You know it is a big game with the ESPN crew shows up, and that will be the case this week when Gameday broadcasts live from Columbia, SC. I personally am NOT a big fan of UGA drawing that crowd because we have performed pretty badly over the years when they have been at the site of UGA games-the good news, we have done our best for them when playing on the road as I believe we are 4-3 or 3-4 when on the road, 0-3 at home, and 0-3 at neutral sites (JAX) (sorry don't have the exact numbers in front of me but read that earlier in the week). Of course having those talking heads at the site of our game shouldn't matter a bit.
The game last week against UT was very interesting in the fact that from the beginning I felt UGA would run away with the game with how it started. 27-10, I had to leave to go to watch my daughter cheer, and felt secure in the fact that this game was headed towards a Vandy type outcome. Of course UT has a much better offense than does Vandy but still, I figured we would score about 50 points and UT would score maybe 24, MAYBE 31. On the car ride over to Duluth, UT scores to make it 27-17 late second quarter, I am still feeling fine because with how our offense is playing, I figure we will go right back down and score yet another TD, making it 34-17 at the half. THEN the South Carolina game happened all over again it felt like to me. Last year we led SCarolina 13-7 in the second qtr when Spurrier faked the punt, their big DL ran 68 yards basically untouched for a TD. UGA to that point was pretty much dominating the game-with the exception of having to settle for two FG's, and Walsh missed another chipshot but yet we were moving the ball constantly against SCarolina and they were struggling. Yet, we go to halftime trailing the game 14-13. Last week, I couldn't believe my ears as Aaron Murray-who had already thrown a pick 6 (again SCarolina also had a pick 6 of Murray last year), fumbled a ball at our 8 yard line (he fumbled and it was returned for a TD against SCarolina last year). UT scores but misses the extra point-of course we missed yet another one as well, and the score is 27-23. I figure well we will have the lead at the half at least and we have been a second half team this year so they will go in and get settled and come back strong in the second half. WRONG, a few plays later, Keith Marshall fumbles and UT then scores again to take 30-27 lead. I was in disbelief. I think a big key to this game though was the fact that Aaron Murray-as well as Mike Bobo/Mark Richt decided with less than a minute to go, let's drive down and try to get more points and not take a led. Sure enough, Murray hit Lynch for 16 yards, Bennett for 7 and Wooten for 6, Marshall Morgan makes up for missing the extra point earlier by kicking a 50 yard FG at the buzzer and we are tied.
Another key to this game was the second half, UT certainly was on a roll going into the half-but of course if you stop and look at it, they scored 6 points off an INT, they had an 8 yard TD drive and also an 18 yard TD drive. Their longest TD drive in the first half was 50 yards. Again though, to start the second half, UGA D forced a punt after 5 plays and 17 yards, UGA immediately comes back and scores a TD to take a 37-30 lead, next drive 5 plays for 11 yards, UGA scores another TD and it is 44-30, a little breathing room. UT then scored on its longest scoring drive of the game, the the Patterson reverse covering 46 of the 78 yards. The last scoring drive for UT covered 60 yards.
I am not trying to make excuses, but this was just a strange game. UGA had two backs go over 100 yards, Murray other than the pick 6 was very efficient with the ball, 19-25 for 278 yards 2 TD's and 1 INT. The defense forced 4 total turnovers-I guess the true difference in the game was that UT forced 3 turnovers which led to 21 points, while our 4 TO's led to only one TD for us. I think what alarmed me the most was allowing UT 197 yards on the ground, 4.9 yards per carry. Everyone knew UT could throw the ball around the yard a good bit with a solid QB and two NFL WR's, but to allow them to run the ball on us like that, knowing what is coming this week, that has to worry most everyone. That being said, SCarolina does not have the passing game threats that UT does, but they DO have a RB that is MUCH better than anything UT ran out there against us.
Now we move to the game in Columbia, seems strange to be playing SCarolina in week 6 instead of week 2 but it is interesting that we still played in Columbia in week 2, just a different state. SCarolina is a very solid football team-of course they have beaten us two straight years and the biggest reason for victory both years, Marcus Lattimore. I do NOT like the Gamecocks in the least, but I DO like Lattimore. He is special back, he is going to make a very good pro RB, I do think he is still not back to 100% yet, but he is getting close and I still say Lattimore at 80% is better than most backs at 100%. Carolina has beat us two years in row and has never in school history beat us 3 years, I sincerely hope that streak continues this year. I do believe we SHOULD win this game because I firmly believe across the board we have more talent. SC lost their top WR Jeffrey that made them a two dimensional team last year, granted when we played them Garcia was still the QB, and now they have Connor Shaw. Maybe Shaw will impress me this week, I hope he doesn't but honestly, I have watched him the last couple years and I have never really come away thinking wow, that kid is a great QB. What he is though is a TOUGH competitor and he is not afraid to do whatever it takes to get a first down, to make a play. I admire his competitive nature, but again, I am just not sold on him as a great starting QB-but the head ball coach obviously is, Shaw reminds me a lot of Spurrier in that he is a gamer and almost cocky-how appropriate that is playing for the Gamecocks.
The SCarolina offense is pretty much in the hands of Shaw and Lattimore. Shaw has been very accurate for the season at 78% completion percentage, while throwing 5 TD's and 2 INT's. He has thrown for 571 yards on 50-64 passes. For comparison sake, Aaron Murray for UGA, stats are 88-129 68%, 12 TD's and 3 INT's. Rushing, Lattimore is the leader 92 carries for 440 yards, 4.8 yards per carry and 8 TD's. Meanwhile our dynamic duo looks like this-Gurley 68 carries for 536 7.9 ypc, and 9 TD's while Marshall is not far behind at 52 carries for 428, 9.2 ypc, and 5 TD's. Now, we all know that stopping the run game will be crucial for both teams but UGA will also have to try contain Shaw's running ability out of the pocket, he is the second leading rusher for the Gamecocks this season-not sure if that is the plan Spurrier had in mind but he already has 50 carries for 203 yards with no TD's, considering he is not a big kid, I think that is way too much for him to be running around. He did get hurt against Vandy in game one and had to sit out game 2, so I would love for UGA to try to really punish him when they get the chance.
Now let's talk defense, where for now, there is no doubt SC is playing MUCH better defense. Let's take a look at the two common opponents first of all, Missouri and Vanderbilt-in both cases, both school at one home and one away, just flipped the opponent.
Missouri offense against UGA-242 yards passing, 113 yards rushing, 355 total yards. Missouri's first home SEC game.
Missouri offense against SC-146 yards passing, 109 yards rushing, 255 total yards. Missouri's first road SEC game.
Vandy offense against SC-214 passing, 62 rushing, 276 total yards
Vandy offense against UGA-231 passing, 106 rushing, 337 total yards.
If you factor in all season, SCarolina is averaging allowing 77.6 yards rushing per game, while allowing 211 yards passing. UGA on the flip side, is allowing 150 yards per game rushing, 217 yards per game passing. I think certainly SCarolina has NOT faced an offensive as explosive as we are this year but we for sure have not faced a defense of this caliber this year.
As for how this game plays out, I do believe UGA has the advantage in that we have already played in a very hostile Columbia earlier this year, we are a veteran team and most of our kids have already played in Columbia, SC before. Our offense has different ways to beat a defense, both quality passing and running game, but I do think our FR backs and our OL will need to establish some sort of running game in order to help give Murray time to pick apart a somewhat suspect SC secondary. For our D, the goal is what it has been the last two times, stop Lattimore and force Shaw to beat you throwing the ball. If we can contain Lattimore, that will go a long way towards beating SCarolina. Of course we lost Michael Bennett to a torn ACL and he is out for the season, but we do have quality depth at WR so hopefully those guys will pick up the slack. One big key though on defense is Ogletree coming back at LB to help stop Lattimore-Tree is maybe one of if not our best LB against the run and he has never played against Latt. The combo of him and Herrera at MLB positions, gives me hope that maybe we can at least slow this kid down. My prediction for this game is that we will score some points and put the pressure on SC to match us. I think initially it will be both team feeling each other out but eventually the Dogs come out and take it to the Gamecocks. It will be tough but we will win it, 27-21 (missed PAT yet again).
Finally, an update on the Grayson 8 year old Rams. We lost our first game of the season last week to a talented Mill Creek team, 19-6. Plain and simple, this team knew we had an explosive offense, they also knew they had a good enough OL to play ball control on us and that is what they did. They simply controlled the ball and kept it away from us. We ran 8 offensive plays in the first half, we trailed 7-6. In the second half, we turned the ball over to start the second half and again they wore on us and wore on us, eventually scoring to take a 13-6 lead. Our offense was stagnant all game and eventually MC stopped us deep in our territory and scored yet again for a 19-6. This week we play at Duluth, a team that is winless on the year, a chance for us get our confidence up for our divisional title game next week with Peachtree Ridge, coached by former UGA great, Randall Godfrey-his son is an amazing athlete. We will crush Duluth this week and get ready for that huge game next week, Rams 30-0.
Hope you all have a great weekend and as always, Go Dogs and Rams! Special shout out to my daughter this weekend as her 8th grade cheer teams competes in the Cheer off competition at Gwinnett Arena. This is her last year to cheer in the GFL rec league so hope she and her teammates go off with a cheer off championship.
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