UGA heads to Jacksonville having left Kentucky in the dust
These were six of Washaun Ealey's 30 points. (AP photo)
LEXINGTON, Ky. — On the morning of Oct. 9, the Georgia Bulldogs were 1-4. We mention this because … well, because it’s Oct. 25 and they sure as heck aren’t 1-4 anymore.
They’re a robust 4-4, having won three SEC games by the aggregate score of 128-45. They’re 4-4 headed to Jacksonville in a better frame of mind than the hated Gators, who’ve lost three in a row. They’re 4-4 and maybe they haven’t beaten the Who’s Who of BCS Bullies, but it wasn’t so long ago Georgia couldn’t beat anybody anywhere.
And now you’re asking: Is this apparent resurgence the real deal or just a red (and black) herring? And the answer is …
It’s real for this simple reason: Georgia was far too talented to have been 1-4, and we’re finally seeing what happens when that talent is brought to bear. The Bulldogs won big in a place where South Carolina lost just last week not only because Kentucky messed up — though the Wildcats did more than their share of that — but because some big-time players made big-time plays.
Brandon Boykin took another kickoff back 100 yards. A.J. Green rose up a couple of times and reminded us that he’s the best receiver among collegians. (Also that he was sorely missed throughout September.) Justin Houston did a Lawrence Taylor all over the Big Blue — sacking the quarterback, recovering a fumble, coming within a step of making his own Kroy Biermann deflect-catch-and-score memory.
And Washaun Ealey, whose fumbles on the goal line and misadventure in the parking garage became the symbol of that staggering start, came to the Bluegrass and rewrote his bio. He’s no longer Washaun Ealey, the man who cannot be trusted in the red zone. He’s now Washaun Ealey, the Bulldog who nearly outscored Kentucky by himself.
Five touchdowns for Ealey and one for Boykin and three early Kentucky fumbles made this easier than it should have been. (And a cosmetic fourth-quarter rally made the final score closer than the game itself.) Georgia got way ahead — it was 28-3 after 23-plus minutes — and buttoned it down. Aaron Murray threw only 12 passes, and that wasn’t because the offensive minds Mark Richt and Mike Bobo got stupid; it was because they got smart.
The first rule of politics also is the first rule of football: When your opponent is in the process of destroying himself, get out of the way. The ‘Dogs applied enough early defensive pressure to discombobulate the ‘Cats, and the rest was simply for form’s sake.
Yes, there were too many times when Houston and the rushers didn’t put Mike Hartline on the ground, and the Kentucky quarterback found unencumbered receivers. But we saw clearly here that Todd Grantham’s 3-4 can deal with a multi-faceted offense that’s cleverly constructed, and it’s unclear we can say half as much about Florida’s shockingly inept attack.
Simply put, Georgia goes to Jacksonville with a chance to stamp itself as the only real challenger to South Carolina in the SEC East, and who among us saw that coming after the losses in Starkville and Boulder? If you’re asking if this defense looks capable of derailing Cam Newton’s run to the Heisman at Auburn on Nov. 13, the answer frankly is no. But it could come a monsoon that day and Georgia might win 3-0 on a 60-yard field goal by Blair Walsh.
What’s important is that the Bulldogs have given themselves a chance to right a season going wrong. Sure, the schedule has had much to do with it, but the early schedule was tougher than calculus. (Especially without Green for Games 1-4.) A youngish team has gotten better the more it has played, and these past three weeks it has been pretty doggone good.
The Tennessee and Vanderbilt games were in Athens. The Kentucky game always loomed as the pre-Jacksonville obstacle, and Georgia came to Commonwealth Stadium and stacked 44 points on Kentucky and never let the hosts have a sniff at victory. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but it came at a perfect time.
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286 comments Add your comment
Buckeye
October 24th, 2010
12:26 pm
Kral,
I would if I had the opportunity. My opinion was formed long before he put on a UGA uniform when he spit on his opponents in the Class A ( may have been Class 2A) Gerogia High School Championship Game. Look at the tape from GPTV. We was a Punk then and he is Punk now.
Oh ya, in case your wondering, his team lost…..
FishyBusiness
October 24th, 2010
12:33 pm
Great article Mark !!! Puts it all in perspective.
Hot Dog Diggity
October 24th, 2010
12:35 pm
Does anyone else get ticked off when they see the potential UGA had at the beginning of this year, but we are just now a 500 team at 4-4?
Relax!
October 24th, 2010
12:37 pm
some of you guys need to learn how to relax and enjoy a win. No football team is perfect especially UGA this year and some of you want to yell and scream and stomp the floor every time something doesnt go exactly as you want….case in point….those of you harping on Bobo this morning. Yeah, Bobo has pissed me off a time or two and all of us worry about his play calling but give the guy some credit when he does a good job. Yesterday he called a good game. UGA was 1-4 a few weeks ago and that was one of the lowest moments as a Dawgs fans in many years…they have turned things around for the time being so how about having some pride in that and enjoy the ride? Watching football is supposed to be fun and it seems like some of you just torture yourselves with it. Your take the good with the bad, alright….Gators are next! Go Dawgs!
Take a Break Driver 8
October 24th, 2010
12:42 pm
Goin’ Gator huntin’ next week! Anybody wanna join me?
Ricky Bobby
October 24th, 2010
12:43 pm
Bulldawg fans need to take a deep breath and remember 2005 because I have a feeling it will be a little deja vu. Back then Urban Meyer’s offense was sputtering early in the season and UGA had high hopes of kicking a little Gator tail. Unfortunately, Meyer used the bye week to overhaul his offense and UGA saw a completely new Gator offense- including a fullback.
The Gators have another bye to tweek the offense and show UGA something they haven’t seen before on tape plus Rainey is back. As always, UGA will get Florida’s A game.
JTH
October 24th, 2010
12:44 pm
Ealey just scored again!
Party school
October 24th, 2010
12:54 pm
Mark,
You’ve glossed over some very revealing statistics. Kentucky had 423 yds of offense and never even had to punt while UGA only had 290 yds of total offense. Take away Kentucky’s gaffe’s and they win the game. In fact you’ll rarely see such lopsided statistics with the more productive team losing. It’s hard to see how anyone could interpret this as a good win.
Take a Break Driver 8
October 24th, 2010
12:56 pm
I agree Ricky Bobby. Also, Florida is in our heads and we have to fight through that “bugaboo” and realize we are a better team this year than UF. Time to let the Junkyard Dogs out !!!
Roger That Captain
October 24th, 2010
1:00 pm
Party School, how old are you? you haven’t watched much football have you? We didn’t pile up stats because we didn’t have to. 4 KY turnovers and a 100 yard kickoff return did the job. Did you really say, “take away Kentucky’s gaffes and they win the game” ?? Go away please.
just a fan
October 24th, 2010
1:10 pm
For any one who said CMB called a bad game to start the second half we came out went on a 7 play 70 yard touchdown drive, another item of note in the 4th quarter after they scored to make it 41-25 we got the ball back and held it for 8:05 and added on a field goal to end the game
Party school
October 24th, 2010
1:18 pm
Sorry the truth hurts Roger.
DIT
October 24th, 2010
1:20 pm
Is it just me? Now, I did not see the game last night, but UK had over 420 total yards. That’s sound a little alarming to me. How did the defense do overall last night? Should we be alarmed with the game coming up in Jax?
The fact that the gators had a week off makes me very uneasy for this game. Not seeing the game last night drove me crazy. Of course now, being that they won, I can’t watch it next week at all either. Can’t put any voodo on the team when they appear to be turning a corner.
One last question. Do we stand a chance against Auburn?
DIT
October 24th, 2010
1:23 pm
Huh….. Don’t see 5150 P.O.A.D. on here?
just a fan
October 24th, 2010
1:24 pm
he was just on the junkyard blag
DIT
October 24th, 2010
1:26 pm
Does not surprise me. He’s like a bad penny. He shows up everywhere!
Stupid Dawg
October 24th, 2010
1:38 pm
Told U that we wood beet Kentucki aLL weak long. UGA will beet florada next weak and then AubaRN and Georgia Tek. We will then get voted to the BCS bowl or AP national champons since we will bee the bests 8-4 teem in the kountry.
Kenai Ocelata
October 24th, 2010
1:39 pm
Thugs win.
JT
October 24th, 2010
2:46 pm
Any one heard from 5150 I.M.P.L.O.A.D.?
Wreck(maniac
October 24th, 2010
3:09 pm
The pressure is on at UGA now. If the dawgs lose to FL there will be mass suicide. And it just may happen. Why is no one discussing Auburn ? Mentally, this team has already lost to Auburn and is trying to make the season seem significant by wins over FL and Tech. This season went in the dump a month ago.
Wreck(maniac
October 24th, 2010
3:10 pm
Only 270 comments on this blog ??? The Thrashers are getting more press than this.
Wreck(maniac
October 24th, 2010
3:13 pm
Jeffrey is the best receiver in the land and is the reason why AJ turned tail, left South Carolina and went to UGA.
Wreck(maniac
October 24th, 2010
3:19 pm
Other than SC, UGA has played a patsy schedule. Who have they played that is decent ? No one other than SC. We’re all assuming now that FL and Tech are lousy so you play a year with two decent teams and 10 lousy ones. If there was ever a year to win a nat champ it was this one. This schedule is easier than Boise State’s or TCU’s and they are undefeated and deserve to be ranked where 2 and 3.
Blowout!
October 24th, 2010
4:55 pm
This florida team may be the worst in the SEC. Georgia should beat them easily–this game shouldn’t be close the way Ga is playing now. Richt will remember those 2 late timeouts called by meyer 2 years ago and really run up the score to rub it in good! Dawgs on top!!!! Dawgs 37 Fl 13!!!!!
BBL: Cats can’t keep digging those holes « Woods Recruiting
October 24th, 2010
4:55 pm
[...] Georgia heads to Jacksonville having left Kentucky in the dust, writes Mark Bradley of the AJC. [...]
WAR DAMN EAGLE
October 24th, 2010
5:36 pm
See you doggies very soon. Better wear your rain gear (from the 80’s)! You old timers know what I’m talking about.
LCDawg
October 24th, 2010
6:01 pm
Nice win but the defense truly sucks. Grantham should be running the D’s balls into the ground right now
Party school
October 24th, 2010
7:04 pm
Kentucky 423 yds, no punts. Remember that next Saturday.
Dawg_Mike
October 24th, 2010
7:29 pm
@ Party-
No punts?
I recall AJ Green fair catching one.
RGP
October 24th, 2010
8:07 pm
Nice road win for the dawgs. Pass defense is going to have to play a lot better against gators. Cuff got burned deep quite a few times. Ealey was awesome.
Party school
October 24th, 2010
9:09 pm
Dawg_Mike,
Looks like you’re right. I got my info from the foxsports page but the AJC page reports 1 UK punt and 3 for UGA.
Wreckmaniac
October 24th, 2010
10:02 pm
Where we can read about the really relevant games such as OK vs Missou or Auburn or Wis vs Iowa or
TCU vs Air Force ? Why are we forced to read about two lousy teams from Georgia. Why has AJC now defined its market as that within 25 miles of the Grady curve. Has the internet devoured the entire
national market for an Atlanta based publication ? Do I now have to go ESPN or Facebook to learn about the better college games ?
BBL: Cats can’t keep digging those holes « Acrylic Sports
October 25th, 2010
12:10 am
[...] Georgia heads to Jacksonville having left Kentucky in the dust, writes Mark Bradley of the AJC. [...]
Ron D
October 25th, 2010
9:11 am
If we stay healthy and eligible, we can beat Florida and WILL beat Auburn! Newton is a great talent but their defense is too suspect to handle the Dawgs.
EricADawgFan
October 25th, 2010
2:32 pm
This should definitely be payback time for the Dawgs. Lets not forget what Coach Meyers did to the Dawgs last year. He retaliated because the Dawgs sent their players on the field the year before beating Florida. Remember? As a result of them being a sore loser the previous year before, as they hammered the Dawgs, he decided to run the numbers up and towards the end of the 4th quarter, they scored again and he called a time out for Florida (when he didn’t have to) just to add insult to the injury. They also would go for two points as well. So I say let return the favor to Meyers. Lets run the numbers up on them. Lets not leave any doubt.
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9:37 pm
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