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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > November
November 2007
Whiners and losers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m torn in deciding who to root against (I can’t really cheer for either team) in Saturday’s SEC championship.
My first inclination usually is to pull for Phil Fulmer and the Vols to lose just because … they’re Phil Fulmer and the Vols.
But LSU coach Les Miles and his griping about how the winner of the SEC championship game (which he naturally assumes will be his Tigers) should be the highest ranked conference team in the BCS standings, rather than the Georgia Bulldogs, has gotten more than a bit tiresome this week.
Up to now, Miles was in that group of SEC coaches I didn’t really feel strongly about one way or the other. As opposed to Fulmer, who’s long been my second least-favorite SEC head coach, after that smart-alecky creep over at South Carolina. I still don’t like Fulmer much, but at least he’s done what he’s done with his own players. Miles is still basically winning with a lot of Nick Saban’s players.
So, looking at what’s in the Dawgs’ best interests, I guess I’m hoping LSU loses in the Dome, because the Vols are far enough back in the rankings and are a three-loss team, so it would be virtually impossible for them to leapfrog Georgia in the BCS. LSU, on the other hand, might do just that if they had an extremely convincing win over the Vols.
Of course, barring the same unlikely scenario that would put No. 4 UGA into the national championship game, LSU moving to the head of the SEC class in the rankings really would accomplish nothing other than giving Miles bragging rights. Unless they’re in the national championship game, the SEC champs must go to the Sugar Bowl. So all that LSU moving ahead of Georgia might do is to possibly mess with the conference (i.e. Georgia) getting a second BCS bid.
Fortunately, the fact that Georgia finished strongly and impressed a lot of folks voting in the polls with their scoring potential, coupled with the BCS seeming inclined to have a second SEC team in the mix, probably means a Rose, Fiesta or Orange bid for Georgia either way.
Still, since LSU lost late, Georgia didn’t, and Miles is such a whiner, I really don’t want to see his team ranked ahead of the Dawgs, championship or not.
LSU had their shot at No. 1 in the BCS this season. Twice. And lost it. Twice. So shut up, Les.
A season to savor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I really wasn’t surprised when I went to the ajc.com home page Saturday night and saw the downer headline “No Dome for the Dawgs.” That’s just how sports coverage in this town goes. Remember back after the South Carolina game when we were provided five reasons the Jackets were on the rise along with five reasons the UGA football program was sinking?
OK, so Georgia isn’t in the SEC championship this year because the loss to Tennessee gave the Vols the tie-breaker over the SEC East co-champion Bulldogs. No, instead, the Dawgs are ranked No. 4 in the country, AHEAD of both LSU and UT, the teams that will be battling it out in the Dome. And this a mere seven weeks after Georgia was given up for dead by most sports pundits, and many fans were lamenting the prospect of a “lost” season and a date in the Music City Bowl at best.
The fact that Mark Richt’s team managed to turn it around after the Dawgs’ inexplicable showing in Knoxville and win six straight, three over ranked teams (including Florida and Auburn), makes for one of this season’s Cinderella stories in college football. The Bulldogs may not be playing for the SEC crown, but this season has been easily Richt’s best coaching job in his seven years in Athens. He found a way to change course and his players’ mindset by making them believe in themselves again and rediscover the fun of playing football.
As Georgia awaits a BCS bowl appointment (wouldn’t the Rose be so cool?), the underclassmen can look ahead to next season’s much tougher schedule (picking up Arizona State and LSU) with a renewed confidence that hopefully will pay even bigger dividends down the road.
No need for what-ifs, as in “what if the Dawgs hadn’t dropped those passes against the Gamecocks and had won that game like they should have?” Yeah, Georgia probably would be in line for the national championship game even with the loss to Tennessee, thanks to what a screwy year it’s been in the college rankings. Dwelling on that stuff is unnecessary, though. What UGA accomplished this season is unbelievable enough to merit the inevitable DVD retrospective.
But, of course, that wasn’t the sweetest part of Saturday afternoon. Humbling the smack-talking boys in gold from the North Avenue Trade School for the seventh consecutive year was what most Georgia fans were primarily focused on, not what was happening in Lexington between Kentucky and the Vols, and the Dawgs delivered. Sure, they made it a little more exciting than it needed to be early on thanks to a lack of focus in special teams play, but the team’s remarkable balance paid off in the end. The Jackets held Knowshon Moreno in check but couldn’t handle Thomas Brown, Matthew Stafford, Mohamed Massaquoi and Sean Bailey. And motormouth Tashard Choice got his yards like usual, but not enough points. And so the Dawgs ended up dancing at Grant Field as the Redcoats did their version of Soulja Boy.
Vintage Bulldogs-Jackets, in other words.
Like the headline said, no Dome for the Dawgs this year. But keeping the Governor’s Cup and making the Top 5 and the BCS is a pretty great “consolation” prize.
MORE THOUGHTS ON THE GAME: The way the Jackets were crowding the line Saturday worked against a shifty runner like Moreno and in favor of a slasher like Brown, who hits the hole a lot faster. A classic example of the wisdom of having at least a couple of running backs with differing styles. … Moreno’s best play Saturday wasn’t a run but stripping the ball from the Jackets’ Morgan Burnett on that blown lateral, resulting in one of the game’s three touchbacks for Georgia instead of a touchdown for the insects. … Stafford’s own 31-yard touchdown run on the same play that burned Kentucky (guess the Jackets didn’t watch the film closely enough) fit right in with the way Georgia’s offense was evenly split between the run and the pass. While Stafford was off-target several times in the first half, he got his game going in the second half, threading the needle on several remarkable throws. Stafford definitely seems to throw the ball better on play-action passes than when he drops back. … Georgia’s receivers were making some great catches, too. Besides the aforementioned Massaquoi and Bailey, Kris Durham managed to use all of his height to go up and snag one high ball. … Interesting to see Richt dancing around on the sideline to keep from getting an ice bath in the chilly weather. Willie Martinez got it instead. His defense had a good day Saturday but, as usual, it could have been even better. Just about every time the Dawgs pressured a Jackets QB the result was just what Georgia wanted. Which made me wonder why our defenders sometimes sat back and let them have all the time they needed to find a receiver. … Jackets fans can gripe all they want about that pass interference call Saturday, but the Dawgs drew plenty of flags from the SEC (natch) refs, including several for holding, while Jackets players were getting away with numerous blatant holds. A typically inconsistent day for an SEC officiating crew. … All that blitzing by the Jackets and only one sack to show for it. The young Georgia line has really grown up fast this season. Meanwhile, the Dawgs had five sacks, two by Geno Atkins. … It’s understandable that some Jackets fans were singing “Rocky Top” Saturday. After all, some Georgia fans were chanting for the Kentucky Wildcats. But there were some in the Tech student section who went so far as to wear Tennessee jerseys. I’ll admit to always rooting against the Jackets, but putting on another team’s colors? That’s pretty pathetic.
On tough love and hot seats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Another week, another player gone from Dennis Felton’s basketball Bulldogs.
It’s reached the point where you have to wonder: Is Felton the cure or part of the problem?
OK, the decision on the guys who’ve been suspended for not going to class enough was out of Felton’s hands. That’s UGA athletic association policy per Damon Evans. And it’s as it should be.
And the Billy Humphrey knife thing, well, that’s a combination of bad luck, UGA’s Barney Fife police force, university policy and, again, athletic association rules. I have a feeling the legal side of that case will never make it to court.
But the dismissals of Takais Brown and now Mike Mercer were Felton’s call. Nobody’s made public what they did, and maybe if we all knew we’d say, “Good move, coach. They were bad eggs.”
But the frequency with which this stuff happens has to give the Bulldog Nation pause. Were the dismissals really called for or just a result of Felton’s my-way-or-the-highway philosophy? Is hard-line discipline a positive if it’s decimating your program? And if it’s all the players’ fault, what does that say about Felton’s judgment in signing such a group in the first place?
Felton maintains these losses won’t impact Georgia’s season. Maybe he also believes world peace is at hand.
My basketball fanatic friend Herb, a Kentucky fan but a big Felton booster, assures me that Georgia fans should stick with our coach because he knows what he’s doing, he has a pretty impressive recruiting class coming in, and it’s going to pay off big down the road.
I hope Herb’s right. And that the Georgia basketball program can survive Felton’s brand of tough love.
ON THE HOT SEAT? If the rumors are correct, Chan Gailey’s future on the Flats could ride on how his Jackets do against the Dawgs on Saturday. I hope that’s not right, because like most UGA fans I’d love to see Gailey stay right where he is. Let’s just hope the Dawgs play up to their capabilities, like they did in the Florida and Auburn games. If they do, everything should be OK. Georgia is the more talented team by far. If not, well, the last time we faced a team that was said to be playing for their coach’s job, it didn’t turn out so good.
Winning the old-school way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An oft-quoted football truism has it that if you turn the ball over a lot (like four times) in a game, you can’t win. But that bit of conventional wisdom was trumped Saturday by another football truism.
Prolific offenses are great, but defense wins in the SEC.
The single most glaring statistic coming out of the Bulldogs’ win over the Kentucky Wildcats was this: Georgia gave Kentucky the ball twice on fumbles and twice on interceptions, but the Cats couldn’t garner more than three points out of those opportunities.
Most folks expected the Georgia-Kentucky game to be a high-scoring offensive shootout, but the Dawgs won Saturday the old-fashioned UGA way: Defense, special teams and the running game.
Two of those three aspects of Georgia’s game had been suspect over the past couple of seasons, but they got the job done against Kentucky. The Dawgs’ D still isn’t consistent enough to be one of those intimidating shut-em-down defenses. Georgia did shut down Kentucky’s running game but, frankly, they didn’t pressure QB Andre Woodson enough Saturday and still tended to play soft in the secondary, allowing the Cats to wrack up way too many passing yards. Which was frustrating for the fans at Sanford Stadium, because when the Dawgs DID pressure Woodson, it generally worked: five sacks and quite a few overthrown balls.
But the bottom line is that all those passing yards translated to only 13 points and, more importantly, the Georgia defense didn’t let the mistakes by the Bulldog offense throw the game away. And the Dawgs held what had been the nation’s 14th-ranked scoring offense to its season low and nearly 25 points below its season average.
Game ball to Willie Martinez and the defensive Dawgs.
As for the offense, fine running by Knowshon Moreno and Thomas Brown made up for the offensive line’s erratic blocking and QB Matthew Stafford and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo both having off days. Stafford, who often threw in a hurry or off his heels, was just a bit off-target most of the game, making his receivers work for it on even simple, short throws by tending to put the ball slightly behind them.
And probably because of their success with it in the previous three games, Bobo and Stafford seemed to have fallen in love with the homerun ball, repeatedly going long with low-percentage throws against an excellent Kentucky secondary when a nice over-the-middle to the tight end or dump pass to a back to secure a first down would have sufficed. At times Saturday when Georgia was trailing by 10 points, Bobo and Stafford looked impatient, like they wanted to get the Dawgs back on top with a big play instead of grinding it out.
Georgia ended up not completing a pass play over 17 yards. But thanks to the running game and the defense, along with Kelin Johnson’s blocked punt and Brandon Coutu’s 28th field goal out of 31 attempts at Sanford Stadium in his career, Georgia still was able to put Kentucky away and claim a share of the SEC East title.
Quite a turnaround from six weeks earlier when the Music City Bowl loomed after that pasting by Tennesee.
As for those two losses, there’s not much you can say about the Knoxville game. Georgia just didn’t show up that day. But after the past four games, more than one Georgia fan was seen shaking their heads and muttering something like, “How did this team ever lose to South Carolina?”
Dropped passes and a young team maturing as the season progressed is the answer.
If they played again today, what do you think the chances are Steve “It’s Not Like They’re Some Powerful Team” Spurrier’s fading Gamecocks would win again? Unfortunately, you don’t get mulligans in college football.
So we’re left rooting for Kentucky next week. Which, to be honest, most Georgia fans probably would be doing anyway. But even if UT wins out and goes to Atlanta, Mark Richt’s improbable rescue operation with this year’s Bulldogs has been remarkable and produced some memories for the ages.
Now, on to Historic Grant Field!
POOCH KICKS: Despite the fact that Georgia didn’t really push Richt’s offhand idea for a “redout” by fans Saturday, the stands did look a bit more ablaze in red than usual. … They did a countdown of the season’s Top 10 plays so far on the big video screen Saturday. The No. 1 “play”? The Dawgs hurtling through the “G” banner wearing those black jerseys last week. … Moreno’s second-effort continued to pay off Saturday, and Brown had several really nice slicing runs. But the run many of us got the biggest kick out of was Stafford lumbering 10 yards for a TD. He actually put a move on a Kentucky defender and juked him! … The Sanford crowd wasn’t quite as raucous as the week before against Auburn, but it stayed into the game and definitely was a factor, as Kentucky coach Rich Brooks noted when he said, “It’s harder on the road to get of a snap with all the noice. We didn’t do well with the noise factor.”
What a difference a coach makes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since Jacksonville, we’ve begun seeing the dividends that Mark Richt’s decision to hand off the playcalling is having for the Dawgs. (Besides a more sustained commitment to truly balancing the running and passing games, that is.)
With his head out of the playbook and more into not just the game but his players’ heads, Richt is showing the kind of empathy for his team and motivational skills that his past Mr. Calm persona never really hinted at.
It’s not just about getting the players jacked up (though it’s certainly done that, not always to our advantage) or kicking the home crowd into high gear (though it’s done that, too; when the team came sprinting out onto the field Saturday in those black jerseys, the reaction from the blacked-out crowd was the loudest I’ve ever heard at Sanford Stadium).
No, Richt sensed that this particular set of Bulldogs performs best when they’re having fun, and he’s set out to make Georgia’s games a good time to be had by all but the opponents. “That has made us all more relaxed and let us show who we are,” is how Matthew Stafford put it.
It’s doubtful Richt the playcaller would have had the time to get to know his team well enough to realize this was what they needed to break out of the sleepwalking that led to the Knoxville debacle.
Even after the SEC officiating crew had done its best to clamp down on the Dawgs’ high spirits, indirectly helping Auburn score 17 unanswered points to take the lead, the Georgia team kept its goodtime buzz, doing the Superman dance as Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” blared through the stadium speakers (a new home-game tradition that has evolved this season). Players dancing after their team has scored a touchdown is one thing; dancing when things aren’t looking so good is quite another.
And yet it was just what the Dawgs needed.
Forget the penalties, let’s have some fun and go for it! And, in a nice touch, they did it with Richt using his head-coach bigfoot prerogative to order Mike Bobo to call the same pass play that beat Auburn in 2002. The resulting 45-yard completion to injury-oblivious Sean Bailey set in motion the 28-point Georgia response that said to heck with the refs and the visiting-team hex in this series, this is our house!
Crank THAT!
Bailey, Mohamed Massaquoi, Knowshon Moreno and Kelin Johnson all played big, big roles Saturday, but give the game ball to Coach Richt.
YELLOW FEVER: Whether all those flags thrown on Georgia Saturday by the same heavyhanded crew that officiated the Florida game were deserved or not (and a couple of them definitely looked like ref overreactions designed to keep control of the game firmly in their grasp, including a pass interference call on an uncatchable ball), what really irritated many wearing black shirts was the fact that the officials were not calling the game evenly. They called a facemask penalty on the Bulldogs yet missed a blatant facemask by the Tigers that even Auburn fans sitting near me said was “a bad call.” A Georgia player got an unsportsmanlike conduct flag after a sack despite the fact he was running away from the play and toward the Georgia fans and yet Auburn’s Quentin Groves could run his mouth while standing over Stafford with no flag thrown. I’d say it’s likely that what Richt said to the officials when he made a very high-profile trip to midfield at the end of the first half to confer with them was something like this: If you want to call it close, fine. But call it fair. At this point, if the SEC wants to avoid even the appearance of officials taking retribution against Georgia for the Jacksonville Dance, they should make sure this particular crew of refs doesn’t officiate any more Georgia games this season.
POOCH KICKS: I’ve been wanting to see the Bulldogs in black jerseys since the Goff era, when I used my then-young son’s colored pencils to sketch what a Georgia jersey would look like if you reversed the red and black. Finally seeing it on the field Saturday was a thrill. And it was a nice touch having AC/DC’s “Back in Black” played right before kickoff Saturday and again at the end of the game. When will the Dawgs (and fans) be back in black? Richt said the players would like to do it again for the next game, though that is doubtful. But that’s certainly not the last we’ve seen of the black jerseys (which even Auburn’s voluble Groves said “sure did look good”). More likely is one Blackout per season. … I was just noting Saturday that Stafford was getting better finding his secondary receivers when he threw an interception into triple coverage. OK, so he’s still got room to improve. But anyone who saw him scramble a bit and then sling that 58-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open MoMass should understand why Richt is so high on this still-young QB. … Too bad a stupid illegal shift cost Georgia a TD when Moreno took a page out of Darren McFadden’s book and threw successfully into the end zone. I think we’ll see that again, too. … Kudos to Tripp Chandler for another couple of key catches Saturday. He’s turned his game around remarkably this season. … The Sanford Stadium layout makes a Lambeau Leap impossible, but it was great fun to see the Georgia team up on the cheerleaders’ platform after the game. And Kelin Johnson got to direct the Redcoats. A well-deserved honor. … Watching the Florida-South Carolina game Saturday night, I was thinking how uncool it was of the Gators to still have Tim Tebow in the game at the end and throwing for the end zone when victory was already locked up. Then I remembered who was standing on the other sideline. Reaping what he sowed. … So what if the Dawgs beat Kentucky but the Vols don’t lose one of their last two and we don’t get to go to the Dome? It won’t all necessarily be for naught. There’s a good chance that if Georgia continues its offensive ways of the past three games and wins out, an at-large BCS bowl bid could come their way. First, though, there’s Kentucky and another spread offense to deal with. …
A big challenge in red or black
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Getting ready for the biennial visit by the Plainsmen from the former Alabama Polytechnic Institute and their War Eagle named Tiger is always an exciting week in Athens. After all, Georgia-Auburn isn’t just the South’s oldest football rivalry, it’s the best kind of college football rivalry.
The schools are close to each other and recruit against each other. Georgia has a tradition of Auburn-bred leaders (Joel Eaves, Vince Dooley, the current Rodney Garner) and likewise Auburn with former Bulldogs as coaches (Pat Dye and the current Will Muschamp and Hugh Nall). Who can forget then-Auburn coach Dye commemorating the 100th anniversary of the rivalry by reciting the rhyme about being “Bulldog-born and Bulldog-bred” and eventually winding up “Bulldog-dead”? Auburn folks are sort of like our country cousins.
To top it off, playing at home doesn’t seem to figure into it, with the visiting team frequently coming out on top (often against a higher-ranked opponent) like last year.
So, all week when Georgia fans have been discussing what’s likely to happen Saturday, it’s been much like the week before the Alabama game: No one has a real sure feel for it. When folks have stopped by my desk to ask what I think, I say that if the Dawgs play like they did in Jacksonville, I think they win, though probably not as easily. This will be the toughest defense they’ve faced since South Carolina and probably the toughest of the season. If we get into a scoring shootout, I like our odds. If it’s a defensive slugfest, not so much.
As for the Blackout, I think it’s a fun idea, should look cool, and if it helps get the players fired up to run out and see mostly black in the stands, that’s great. Much has been made of Auburn’s recent record in all-white, but let’s face it, the color of the shirt or pants doesn’t really have any more to do with the outcome of the game than whether players touch a rock on their way onto the field, or even a granite bulldog. (Remember back in the Goff era when some fans wanted to get rid of that statue because they considered it bad luck?)
As for what Georgia will wear, I’ll be surprised if it’s black jerseys as linebacker Marcus Washington suggested, though I’ve been a proponent of a black spirit jersey for many years. Mark Richt has done a masterful job of dancing around the issue, pointing out how difficult it is to get black jerseys on short notice while never saying they haven’t done it. If they don’t wear black this game, I have a feeling we will see them at some point.
BULLDOG BITES: I was amused to see that Coke is going to give away 5,000 black T-shirts free to UGA students before the game Saturday. I bet that doesn’t thrill the folks at the University Bookstore next to the stadium and the FTX Bookstore on Baxter Street in Athens who are selling special Georgia Blackout black T-shirts at a rather pricey $18. … The Georgia athletics office has issued a warning to fans about potential problems with counterfeit tickets circulating for Saturday’s game. At last week’s Troy game, counterfeit tickets were sold, despite not even being good counterfeits. They were Ticketmaster knockoffs, and as anyone who’s ever attended a game at Sanford Stadium knows, Georgia doesn’t use Ticketmaster. It sells its own custom-printed tickets. Tickets for the Auburn game feature Kregg Lumpkin (6) and Thomas Brown (20) on them. Real UGA tickets also never have the game time on them. … Former Georgia great David Pollack and the CSTV “Chick-fil-A SEC Tailgate” show will be broadcasting live from near Sanford Stadium Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. They’ll be on the east quad next to Sanford Drive between Rutherford and Mary Lyndon halls. Another Bulldog great, Matt Stinchcomb, will guest on the show. … Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams open their seasons with a double-header Friday night at the Steg. The Lady Bulldogs play Richmond at 6:30 p.m. and the men play Jacksonville State at about 9 p.m. This year, souvenir cups similar to the football Munson cups will be sold at the basketball games. The two cup designs feature Lady Dogs coach Andy Landers and the 1983 Bulldog team that reached the Final Four. … Vince Dooley is one of the three finalists, along with “Bear” Bryant and Steve Spurrier, in the AT&T Best SEC Coach of All-Time contest. Fans can vote by texting “SEC” to 234567. Voting runs through Nov. 16. … Here’s another “streak” it would be nice to end this year: It’s been 25 years since the Dawgs beat Florida and Auburn in the same season.
Not great, but good enough
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OK, it’s a given. Georgia has trouble defending spread offenses. Unless it’s a one-trick-pony spread offense dominated by a guy named Tebow.
Unfortunately, on Saturday Troy’s spread looked more like the passing equivalent of West Virginia against us than it did Florida, racking up the most offensive yards (488) against Georgia since that Sugar Bowl meeting with the Mountaineers.
But while the Bulldogs certainly didn’t have an easy time against the Trojans, the game wasn’t one that left fans fretting like some of our earlier shaky wins. It was a mixed bag of positives and negatives:
Georgia, for a change, didn’t come out flat for one of these games. The Dawgs started the game enthusiastic. They just weren’t focused, resulting in two early fumbles that dissipated some of that energy and meant the defense was on the field a lot of time early on and got a little tired of defending all those dink-and-dunk screen passes Troy was throwing.
On the positive side, the two fumbles resulted in only three points and Georgia had three sacks and two interceptions. On the negative side, the Bulldogs gave up several first down conversions in third-and-long situations and a couple of long touchdown passes.
On the positive side, Georgia moved the ball pretty well most of the time, Knowshon Moreno was terrific (if you’ve got to have your first fumble of the season, the way to make up for it is to come back with your team’s longest TD run in 10 years) and Matthew Stafford completed some sharp downfield passes. On the negative side, Stafford threw an interception in the end zone that wasted a Georgia drive, the Dawgs had a poor day converting on third down and they had to settle for too many field goals, especially considering defense isn’t Troy’s forte.
On the positive side, Troy return specialist and future NFL-er Leodis McKelvin didn’t play that big a part in the game. On the negative side, he didn’t need to. Georgia’s directional (aka shank) punts to avoid him and likewise our mixture of angled and pooch kickoffs resulted in Troy getting great field position even without him having long returns. On kickoffs, why we refuse to go for the end zone continues to baffle. As Kevin Butler put it after the game, if you’re scared of a long return, why not make them return it 105 yards?
Overall, as Coach Mark Richt said, the Dawgs played good enough to win. Which in a game like this is never a lock. The most positive aspect of the game for Georgia fans continued to be the play of Knowshon Moreno. Not only does he give Georgia a superb offensive weapon and an on-the-field spark plug, he’s a pure pleasure to watch.
OTHER THOUGHTS ON THE GAME: After his TD reception, Sean Bailey picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for tossing the ball to a Troy player instead of an official. The Dawgs just need to come to the realization that after the end-zone celebration in Jacksonville, they’re marked men and anything short of Boy Scout behavior is going to draw a flag the rest of this season. … Wasn’t it just a year ago that some grandstand observers of the Dawgs were opining that the toss-sweep was an archaic play that had no place in today’s football? It looked Saturday like the toss-sweep to Moreno was Georgia’s most effective running play. … Missed tackles continued to plague the Dawg defense Saturday. … Georgia’s offensive line, which didn’t get any flags against Florida, drew some costly penalties against Troy. Hope they got it out of their system. … The Dawgs’ greatest success defensively came when they pressured the quarterback. Unfortunately, too much of the time he wasn’t pressured at all and some of our linebackers stood around waiting to see what he was going to do instead of attacking. … Stafford generally had good protection all day. In fact, sometimes it was too good, exacerbating his tendency to hold on to the ball too long before passing, forcing receivers to have to wait for the ball.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING, PART 1: The Trojans deserve credit for continuing to play hard in the fourth quarter, but their coaching staff looked really bush-league calling three time-outs in the last 30-odd seconds in order to score a meaningless touchdown against our scrubs. I liked what one fan yelled: “What, have you got money on it?” It also wasn’t cool that on the obvious last play of the game, when Stafford was taking a knee, Troy felt it necessary to knock him to the ground. You got the feeling this game meant more to them than they admitted beforehand when they maintained they were more concerned with winning the Sun Belt title.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING, PART 2: When Stafford, who earlier had ceded the QB spot to Joe Cox, trotted on the field with 5 seconds left in the game, a lot of fans wondered if Richt was P.O’d at the Troy tactics and was going to have Stafford launch one toward the end zone. Nope, he just took a knee. So what the heck was he doing out there, risking possible (if improbable) injury?
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