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January 1, 2007

Post Chick-Fil-A Bowl Thoughts


Taylor the Terrific

Overall, we showed the Heart of a Champion / Finish the Drill mentality that has defined the Mark Richt Era at Georgia our victory over Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Considering the circumstances, it was probably our third most impressive come from behind victory of Richt's tenure:
    1. Down by 11 at the half to Auburn on the Road in 2002
    2. Down by 16 in the first quarter to the Gamecocks in 2004
    3. Down by 18 in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in front of a pro-Dawg crowd
It was the biggest rally based on points, but I think we faced longer odds in the other two situations. Regardless, it was an impressive comeback.

Offense - Bobo and Richt had a great plan even in the first half. Our guys just weren't making plays. The bomb to Harris was a magnificent call, but Stafford just overthrew it a tad. In the second half, the calls and execution were some of the best we've seen all year. We still need to iron out the drops, but otherwise a solid effort in the second half. We can build on this.

Defense - Wilie Martinez's defense has been absolutely outstanding the past three games. Sure, the trick play bomb caught us with our pants down. However, the rest of the points were a result of Georgia giving Virginia Tech great field position. Our defense physically whipped Auburn, Tech and Virginia Tech. More to build on for next year.

Special Teams - The onsides kick call and execution was probably the third most important play of the season (more on that later). We out BeamerBalled VT. More to build on.

Basically, there's very little that I could say on this one that you haven't already read. There wasn't a whole lot of nuance or subtle themes here. We dug deep and came back huge against the #1 ranked defense in the country with a freshman QB and a rookie play caller. More to build on.

Mostly, I want to focus on "What's Next?" I'm excited for signing day, pro announcements, summer drill and talk about the '07 schedule. I'm excited to talk about how we're going to build on all of this momentum.

pwd

PS -- Most importantly, we finished with a better record than Tech. 9-4 vs. 9-5.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The great thing about the way we've played our last three games is that we didn't throw the rest of the season in the tank and go 6-7, which we easily could have done (see '05 Tennessee). It's much better to finish at 9-4 than 5-6. That shows a lot about our team's character. Hopefully a sign of good things to come for next year.

Dawgnoxious said...

I think VA Tech's #1 ranked defense was more a product of who they play than anything else. They were good, but I think we've seen better.

Anonymous said...

I agree with both of the post above.

Also, PWD, when watching the replay of the game I believe that trick touchdown pass where I guys were caught sleeping was not due so much to our players being "caught off guard" as it was that the ball was tipped, enough where it almost hit the ground, and the VT player made a great grab, composed himself, and launched a great ball.

Once that ball was tipped our guys hesistated, we had three players playing back, and their WR was able to sneak behind them.

Darth Scooter said...

I'm thinking we should joint the ACC. Even in a down year we managed to beat two of the top teams in the ACC. We could be the new FSU in the ACC and just use conference play for an automatic BCS bid. ;)

Anonymous said...

Only if they move the ACC Title game elsewhere, scooter. Georgia has a little perfomance anxiety in the fair city of Jacksonville. I'd hate to see us drop title game after title game (note that I'm lowercasing "title game" because we are talking about the ACC).

 
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