Asleep at the wheel and now playing catch up

No, that isn't meant to be a comment about last week's Georgia game, but it could be... sorta.

Okay, I was on the road in the Great Expanses of the Northwest, but now I am back with ramblings about college football.

Here is a quick recap of UGA's first 2 games:

Georgia "Cowboys up" and puts Okie State in its place - 35 to 14.

OkSt came to Athens touting the self-proclaimed-best-offense-in-college-football, and left much like Boise State in 2005, looking like a team that still wasn't ready for the "big boys" (or at least the SEC).
I was worried about this game because UGA had so many question marks and youth, but the coaches and Dogs executed a great gameplan and won.

OFFENSE = A
Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo had a great gameplan utilizing UGA's skill players, minimizing the role of a young O-Line and making the game easy for Matthew Stafford. Keg Boy carved up the OkSt defense, Brown and young gun Moreno were effective and the receivers even caught the ball.

DEFENSE = B+
Consider the weapons that OkSt has, the Dogs did a great job by holding them to 14 points. A talented (if inconsistent) mobile QB, a shifty RB, a stud WR and a good TE would seem to be a lethal combo, but the Dogs kept Reid from heating up, were aided by the Cowboys' abandonment of their running game, contained Bowman and yield most of their gains to big Pettigrew. As alluded to earlier, the Dogs got up by 14 points early in the 3rd quarter and then played tough defense. OkSt's coaches strayed from what had been working (their running game) and went to the air; this played into UGA's hands because their quick, undersized DEs were able to pin their ears back and while young, the DBs are a talented bunch. Credit also goes to Defensive Coordinator Martinez for making good 2nd half adjustments.

SPECIAL TEAMS = B-
UGA gave up a big return and OkSt started off with good field position for a lot of the game, but Mikey also did what he does best, so it was basically a push. The kickoff coverage wasn't great, but that hasn't been much of a strength for the Dogs and the new rules compound that weakness.

OVERALL = A-
This was just what we needed to start the season- a solid win over a quality opponent. While we weren't perfect, it looked like we would be better than some expected.


Dogs run blocked by the Cocks - 12 to 16.

After the convincing win in week one and SC's troubles in their opener, this looked like a good chance for UGA to string together a 3-0 start and take an early lead in the SEC East. But the games against Carolina have been tight ones lately and the Dog's haven't exactly been successful against Darth Visor.
This week was almost a reversal of last week's; SC came in with a good game plan, we didn't and that was compounded by little things done wrong that were done right against the Pokes.

OFFENSE = C
Apparently Bobo, wasn't aware that Carolina was able to watch UGA's game film from the last week and came into the game trying to run last week's gameplan with a few tricks (that didn't really work). SC's defense sniffed out all of UGA's screens (even when we ran 3 in a row). The WRs returned to their stone-handed ways and Stafford's howitzer was off target quite a bit which didn't help. We missed out on several plays that would have been sure TDs if Stafford wouldn't have overthrown his intended receivers. The O-Line also showed its youth against a D-Line that wasn't supposed to be all that. One bright spot was electrifying Knowshon Moreno who had 104 yards on 14 caries, added 14 more receiving, embarrassed several would-be tacklers and was 2 steps and a better pass away from scoring 2 TDs.

DEFENSE = B-
You have to give the credit to the Dogs for holding SC to 1 TD and only 16 points. However, the preseason concerns proved to be legit as the D-Line was susceptible to the run, especially at the end of the game when UGA need to get the ball back. The tackling was poor at times- which was just enough to allow SC to score the lone TD of the game and more points than the Dogs. Despite his best efforts to lose the game, the Dogs helped bone-head Blake Mitchell look good.

SPECIAL TEAMS = B-
Even though Coutu missed a FG, he was the Dogs' lone scorer so he can't be faulted... at least on FGs. He did manage a few longer kickoffs, but the Dogs are still lacking here. Mikey had another big return (that didn't result in 7 unfortunately).

OVERALL = C+
The Dogs were out-coached for most of the game and outplayed for much of it also. It was a winnable game, but Georgia didn't do what it needed to do to beat the Cocks.

Also:
Bob Davies = Idiot
ESPN = Spurrier groupies
Spurrier - Pompous jerk

Time to regroup against Western Carolina.