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Saturday, September 17, 2005
Considering circumstances, it’ll do
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It didn’t go according to script. It couldn’t have. When your starting quarterback spends the night in the hospital, you wad up the script and just try to ad-lib a win. You don’t attempt to be Sir John Gielgud; as long as you wind up ahead, you’ll settle for being Jim Belushi.
And that’s what Georgia Tech did. There will be no Oscars awarded for beating Connecticut, but beating UConn gives the Jackets a chance to trip the light fantastic seven days hence in Blacksburg, Va. They’ve done what they needed to do: They’ve positioned themselves to have a truly big season at a truly important time for this program and this coach.
This being Tech, the third installment of getting to 3-0 included anxiety unforeseen. Reggie Ball got sick Saturday morning - “took ill,” according to the not-terribly-informative press release - and was taken to Emory. His absence afforded Jacket fans the moment a few of them had been awaiting. They got to see the much-discussed Taylor Bennett actually play quarterback, and what they saw was proof that a healthy Ball has no fear of being unseated.
“He didn’t make any major blunders,” said Chan Gailey by way of semi-endorsement. “If you’re playing your first game and you didn’t go mess it up, you’re playing good.”
Yes, Bennett completed a touchdown pass on Tech’s first snap, Calvin Johnson turning a buttonhook into a 42-yard ramble. That was the good news. The bad: Bennett was 4-for-16 the rest of the half, and Gailey didn’t do him any favors by ordering 17 first-half passes. With P.J. Daniels and Tashard Choice as backfield options, the Jackets could have opted simply to run the ball and play defense. At least they got the second part right.
Down 13-7 after a too-tall punt snap, Tech took a lasting lead when Kenny Scott broke on a weak Matt Bonislawski pass and returned the interception for a touchdown. Tech made it 21-13 barely a minute later, the Huskies fumbling away a kickoff and the Jackets rolling 41 yards, 32 of them on the ground.
Not much happened thereafter. Tech’s next six possessions netted only two first downs, and by then UConn had decided to load up against the run and make Bennett actually complete a pass. Which he did. He completed three of them on a vital third-quarter drive that gave his team a 15-point lead, and that was really all Tech needed this nervous night. Give the understudy credit, if not a full-blown rave: Bennett did enough to get the Jackets to 3-0.
And now, provided Ball recuperates, things get serious for Tech in a way they haven’t under Gailey. Already the owners of one major road upset, the Jackets could well slip into the Top 10 by beating Virginia Tech. They won’t be favored - indeed, they’ll be a bigger underdog than they were at Auburn - but Tech has become a fairly hardy traveler. It seems to play better away from Atlanta. (Maybe it’s the absence of empty seats that stirs the juices.)
Tech has beaten four ranked opponents under Gailey, but none were as imposing as Virginia Tech seems. Then again, the Jackets haven’t looked this good since the latter part of the 2000 season. They have playmakers on offense and a defense so resolute that UConn couldn’t manage a first down after halftime. If Ball is healthy and playing under control, they have a chance against anybody anywhere.
Only once have the Gailey-coached Jackets strung four wins together. (That came in 2003, whereupon they lost to - ugh! - Duke.) If this team gets to 4-0, it will have done more than just complete an impressive September. It will have become the scourge of the South.
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Clearly unmotivated, Dogs get away with it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Athens � Mark Richt dropped his sunglasses as he walked unimpeded toward the podium. Another broken play.
“Ohhhhh … God. I’m glad that’s over,” he said.
A team wins 44-7, it doesn’t usually feel like dental surgery. But this was one of those the-score-doesn’t-tell-the-whole-story kind of games. Because if the score actually told what happened in Georgia’s game against Louisiana Monroe on Saturday, chapter one would start out something like this: “More Novocaine!” screamed the fan base.
It wasn’t the opener against Boise State. It wasn’t the return of Steve Spurrier. It was Game 3 against a school that lost 38-0 last week â€â€? to Wyoming. It was against an opponent that the Bulldogs had faced twice before and won by a combined score of 112-9. (Ohhhhh … God. Even Ray Goff beat the Indians 70-6.)
But as much as the Bulldogs implored themselves, “Don’t have a letdown,” they did just that. They scored touchdowns on their first two possessions, then the transmission started dropping parts as they rolled down the road. They committed eight penalties in the first half, five on offense. They looked disinterested. The Sanford Stadium crowd merely transitioned from disinterested to genuinely ticked.
Funny thing about motivation. You can tell yourself to be motivated all you want, but sometimes the body parts make their own decision.
“You can’t have artificial enthusiasm,” center Russ Tanner said. “We try really hard to be focused and jacked up. We talk about not beating ourselves. You can’t make excuses about the time of the game or the crowd or whatever. It’s all on us. If we’re not successful, it’s because we’re not ready to execute. Luckily, we had the athletes to get it done. But in the SEC, you can’t play that way and expect to win.”
Louisiana Monroe isn’t in the SEC. The Indians barely have uniforms. But there they were, trailing only 17-0 at halftime. Sensing opportunity, they opened the second half with an onside kick â€â€? and recovered. They drove 53 yards for a touchdown. Now the score was 17-7.
Earth to body parts:
“Coaches talk about, ‘You don’t know how the Dog Walk is going to be, you don’t know how the fans are going to be, but you have to go out and get yourself motivated to play regardless,’ ” quarterback D.J. Shockley said. “It was kind of hard to get out of the funk we were in. Sometimes these games bring that out of certain people. You can’t do that. You never know what can happen. What if they had started out fast? It could’ve been a whole different game.”
The Bulldogs eventually pulled away. But it took atypical things to turn the score lopsided: A fumble recovery in the end zone; a 58-yard field goal; a Louisiana Monroe fumble at its own 16 to set up another touchdown.
It wasn’t domination. It wasn’t the performance you expect when you see: Georgia favored by 39 1/2.
This was supposed to be the redemption game. The offense struggled last week against South Carolina. This was the week to work out some problems and build confidence before going to Mississippi State.
Louisiana Monroe wasn’t really here to win â€â€? it was here for a $590,000 payoff. Only a small portion of that figured to be spent on ice bags and Nuprin for the flight home.
Instead, the Dogs actually provided something unexpected � entertainment value.
Not for Richt, of course. At halftime, the Georgia coach “got on the offense, the defense, special teams â€â€? he pretty much got on everybody,” Shockley said. “We were flat. We were having a lot of penalties. You could tell he was upset.”
On the first two possessions, Shockley completed 6 of 7 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 44 yards, including a 28-yard score. The rest of the game: He hit 7 of 13 for 143 yards and no scores â€â€? and he didn’t have a carry. Some of that is on play calling, some on the players.
“We’ll probably get punished for this,” Shockley said. “We’re going to be doing some running on Monday.”
Maybe then they’ll get the message.
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