Thomas Brown and Fernando Velasco celebrate (Image: DawgPost.com)
Everything I was concerned about looked to be a strength in the game. My main concerns going in were the lack of aggression by the linebackers (particularly Brandon Miller), the youth along the OL, dropped passes by our WRs, the thin waisted DEs and overall inexperience everywhere.
-- Offensive Line Inexperience: The game plan by Bobo was brilliant. Use screens, flares, slants and quick outs to keep the defensive line off our young pups up front. After re-watching the game on DVR, I noticed a few plays where the entire OSU defensive front four stood straight up, took a step back and looked around for a screen. Only to see Stafford throw it behind them on a down field route. There were some moments of confusion and what appeared to be missed assignments up front, but overall...great effort and communication.
-- Linebacker Play: Going into the game, Brandon Miller really hadn't made very many plays in his Bulldog career. In this game, he made his presence felt particularly on the crushing hit to the OSU running back that resulted in Miller's own helmet coming off (Image: DawgPost.com). Same goes for Ellerbe. Ellerbe, junior middle linebacker, hadn't made a play of note since intercepting the Boise QB in the 2005 season opener. However, Ellerbe led all UGA tacklers in this one, and he recorded a sack.-- WR play: There was 1 dropped pass by a WR. That's probably a record low in the Mark Richt era. Terrific play all the way around. Sean Bailey in particular made great plays. Not only that but we FINALLY saw yards after the catch. For much of the past several years it had seemed that our WRs were content to catch and fall down. Per Carter Strickland's article in the AJC
More than 170 of Georgia's 234 receiving yards came after first contact.The RBs had a big hand in that, but still...awesome news.
-- Defensive Ends: Marcus Howard, Rod Battle and Jeremy Lomax played lights out. Really, the entire defensive line played exceptionally well. Geno Atkins and Corvey Irvin were particularly noticeable in disrupting plays and moving the line of scrimmage backwards. However, I will say that the OSU game play of stretching us horizontally didn't seem to make much sense to me. Given the size of our DEs and our perimeter speed, I really expect better scheming from our SEC opponents as they take it directly to our thinner guys at DE.
-- Overall Youth: We played five true freshmen in the game. Trinton Sturdivant, Bruce Figgins, Rennie Curran (who wouldn't measure in at 5'11" if he was standing on Mikey Henderson's helmet, but he still looks like a baller), Vance Cuff and Clint Boling. The AJC reports that 15 freshmen and redshirt freshmen played in the game.
There are things that could've been handled differently, but overall. Helluva a way to open the season.
See Also:
-- Richt's Sunday Recap - Georgiadogs.com
-- Lumpkin injured - AJC
-- Richt talks depth - UGAsports.com
-- Kyle King's Recap - DawgSports.com
-- Game Photos 1 - DawgPost.com
-- Game Photos 2 - DawgPost.com
-- Game Thoughts - David Ching
-- Flash Slide Show -- Georgiadogs.com
-- Photo Album -- Georgiadogs.com
Related Merchandise:
-- Roped n Smoked - Official Victory T-Shirt
PWD
6 comments:
Amen, Amen, Amen.
On top of everything you said, I think we're seeing CMR's presence in all aspects of the game coming out. More poise, less penalties etc.
Couldn't have asked for much more.
Now time to bring in the Ol' Ball Coach.....
Bringing in the bad news on a Monday, AJC reporting that Kregg Lumpkin is out 'indefinitely' with a broken thumb. No word yet on whether Caleb King will burn his redshirt year, but for right now, I'd wager heavily against it.
I heard that "indefinitely" does not mean "season ending". Still, if your thumb is broken you can't grip the ball and protect it. If he was a lineman, a soft cast would have him right back in the lineup.
I thought the oline looked pretty inconsistent. Some plays they looked like they could knock an NFL line off the line. Some plays it looked like Saint Mary's school for the blind third grade girls’ team would have got pressure on Stafford. The screen passes really helped covered some of the blown assignments. Great running plays by Kno Mo and TB also helped tremendously. Does anyone thing that SCUm's defense will have that poor of fundamentals? Honestly, I am worried about this team. Our secondary kind of worries me too. Our front 7 surprised me and I think our ends are in for a big year. Ellerbe looks very good in the Mike.
I was pleased with the Dogs, one thing that really worked in our favor was getting a lead and forcing OkSt to pass more, that allowed our smaller, faster DEs to do what they do best and face grinding OLs on straight runs.
I was a little surprised to see Stafford out there in the last 5 minutes after CMR said he wanted to get Cox in more (oops). I thought this would have been a good time to exercise that plan and keep MS healthy. (Note: I am a hypocrite, because I flew off the handle when I heard CMR's statement about this a few weeks ago).
Saw Rennie Curran at the DawgWalk, he looks like Thomas Brown with 50 more pounds of pure muscle. I would hate to be hit by that guy.
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