Ok, so who we thought we took home in our drunken stupor Saturday night, Angelina Jolie, turned out Sunday morning to be Godzilla! So let’s slap that big lizard on the gurney and do a proper autopsy.
Not that I like saying I told you so, but if you look at my blog posted Saturday before the game, I said Kentucky would score 4 touchdowns, which of course they did (two the last quarter), and their final score (31) was within one field goal of what I predicted (28). I also predicted a close game, within 3 points, with the Dawgs winning. On the surface, looking at the final score (44-31), you would say I really blew that call. However, if you actually watched the game semi-sober and look at the final stats, I was eerily close. In fact, but for the 4 first half turnovers, it not only would have been a close game, but we probably would have lost.
First, let’s look at total yardage. Kentucky (4-4, 1-4) outgained Georgia 423-290 total yards. Kentucky had 22 first downs to our 13. Hartline had passing yardage of 353 yards to Murray’s 113. Kentucky had less penalty yardage of 3 for 21 to our 4 for 28. Kentucky had 9 of 15 3rd down conversions to our 5 of 10. Kentucky’s time of possession was 32.05 to our 27:55.
They beat us absolutely everywhere except in two facets: 1) Georgia had 177 yards rushing to Kentucky’s 70, and 2) Georgia had only one turn over to Kentucky’s four. That was the tale of the tape. Georgia got four very easy quick touchdowns after Kentucky turnovers, all on Kentucky’s side of the 50 in the first half. And then we sat on the ball, running it almost the entire second half to eat up clock and hope that Kentucky would not have enough time to catch up and pass us, before the final whistle. Which, of course, they almost did, due to our defense deciding to take the rest of the game off after the first half. (source of statistics: ESPN College Football Online)
The players even admitted as much. “We started out doing the little things, but toward the end we quit,” Houston said. “We stopped. That’s one thing we have to learn how to do is finish. That’s a team right there that plays a hard second half. We came out in the second half and we were light on our feet. We weren’t playing as hard as we did at the start of the game. We got to learn how to play all four quarters.” Then, Sanders Commings had this to say. “Really, when the game is close, that didn’t really happen to us,” Commings said. “When we have a big lead like that we kind of relaxed. That’s one thing we have to work on.” (source: Yardbarker).
Let me get this straight, we have a team that lost 4 straight games (primarily because of poor defensive play); we finally are in the process of winning our 3rd straight game; and our defensive players knowingly slacked off, because they thought the game was in the bag????????????? This was the same Kentucky team that went into half time last week against South Carolina, with the same exact score, and they came back to win it in the second half. They almost duplicated the same exact thing against Auburn and barely lost that one. And our defense, knowing this was a must win game for our team to have any hope of staying in the SEC East race, or at least have a chance at a mid-level bowl game, decided to slack off a little. I AM SORRY FOLKS THAT IS NOTHING BUT POOR COACHING, CONDITIONING, OR BOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now let’s look at the bright spots. Aaron Murray, although not very active in this one, did his job and had no turnovers or interceptions. We had a good running game with Washaun Ealey gaining 157 yards on 28 carries with 5 touchdowns. Although we didn’t have far to go, we did in fact take advantage of the turn overs and scored in the red zone, without shooting ourselves in the foot. “No one has ever had five rushing touchdowns in the history of Georgia football so that’s a big deal,” said Georgia coach Mark Richt of Ealey’s feat. “Washaun is holding onto the ball well, is running well and when he gets banged up a little, he sucks it up and goes back into the ball game. I saw a lot of positive things from Washaun tonight.” (source: BullDawg Illustrated)
Another troublesome area is our kicking game. What in heaven’s name is going on with Blair Walsh? Even in all of the losses, if no one else on the team, he has been the one Rock of Gibraltar. Now he missed an easy 3 pointer in the Vandy Game, and then he misses an easy 3 pointer plus an extra point in the Kentucky game. We all sure hope that this is not a trend, as his foot could be the difference between winning and losing in our next two SEC bouts.
So, to wrap up, yes the important thing is that we won, and we are still “hanging in there.” However, when really scrutinized this was not the blow out that it appears by the score. We cannot count on Florida coughing it up four times like Kentucky did, and we are not going to be able to run the ball with ease against them as we did against Kentucky. If our defense does not play a full four quarters (as they should every damn game) as hard as they possibly can, to the best of their ability, Florida once again will hand us our “head on a platter.” Don’t forget, Florida had a bye week this past weekend, and historically the team with the bye week usually wins.
The rest of the week we will dig deep into the Georgia vs Florida Footlocker, and I will provide you multitudes of anecdotes, scores, and photos that truly make this the “WORLDS LARGEST COCKTAIL PARTY.”
ADDITIONALLY, I WOULD LIKE ANYBODY OUT THERE WHO ACTUALLY READS THIS BLOG TO PROVIDE YOUR BEST RECIPE FOR “GATOR TAIL,” COMMENCING IMMEDIATELY IF NOT SOONER. THEN, THIS FRIDAY WE WILL TAKE YOUR VOTES ON THE BEST RECIPE. THE WINNER GETS HIS OR HER RECIPE POSTED IN THE BLOG ALONG WITH THEIR PHOTO, IF PROVIDED! NO MATTER HOW GROSS THE RECIPE IS, I WILL PREPARE SOME GATOR TAIL ACCORDING TO SPECS AND GIVE YOU A TASTE REPORT. PLEASE, NO INGREDIENTS THAT WILL KILL ME OR MAKE ME SICK. I WOULD LIKE TO LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE THE GAME SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
REMEMBER, A BLOG WITHOUT COMMENTS IS THE SAME AS “THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING!”
GO YOU HAIRY DAMN DAWGS! DEATH TO THE GATORS!
By: Dawgman1973 (Gary K.) Lead-Blogger for “Dawn of the Dawg”