Oh yeah, you bet I was frustrated watching the UGA game on Saturday. Why, because we were driving on the Rebs all day long but had to settle for 5 FG attempts-Walsh making only 2 of them. That simply can't keep happening or we are going to lose some tough games. It was pretty obvious we had a big talent advantage over Ole Miss. It was certainly encouraging to see our D hold someone under 200 yards, only 8 first downs for the game-especially considering this was game 2 without our best two middle linebackers. It was encouraging to see Crowell run the ball 30 times although I will say, he was NOT the same back in the second half as he was in the first half. Conditioning might very well keep him from being on the Lattimore level this year-then again, Crowell actually has more yards through 4 games of his FR season than did Latt last year I do believe (CONFIRMED, Crowell so far this year, 77 carrries, 411 yards, 5.3 per carry and 2 TD's while Lattimore last year, 84 carries, 366 yards, 4.4 per carry 6 TD's). I continue to be impressed with Mitchell at WR-he has some talent as does Michael Bennett. Of course this game we also got both our TE's involved, with Charles leading the way with 5 receptions. Bobo MUST continue to use these guys, both likely are gone after this year and no LB or safety can cover them. I thought Cornelius Washington had his best game of the year, he came up with a couple sacks, he was in the backfield most of the day. I also thought Rambo continues to impress-he seems to be in the right place at the right time. The secondary in general played well but, let's not forget, this Ole Miss offense is truly DREADFUL. I do think our D looks much better overall this year, they didn't play that bad even in the losses, but they are still not quite to elite level just yet. The offense, well, let's just say the ingredients are there for our offense to score 30+ EVERY week. Keep in mind our supposedly best WR-TKing has really not done all that much thus far. Still waiting on him to have a breakout game-SCarolina he was pretty decent. Course, teams are aware of him coming into the season and not aware of Mitchell-I think that is changing now-and that should help King. I think we now can see why Troup simply doesn't get much playing time, even as a SR. He dropped an easy pass right to him on Saturday. We need to get Marlon Brown and Wooten back into the rotation-hopefully both are back this week (injuries). Same goes for Christian Robinson-I don't think he is the most talented LB we have but he is a leader and having him back this week (hopefully) will help our overall D.
Now, as we look back on this game, there are some things to be really concerned about as we move forward. One is special teams-we have given up a punt return for TD, had a fake punt go for a TD, gave up a HUGE punt return against Boise that set up a pretty easy score. Our FG kicker who has been nearly automatic for three years, suddenly can't make kicks that used to be routine for him. He missed a long one at the dome-but certainly within his kicking distance. He missed one against SCarolina-a chip shot, he missed one against Coastal but a penalty wiped that one away. He missed 3 against Miss, thankfully it didn't cost us. Special teams was an area that I strongly believed we would win nearly every week (if not every week) of the season but we have lost the special teams battle EVERY week save the Coastal game when it didn't matter anyway. This really is troubling to me but hopefully we will get Walsh squared away soon. Of course the fact we are having to settle for field goals is another issue which to me goes to playcalling. I was NOT impressed with the playcalling on Saturday. We would have one series of almost exclusively run, then switch almost to 100% pass. It was like, ok guys, when Crowell needs a break, we will pass the ball. Murray threw one INT but Orson Charles had both hands on it, and it bounced around with the Ole Miss guy grabbing it before it hit the ground. I think Murray threw the ball too hard but I think Charles should catch it. Murray had a pretty good day overall throwing the ball, yes, we were missing two WR's and Crowell was running the ball well, but we should be able to make plays to score TD's in a game like that. Our time of possession advantage was HUGE, we had that D tired and yet we still could not punch in TD's. This leads me to another part of the game that irriated me. Mark Richt NOT going for a 4th and 1 on the Ole Miss 30 or 31 with us up by 11 points. Try a 48 yard FG which Walsh of course misses. Later in the game, from our 44 or 45, he elects to go for it again up by 11. In both cases, I totally disagree with him. The way our D was playing-only giving up one TD on a reverse pass off a wildcat formation, why not go for it at the Ole Miss 30. On the flipside, up by 11 on your side of the field, why give Ole Miss potentially a short field where they can pull out more trick plays and maybe make the game really tight. Punt the ball and try to pin them deep coach. Sometimes I really wonder what his thought process is. I am still not happy of course about the bowl game decision. He should be really thankful Samuel fought for that extra yardage on the 4th down play. Miss had him stopped behind the line but he surged forward to BARELY pick it up.
I predicted this game would be around 11 points last week, both here and on UGA message boards. Why? Because this is typical UGA football under Coach Richt, really under Dooley as well. Rare is it that we really throttle teams in conference-it has happened, don't get me wrong but typically we play games much like Saturday. You watch the game, and think, we SHOULD have beat them by more. I tend to adopt the attitude of, a win is a win whether it be by 31 or 1, and considering our program the last couple years, I will take this win and say, NEXT. Think about last year, first it was SCarolina on the road-at that time SCarolina was, well, SCarolina. We lost that one, then the Miss State game-they were not well thought of and we found a way to lose that game, then the game at Colorado-we moved the ball well in that game and had that game in prime position to get a win late, of course then FUMBLE-and the fact the game was that close was frustrating. Of course the UF game last year, had that game won but then couldn't make a key INT in regulation while UF made a big play in OT. Then the UCF game, another dud. My point being, this team has made a living out of finding ways to lose games, let's celebrate all the wins we can get, even if frustrating at times. We have a soph QB, freshman RB, freshman WR, no depth on the OL, a D that appears on the way up, still playing without our top two middle backers, plenty of positive to build on.
Now comes the Imposter Dogs as I call them. We are the real Dogs, not them. Many folks in the UGA fan base really love Dan Mullen, I have mixed feelings on him. I think this game on Saturday, has the potential to be the swing game of 2011 for both these teams. Last year, it was a BIG swing game for both teams. Let's go back and look at it, last year Miss State opened with a huge win against Memphis. Same this year. Last year, week two against Auburn, close loss at home (this year hearbreaking loss at Auburn). Week 3 tough hard fought loss at LSU (this year tough hard nosed loss at home vs. LSU). We played them next and they beat us. But, they were 0-2 in conference when we played them, same as this year. We of course were likewise 0-2 in conference after the tough losses to SCarolina and Arkansas. That game was 7-6 State at half, but they exploded to score 17 fourth quarter points to secure the win. We outgained them in yardage, had more first downs, slight edge in TOP, also had 2 turnovers to only one for State (crucial one was early when Ealey fumbled on the goal line, also had 9 penalties). The QB for State really killed us, Relf, and he is back leading the way this year. I will preview the game later this week but this will be a game where if we can stop/limit the big QB, we likely can contain that offense. They have a brusing RB in Ballard as well. They were very fortunate to beat La Tech in OT. They scored on an 82 yard punt return, La Tech committed 3 turnovers to only one for Miss State, they were outgained by La Tech in total yardage as well. My point is, just as was the case last year entering this game, I feel like this is a game we SHOULD win and if not, I think it really begins to put doubt in my mind about Richt's future. Every game moving forward will be closely watched, but this one is one that we simply must have before heading on the road for two weeks. Go 3-2, 2-1 in the SEC preparing for our two week trip to Tenn, that is what we MUST do.
On the local front, TOUGH weekend for the Braves and Falcons, WOW, Braves very close to choking away the wildcard and that is just not acceptable-I would give it 50-50 odds at this point but the ship is taking on water and might be headed down. The Falcons, just like UGA, turnovers and sacks will KILL your chances of winning a football game. The 7 year old Rams, another win but much like UGA, should have won by a much larger margin than the 26-12 final.
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