2. 06 Sep 2009

    Football thoughts: the day after

    shorterexcerpts:

    What has me worried and wildly pessimistic about the season—well the most anyway?

    Okie State never really looked like a good team. If it turns out they battle Texas for the Big 12 title (let’s face it, a Sam Bradfordless Sooner team won’t stay within 5 TDs of the ‘Horns this season) maybe I’m wrong. Dez Bryant is no Larry Fitzgerald, but he’s good. Beyond that though, I was unimpressed. Neither team looked that good, and Georgia looked very, very, very bad on offense.

    Best-case scenario from this? OSU’s new defense coordinator is that good, and the Cowpokes contend for a national title, and Willie somehow did turn around the UGA D and no one holds Okie State under 30 points the rest of the season.

    But I can’t really convince myself of that just yet…

    My Day After thoughts:

    - The defense was phenomenal. It would have been nice to get one of those three tipped balls as a pick, and a sack wouldn’t kill us. But given last year’s woes, and struggles against mobile QBs, the D stepped up and kept a vaulted Offense in check. If you had told me that we would hold OSU to 45 yards in the 1st quarter, and 307 total yards, I would have told you we won.

    - Turnovers will kill any team. Thomas’ and Cox’s fumbles were killer. This just speaks even more to our Defense’s remarkable efforts. After Thomas fumbled in the shadow of our own goal posts, the D stood tall holding OSU to a field goal.

    -Poor special teams will kill any team. We have got to learn to tackle on kicks. Again, credit to the D when Cox (OSU) returned the kick 75 yards. Given a favorable spot on 3rd down, OSU quickly snuck it in.

    -An additional special teams note. Quit playing freshmen. Butler was huge in this game for us. The freshmen on special teams killed us. One punt could have been downed at the 1, instead was a touchback. On the other side, I have never seen anyone run so many kickoffs from 7 yards deep in the endzone.

    -The biggest downfall of this game was our offense. It was anemic at times. Our RBs were tripping over their own feet. We abandoned the running game at times (which was our biggest advantage pounding against a smaller front). Outside of the first drive, none of the receivers wanted to make plays, especially the freshmen. Cox stared down his receivers all day. This will be where our season is determined. If Richt and Bobo can make adjustments against South Carolina, the season will turn out fine. I projected us at 9-3 anyways. But we can’t play the JT3 game again. Either Cox has to get it together, or the coaches need to start playing Murray. He’s the future of the team (sorry Logan Gray). Stick to the run game. Utilize the TE. Use the FB. Let the WRs develop (which they will if you commit to the run). If Bobo doesn’t fix this, it will be a long, agonizing season (Especially in JAX).

    -One final note: that is easily the worst call by an official I have ever seen. Yes, it was one play in the grand scheme of the game. But it had a tremendous impact. It directly led to 7 points. It took away all of UGA’s momentum and gift wrapped it to OSU. It was awful. AWFUL. If you are going to try and protect receivers, then make it consistent. You can’t wave off a flag for the same thing earlier in the game (the hit on Chapas) and then decide you are suddenly going to enforce it. Reshad Jones DID NOT lead with the helmet. He DID NOT make helmet contact. The OSU receiver was TOUCHING the ball, but took his eyes off because he was about to get jacked. This is football.

    *sigh* Go Dawgs. GATA