Georgia football: What went right and wrong against Austin Peay
What went wrong
The perfect games are rare and likely impossible to achieve. There’s always something to work on, and here are a few of areas Georgia needs to give attention to down the road.
Shoddy run stopping early
Austin Peay rushed for 91 yards on Saturday, 59 of those yards came on the Governor’s first three possessions. And 36 of those rushing yards came on their missed field goal drive between the first and second quarters.
But the Dawgs did recover and didn’t allow a single rushing yard for the rest of the second quarter. Austin Peay gained 32 rushing yards against Georgia’s third and fourth-string in the second half. We’ll have to wait and see if this was indicative of an issue in Georgia’s front-seven, or just the coaches being conservative in their defensive schemes. Austin Peay is a playoff contender at the FCS level, so they’re far from the worst FCS team to come to Sanford Stadium.
Sailing punts
This one is a little nit-picky, but it should be addressed. First, I was very impressed by Jake Camarda. He is one of the strongest punters I’ve ever seen. His punts are high, and they travel a long distance. He just needs to work on control, two of his punts ended as touchbacks.
In his defense, the first one could have been stopped, had the cover guys not slowed down near the end because of a fair catch. Though I’m looking forward to seeing Camarda kick out of the end zone. Spike Jones’ 50-year record might be in trouble.
Cramped corridors at Sanford Stadium
Perhaps the worst aspect of the game Saturday had nothing to do with the action on the field. The corridors on the lower level (behind the south stands at least) were over crowded and barely moved for 15 minutes. Thousands of fans missed the team entering from the west end zone, a new feature fans were interested in seeing. Many of those thousands missed the opening kickoff.
Georgia should make Atlanta their second home. dark. Next
I didn’t get close enough to the root of the issue to figure out what was slowing the lines down. I instead had to walk down one isle near the back of the line, walk on the field level, and then walk back up to my seat, just to see the kickoff. I missed the entrance so I was determined not to miss kickoff. The University and Sanford Stadium need to fix that before the Middle Tennessee State game. That should be seen as an embarrassment.