UGA’s version of Thunder and Lightning comes into its own

Keith Marshall showed what he can do Saturday against the Owls. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

One of the things I took away from Saturday night’s record-breaking showing by the Bulldogs offense was that it’s going to be a lot of fun watching Georgia’s tailbacks this season, thanks to the power and shifty moves of Todd Gurley and the slashing speed of Keith Marshall.

Throw in the move-the-pile straight-head power of Boo Malcome and you’ve got a pretty complementary tailback-by-committee.

Gurley, who’d already wowed fans in the first couple of games, broke tackles on a couple of his long runs Saturday night and flashed some pretty spectacular open-field running (and speed) on the touchdown that put the Dawgs up 42-14. And Saturday night Marshall finally stepped up and showed what he can do when he gets a little space, particularly on the 28-yard burst that was part of that all-rushing drive that resulted in Georgia’s third score of the evening. Run. the. damn. ball. indeed.

I loved Mark Richt’s quote about the roommate tandem of Gurley and Marshall, who signed with Georgia because they wanted to play ball together. “It was probably … what they envisioned,” Richt said. “They are good friends, and they wanted to play together and wanted to complement each other with their abilities. I think that they’re probably thinking their plan is going pretty good so far.”

They’re not the only ones.

Some other random thoughts and observations from the win over FAU …

The absence of Jarvis Jones and — for much of the game — Cornelius Washington was felt most obviously in the first half in the amount of time the Owls’ quarterback had in the pocket and in the pinpoint short-passing game that racked up third-down conversions. Nice adjustments by Todd Grantham at halftime, though. … The Dawgs still are drawing too many flags and making too many turnovers. Fourteen of FAU’s points were directly attributable to a turnover. Both are trends that need to be shut down as Georgia enters the meat of its SEC schedule. … Most of the time the past season-plus, the Dawgs’ hurry-up offense has really been a hurry-up-and-wait offense where they get to the line quickly with no huddle and then turn to the sideline and look for a call. Saturday, there was less of that and more true hurry-up. That’s a trend I’d like to see continue. … If there’s one aspect of his game that Aaron Murray is still having trouble with after three games, it’s throwing to his backs. Just off the fingertips generally doesn’t work for them. … On the other hand, Murray had no trouble at all throwing the long ball Saturday night. His pump fake on the 67-yard touchdown pass to Michael Bennett was beautiful and the back-shoulder pass to Tavarres King for a 25-yard completion was perfectly thrown. … A video for “Dawg Bite,” the single by David Richt (the coach’s singing son) featuring Colt Ford, was shown on the big screen. My daughter pronounced it “cheesy but fun” and bought it on iTunes. A bigger hit on the video screen the first two home games has been the “Hairy Dawg, Stadium Defender” film in which the Georgia mascot takes down (literally) folks littering in Sanford Stadium. The clip actually drew applause from the crowd Saturday night!

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— Bill King, Junkyard Blawg