Short takes (UGA): Rambo’s ascent, Gurley’s comfort

Bacarri Rambo (18) stripped David Sims' of ball returrned fumble to set up touchdown. (Johnny Crawford/AJC)

Bacarri Rambo (18) stripped David Sims' of ball, set up touchdown. (Johnny Crawford/AJC)

ATHENS — I’ll be back with my column off of Georgia’s win over Georgia Tech shortly. Until then, here are my three “short takes” on the Bulldogs’ performance.

1. Bacarri Rambo is in a groove: The Bulldogs’ senior free safety was suspended for the first four games of the season and struggled along with the rest of Georgia’s defense when he initially returned. But he has been playing his best football of the season in the past five games. He had an interception and a sack against Florida, an interception at Auburn, and owned the first half against Georgia Tech: two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and 49-yard return to set up the Dogs’ second touchdown and an interception of Vad Lee followed by a 27-yard return to set up Georgia’s fourth TD. It’s no coincidence the improvement of Georgia’s defense has paralleled that of Rambo.

Aaron Murray, Todd Gurley and Georgia's offense seemed to be signaling "touchdown" all game. (Curtis Compton/AJC)

Aaron Murray, Todd Gurley and Georgia's offense seemed to be signaling "touchdown" all game. (Curtis Compton/AJC)

2. Todd Gurley looks like a vet: Last week Gurley became Georgia’s first freshman running back since Herschel Walker to rush for over 1,000 yards. With every game, he looks more comfortable and less like an 18-year-old. He had 10 carries for 88 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone, running through holes created by Georgia’s line and powering over Jackets’ defenders. He finished with 12 carries for 97 yards before being pulled. Gurley and Keith Marshall have given the Dogs’ offense balance, which could be a key against Alabama. Marshall’s afternoon: seven carries for 66 yards and two scores.

3. Aaron Murray: Look at me now: The Georgia quarterback was hammered by critics after throwing three interceptions in the first quarter against Florida, when it looked as though he would fizzle in a big game. But since the fourth quarter that day, when he threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Malcolm Mitchell, Murray has 14 touchdown passes and zero interceptions in the last four-plus games (13 quarters). His efficiency and ability to avoid turnovers also could be key against Alabama.

– By Jeff Schultz

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193 comments Add your comment

DaveDawg

November 24th, 2012
3:36 pm

GTBob….good for you, oh and by the way…this might have been the worst mauling UGA has put on GT in some 20+ years

Red Bud Dawg

November 24th, 2012
3:36 pm

(((((((((((( 40,000 seat high school stadium ))))))))))))

Will

November 24th, 2012
3:37 pm

Georgia won 42-10 and the game wasn’t even that close!

davidinloganville

November 24th, 2012
3:37 pm

I predicted back to back 50 point blow outs to end the season for tech but CMR is to nice a guy to pile on the points, jimbo will not pull his starters. Next week will be ugly for bugs…

UGA OWNS gtu

November 24th, 2012
3:37 pm

COMPLETE and utter DOMINANCE over gtu.

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:37 pm

GTSLOB, yeah you are RIGHT. Any other QB in America could have made those throws. That is, EXCEPT yours.

Murray had 215 yards today. Stephen Morris had 436. Tahj Boyd had 397. Murray wasn’t even that impressive.

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:39 pm

GTBob….good for you, oh and by the way…this might have been the worst mauling UGA has put on GT in some 20+ years

I guess you weren’t around in 2002?

Will

November 24th, 2012
3:39 pm

Sucks to suck huh Tech fans?

CHDawg

November 24th, 2012
3:39 pm

Bob, you better hope he plays great for the next couple of games or you might see him back next year with the rest of our offense.

Red Bud Dawg

November 24th, 2012
3:39 pm

(((((((((((( highschool ofense )))))))))))) hahahahahahahahaha

(((((((((((( kindergarden defense )))))))))))) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

italian_29

November 24th, 2012
3:40 pm

Well one positive for GA Tech, this loss doesn’t do anything to their chances of winning the ACC Championship and getting a BCS Bowl berth, it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back from the epic beat down that the Dawgs put on them or if they fold like a house of cheap cards. They have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps once already this season after the MTSU debacle, can they do it again?

davidinloganville

November 24th, 2012
3:40 pm

come on bob Georgia could have named their score.

Will

November 24th, 2012
3:40 pm

@ GTBob, you say Murray wasn’t impressive, he got pulled at the end of the 3rd. Dude could have easily had over 400 yards passing and 4-5 touchdown passes.

Red Bud Dawg

November 24th, 2012
3:40 pm

Hey yellow fuzz, “roll me” at the BCS Championship game.

brick

November 24th, 2012
3:41 pm

Leghumper, you do realize GT has special admission athletes too don’t you? If you don’t think so can you please exlain the admission of such scholars as Reggie Ball, numerous BB players who came through who were one and dones. Tech’s problem is that 90% of the HS coaches in the state can scheme to stop their offense, its why it is disappearing for the Ga hs scene. Sure a few still run it, but those few who do would win running anything else. CPJ isn’t the genius he gives himself credit for being. But of course we all know, “he had bigger fish to fry” right?

jaketekaj

November 24th, 2012
3:41 pm

I am not from the State of Georgia, but have lived here for the last 7 years. I have had the opportunity to hire and supervise both UGA and GT grads in a highly technical work environment. For whatever it is worth, I have always found UGA grads to be more sociable, pragmatic and realistic. The GT folks are smart, but have a big holier-than-thou attitude.

UGA COACHES WERE MAD B/C

November 24th, 2012
3:41 pm

If you acknowledge Leghumper, he will have done his job. Just ignore it.

This is what they do…..when the going gets tough, the low blow “chop blocks” start and they just become little girls running their mouth.

I’m saying a prayer for big Mike Thorton…hope I’m not the only one.

kingdaddy

November 24th, 2012
3:42 pm

Do I watch Bama or Fla.???

ScoutDawg

November 24th, 2012
3:42 pm

OK Slob, like you didn’t make him look like Mr. Heisman today.

Red Bud Dawg

November 24th, 2012
3:42 pm

Hey m how Iis our midget qb working out 3 years later? Gonna break Peyton Manning’s 4 year record next week I believe. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Will

November 24th, 2012
3:43 pm

Alabama is not invincible. If you stop their running game and make them one dimensional and make McCarron have to chuck it, they can be had.

Red Bud Dawg

November 24th, 2012
3:44 pm

WHERE IS YELLOW FUZZ, ST SIMONS AND M?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

ScoutDawg

November 24th, 2012
3:44 pm

BTW, Slob, the only reason AM had that few yards is because, WE RUN THIS STATE.

I'm a Georgia fan. It's a license to be stupid.

November 24th, 2012
3:44 pm

What is MTSU’s road to the BCS championship game look like?? They beat Tech too…still don’t erase 35-7 to the voters mind…Outback, here comes Georgia!!!!

JB

November 24th, 2012
3:45 pm

Looking at dead man walking of that Auburn staff. Wives home packing now

brick

November 24th, 2012
3:45 pm

Bob, what would Murry have to do to impress you? Sure those guys had more yards, but we were getting over 8 yards per rush, only run about 50 plays and Murray ran none in the 4th. If UGA had thrown the ball, do you really believe he couldn’t have had in excess of 400 yards if he played the entire game and we wanted to run the score up?

UGA COACHES WERE MAD B/C

November 24th, 2012
3:46 pm

Red Bud…..you’d think they’d finally learn to shut their mouth(keyboard)…every year they make it so much worse on themselves…I just don’t understand the logic in that.

I never talk trash before a game EVER…always a terrible idea.

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:46 pm

Dude could have easily had over 400 yards passing and 4-5 touchdown passes.

Any QB can. That’s the point. Almost any QB in the country could pass for 600 yards and 10 TD’s if he wanted to and his defense played good enough. GT does almost nothing at all to stop the passing game of any team.

DaveDawg

November 24th, 2012
3:47 pm

GTBob….friend my class was 1980…so yes, I’ve seen quite a few of these games….never seen 1 with such a big difference in talent as today…Tech has very little on Defense

JB

November 24th, 2012
3:47 pm

I’d like to hear more about the new sheriff in town. LOL

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:47 pm

Bob, what would Murry have to do to impress you?

Have a good game against a good team.

Will

November 24th, 2012
3:50 pm

GTBoob just won’t go away. No matter how much Tech sucks why does he hang around the UGA blog instead of the Tech blog?

UGA COACHES WERE MAD B/C

November 24th, 2012
3:50 pm

Another observation: why does anybody care about what GTSNOB says? Did I miss the memo that we had to earn his seal of approval? Just ignore him! He wants you not to talk about our destruction of an instate foe…that’s his schtick….come on people..ignore the trolls

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:51 pm

GTBoob just won’t go away. No matter how much Tech sucks why does he hang around the UGA blog instead of the Tech blog?

I am pretty sure this blog has something to do with Tech.

UGA OWNS gtu

November 24th, 2012
3:52 pm

I mean, come on… Ga. Southern is better than gtu!

We OWN gtu. gtu dominated. Again.

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:52 pm

He wants you not to talk about our destruction of an instate foe…

Talk about it all you want. You destroyed a completely outmatched team. See how many ways you can rephrase that.

Will

November 24th, 2012
3:54 pm

GTboob, yeah it’s about Tech too but you are even around when it’s not. You are obsessed with UGA no matter what. Your jealous.

kingdaddy

November 24th, 2012
3:54 pm

Bob
You mean a good team like an ACC DIVISIONAL WINNER??? Oh yeah, we did that already. I think we humiliated them and their fans pretty good. If we beat Bama, you’ll just say they were over-rated. You have an answer for everything. Its just not always a very good answer…

Rick James

November 24th, 2012
3:54 pm

@GTBob

Murray had 215 yards today. Stephen Morris had 436. Tahj Boyd had 397. Murray wasn’t even that impressive.
———————————————————————————————————————————
Murry will never impress you simply because he plays at Georgia.The game today was over at halftime and that impresses me.But I’m sure your rebuttal will be that Tech is a bad team right? Hopefully then you’re leading a petition for them to do the honorable thing and not play for the ACC tile and turn down a bowl invitation.

1969 Graduate

November 24th, 2012
3:54 pm

I certainly enjoyed the game.

It’s a shame that some Tech fans are such poor losers. There are many ways to be gracious after your team loses.

I thought Tech looked a lot better on offense than the score would apparently indicate, and I wish the Jackets the best in their championship game, and in their bowl game.

Now, it’s on to our next championship game, as we continue our single elimination tournament. Our team sure is playing well. I think they have a decent shot at the SEC championship, and match up pretty well against Alabama.

I’d love to see a game now between Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech to determine which team is the best college option team in the state, and the second best college team. I think Georgia Southern might very well win that one, and that’s not taking anything away from Tech.

Tech is better than I thought they might be. On offense. On defense they could be playing in the PAC 12.

Go, Bulldogs!

ScoutDawg

November 24th, 2012
3:55 pm

GTUSlob, None, just done. That is what good teams do.

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:55 pm

Murry will never impress you simply because he plays at Georgia.

Like I said. If he has a good game against a good team then I will give him his due. He has a chance next weekend. We will see what happens.

Buckeye

November 24th, 2012
3:55 pm

Hi dogs,

Congrats on win. Good luck, and I mean gooood luck against Bama

Buckeye

November 24th, 2012
3:56 pm

tom brown,

Note the headline. Note the words “short” and “takes”.

GTBob

November 24th, 2012
3:57 pm

Bob
You mean a good team like an ACC DIVISIONAL WINNER???

So you think GT is a good team because we somehow backed into a divisional championship? Do you realize that BYU beat us as bad as UGA did and then lost to San Jose St?

TheBabe

November 24th, 2012
3:57 pm

The less said about this game the better. GT is a mediocre team; we knew that coming in and we got it reaffirmed. GA played very well. but it was, after all, a win over a slightly better than average ACC team. GA has every reason to feel proud and move into the SEC title game again Bama, against whom they have a very good shot at beating. As for GT, their need for much better recruiting has never been more evident.

kingdaddy

November 24th, 2012
3:59 pm

Now I know why Tech won’t play Ga. Southern. The Eagles would wipe the field wh them. Tech going to get another beatdown next weekend…

UGA COACHES WERE MAD B/C

November 24th, 2012
4:00 pm

I love our tandem of Gurshall’ but Bama’s Lacy and Yeldon might even be better….just being objective. The 3/4 often is susceptible to giving up big runs up the gut…and that guy Lacy is a mack truck with speed and moves to boot.

Georgia will have to play their best game yet to have a chance(which they do). Murray will have to play very well, Gurshall will need to keep Bama honest, and T King and company better have glue on their hands.

Hoping for a good game but whatever happens, I’m proud of my Dawgs…we could have folded after the Columbia debacle but we kept fighting. Back to back SEC East CHAMPS! Not too shabby!

Will

November 24th, 2012
4:01 pm

Next week the lovefest for Alabama is going to be so strong it’ll almost make us sick as UGA fans. Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist are going to be riding Alabama so hard they should come. Every good thing UGA does next week will be because “Alabama did something wrong”. Get ready for it. It’s coming. But I don’t care as long as we win.

FalconUGAFan

November 24th, 2012
4:01 pm

GG tech..good luck in your ACC game…too bad you have sad sack fans like Ahoy.