- Whew -- Saturday night's final defensive stop was absolutely enormous. If they score there, the Dawgnation would have come totally unglued at the seams. I've seen people online making it sound like we only won because of a great defensive play by Rennie. Well, duh. How else do you stop someone in a big SEC rivalry game? With a routine defensive play? On South Carolina's final six trips into the redzone, they didn't come away with a single touchdown. I can live with that. In 2006 (which seems to be the season folks want to compare this one), we surrender that score.
- Mallett -- Arkansas is tailor made for Georgia's defense right now. Ryan Mallett is epic slow. He's probably slower than Taylor Bennett or Rudy Carpenter. He's your stereotypical big armed, slow footed ex-Michigan QB. He loves the deep ball, and he is prone to bad decisions. With the return of Justin Houston and the emergence of Cornelius Washington, we should get better production from the Rush End spot. Rod Battle's season ending injury weakens us at Buck End; however, the Arkansas running game probably suits up nicely for a combination of big guys like Demarcus Dobbs and Geno Atkins to help control the line there. (Note: Owens played some DE last week after Battle went down)
- DJ Williams (Arkansas TE) is going to be a problem. Last year against SEC defenses, he routinely went for 4-8 catches per game. He was a reliable safety net for the mediocre Hawg QBs from last year. We can't defend him the way we defended SC's tight ends or it'll be a long night.
- Ochodos -- That's what Mike Moore jokingly called himself on Twitter yesterday. That's funny stuff.
About our neighbors:
- UT at UF -- If you're related to any of the Tennessee QBs, I don't recommend watching this one. The Gators may not score as many points as their fan base thinks because the Vol defense is pretty good. So, the pain will be inflicted on the Vol offense. For the Gators to score the 50+ points everyone seems to expect, the Vols would have to turn it over in their own redzone 4+ times. That's possible, but I think the score won't reflect just how badly the Vol offense will be beaten up.
- WVU at AU -- The Tigers are looking good so far, and the Mountaineers are a shadow of last year's team. Win this one, and AU should be 4-0 heading into Tennessee against an incredibly beatable Vol squad. I'm not saying that I think AU is good. But they have definitely caught some breaks on the schedule this year. On the other hand...
- Miss State's Schedule -- Dan Mullen's first schedule looks tougher by the day. His non-conference schedule includes home games against Georgia Tech and a Houston squad that just beat Oklahoma State. And he also has a road date against an MTSU squad that took Memphis to the woodshed. From the east they get Florida at home and travel to Kentucky and Vanderbilt. This week's match-up at Vanderbilt is one he desperately needs before facing six Top 25 teams.
- Georgia Tech at Miami -- Great match-up for Thursday Night. The Canes gave up eleventy billion rushing yards to the Jackets last year, and Tech doesn't look like it can stop any competent or quasi-competent passing game. If Tech wins, they are looking at a 9-3 season almost at a minimum. A win by Miami puts them as the odds on favorite for winning whichever ACC division they are in (honestly...how many football fans know who is in which division or what the name is? I know who is who...but the names? Forget it)
What jumped out at you from the weekend?
See Also:
-- Tickets: Georgia vs. Arkansas
PWD
25 comments:
Not to be a smart aleck, PWD, but in 2006 we actually DIDN'T give up that score. If I remember correctly, the Cocks were on the goal line about to score, tried a HB dive, and fumbled it. The only reason we won that game was defense. And incompetence on the Cocks front.
Nevertheless, I think for the most part your assessment is accurate. GO DAWGS.
Thursday night, on the road...
...where championship dreams go to die.
Did I read it right? UM is laying 4.5?
Two years in a row our tackling machine saves our asses.
Man, I love Rennie Curran.
Way to GATA, 35.
I learned that even when UGA wins against a conference team that gets up for UGA every year (UGA is USC's 2nd biggest game) and against a coach that hates UGA, UGA fans will still whine.
Winning conference games are hard because each team knows each other. The coaches all recruit the same players; the coaches see video of each other a lot.
Richard Samuel really impressed me. His YAC were huge. Carlton Thomas' fumble recovery after the blindside sack on Cox turned out to be as big a play as there was in this game. That was some great hustle.
This is still a very young team, especially in the skill positions. Once they grow up a bit, they'll gel alright.
I'm not sure why you think WVU is a shadow of last year's mediocre team, when they've appeared rather good to me watching them in game. Brown has done a pretty good job of replacing White (to the degree that that's possible), and had a huge game this past weekend. Don't think they can't beat Auburn, here. Todd has so far not been challenged to win a game himself, and if WVU can even come close to stopping Auburn's running game, you might see a good game late.
No ramblings on the win = fall in the poll?
Well, we went up in the Coaches poll, which is the one that matters. Our schedule will take care of the polls. We just need to keep winning, whatever way we can.
Jan, you're wrong about the 2006 game. We actually won that one 18-0, prior to our D imploding that year. That season, in our abysmal stretch of losing 4 of 5, we couldn't stop UT at the end of the half and UK and Vandy at the end of the game when we absolutely had to.
On the flip side, in 2002 and 2005 (SEC championship years), the Cocks were driving the length of the field to score the winning touchdown, only to be stopped deep in our territory. In '02, they made to about inside the 5 and I couldn't come up w/ a scenario where we stopped them. But we did...and the rest is SEC championship history.
We found a way to win against a team that hates us and we played our guts out. GATA Dawgs!
Jan, you're thinking about last year's game, and that fumble you referenced was earlier in that game, not at the end. 2006 was 18-0, cocks never threatened to win that one. Remember the end of the 02 SC game? This one was similar, just with more stuff happening all throughout the game.
Know what's nuts? As epically long as Saturday's game was, the '02 USC/UGA affair was even longer. With a 13-7 final.
(Though, when they're coming up with this...are they counting the weather delay midway through the 1st quarter in 2002?)
I need to remember my bottle opener.
Tech fan here.
Laughing at the division name point. I don't know either (I think we are in the Coastal, but I really have no idea).
Good win on Saturday
Arizona State game set for 7pm on ESPNU
I know this will sound strange, but that 18-0 win was the least convincing shut out win, ever. I never felt that we were safe, because Stafford kept throwing up wobblers that would get picked off. We were extremely lucky our defense showed up to that game, because even with 18 points, it was clear the offense didn't.
The UT game was a bad one for QB's. The UCLA QB broke his jaw at the end of the game.
sUGArdaddy, Anonymous - sorry, I was being a bit facetious. What I was trying to compare was goal-line stands in this game to the 2006 game. I think we had another goal-line stand later in the game, as well, that we stopped. But you're right - the defense wasn't under any pressure of losing at that point. Our defense was miserable just a few weeks later and never came back. I remember almost losing to Mississippi State. Horrid.
What division is Miami in? They're in the ACC Coastal, but i guess you all wouldn't know because the only Coastal you know about is Coastal Carolina!
Ummm.. GT, VT, UVA, Duke, UNC, Miami.
I think.
No idea which division that is, though.
So, Mississippi State, a perennial doormat in the SEC and a team with a brand new coaching staff in 2009, has a bear of a schedule. Florida, the defending national champions, play 9 home games including teams like Troy and Charleston Southern. Wow.
I have no idea who Florida will play for the national championship but they will beat them by 14 or more.
Orson Charles is really, really good.
"So, Mississippi State, a perennial doormat in the SEC and a team with a brand new coaching staff in 2009, has a bear of a schedule. Florida, the defending national champions, play 9 home games including teams like Troy and Charleston Southern. Wow."
Mommy, the OOC teams have me a-scared! More 1-AA teams pweeze!
Disagree with your logic on Rennie and the great play. If Garcia scrambles, we're likely 0-2. As you noted, it would be freak out time. Whether or not you are in freak out mode shouldn't depend on whether Garcia scrambles or tries to make a throw that is broken up. If you're that close to the line, you're at fate's mercy. Rivalry game or not, you've noted too many times how rancid SC is this year. You shouldn't be at fate's mercy to a team like that. Whatever merit there was in our defensive scheme earlier in the game, you can't let them get a free pass at your end zone like that. I'm not saying blitz or play man-to-man, but you could ask your LBs to occasionally cover a RB and at least make them earn some yards.
What jumped out to me is the young, raw talent we are amassing. Orson Charles, Branden Smith, Boykin, and Richard Samuel are rock-stomping talents. Along with AJ Green and a still-maturing OL, next year needs a decent QB to be a REAL threat to take the SEC.
The recruiting went very well this past year. We haven't even seen Murray, Mettenberg, or (really) Caleb King yet. Day-amn. I can't wait to see what we look like at the end of this year, even.
There were only a couple of "hmm" surprises for me this weekend. The points from Auburn and Miss State were probably a bigger shock than any upset, including Houston.
As a South Carolina fan, I think and really hope Georgia is the 3rd best team on our schedule. We'll find out next Thursday when Ole Miss comes to town. Pull that one out, and we could still potentially have a great year.
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