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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > September > 30
Sunday, September 30, 2007
It takes two …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I get the feeling that maybe the best thing that could have happened to Thomas Brown was Knowshon Moreno.
From the first time he touched the ball this season, the redshirt-freshman from New Jersey became a crowd favorite, not just because of his awesome running skills, but because of his energetic, spirited play and the way he jumps up and runs back to the huddle. He’s a spark plug, just like David Pollack was for Georgia’s defense a few years ago.
Moreno still has things to learn, however, so despite what many fans would have preferred, Coach Mark Richt has kept senior Thomas Brown as the starter, although both backs have gotten plenty of carries. The result has been Moreno getting better as he watches Brown, and Brown, feeding off Moreno’s energy, playing the best football of his career. Saturday showed what that can result in … 180 yards and three touchdowns. And that was with a hurt shoulder!
Brown made the point about Moreno’s impact himself after the game. “I’m a pretty self-motivated person,” he said, “but at the same time I am competitive. [Moreno] comes out every day with a lot of energy and it kind of pushes us all.” Moreno and Brown appear to be pushing each other on and off the field (as the dancing on the sideline showed Saturday) in a way that hasn’t happened before when tailbacks shared time in a Richt backfield.
Suddenly Georgia has a running game to reckon with. And that’s despite a young offensive line that at times makes the running backs do just about all the work.
As Matthew Stafford said, it’s fun to watch them.
MORE GOOD STUFF: Major kudos to Mohamed Massaquoi for the way he went up high for that touchdown pass from Stafford. MoMass has really elevated his game this season. I still don’t understand why we don’t throw to him more often. … Brown had several terrific runs, including that 50-yarder for Georgia’s first score when he made a great cut, and the one that put Georgia up 30-17 when he juked a Rebel just about out of his shoes. Moreno looked really good, too, with his 90 yards and one touchdown. … We know from the past two weeks that if there’s a minute left on the clock, Stafford and company are fully capable of getting into field goal range. … We didn’t end up with a successful possession after it, but that onside kick was a thing of beauty. … Another good game for Brandon Miller, including an interception. Let’s hope he keeps it up; we’re going to need more of that down the road.
NOT SO GOOD STUFF: The scattered boos when Tripp Chandler continued dropping passes early on. It’s understandable, considering the passions the game engenders, but it’s definitely not cool to boo your own players in the college game. Coaches, OK. Officials? Definitely. I know a lot of the ovation Chandler got when he finally made the first of two catches Saturday was sarcastic, but fortunately the kid didn’t realize that. He took it as a show of support and ended up making another, bigger catch later. Let’s hope he’s gotten the monkey off his back and we won’t have any more sorry booing episodes. … Georgia’s defensive troubles Saturday didn’t appear to be a case of the team coming out flat after the Alabama upset or playing lethargically as Bulldog teams have been known to do against lesser opponents. No, both our lines (but especially the defensive line) were simply outmanned by the Ole Miss lines. The fact that we won is due to superb individual efforts and the Dawgs’ greater depth at skill positions. As Richt said after the game, “I’m glad we could win the game and not play our best.” … Georgia’s secondary overreacted to getting burned on a long pass by playing extremely soft coverage the rest of the game, allowing Ole Miss to dink and dunk its way downfield, eating up clock while we hardly pressured their quarterback at all. … Kregg Lumpkin, wearing a massive hand cast, was put in on the kickoff receiving team Saturday, and Ole Miss proceeded to squib kick it toward him much of the time. He picked up one for a short return but let a couple of others bounce past him to deep man Thomas Brown. If he wasn’t ready to catch the ball, why put him in? … Kickoff coverage was again poor. More about this later in the week.
OTHER STUFF: So, a game with no live television coverage, and we still have numerous lengthy “media” timeouts? Was that so CSS wouldn’t have to bother to insert commercials later in its taped coverage, or so we could be subjected to more commercials on the jumbotron? … The dry turf was coming up in huge chunks and players sliding were kicking up quite a bit of sand. They came out at halftime trying to do some makeshift repairs to the field. If the drought doesn’t break over the next five weeks, we’ll be seeing some literal sandlot football come November. … Hope the members of the Redcoats really like The Who since they’ve had to play that show three weeks in a row.
