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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 19
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Still waiting for a complete game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, I walked out of the stadium after the Tennessee game feeling pretty good about the Dawgs. Sure, they’d left a lot of points on the field, but they’d more or less much moved the ball at will and played well on defense.
This week, the results were much the same, with Georgia racking up a lot of offensive yardage, if not points, but I didn’t feel nearly as good about the win. My brother Tim said the same thing.
I think the difference was this: Against UT, it was just little mistakes keeping us from blowing them out. Against Vandy, the problems were more systemic. Forget the missed field goals (those can happen to the best of kickers) and the dropped interceptions (if they could catch that well, they’d probably be playing receiver). What bothered me was the three-and-outs and the utter predictability of Mike Bobo’s playcalling much of the time that left the Dawgs facing too many third-and-long situations. And as we’ve learned the hard way in the past, converting just one of eight third-downs isn’t good enough to beat the LSUs and Floridas.
All in all, it was a mixed day. While the young, patchwork offensive line isn’t opening holes up the middle very often, Knowshon Moreno still managed to get 172 yards and the pass protection was good; Vandy, known for sacking opposing QBs, didn’t get to Matthew Stafford.
Stafford was hot and cold. Only one of his two interceptions was his fault. One was a tipped ball; on the other, a long throw downfield, MoMass was open, but Stafford waited way too long to throw it. Stafford also underthrew a couple of other times and zoned out on a screen-pass play, throwing it over the blocking receiver instead of the intended recipient. But his two touchdown passes were expertly thrown, as was that 49-yarder to young A.J. Green, who continues to impress with his Sunday-level catching skills, though Stafford still has to tell him from time to time on which side to line up.
The defense came up big when it mattered in the fourth quarter and pretty well kept the Vandy running game in check. But teams are coming into games against the Dawgs with a plan of picking on corner Bryan Evans, who lets receivers get behind him much too regularly, and that’s exactly how Vandy got its two scores. Evans was pulled for much of the second half Saturday and that seems to have been a good move.
So, yeah, Georgia played good enough to win. Against an improved but still not top-of-the-league Vandy. Asher Allen said after the game that he’d grade the Dawgs a “C” so far this season, and that sounds fair. But to make it past the next two opponents, the Dawgs and their coaches are going to have to lift their game several notches above that.
THIS AND THAT: A lot of fans in the stands were puzzled by Moreno’s absence from the field on some key plays, but it turns out he had taken himself out of the game rather than it being the coaches. No explanation, but as brother Tim noted, when you’re zipping around as the head cheerleader as well as running for 172 yards, you probably get tired. And the way he answered the video review taking away an 11-yard TD run to one side by simply doing it again to the other side was a real highlight. … I know we’re hard up at tight end right now, but on some of those third-and-longs when we ran the ball, why couldn’t we have had a back or one of the receivers run a little short route across the middle for the yards needed? And why is it that Bobo seems to prefer those hard-to-make sideline routes and long shots downfield to dinking and dunking? … Georgia’s special teams play continues to be spotty. Kickoffs again were better, but while Vandy had a great punter, you got the feeling we weren’t too sure about receiving them, no matter who was back there. That returns-by-committee approach needs rethinking. … It was encouraging to see another long fourth-quarter drive, even if it again bogged down at the end. The surging Shaun Chapas was the sparkplug much of the time on this one.
HOMECOMING NOTES: My brother Jon, who was down on the field with the alumni Redcoats, said D.J. Shockley was signing autographs on the sideline before the game. … I don’t know if this was a onetime Homecoming thing or not, but I liked that they brought back Uga’s old red fire hydrant. … The hundred-year-old “Red and Black March” revived by the Redcoats at halftime sounds a bit too much like generic college football music from the movies, but it may grow on me with time. A shorter arrangement might help. … Why isn’t Sanford Stadium a more intimidating place to play? Could be because so many of the non-student fans sit on their hands except on third down. I thought it was a nice touch that Mark Richt went over to the main student stands after the game to thank them for their support. … Driving down Milledge Saturday morning, it came to me that I really miss the old days of the elaborate and humorous Homecoming displays on the front lawns of the sororities and fraternities. Nowadays they opt for floats in the homecoming parade, and even that got rained out this year.
