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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 24
Sunday, September 24, 2006
An ugly win raises questions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia played some pretty bad football at times Saturday, and yet still came away with a victory. That’s what depth at skill positions will do for you. With one quarterback injured and one ineffectual all day, aren’t we glad we had a talent like Joe Cox ready to come in and pull one out?
But as usual when a heavily favored team barely survives against a winless team, the win over Colorado left the Dawgs with a bunch of questions that need to be answered and areas that need to be improved if Georgia is going to continue winning.
Are those of us who say that Cox’s efforts Saturday earned him the right to start at QB against Ole Miss skittish bandwagon jumpers? No, we’re simply fans who want our team to win and think that RIGHT NOW Cox gives us the best chance to do that. Down the road, Matthew Stafford is going to have some great games and have his time in the hero’s spotlight. But the way he’s played the last couple of games, it’s obvious he’s not there yet. He looked not just like a freshman, but like a freshman who hasn’t yet mastered what to do if Plan A doesn’t work.
Yes, there was plenty of blame to go around with the Dawgs’ performance Saturday. The team, particularly the defense, didn’t look well prepared (whereas Colorado obviously had studied film of Georgia quite a bit). The players showed little fire or enthusiasm in the first half especially. Coach Richt didn’t have one of his better days calling plays. The receivers dropped four passes. The Dawgs played better defense in the second half but never did figure out how to cover the Buffs’ tight end (who wound up with seven catches). Tony Taylor played well, but generally our linebackers looked slow and were badly positioned much of the time (as in the Sugar Bowl debacle). Our pass rush seemed a step show all day. The offensive line generally blocked poorly, especially on running plays. And it wasn’t until Kregg Lumpkin came into the game that we showed any spark at running back. Thomas Brown actually ended up the day with NEGATIVE yardage. And while Danny Ware looked OK at times, he also fumbled the ball away. Our special teams, so good the previous week, also had an off day, with too many penalties on kick returns.
And Richt continued to have sideline management and time management problems. It’s a good thing we didn’t end up needing that time out that he burned on the PAT play when the Dawgs were caught short a man. As kicking legend Kevin Butler pointed out on the “Fifth Quarter Show” after the game, with a kicker like Brandon Coutu, the thing to do in that case is simply take the delay-of-game penalty and kick the extra point from 5 yards farther back. Calling a time out in that situation is just inexcusable.
Top all that off with the fact that Stafford had a bad day, even by inexperienced freshman standards, and you get the Dawgs held scoreless for three quarters.
I don’t blame Stafford for all the dropped passes (though he obviously hasn’t yet learned how to dial his howitzer back a notch and put some touch on the ball, and he sometimes was throwing just behind the receiver or a little too high). But all that indecision back there, holding on to the ball too long and then fumbling, trying to improvise and losing track off the line of scrimmage … that gets pinned on him.
And the bottom line: Before Cox entered the game, Georgia had just 89 yards of offense and no points. With Cox at the helm, the Dawgs wound up with 284 yards and 14 points.
What, besides Cox and Lumpkin, looked good?
The scoreboard at the end.
And Martrez Milner, a frequent whipping boy in this corner, came up big with four catches (including the winning TD) and no drops. (OK, he was the player who forgot to run out on the field for the PAT, but that one still should get pinned on the coaching staff.)
A FEW MORE THOUGHTS: While I thought Richt made some awful calls Saturday, I don’t fault him at all in going for it on fourth down in the red zone instead of kicking a field goal. Like he said, if we didn’t convert, we’d need two scores and if we kicked a field goal, we’d still need to two scores. Going for the first down was the right thing to do. … Let’s hope the pundits are wrong and Cox doesn’t transfer after the season if Stafford winds up as the starter. With the offensive line we’ve got, the chances of making it through a season without the starting QB getting hurt are slim. And, frankly, I’d much rather have Cox still around to take over next year than have to rely on completely untested Blake Barnes or another true freshman. … Like a lot of Georgia fans, I absolutely HATE that sprint-draw delayed handoff in the shotgun that Richt apparently grew enamored of in his ACC days. Unless you’ve got a terrific line, it usually gets stuffed, as it did Saturday when he used it on fourth-and-four. If you want to run the ball in a spot like that, for heaven’s sake get in the I-formation and give your back a leading blocker. … To the pantheon of favorite Bulldog quotes like Hershel’s “Ball ain’t heavy,” add what Cox said to his teammates after he entered the game: “If we can’t score two touchdowns, we don’t deserve to have a G on our helmets.” … Let’s hope we don’t again see that mediocre Bon Jovi show that the Redcoats trotted out for the second time this season. … Many UGA fans at Sanford Stadium seemed to get a kick out of Ralphie the bison leading the Buffs onto the field Saturday, even if it did likely help fire up their players. Just another reason college football is special.
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