Grading the Dogs against WCU

This was my first game in Athens this season and Rufina's first game ever. For some of the Dogs it was or looked like their first game too, but the Dogs still routed the Catamounts 45-16.

OFFENSE: B
The game plan was pretty simple for this game and the focus was on execution and getting more experience for some of the players; I don't really have a problem with that. However, some of the execution was lacking and we had several drops, missed blocks and poor play over a bad 1-AA team. Guard Chris Davis was infuriating to watch as he has built up a resume of poor play this season. He is Public Enemy #1 for me on the Dogs. Thankfully, after 2 bonehead plays in the first half he was benched and replaced. The OL did seem to play better after that.
Stafford was okay- I still think he is overrated and inconsistent.
Moreno was fabulous. I really think he will end the season as UGA's starting RB if he picks up the blocking assignments. He is fast, quick, agile and does a good job of making people miss.
I like what I saw in the last drive of the first half (mostly Moreno, mind you) and there is cause for hope this season.
I expected us to put up more than 362 yards, but 45 points is a fair number.

DEFENSE: A-
The Defense like the offense had some flashes of greatness- more than the offense to be exact, but there were lapses. The WCU RBs had some good, strong runs on us, but overall we shut them down, holding them to 63 yards.
Their 2 QBs were quite efficient against us completing 16-of-24 passes (66%), but most of that was toward the end of the game when our 2nd and 3rd string Defense was in. However, their QBs should have had better numbers as they were victimized by the dropsies too.
Jeff Owens, Akeem Dent and several others had good games.
We were in good position to hold WCU under a 100 total yards going into the 4th quarter, but the backups couldn't hold them and we gave up 7 garbage points in the end.
One thing I would like to see out of this squad is more takeaways.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C+
Our FG and return teams did well- or as well as they could. WCU did sideline pooches most of the game and negated our Kickoff return team. I was upset that we elected to force them to kick it again after the committed on a kickoff which gave us the ball at the 35. On the ensuing kickoff, we bobbled the ball and almost lost it. Sure we got it at the 37 yard line, but is 2 yards worth a possible turnover? No.
The Coverage teams were miserable- again! Mimbs did a good job of punting and Coutu actually had some high AND deep kicks, but we gave up 183 yards (26+ yards average) in kickoff returns which is WAY too much (including a 46 yard return). I know the staff is trying to get the ball up and get our guys down there to make the tackle instead of hitting low-long balls into the endzone, but it seems like our guys do get down there, but they can't get the guy. This needs to be fixed, especially against Areneas for Bama.

OVERALL: B
It really is hard to come away from one of these game with a great feeling, but I would like to have seen a better showing on the field. Yes, we moved the ball. Yes, we stopped them. Yes, we scored points. Yes, we got to play a lot of our younger guys... but I still think we should have looked better- more proficient- doing it. I was glad to see some adjustments on the OL and in the defense which I think will pay off down the road.
But it boils down to this- we are still an inconsistent team looking for an identity and with Bama up next we no longer have time to figure it out. It is time to make tackles, catch balls, block, complete passes, get down on coverage and make good calls. If we do all of those things, we will beat just about anyone we play. If we don't, the teams on our schedule are too good to let us slip by every time.