Saturday, November 8, 2008

Capitol One or BUST!

It's hard to watch a game like UGA UK today. There's still a hangover from the Florida loss (blowout) and the stark realization that we're not as good as we either think we are or want to be. Personally, I'm glad that we can come out and play that poorly, lose a couple of key turnovers and STILL win.
Couple of comments and a couple of questions, then, at this point.
It was only a matter of time until our poor kickoff coverage was going to come up and bite us. Of negligible consolation is that they actually did not score the touchdown. It took 'em a couple of plays.
ANOTHER offensive lineman (Anderson?) went down and had to be replaced. It's not been since I think 2002 or earlier that I can remember this many key injuries. How can we expect to beat anyone when we don't even know who's going to be playing at what position?
Brian Mimbs is either red hot or ice cold. We need some consistency there. Although, the blown blocking assignment definitely contributed to the block. So, we had a blocked kick and a 19 yard punt.
Playcalling in the red zone. I can't possibly know what Bobo knows, but when you have 2nd and goal from the 3, two healthy fullbacks that are great blockers, and Knowshon Moreno, why would you pass? And of course, you have the gunslinger (Stafford) that knows that if he can buy enough time he can DEFINITELY make a play, which he did (corner of the endzone pass to AJ Green), but it's higher risk and has oftentime led to a sack. (Cue highlight reel)
At least Blair Walsh didn't have to try to kick a field goal. Good for him.
The stuff you thought you could depend on fails at a critical moment (Mo Mass 2 consecutive fumbles, then he torches them on the third...head-scratcher)
Defense. If you want to call it that. I really want to like Martinez, and I have no reason not to. I don't think that game in and game out he produces a quality product. Newsflash: do you think that Tech after getting crushed today isn't going to be looking at that game tape and thinking they have a legitimate chance to beat us, considering they run a lot of option, and we have NO idea how to defend it? It wasn't so much up the middle as it was around the edges. We did step up and clamp it down at the end. What about having to call a timeout at the end of the game because we weren't ready to field a defense after a punt? Where's the gamesmanship?
The killer penalty that drains our momentum. Facemask. Late hits. Hands to the face. We're marked and expected to make those dumb mistakes. And then we do.

(sighs longingly)
It's frustrating. I guess I'm mostly bummed that even if we win, it doesn't matter so much in the national and SEC picture. If we lose, this thing could come derailed in a hurry. Just because Hawaii's a nice place to visit, that's not the kind of bowl we want to be playing in.

See, all that, and we WON. Go you hairy 'Dawgs!

1 comment:

JW said...

Before we completely bury the defense, let's see what they do against an Auburn team that's averaging 14 ppg in SEC play...CMR will never fire Willie, he said in the AJC early in the week that Willie was doing a terrific job and the fans don't know much about defense if they think he's the problem...Lots of insane people calling for CMR to be fired on the blogs (You have got to be freaking kidding me)...History lesson. In the 8 years that CMR has been in Athens, we've averaged 10 wins/year & have finished an average of 10th in the final AP poll. In the 8 years prior, our highest win total was 10 (once) and our highest final ranking was 10 (once). 4 of the 8 years we failed to win more then 6 games and finished unranked. To really know the impact of CMR, take the 8 years when he was OC at FSU. Same crappy 8 years for UGA. Average wins 11/year, average AP finish #3, 2 national titles. In the 8 years since he left- Average wins 8/year, best AP finish 11th, last 2 years finished unranked. People are HIGH!