5 reasons Georgia might NOT have turned the corner
Bending, not breaking: Bryan Evans foiled this pass. (AJC photo by Brant Sandlerlin)
1. Joe Cox isn’t D.J. Shockley. Cox is a facilitator, not a playmaker. He has playmakers around him — A.J. Green, Richard Samuel, Orson Charles — but we still haven’t seen Cox make the tough throw or the third-down scramble.
2. This isn’t a shutdown defense. Georgia has one takeaway and two sacks in two games. It held South Carolina without a first down only twice in 13 possessions. The Gamecocks punted twice. They gained 427 yards, or 171 more than they’d mustered in a 7-3 victory over North Carolina State.
3. The offensive line still isn’t road-grading. Granted, Trinton Sturdivant has again been lost to injury, but the running game hasn’t yet coalesced. The Bulldogs have rushed for a total of 202 yards in two games, and 61 of those have come on Branden Smith’s end-around.
4. The penalty monsoon returned at full force. Georgia was flagged 13 times for 108 yards Saturday night. It looked like 2008 all over again.
5. The special teams are the football equivalent of Dave Kingman. Meaning, home run or whiff. The good news: Georgia set a school record for kickoff return yardage in a game (and did it before halftime) and blocked what would have been the tying extra point. The bad: It fumbled away a kickoff, got fooled on a fake punt and sailed a punt snap out of the end zone for a safety.
(Earlier today we presented 5 reasons Georgia just might have turned ye olde corner in beating South Carolina. And now here are 5 reasons the Bulldogs will — repeat, will – beat Arkansas.)
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66 comments Add your comment
JB
September 15th, 2009
1:31 pm
I have to Admit I fell out of my chair when bobo called the end around to Smith for 6. I didn’t think we had anything like that in the playbook…..i’m used to the 12-15 plays we RUN over and over EVERY week.
With Smith and Boykin, we need to install about 6 or so plays that Florida ran with Percy Harvin, and use them 6 to 8 times a game. Give the other team SOME pause when game planning for us. Geez !
JaxDawg
September 15th, 2009
1:41 pm
For those critical of the defense did any of you actually WATCH the game? I’ve been critical of CWM in the past but the defense isn’t the problem!
1. The defense only yielded 29pts 8 came from the saftey and pick 6, how is this Willie’s fault?
2. Two of the SC’s drive started on 23yd line following an OFFENSIVE turnover, and one started on the 7yd line after a fumbled kick return.
It’s kind of hard to put that all on the defense when an offense only has to move the ball a total of 30yds to score TWO TDs.
3. The defense came up with BIG plays when we needed them – B.Evans pass deflection in the endzone to save a TD, Tyson’s blocked extra pt, Curran’s game saving pass deflection.
Does the defense still have somethings to work on? Sure but c’mon it sounds like many of you aren’t even willing to give the man a CHANCE to redeem himself.
Van Gorder was a great coordinator, but he also had an offense that rarely turned the ball over & didn’t have a bunch of 3 and outs, and a special teams group that was one of the best in the SEC at the time.
Give Willie and the defense a game this year with that and the numbers will improve.
Let’s just suppose for a moment that instead of those two short field turnovers we keep the ball and SC doesn’t score either of the short tds, take away the 8 pts that WERE NOT the defenses responsibility then they would have only given up 15pts. Would anyone be complaining then? I doubt it. Look at the WHOLE game and not just the end score people!
Go Dawgs!
TechCrybaby
September 15th, 2009
1:44 pm
It’s ironic that UGA, formerly, “Tailback U.,” meets Arkansas, a team with a wealth of tailbacks. They could be bad news for Georgia this Saturday. So far, though, the Bulldogs’ biggest worry this season has been about the same as Georgia Tech’s – going to sleep at intervals during the game. Another danger is Arkansas’ kick returner. I think, though, that if Richt coaches smart, and the Bulldogs stay focussed, they’ll win by about 27-13.
GT
September 15th, 2009
1:50 pm
There is no fall off in recruiting, or I cannot tell there is from the AJC. You look for a bubble burst in teams that fall this far under the bus, and I cannot figure one out. OSU was from the beginning over hyped, a trick Georgia uses just like Bobby Dodd did it in his day. You pick a team you know you can beat, Dodd did it in bowl games, and plant stories on how they are world beaters. Our AJC is more than willing to run with it, saves a lot of work on their part. The idea is to beat the over hyped team, look like you have beaten the Green Bay Packers, money spoors in from the alumni, recruits beg to come, all because you beat a paper tiger. Who would dream Georgia would pick an opponent, I mean they got the whole nation to choice from, and then lose. I’m thinking it is the coaching, can’t be the players, when did we read like we do with Tech, Georgia is having a poor recruiting year. Go back and read the recruiting stats on Cox. Then go back and read any quarterback in the ACC and find one player with equal stats or credits.
Alphare
September 15th, 2009
1:55 pm
Dawgs and Hogs: both teams have bad defense, hogs can shoot better. This will be the score: 42 hogs to 39 daws.
Brett Favre aka Bank Walker
September 15th, 2009
2:03 pm
1. maybe
2. I’m not sure about that
3. you’re right, I mean wrong
4. I don’t know
5. possibly
Perspective
September 15th, 2009
2:11 pm
1) qb is average at best
2) Ya have to get pressure on qb in the passing game in order to be effective. 2 sacks in 2 games and this offense that scored only 7 against NC State scores 30 on UGA. This is a bad defense. End of story.
3) A rushing avg of 101 yards a game and one of those games was against a defense that was ranked 93rd in the country the year before. The offensive line just isn’t that good.
4)Penalties- An indication of an overall lack of discipline in this program.
5) No opinion on special teams.
Overall, a very average team that will finish 7-5.
Big XII
September 15th, 2009
2:51 pm
SEC……HAHAHAHAHA
Yellow Fuzz
September 15th, 2009
3:13 pm
how2fish,
“Yellow Fuzz you think UGA fans are bad now..wait till Nov 28th Bug..Hells coming and he’s wearing red and black…”
Gofish, You said the same thing last year. And like last year, we not intimidated any more!
SagaciousSamDawg
September 15th, 2009
3:17 pm
Now how can it be that Coach Richt can be so ‘optimistic’ about punt return that he neglects to keep a sufficient number of defensive players on the line of schrimmage to prevent a punter from doing precisely what the South Carolina punter did. With a full dissertion of the defensive line to set up for a punt return, the South Carolina punter did not even need to gamble on his run. Didn’t this very same thing happen against West Virginia which cost us the ballgame? It would probably be a bit hasty to suggest that Coach Richt start to take AZ medication for this enormous memory lapse, but he would do well to have someone remind him on punts that this will be a very likely consequence of abandoning due diligence when the other team is punting. If you are going to try and set up a punt return, it is best to hold your disguise rush until the ball is snapped. The defensive players on Saturday nite vacated their rush postions well before the ball was snapped. This could have cost UGA the game, once again. Georgia was very fortunate that it turned out somewhat differently this time.
quaildawg
September 15th, 2009
3:18 pm
I guess the TD to AJ prior to halftime doesn’t qualify as a “tough” throw???
What about the TD to Milner in 06′???
Absolutley agree that the TO ratio HAS to change. Opportunities have been there but Dawgs are not closing the deal.
Danny Forde
September 15th, 2009
4:57 pm
Yellow Fizz.aKa m.aka St Simons
Tech aint nothing but a bunch of crybabying pencil necked geeks. We used to hang yoounguns like you up by its toz over in in hokes bluff. Most peopla of any kindof intelligency write down the final scores not little qutrs. I guess you are a youngun with out no brains. Tech is still a bunch of panty wasted pikel piler.
Carl Spackler
September 15th, 2009
6:46 pm
5 reasons Georgia might NOT have turned the corner…
1) truck still in the driveway
2) can’t find the keys
3) forgot to fill the gas tank
4) tires are flat
5) dog won’t come out from under the porch
Douglas
September 15th, 2009
8:39 pm
If CMR doesn’t fire WM this year, we need to find out where WM lives and start putting for sale signs in his yard. Of course, the LB coach is not that great either — get rid of him too.
Jo JO Yo
September 15th, 2009
9:58 pm
Road block in Jacksonville.
AceDawg
September 17th, 2009
2:39 pm
Watching the Dawgs is enormously frustrating! Fantastic plays followed by horrific ones. No identity on offense (what is our scheme?), no pressure from the defense. I think UGA will get better as the season goes IF they can pull off the next two games before LSU. If they are 3-1 then, they will be more confident, but another loss will deflate the team confidence and result in a super mediocre year. Arkansas is very scary – anywhere from easy to nightmare!!