UGA vs. UL-Monroe - Recap

Ho. Hum.

I said before the game. Anyone betting on Richt to cover a 38+ point spread deserves what they get. Final score UGA 44 vs. ULM 7...37 point victory.

Usually, I don't post a recap until I've watched the game on Tivo again. I won't see it until Tuesday on CSS so this recap is from 1 viewing. It's hard to know where to begin or what to take away from something like this game. So I'm just going to ramble...much like the team.


- Overall Offense - When you have 11 penalities for 99 yards, you are making your life unnecessarily difficult. When you add the "hidden" lost yardage from big offensive plays called back due to penalties, the Dawgs probably surrendered 150-175 yards in penalties for the game. That is ridiculous. The penalties and the two turnovers were killers. The Dawgs probably score 2-3 more times if they just cut these stupid penalties in half. For more on my thoughts on the holding calls click here.

- Overall Defense - I wish we would blitz more as we seem to have more success when we are more aggressive. Urban Meyer's offensive system involves a bunch of misdirection similar in some ways to the ULM system. We simply didn't get these guys off the field fast enough. That doesn't fill me with confidence when we play a misdirection offense that actually has talent like the Gators.

- Defensive Stars -- Brandon Miller did an incredible job of fighting off blockers and busting up plays. His pursuit speed and strength are fantastic. Charles Johnson gets better every week, and he probably needs to be starting over Thompson. Paul Oliver has improved LIGHT YEARS since the UT game last year. Verdun, Moses and Blue looked great as well. Jennings' play when he went over the 6'5" WR to break up the long pass was oustanding.

- Defensive Tackles - What is going on with Golston and Anderson? I rarely hear their names called. Gant made a few plays from inside in this one, but otherwise what's going on with our DTs? Am I missing something. The CBS announcers were saying that the key to blowing up Urban Meyer's system was defensive tackle pressure. Neither of our guys is as good as Mahalona, but they are going to have to play bigger than they have to date to cause the disruptions vs. UT and UF.

- Bryan McClendon -- Kudos to BMac with 4 catches for 72 yards. I think he had one or two more called back due to holding calls. Every catch moved the chains. Every catch he picked up yards after the reception. To me, he's our #1 WR. If Bailey isn't pressed, he can make plays. But if he is pressed and bumped, then he often seems to disappear. BMac has made big plays in each game.

- DJ Shockley - Looked good at times. But he over threw 2 wide open passes for TDs in the 1st Half. If the offensive line and WRs would stop with the holding and ridiculous penalties, DJ would look like a better QB. Continually putting your QB in a position to convert 3rd and 7+ because of penalties is not the recipe for long term success. No INTs is a good thing.

- Other Offensive Stars -- Danny Ware looked great. He ended the day with 13 carries for 109 yards (8.4 ypc). Considering that several runs were called back due to penalties, that's a solid day in limited action. Milner looked great at times....then the ridiculous strip fumble to kill a scoring drive at the end of the half. He's improved so much over last year that it's hard to get very annoyed. Mo Mass made two great catches (although one was called back on a penalty), and he looked like he was in the first 3 WR set of the day. Harris and Browning both looked good. It was nice to see Lumpkin get a TD; although, I would have expected more than just 3 carries.

Overall - our OL run blocks dramatically better than pass blocking. The Bama vs. South Carolina game reinforced that we should have run the ball much more in the first half of that game. We could have run the ball much more in this one too.

Personally, I don't mind that these directional school games are somewhat like this. I want a game with a big score, but lots of things you can coach up. A game that doesn't make you feel complacent. That said, 11 penalties for 99 yards wasn't what I was hoping for.

With UT showing it's deep problems in the coaching and QB areas, I think we have a legit shot at going into the Gator game undefeated. We just have to cut the penalties and turnovers way down. The only thing in our way is mental mistakes. Not physical ones. That's not a bad situation to be in.

PWD



All Photos linked from Georgiadogs.com.

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