Bulldogs stymied by Cowboys

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Stillwater, Okla. -- After waiting four years for his time to be Georgia’s starting quarterback, and after battling flu-like symptoms for two days to get here, Joe Cox wanted much more from Saturday’s game.

He wanted a mistake-free victory that would start the Bulldogs’ season with a surge of momentum.

Instead, he got a 24-10 loss to Oklahoma State — Georgia’s first season-opening defeat since 1996 — in a game defined by UGA’s three turnovers and generally lacking offense.

“I feel like I let a lot of people down,” Cox said afterward.

The loss finished a rough week for the fifth-year senior, who awoke in the middle of the night Wednesday with fever and nausea and wondered on Thursday if he’d be able to make his first start as Matthew Stafford’s successor. He didn’t travel with the team here Friday afternoon, instead flying out on Friday night. He said he took Advil and Tylenol and, as late as Saturday morning, had an IV.

“I wasn’t 100 percent, but I felt definitely good enough to play a football game,” he said. He said his illness was diagnosed as “viral syndrome.”

At the start of the game, it looked as if he might engineer a feel-good story. Off his sick bed, he led Georgia on a 10-play, 80-yard drive, throwing a 4-yard touchdown pass to put the Bulldogs ahead 7-0.

“Looked good there for a minute, didn’t it?” coach Mark Richt said afterward.

Actually, for five minutes.

But after generating 80 yards and seven points in the game’s first five minutes and 18 seconds, the Bulldogs managed only 177 yards and three points the rest of the afternoon.

And after looking so sharp on the opening series, the Dogs went on to commit three turnovers, including two — fumbles by Carlton Thomas and Cox — that led to 10 of Oklahoma State’s 24 points.

“Our defense played an incredible game, but we didn’t do our part on offense, and I didn’t do my part as the quarterback,” Cox said.

Cox completed only half of his passes —15 of 30 — for 162 yards as Georgia rarely tried to throw deep despite being unable to generate the kind of running game it had hoped for (95 yards rushing).

“The biggest thing I can chalk [the loss] up to is turnovers,” Cox said. “They won the game, and they had no turnovers. We lost, and we had three. That is the biggest stat in football.”

Speaking of big stats, consider this: Seventeen of Oklahoma State’s 24 points came on three drives that totaled only 51 yards. For that, the Cowboys could thank the two Georgia turnovers and a 74-yard kickoff return.

Cox played all but two snaps at quarterback, two days after his fever topped 100 degrees.

“I thought Joe, mentally, did a good job from what I can tell,” Richt said. “We didn’t feel like he made any mental errors that you could say, ‘Hey, Joe’s out of it.’ ”

As the week ended, Cox had a big bruise on his forehead, the result, he said, of running into something — “a wall or a bench” — after being knocked out of bounds on a sprint-out.

“It hasn’t been a good past three days for me,” Cox said. “I’m ready to get back to Athens and get things rolling.”