A Sort of Homecoming

Dogs escape Trojan trap 44-34



Despite our hopes, the Bulldogs did appear to have a hangover from last week's World's Largest Cocktail Party. With most of the pre-game discussion focusing on Richt's encouragement of a celebration penalty in the victory over Florida, there was little focus on Troy by the media, fans... and apparently the team. At times the offense and defense showed flashes of greatness, but at times they also showed lapses in execution and exercises in futility. In essence it was what we have come to know of the 2007 edition of the Georgia Bulldogs- great potential with greater inconsistency.

OFFENSE: B
The offense came out flat and generous- generous in the sense that they fumbled twice within their first 6 plays- both setting up Troy with great field position early. The offense finally got on track when freshman phenom took off like a locomotive for an 80-yard TD in the first quarter to give the Dogs a 7-3 lead. The Dogs would put up a quick 14 points to end the first half as Stafford connected on some big passes to Bailey and Tripp Chandler and Moreno led the ground assault. However, Stafford was off target at the start of the 3rd quarter; after moving the Dogs into scoring position to answer a Troy TD, Stafford threw an INT in the endzone.
Moreno finished with great numbers: 26 carries for 196 yards for a 7.5 yard average and 3 TDs.
Aside for the pick, Stafford's numbers were pretty good, but he was also streaky during the game.
The OL kept Stafford from getting sacked, but at times did allow Troy to get pressure. They were also hit and miss on run blocking.
There were a couple of drops by receivers which is par for Georgia (unfortunately).

DEFENSE: C
Second course same as the first...
The defense started off great, unlike the offense; with their backs against the wall after 2 turnovers, the defense held strong and only allowed 3 points. They followed that up with an INT (Jones). Things were looking good... Then Troy drove 80 yards on 4 plays and took a 10-7 lead with a long TD. But they got another INT (Allen) at the end of the first half that set up a UGA score. Despite some slight miscues, the defense held up pretty good in the first half, holding Troy to 10 points, but the second half was a different story... The Trojans came out passing all over the place in the 2nd half and put up 10 points on 2 straight drives. Marcus Howard forced a fumble and recovered it near the goal line at the start of Troy's next possession, which led to some quick points that pretty much put the game away at 34-20. But the Trojans would not give up, putting together another solid drive that resulted in a TD. The defense followed that up with 2 great stands and then yielded a garbage drive with the victory already in hand.
2 INTs, forcing & recovering a fumble deep in Troy territory, 3 sacks and 5 drives that without allowing a 1st down were all bright spots for the defense...
But being torched for 373 yards passing, allowing 2 receivers to go over 100 yards and giving up 34 points were all failures by the defense.
Troy's plan was simple: spread out the defense and make quick throws to the short flats, right over the line on crossing routes or take a shot down field over the middle. They challenged our defenders to close quick and make open field tackles. When we did that, they got a minimal gain, when we failed they ripped off reasonable gains.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B
Despite facing one of the most dangerous returners in college football, the Dogs didn't yield any huge returns. The kickoff coverage team even recovered a fumble after a short kickoff. The punting wasn't particularly good, but Mimbs was trying to kick away from McKelvin. Coutu was perfect on FGs and both Flowers and Allen had huge returns; unfortunately, the didn't do much after Allen's big kickoff return.

COACHING: B-
The coaches didn't seem to have to Dogs completely focused on Troy, but the gameplan was good enough to win.

OVERALL: B-

Up next: Auburn, with a possible sweep of the the state of Alabama (except UAB) and the SEC East title on the line.