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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > October > 18
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Bulldogs playing below caliber
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens — I need to apologize. I’m afraid I’ve misled you folks. I thought Georgia would be a great team. It isn’t.
It’s a pretty good team, but not the sort of team I anticipated — and I expect you anticipated — in the heat of August when the Bulldogs were No. 1 in both polls and on the cover of Sports Illustrated. These Bulldogs haven’t yet had a game that made anybody stand back in awe, and they’ve played more than half their regular season.
Asked if Georgia had played to its potential, cornerback Asher Allen said: “As a team? No, I can’t say that, and today was a good showing as to why.”
On Saturday the Bulldogs outgained Vanderbilt by 180 yards but didn’t score the clinching points until the final minute. This came a week after they outgained Tennessee by 249 yards and won by 12. Even as we congratulate Georgia for finding ways to win six times in seven tries, we must now ask: Is this all there is?
“As much as we tried to separate from them,” said Mark Richt speaking of the mighty Commodores, “we couldn’t do it.” And surely, this far into the season, such a thing tells us more about Georgia than about Vandy.
For all their talent (and they have scads), the Bulldogs haven’t once played anywhere near capacity. The closest they came was against Arizona State, but pesky hindsight informs us that the Sun Devils are 2-4.
Said receiver Mohamed Massaquoi: “We’re still leaving too many points on the field, and the defense is still having trouble with penalties.”
About the latter: Richt was actually buoyed that his team was penalized only five times Saturday — “Five’s acceptable,” he said, smiling — but two pass-interference calls (one iffy, one clear-cut) enabled Vandy to halve Georgia’s lead before halftime, and from there nothing was easy. The Bulldogs should have put it away with 2:50 remaining, but Blair Walsh’s field goal thunked off the right upright and Georgia’s defense had to stop the nation’s 117th-ranked offense one last time.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Richt said, but at this glacial pace Knowshon Moreno will be a 10th-year pro by the time Georgia hits its stride. Speaking of Moreno: He gained 172 yards on 23 rushes but unaccountably didn’t run from scrimmage on consecutive third-quarter possessions, a curious span during which understudy Caleb King carried four times.
“We leave it up to Knowshon,” said Richt, seeking to describe Georgia’s substitution policy. “He takes himself out. When he’s standing by the [running backs] coach, he’s ready to go back in. When it’s a new series, he’s ready unless he’s injured.”
So why, with 2:08 left in a seven-point game, did the first call go to the freshman King, who lost six yards? Richt really couldn’t say. (To be fair, Moreno did carry the next two downs.)
There have been, sad to say, too many inexplicable moments these seven games. Georgia will look breathtaking for a few minutes — Moreno dancing, Matthew Stafford throwing, A.J. Green ascending — and then you look up and the score’s only 14-7.
“We’ve had some good games,” said Rennie Curran, the fierce linebacker, “but no dominating games.”
Domination isn’t a requirement for winning a championship, but at some point a great team has to prove its greatness. Georgia will have that chance these next two weeks against the past two BCS titlists, but I’m starting to wonder if the team that I believed possessed everything it needed indeed has what it takes. Heck, I’m starting to wonder if Georgia is the best team in Georgia.
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