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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 21
Sunday, September 21, 2008
A prime-time win
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The work by Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit on Saturday night’s nationally televised ABC prime-time coverage of the win over Arizona State was a refreshing change from the muddled work CBS’ SEC coverage has been exhibiting lately.
They started out playing it pretty evenly, giving plenty of props to the Sun Devils’ Rudy Carpenter, but once the Dawgs took control of the game on the field, the ABC duo made no attempt to hide how impressed they were with Georgia. At times, the commentary couldn’t have been more positive if they’d been getting their paychecks from the same place as Scott Howard and Eric Zeier on radio.
Said Musburger after Knowshon Moreno went airborne for the Dawgs’ first touchdown: “That’s a Heisman run.” The ABC duo continually touted Matt Stafford’s arm and NFL potential, and were awestruck by the work of freshman receiver A.J. Green. After his touchdown catch, Musburger declared Green to be a candidate for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the top college football wide receiver. And by midway through the fourth quarter, having already chalked up the Tempe game as a Georgia win, Herbstreit was saying flatly that with Georgia’s schedule if the Dawgs go undefeated, there’s no way they won’t be playing for the national championship.
It wasn’t all unquestioning praise, however, which gave the generally gee-whiz tone of the coverage that much more credibility. At the end of the game, Herbstreit noted correctly that the Dawgs still have some things to work on, including the running game inside the 5-yard line and kickoff coverage.
But considering the lack of respect the Bulldogs had been getting nationally so far this season, especially from ABC subsidiary ESPN, and the resulting poll slippage, it was great to watch a game where the coverage clearly made the case for Georgia’s ranking as one of this season’s elite teams.
That it was in prime time and aired across the country was icing on the cake.
BULLDOG BITES: The Dawgs’ offense continued to show off its big-play capability, but that 10-play, 91-yard first touchdown drive provided a heartening display of ball control. The rejiggered line definitely was improved over the South Carolina game, though the Dawgs looked better in the passing game than running, especially, as Herbstreit noted, the short running game. Twice, the Dawgs couldn’t punch it in from the 1, though they made no attempt to conserve the clock on that last drive at the end, which was a good thing. Calling time to score style points would have been tacky and needy-looking. Also, the pass-protection pocket did collapse early a couple of times, resulting in one sack of Stafford, so there’s still plenty of work in general to do on the line. … The Georgia defense looked really good most of the night. They played a bit too loose on that first ASU drive of the second half (what is it about Georgia and its slow starts after halftime?), with clearly blown coverage by the secondary on the touchdown, but sacking Carpenter four times, completely shutting down the Sun Devils’ running game and keeping ASU’s passing game way below its usual output showed Georgia’s defense to be the real thing. … Stafford looked sharp much of the night zipping balls to Green and Co., but he continues to be off-target much of the time on the really long passes downfield. I know the long ball is tempting when your QB has a howitzer for an arm, but I wish Mike Bobo would be more selective in those deep calls. … A.J. Green was spectacular in the first half, the way he went up for the ball and made circus catches. He’s going to win some big games down the road. … The kickoff coverage issues Herbstreit mentioned are Georgia’s longest-standing uncorrected problem. This week, the kicks generally were better (with the exception of one that went out of bounds), for the most part hitting between the 5 and the goal line, but the coverage was porous, regularly leaving seams for the return man to hit. Former Georgia kicker Kevin Butler thinks the problem is that the coverage team is letting itself get locked up with blockers rather than moving to the ball. Whatever it is, regularly letting the other team begin a drive near its own 40 is far from ideal. And while on the subject of special teams, Georgia had to burn some timeouts because of special teams problems, one on a punt (apparently because the coach didn’t think we were going to get the kick off in time) and another couple because the Dawgs didn’t have the right personnel on the field for field goal tries. Mark Richt needs to light a fire under special teams coach John Fabris. … The penalty situation is getting dire for Georgia. ASU got three first downs via penalties and Georgia stymied one of its own drives with numerous flags. As the level of competition increases, that’s going to become a bigger problem. That said, a few of Saturday night’s calls were ultra picky at best (particularly a roughing-the-passer flag) and flat-out questionable in some cases. At the same time, the officials missed quite a few clips, blocks in the back and too many holds to count.
ALSO NOTED: As of this writing, it hasn’t been made official yet that ESPN’s “Game Day” crew is coming to Athens, but Herbstreit seemed to think it was a done deal. Speaking of next week’s game against Alabama during the fourth quarter, he said, “I’ll be there in the morning [on Saturday].” … Former Georgia great Matt Stinchcomb is developing quite nicely as a broadcaster in his work on the Georgia Football Radio Network’s post-game show. He’s articulate and knowledgeable. … I really like the wry humor Richt displays in those brief on-field TV interviews.
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