Good morning, y’all. On a rainy day in Georgia, my worst fears were recognized, as the wet conditions prevented my Dawgs from achieving the 55-0 victory I predicted yesterday. I had all of my mojo set right for the game. I had the Subway sandwiches on time, I was dressed to the 9’s in my UGA regalia and Butts the wonder dog was in his favorite spot. The folks at TackyToo were ready for a beat down.
The Dawgs squeaked out a 48-6 win in Athens over the Jaguars of Baton Rouge. Like their band, the Jaguars came to play, but ultimately they were no match for the boys in red. In a game that started slow, 3 and out by Southern and a Georgia drive ending in a field goal, I feared the Bulldogs were going to revert to their old bad habit of “playing down to the level of their competition”. Our offensive line seemed less than inspired, as Chubb attempt after Chubb attempt were stuffed by the Southern D. Thank goodness, Greyson Lambert had not forgotten his raison d’etre, as he connected on all of his attempts but one. Lambert was sacked for the first time this season, but he held onto the ball. Good on him.
In a rather uninspired first half, the Bulldogs led 20-6. Southern led Georgia in rushing yards 28 to 27 in the first half. I’ll let that one sink in for a moment. Fortunately, the passing yards were 91 to 29 in favor of the Dawgs.
A new attitude seemed to inspire the boys in the second half as they took the opening kickoff and proceeded to drive down the field for a touchdown. Chubb finished up the drive with a nine yard touchdown run. Chubb ran for more yards in this drive than the entire first half. Somebody must have lit a fire for the O line at half time. They look like they got the message that a game was being played today. After this score, the rout was on. Here are some highlights:
Offense-
Nick Chubb, 139 yards rushing, 24 yards receiving, 3 touchdowns, 12th straight hundred yard game tying Herschel’s record. He is a monster if given a little effort by the O line.
Greyson Lambert, 9 of 10 passing for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns. Another touchdown was called back on a ticky tacky call. It was the touchdown the Georgia fans have been calling for all season, Malcolm Mitchell on a go route. Malcolm was three yards behind the defender and the pass was perfect.
Sony Michel continues to look like another world beater and added 75 yards rushing and 7 yards receiving.
Malcolm Mitchell added 96 yards in receptions and caught some balls in tight places. His penalty negated touchdown was a thing of beauty.
Isaiah McKenzie added 74 yards in receptions and 5 very exciting yards in punt returns.
I was very happy that we emptied the bench in the fourth quarter and gave a lot of Bullpups the opportunity to get playing time.
Defense – Came to play and appeared to not having gotten the memo to take the first half off. They held the Jaguar offense to under 200 hundreds for the game and were in control the whole way. The D played just like we expect our defense to play, controlled mayhem. Let’s hope they show the same amount of dominance next week. I’d love to get to the 4th quarter against Bama and start subbing in the Freshman again.
Special teams – Did not disappoint, and that’s a big improvement. We have got to have absolute concentration next week or we might be the victims of trickeration.
Coaches – I love the half time adjustment. It seems like we’ve found a coach that can inspire at half time instead of console. I like the boys playing like their heads are on fire. Whoever is pumping the boys up at half time, turn up the volume!
Speaking of turning up the volume, the Southern University marching band: