thing hadn’t died in the Florida game it certainly died in the 4th quarter last Saturday. I’m 100% fine with winning ugly, lucky, even embarrassingly just so long as we win. It was great to be able to feel that again after the joy had been sucked out of the first 7 wins of the year.

And you can say all you want about this being another bad performance by Georgia. I would agree in many respects but I didn’t see anyone quit and I thought those guys showed a lot of heart and pride to hang on to that victory when so many things had gone wrong. And that means something. They could have let this thing get away. You know, it would have been embarrassing to lose to Kentucky but at this point how much do you think some criticism from the media or fans is really going to affect these guys. They’ve already been embarrassed twice on a national stage this year and they’ve been called frauds and underachievers and overrated and all sorts of other labels (all of which really mean nothing other than that the media and fans were wrong since they are the ones who created the hype and the expectations). How much worse would it really be if they lost a game to some average team? But they refused to lose. They showed that they still care about this season if so many fans have already labeled it a failure. They won this game for themselves, not to impress any media member or any voter or any fan.

First Quarter Comments

Everyone wondered whether the Dawgs would be flat or have trouble focusing in this one but early on they were putting those fears to rest. I’m not positive, but other than the pick-six to start the LSU game, this had to be Georgia’s best start of the year. Richard Samuel had the nice kick return, then Moreno goes 22 on the first play, and then Stafford throws 3 straight completions, the 3rd one being a 29 yard touchdown pass to Mohammed Massaquoi. They went 65 yards in just 4 plays and a minute and 40 seconds. Now that’s how you start a game.

Then the first defensive series a game was a huge success, with an Akeem Dent sacking Randall Cobb on 3rd and 1 for a loss of 6 to stop Kentucky for a 3 and out. The Dawgs got the ball right back and started driving again. Moreno took a pass for 34 yards and a 1st down on 3rd and 4 and then Massa caught a 21 yard pass to give the Dawgs a 1st down at the 10. Moreno ran for a gain of 4 and then scored on a run from the 6 to make it 14-0. At that point it looked like the Dawgs were not only focused, they were frigging locked in. Far from coming in flat, it appeared that they were intent on taking out their frustrations on an overmatched Kentucky team.

But the game didn’t end up going where we thought it was going. In fact things started to go in another direction right after that touchdown to go up 14-0 midway through the 1st quarter. And I have to point this out--although I know the kid probably feels awful about his performance over the last month, and he’s certainly not failing on purpose—but I’ve got to point out that thing that started to turn the game around was yet another mistake by Blair Walsh. With Georgia kicking off after scoring to go up 14-0 with 7:29 left in the 1st, Walsh sent a kickoff out of bounds and that gave Kentucky good field position at their 40. They completed a pass for 12 yards and all of the sudden they were in Georgia territory. The Dawgs stuffed the run on 3rd and 1 to bring up 4th down, but because they were at the Georgia 39, the Cats decided to go for it, and they picked up the first down on a 5 yard run. Later in the drive the Cats had a 4th and 1 at the Georgia 7 but again they were able to gain 5 yards and a first down. Tony Dixon scored on a run on 2nd and goal from the 3 to cap a 15 play drive that covered 60 yards, took almost 6 and a half minutes off the clock, and included a 3rd down conversion and 2 different 4th and 1 conversions. So it was game on. Thankfully, Kentucky kicked the ball out of bounds on their kickoff, and the first quarter ended with Moreno running for a first down at midfield.

Second Quarter Comments

The second quarter did not start as well as the first had. The Dawgs had a 1st down at the 50 but then they passed on 3 straight plays and each went incomplete. I try not to criticize or question play calling because in all reality I don’t really know what the fuck I’m talking about. But this is the type of thing that seems to randomly occur in the middle of a Georgia game that I just don’t understand. In the first quarter, Knowshon Moreno had carried the ball 7 times (not including the pass catch) and here is how those carries had gone: 22 yards, 5 yards, 6 yards, 4 yards, 6 yards, 5 yards, 5 yards. He had rushed for a total of 53 yards and an average of 7.6 yards a carry. With this in mind, why the hell would you all of the sudden come out and throw 3 straight times? Now, to be fair, Stafford was so far 4 for 5, completing passes of 9, 29, 34, and 21 yards. But it just seems like if you can run over a team, why not run them over?

Anyway, Brian Mimbs was able to pin Kentucky at the 15, and on the 2nd play of the drive, Randall Cobb fumbled and CJ Byrd recovered at the Kentucky 37. And you know, maybe the Dawgs wouldn’t have gained any yards rushing the series before if they had run instead of passing 3 times. I say that because Moreno was stopped for 2 yards on 2nd and 3rd down on Georgia’s next possession and that brought up a 4th and 6 from the Kentucky 33. Instead trying a 50 yard field goal, the Dawgs went for it on 4th and 6 and Stafford threw his 5th straight incompletion to turn it over on downs. I don’t have any problem with that decision but all of the sudden Georgia couldn’t move the ball. They had squandered 2 good scoring chances and we had all seen enough of that this year to know how much trouble that could get you into.

It was on this drive that Georgia really started to get hurt by Randall Cobb. The Cats went 67 yards in 12 plays over 5 minutes, with Cobb going in on 3rd down from the 2 to tie the score at 14-14. There went Georgia’s 2 touchdown lead. Cobb ran for 12 yards on a 3rd and 4 and for 17 yards on a 3rd and 6 and then he did it again on the touchdown play. The only thing Cobb did wrong was pick up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play and that backed the Cats up on the kickoff. As a result, Samuel was able to return the kick into Wildcat territory but a block in the back penalty took the ball back to the Georgia 43. Still that was pretty decent field position and this time the Dawgs capitalized. Stafford hit Michael Moore for a 46 yard completion to the 11 and then Shaun Chapas caught a pass that went for an 11 yard TD to put the Dawgs back up 21-14.

Kentucky converted another 3rd down or their next drive and a face mask penalty moved them all the way to the Georgia 33. But on 3rd and 2 from the 25, the Dawgs finally stopped Cobb, dropping him for a loss of 6. The Cats went for it on 4th and 8 from the 31 and the Dawgs got to Cobb and he lost the ball and had to fall on it at the 35 and Georgia took over with 1:21 left in the half. The Dawgs had 2 timeouts and they got a 1st down at midfield but when Stafford threw incomplete on 3rd and 11 they decided to punt and tale the 21-14 lead into halftime.

Third Quarter Comments

Georgia’s play had fallen off from the 1st quarter to the 2nd quarter and their play would drop another level from the 2nd quarter to the 3rd quarter. Kentucky put together a solid drive on their first possession of the 2nd half but the Dawgs forced a field goal try and Kentucky kicked the 40 yarder to make the score 21-17. Georgia’s first possession did not go well. They got a false start penalty before the first play. Then on 2nd and 13, Stafford was sacked for a loss of 6 and he threw incomplete on 3rd and 19. Mimbs then came out to punt, standing inside the Georgia 10. And here’s where things went from annoying to worrisome. Mimbs got the punt blocked and Kentucky took over at the 9. Cobb scored on the next play to give Kentucky their first lead, 24-21. This game had taken a dramatic turn and there had been a drastic shift in momentum just in the last 10 minutes. This was the sort of thing you worried about, that Georgia would be unfocused, and would be caught sleeping. It now appeared that the Dawgs were indeed still struggling to get their minds on this game and off of the loss in Florida.

The Dawgs needed to respond quickly and they did, go 80 yards on 8 plays for a touchdown, with Moreno running for a 20 yard score to put the Dawgs back up 28-24. At this point I said to myself that if the Dawgs didn’t hold Kentucky on this drive that Willie Martinez should be fired on the spot. Now I said this completely out of frustration and emotion. I don’t really know if Martinez is really responsible for much of the problems this year and I don’t really think the defense has been as bad as the numbers look. But I was pretty frustrated. Well, the Dawgs did stop Kentucky for a 3 and out. Now if the Dawgs could get a field goal they would at least have the protection of a 7 point lead and if they could score a TD they would be back up by 2 scores again and that would be huge. But then the Dawgs made another mistake that once again left you questioning their discipline, focus, and all around football intelligence. With the wind aiding him, the Kentucky punter got off a big punt, but for some reason Prince Miller tried to run back and field the punt inside the 10 by making an over the shoulder catch and he muffed it and it rolled into the end zone. Miller ran after it and picked it up in the end zone and then ran out of the end zone and was tackled at the 3. Now I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what the ruling was if you muffed a punt outside of the end zone and then downed it in the end zone. I didn’t know if it was a touchback or a safety. However, I do not return punts in the SEC. I sit at my computer and right game recaps that no one reads. Therefore, if I don’t know the rule it’s of no consequence. But the fact that Miller didn’t realize he could just down the punt for a touchback is ridiculous. The whole play was ridiculous. It was a disaster. And it once again left me questioning the players and the coaching staff.

The Dawgs played it safe and ran 3 times but they couldn’t get a first down and they had to punt from the 11. This time Mimbs would be standing at his own end zone. Whether he was worried about another block or whether he just missed it, I don’t know. But Mimbs got off an awful punt off the side of his foot that was downed at the 29 yard line for a punt of just 18 yards.

Fourth Quarter Comments

Things weren’t going well as the 4th quarter began and they quickly got worse. Cobb went for 10 yards and a 1st down on the first play of the quarter and then Tony Dixon ran for a 14 yard touchdown on the next play to put Kentucky back up 31-28. However, once again the Cats helped the Dawgs by kicking the ball out of bounds on the ensuing kickoff. The Dawgs again needed to answer quickly and again they did, with Stafford hitting AJ Green for a 42 yard gain on the first play of the drive and Moreno running 18 yards for a score on the very next play to put the Dawgs back on top 35-31. Here I said to myself “All right, now, let’s put this thing away. Let’s stop them, get the ball back, and score to end this thing.” But the Bulldawgs defense would not get much of a chance to stop them this time. Georgia’s special teams catastrophe continued, as a rare deep kick by Walsh was taken at the goal line and returned 96 yards by Winston Guy to the Georgia 4. On 3rd and 1, Cobb went in for the score to put Kentucky back on top, 38-35.

Once again the Dawgs would have to answer and it looked like they were again going to be able to do so easily. AJ Green took an end around 28 yards for a 1st down at midfield on the first play of the drive. Stafford then threw complete to Massa on the next play but the ball got knocked loose and Kentucky recovered at the 49. Here my level of nervousness increased significantly. Even with Georgia scoring so fast and being able to move the ball seemingly at will, I was very scared of falling behind by 2 scores, because I could just Kentucky milking the clock, moving the ball 4 yards at a time, and converting on 3rd down with that stupid running quarterback attack. The Dawgs needed their defense to step up in this spot and they really did. They stopped Cobb for a loss of 5 on first down and then forced incompletions on the next 2 plays for a huge 3 and out. Kentucky punted and they helped Georgia out again with a 15 yard penalty for fair catch interference. The Dawgs had dodged a bullet and they went back to work trying to get in the end zone again to retake the lead. The Dawgs were called for a 15 yard personal foul penalty but on 2nd and 19 Stafford threw to Massa for a big gainer at midfield and Massa was driving into Kentucky territory when he fumbled the ball again. Again Kentucky recovered, this time at their 38 yard line.

Well by this point I was starting to think that maybe the Dawgs were meant to lose this game. There was now less than 10 minutes on the clock and the Dawgs were still behind by 3 points. Once again the defense was called upon to come up with a stop. Kentucky got a couple a 1st down inside Georgia territory at the 45. Then Cobb threw a 5 yard completion on 3rd and 4 for another first down at the 34. Kentucky was draining that clock and it was nearing the point where Georgia couldn’t afford any more mistakes. They had to stop Kentucky, get the ball back, and score. On 3rd and 7 from the UGA 31, the Dawgs made a play, forcing Cobb to fumble the ball behind the line of scrimmage. Kentucky fell on it at the 35 but it was now 4th and 11.

The Cats punted and the Dawgs took over at their own 15 with 3:55 to go. The Dawgs were down only a field goal, but it was hard to be that confident in Blair Walsh at this point. If Georgia had to settle for a field goal Kentucky made easily come down and kick a field goal to win it. Anything could happen if the game went to overtime. The Dawgs needed to go on an 85 yard TD drive and win this thing. They got a lot of those yards on the very first play. Massaquoi had fumbled after making his last two catches, ending the Dawgs’ last two drives, but Stafford spotted him behind the secondary down the left side on 1st down and threw a nice, easy pass to him. Massa made the catch and began to advance the ball down the left side line. I was wishing really hard that he would make it all the way because I was worried that the Dawgs might not be able to punch it in from inside the red zone. It really wasn’t a play where he could just out run everyone but he had Chris Durham as an escort blocking for him and Massa made some nice moves to get and additional 15 or 20 yards than he might otherwise have gotten at the end of the play to take it all the way to the 7 for a gain of 78 yards. Knowshon got the ball on 1st and goal and he gained 4 to the 3 yard line. But on 2nd and goal, the Dawgs gave up a sack for a loss of 8 yards and they had to take a timeout with 2:05 to go. This was what I had been afraid of. Obviously, I was really hoping the Dawgs would score on 3rd down for all the reasons stated before, but I was also very nervous that Stafford would try to force something and get picked off and the Dawgs wouldn’t even be able to tie it (or at least try). Shadows covered the entire right side of the field as the Dawgs came out for 3rd and goal at the 11, lined up on the left hash. Stafford took the snap from under center, gave a token play action fake to Moreno and dropped back at the 17, but as soon as he set his feet there was pressure on him. Two of the Kentucky down linemen got major penetration and Stafford had to move to his right to dodge the left arm of the defensive end that had been lined up to Stafford’s right. He ran up a couple steps and pumped as the strong safety was heading right towards him from his right. The safety broke down and made Stafford run back and to his right but then the safety dove and tried to bring Stafford down and the Georgia QB kicked himself loose and continued moving towards his right while looking downfield. Stafford was a few feet from the sideline at his own 16 when he threw while still moving to his right, lobbing a pass towards the back of the end zone in the right corner, releasing the ball just as a Kentucky defender his hands on him. At first, all you could see was 3 Kentucky players standing in the back right corner of the end zone but then you saw AJ Green go up for the ball. Stafford threw it over the Kentucky players where only Green could get it and AJ sure enough got it. Making the grab, taking a hit, staying in bounds, and holding on to the ball for the score, and doing the whole thing with the air of a guy who has done miraculous physical feats so many times in his life that he is no longer impressed with himself. He didn’t seem surprised at all that he had come down with the catch. On the TV broadcast, David Archer said it reminded him of “The Catch”, the touchdown pass from Montana to Clark that was the winning play in the 49ers victory over the Cowboys in the 1981 NFC Championship Game. I’ve got to say that I agree whole heartedly. I mean, Stafford probably should never have thrown that pass. There was nothing there. It almost looked like he was throwing it away, but really he was just putting the ball where only Green could get it and hoping that his receiver would make a play. The Dawgs were back on top, 42-38.

But there was still 1:54 to play. Kentucky had 2 timeouts. If there was ever a time for Walsh to get off a good kick it was now but instead he got off an awful kick that traveled to just the 21 yard line and Kentucky was able to take it out to the 37. Then somehow Maurice Ginter got wide open in the middle of the secondary and made a catch for a gain of 29 yards, all the way to the Georgia 34 on the first play of the drive. Once again the prospect of Georgia losing this game appeared very real in my mind. Would there be time left to respond if Kentucky scored? Kentucky ran the ball on 1st down and the Dawgs made the stop after a gain of 2. The Cats called their second timeout with 1:27 to go. On 2nd and 8, Cobb completed a pass inbounds for a gain of 6. On 3rd and 2 from the Georgia 26, Cobb dropped back to pass and threw incomplete to bring up 4th down. You had to be wary of a Cobb dropping back and trying to run here. Cobb dropped back to his right on 4th down and Jarius Wynn got pressure on him and tried to bring him down but Cobb threw a desperation heave to the left sideline that was incomplete and it looked as if the Dawgs had held on. There was a flag but the immediate thought was that it was probably intentional grounding. Yet I doubt many Georgia fans were surprised when it turned out that Wynn had grabbed Cobb’s facemask and instead of the game being over, Kentucky now had a 1st down at the Georgia 13 with 51 seconds left. There were so many times during the last 15 minutes of the game where the Dawgs were just 1 play away from potentially losing but this was the moment where I first thought “we’re going to lose.” The clock was no longer an issue. The Dawgs were going to have to keep Kentucky from scoring. The next few moments figured to be tense but it was actually over very quickly. Cobb lined up in the gun on the next play, and the Dawgs line got immediate pressure, but it was all a setup, as Kentucky was running a screen. But Demarcus Dobbs snuffed the play out. Cobb tried to dump the pass off to a back and Dobbs reached up and snared it with his big right paw, tucked it in and fell to the ground securing the ball and the win safely beneath him. Despite having casts on both arms, Dobbs made a brilliant interception to win the game, as the Dawgs saved themselves, 42-38, to send the Kentucky faithful home unhappy.

The Good Numbers

Georgia amassed 520 yards of offense against Kentucky, throwing for 376 yards, and rushing for 144 yards on 30 attempts, an average of 4.8 yards a carry. Stafford was brilliant, completing 17 of 27 pass attempts for 376 yards, 3 TD, and 0 INT. Knowshon Moreno was also fantastic, rushing 22 times for 123 yards and 3 TD, averaging 5.6 yards a carry, and he also caught 3 passes for 40 yards. Massaquoi had a career day, grabbing 8 passes for 191 yards and a TD. Michael Moore caught 2 passes for 68 yards. AJ Green made 2 catches for 53 yards and a TD and also had 1 run for 28 yards. Stafford completed 8 passes of 21 yards or more. Moreno had runs of 22, 20 (TD), and 18 (TD) yards and gained 34 yards on a pass reception. Green made a 42 yard catch and Moore made catches of 22 and 46 yards. Massa made catches of 21, 22, 29 (TD), and 78 yards. The Dawgs scored touchdowns on all 5 trips into the red zone. They recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass. Rennie Curran had 15 tackles in the game. Akeem Dent had Georgia’s only credited sack.

The Bad Numbers

Once again, Georgia’s victory was not without some major blemishes. Kentucky gained 331 yards and 20 first downs, going 8 for 17 on 3rd down conversions and 2 for 3 on 4th down. Kentucky ran 50 times for 226 yards, averaging 4 yards a carry. The Dawgs fumbled the ball away twice, had a blocked punt, had another punt of only 18 yards, allowed a 96 yard kickoff return, and committed 5 penalties for 58 yards. The O-line gave up a pair of sacks for 6 and 8 yard losses.

Final Comments

The Dawgs really did save their whole season last week. I know many feel like the season is already lost but it isn’t. The Dawgs didn’t win the National Championship this year or the SEC Championship and they didn’t even win the SEC East. They have almost no shot at a BCS Bowl and they suffered a pair of embarrassing blowout losses to Alabama and arch rival Florida. But if they can beat Auburn and Tech in the next few weeks and finish the season 10-2 they will still have had a great season. They might then make it even better with a win in a bowl game. If the Dawgs go 10-2 they will get to go to a New Year’s Day bowl game and hopefully play a team of consequence, perhaps one of the Big XII teams that gets shutout of the BCS. If the Dawgs win the rest of their games and the bowl they will finish 11-2 with wins over Tennessee, LSU, Auburn, and Georgia Tech, and with no losses to anyone not playing in a BCS bowl.