UGA defense braces for next test

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS -- With much of the fan base incredulous -- and some of it indignant -- about how many points the Georgia football team has allowed of late, the Bulldogs’ defense hopes to avoid a third consecutive Saturday night shootout.

Georgia has won its past two games despite giving up 37 and 41 points, the most points allowed in back-to-back victories in UGA’s 117-year football history. And while the Dogs would take a third consecutive win by any score tonight, they would surely prefer to be stingier against Arizona State at Sanford Stadium.

The wins are soothing, yes, but the blizzard of points and the backlash of criticism still sting the defense.

“We just have to try to put the criticism on the backburner and ... continue to fight hard,” linebacker Rennie Curran said. “We realize we are all we have; we just have each other.

“So we can’t worry about what other people are saying about us or coach [Willie] Martinez [the team's defensive coordinator] or the other coaches. At the end of the day, we just have to encourage each other.”

The defense is hardly the sole culprit for Georgia ranking 108th in the nation in points allowed (34 per game). Nine turnovers and numerous kicking-game breakdowns set up more than half of the opponents’ points in the first three games -- 60 of 102.

Still, the defense too often has failed at putting pressure on quarterbacks and covering receivers -- a connected but combustible combination that resulted in 721 passing yards by South Carolina and Arkansas the past two weeks.

“As players,” safety Bryan Evans said, “we know we had two awful games.”

Now what?

“We’re just concentrating on the whole total package of trying to be more effective in pushing pressure on the quarterback with our front four and being more disciplined in coverage,” Martinez, the defensive coordinator, said. “There are some things we did well [defensively] this last ballgame. I know it’s kind of hard to see when you give up those many points.

“I’ve got to do a better job as a coach, and ... we’ve got to execute better. ... We’ve just got to clean it up.”

The embattled defense’s next test: an Arizona State offense that has a new starter at quarterback this season -- senior Danny Sullivan replacing three-year starter Rudy Carpenter -- and is something of an unknown commodity despite averaging 44 points in wins over Idaho State and Louisiana-Monroe.

Three weeks into Georgia’s season, criticism of Martinez and his unit is approaching the level of late 2008, when the Dogs allowed 38 or more points in four of their final five regular-season games.

“Looking at the points we’re giving up,” defensive end Demarcus Dobbs said, “you know people are going to be saying things.”

Said Martinez: “I don’t pay attention to [the criticism], but obviously it’s not fun, you know, [not] playing the kind of defense that we were accustomed to playing around here.”

Several of Martinez’s players defended him this week, and coach Mark Richt said: “You are not going to see anyone pointing fingers. You are not going to see anyone do anything other than encourage their teammate and their fellow coach. That’s the way we’ve been operating here for nine years, and that’s not going to change.”

As for the defense, Richt said: “I haven’t lost faith in this bunch at all.”