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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > November > 09
Sunday, November 9, 2008
It was in the stars
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Although it was kind of lost amid the frequent special-team meltdowns and horror over just how incredibly inept the Georgia defense was against the Wildcats’ option running attack for three and a half quarters Saturday, Matthew Stafford played a pretty terrific game against Kentucky, even with several badly overthrown long balls.
At least, Stafford’s showing seemed to be somewhat overlooked amid the moaning and groaning in these parts about Georgia’s latest close-call win, saved by Demarcus Dobbs’ crucial one-handed interception. But his career-high 376 yards passing, three touchdowns and clutch plays, particularly when he scrambled out of the pocket to find A.J. Green up high in the corner of the end zone, were noticed by Sporting News Today, which named Stafford player of the day.
Mark Richt likes to call these “team” wins, but Saturday saw the team as a whole frequently trying to give the game away, only to have the most talented Bulldogs step up and get things back on track.
Notwithstanding his two fumbles in the fourth quarter (neither of which resulted in any Kentucky points, thank goodness), senior Mohamed Massaquoi continued his recent torrid pace, with eight catches for 191 yards and a touchdown. Most notable was his comeback after the fumbles, with his elusive running on that 78-yard pass play that set up Georgia’s go-ahead score.
And while the Dawgs’ offensive line (which took another injury hit) continued to be consistently inconsistent and was dominated in the middle by the Cats on way too many running plays, Knowshon Moreno still managed to get more than a hundred yards rushing and three touchdowns, mostly thanks to his own exceptional second effort on runs where he was given a very small opening and still managed to produce a big result.
It’s good to get a reminder of why these guys are stars.
POOCH KICKS: If there was the equivalent of an anti-game ball, special teams coach Jon Fabris’ stumbling units would be the hands-down winner this week. At least Blair Walsh didn’t miss any field goals. Of course, he didn’t try any. Most of the problems were the result of individual breakdowns, but that seam down the middle of Georgia’s kickoff coverage that resulted in a 96-yard return for the Cats has been evident for a couple of seasons now. Looks like Fabris needs help (or maybe Georgia needs a different special teams coach). … What to make of Georgia’s defense? While they occasionally got burned by being in the wrong scheme, which you can lay on Willie Martinez, most of the Dawgs’ problems stopping the run appeared to be due to poor tackling (particularly on the fullback dives up the middle) and missed assignments. I mean, why did it take the Dawgs so long to figure out that you have to cover both the QB and the pitch man on the option? Anyway, tackling and missed assignments are something the coaches ought to be able to work on. Considering we’ve got two more option-based running attacks coming up, that would appear to be Job One this week. … It was good to see Stafford throwing to Moreno. I bet we see even more of that in the remaining games. … It seems like those still recurring facemask penalties always come at the worst possible time. … Michael Moore once again had a couple of really nice catches Saturday. … Somebody needs to cut back on Scott Howard’s caffeine on game days. Whereas Larry Munson was known for getting into the game and turning a colorful phrase, on Georgia’s big scoring plays Saturday Howard sounded more like your average screaming fan freaking out. Exciting, yeah, but not the kind of play-by-play call likely to be quoted in years to come. Dial it down a notch!
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