UGA fan’s 2009 wish: No more one-half efforts
Chris Davis with bowl trophy. (Georgiadogs.com)
I caught ESPN Classic’s replay of the Capitol One Bowl game between Georgia and Michigan State Thursday night and was struck again by a couple of things about the Dogs’ performance.
One was, of course, how poorly the offense played in the first half, continually shooting itself in the foot. The turnovers. The penalties. Matthew Stafford’s inconsistency.
Even if he doesn’t have near Stafford’s talent and can’t make some of the passes Stafford could, if Joe Cox can just maintain his level of play on an even keel this season, minus the peaks and valleys, I think it’ll be a big help.
The special teams play also was lousy — a subject we’ve covered here extensively.
The other notable aspect of the bowl game was how much better the defense performed compared with much of the rest of last season.
Perhaps it was Mark Richt letting them go full-speed and tackle to the ground in practice before the bowl. Maybe they thought they were playing for Willie Martinez’s job. Whatever, they swarmed to the ball and kept the Dogs in the game until the offense finally got on track midway through the third quarter. It helped that Georgia apparently felt comfortable covering the Spartans’ receivers man-to-man much of the time, allowing the Dogs to go after the quarterback more, resulting in six sacks.
A definite highlight offensively was Michael Moore, who picked up the slack from an ailing A.J. Green and heavily covered MoMass and snagged six catches for 97 yards. I’m hoping he’ll step up big again this season when A.J. routinely will draw double-coverage. Tight end Aron White had a really nice TD catch, too.
Still, watching that replay and the way the Dogs again failed to put together two good halves of play was disturbing. Yes, in many respects that was a different team from the one that will be fielded this year, but the failure to play an entire game at peak level has been a recurring problem for the Dogs in recent years.
In fact, figuring out how to solve that problem may be the biggest challenge Richt and his staff face.
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74 comments Add your comment
Cuz
July 31st, 2009
4:25 pm
CharlotteGator, that was great. Climb on that soapbox anytime.
Long Dawg
July 31st, 2009
4:57 pm
David, why would we worry about CPJ. He got lucky once. One less turnover and it’d eight in a row. It won’t happen again. You are a typical tech fan. You are probably a KS nerd and nerds of a feather flock together.
Savannah Dawg
July 31st, 2009
5:30 pm
So if UGA is UF’s Georgia Tech, then that means UF is Auburn’s Georgia Tech. Everyone gets beat by someone, idiot.
I-DOG
July 31st, 2009
5:54 pm
Chazzo,
We will miss Knowshon. He ran behind two very inexperienced and injury plagued lines and was terrific. How many times did he fumble? He has not signed his NFL contract yet the same as 90% of the 1st round draft picks this year… I don’t know why that is, but he seems to have plenty of passion for the game and I would take him on my team at any level.
SuperB
July 31st, 2009
5:56 pm
It has always puzzled me why college football is the only sport with such a long layoff between the regular season and the bowl games. It means that some teams will look entirely different after a long layoff–and normally hurts the wide-open offenses more.
CFB should reduce the lapse between the regular season and bowls to 2 weeks.
dawggirl
July 31st, 2009
6:22 pm
CharlotteGator and Atlanta Gator – my favorite Gators.
Topic? I haven’t rewatched this bowl game, but I have been clamoring for a while now about playing two halves of the same game. It’s bothered me ever since that W Va nightmare.
49-10
July 31st, 2009
6:27 pm
dogin lex..try to keep up…YOUR OTHER DOG counterpart was the one who brought up the previous 19 years…not me…so I went with the YEARS HE PICKED OUT…
charlotte, you are wrong and I am an lifelong UF fan. My comments are to the guys slamming on Tech and my only intention is to let them know that they sound stupid for doing so when they do the same thing Tech does(except UGA does it towards UF)…and I don’t need your lectures. It’s a blog for God’s sake. If someone gets their feelings hurt, oh well. I agree that the past means nothing and I, like you, enjoy good football talk, but that is another thing I address on here. UGA fans talks about what they feel and hope rather than giving football reasons why they think a certain way.
Savannah, that is 100% accurate, Auburn owns UF as of late and that is why we don’t talk chit to them…
I luv flukes
July 31st, 2009
6:29 pm
especially in the fall.
Mookie
July 31st, 2009
7:48 pm
You’ll have to double cover Dez Bryant. If you cover him one on one, I dont care who it is, Robinson will throw it deep to him and he will burn you.
On the other hand, with Jones back there you’ll probably do a better job than most on Dez. Dez’s numbers last year versus the ‘good’ secondaries OSU played, those with NFL caliber talent at at least one position, were 47 yards versus Mizzou (Mizzou had a very tough safety last year who frankly knocked the crap out of Dez on multiple occasions and gave him minor concussion), 74 yards versus Texas, 91 yards versus OU, and 167 versus Oregon. Dez seemed to get better as the year went along versus tougher DB’s and double coverage. The schedule got tougher and the teams we were playing knew who he was. Against the crappier defenses on the OSU schedule he was totally dominant. If he is at 100% my guess is that even with frequent double teams he is probably good for 80-100 yards against a top flight secondary. As a true freshman in 2007 he had 155 yards versus Kansas, which was pretty impressive considering that KU team finished 12-1, beat VTech in the Orange Bowl, was ranked 12th nationally on defense and had an NFL 1st round pick in cornerback aqib talib (who Dez burnt several times in that game).
One qualifier: Bryant is coming off minor knee surgery. The coaches and players claim he is 100% and better than ever, but until the game rolls around we really won’t know. If he is 100% it is safe to assume he will command the same type of defensive coverage as AJ Green commands from opponents.
Denver Dog
July 31st, 2009
9:51 pm
Thanks Mookie, we don’t even need to go there, we are already beaten. You guys are too good. I hope we can just limp out of there without losing by 50 points. Any one want my tickets?
AltamahaDawg
July 31st, 2009
10:26 pm
david, like tech fans havent lived through Fl for years? Hell even this year when tech actually beat Georgia, I still hear tech fans talking about the Fl and Al games as much as that one. And for Damn sure most tech fan in here cares more about the 2009 Ga/Fl game, than any game on thier own schedule and they know it.
chazzo
August 1st, 2009
12:51 am
Knowshon was great. I didn’t mean to slight him. I just feel like there will be more of a team feel this year than there has been in quite a while.
macrotech
August 1st, 2009
6:24 pm
L-Dawg, you forget that Tech was ONLY expected to win three…MAYBE…four games last season. New coach, new offensive philosophy….AND we won nine games! Not to mention, we ended the drought against your pups. THAT’S what has all the Tech fans excited. We LOVED beating the mutts in their own back yard, but we’re REALLY pumped about this new offensive philosophy brought to us by our new coach! Your preseason ranked dawgs underachieved and the distant ranked Tech team over achieved…. guess it wasn’t ’nuff said’ after all! GO TECH!!!
macrotech
August 1st, 2009
6:29 pm
AltamahaDawg, your last post may be the lamest thing I’ve EVER heard! WHY would a Tech fan be concerned with they Fla/ga game more than their own games? I’m PRETTY certain that there are constant reminders of the Tech/lsu score….kindly delivered by dog fans. Tech doesn’t need to lean on other teams scores when talking uga football…haven’t your read it enough? The Tech/uga score….saint simon’s seems to be thorough in this department!
macrotech
August 1st, 2009
6:37 pm
braveswin, are you suggesting that uga is going to lose EIGHT games this season? Wipe your chin…you just dribbled stupidity down it!
macrotech
August 1st, 2009
6:39 pm
uuugh., key word is, “HOPEFULLY”! You can’t tackle that which your can’t catch! ;o)
macrotech
August 1st, 2009
6:40 pm
shards1967, i must confess…I suspect that you MAY be right in your thoughts… well stated.
jerry
August 1st, 2009
9:22 pm
altamaha dawg: How could you possibly know about Knowshon’s agent or do you know it all?
Hairofthedawg
August 2nd, 2009
1:00 am
Nice article MR. K. I agree that the Dawgs consistency has not been there in the past. Penalties at the worst time, failure in the red zone, poor special teams and injuries kept this team last year from competing for a NC. I was at the LSU game and we played like champs that day. Other times and games we looked bad. Good call on Cox. I doubt he will win the heisman but if he plays consistently at his capabilities we could have a pretty awesome team this year. Can’t wait til september. Sic em Dawgs!!
admin
August 2nd, 2009
1:53 am
L-Dawg and 55k are the same guy.
George P. Burdell
August 2nd, 2009
10:56 pm
So how is 12 out of 32 unsigned 90% of all first round picks not signing? I’m also a Broncos fan and as much as I’d like him to do well, I’m afraid No Show is going to go down as a bad first rounder unless he gets his head in the game.
Mike
August 3rd, 2009
8:48 am
hmmm…Staffords talent…..hmmm….you know, Stafford had a great talent for throwing stupid passes that were intercepted- game changers.. I am glad he’s gone
Ed
August 3rd, 2009
10:36 am
Some of the classic Georgia wins followed anemic first halfs – UF ‘76, Georgia Tech ‘78, Clemson ‘84, Auburn ‘02 – but your point is well taken. A 10 or 14 point deficit is one thing, but getting run out of the stadium 28-0 or 31-0 before the seats get warm is a disturbing recent trend. In a few cases – Tennessee ‘06 and UF last year, it was the second half that fell apart.
What’s amazing about the first-half meltdowns is that more times than not we recover and at least get the other team’s attention before losing – West Virginia and Alabama last year come to mind – but why is this happening in the first place?
Another Dawg
August 3rd, 2009
2:29 pm
If anyone thought we would be better with Matthew Stafford at the helm, the last possession of the first half should have summed up why a game management QB of the John Parker Wilson (hey, Joe Cox!) mold will serve us better.