Good morning, y’all. Well last night was a true test of sobriety. It seems that this year’s version of the Bulldogs is going to be a test of faith for all concerned. It didn’t help my nervous condition any that we’ve actually got two sets of Missouri supporters here at TackyToo. I guess I can’t fault them for trying to improve their lot by becoming Georgians, but they should change their team loyalty when they get their Georgia driver’s license. Makes more sense than the silly, “I ain’t an alien business”.
The game started out innocent enough. Missouri won the toss and deferred. We promptly took the ball and gave it back to Missouri on a Greyson Lambert interception. Thirty seconds into the game and Missouri is first and goal from our one. Not the most auspicious of starts. Fortunately, our defense received the memo about showing up for games, and held the line for us. We escaped the interception with just a field goal. Way to go defense. What the hey, offense?
It was either a classic struggle by two very good defenses, or two very bad offenses, or a combinations of each. I’m leaning towards the combination. While the defense played well, they were up against a Freshman quarterback and a hobbled running back. Our pass rush looked much improved, and I believe we were playing all Freshman defensive backs for the last two quarters. Our leading defensive back, Senior Dominick Sanders was ejected for targeting in the third quarter. This left us with nothing but Bullpups in the backfield, but they did fine.
Our lack of offense is becoming, well, offensive. Greyson Lambert doesn’t seem to trust his receivers and certainly doesn’t believe in throwing the receiver open. With Nick Chubb on the sideline we are now playing running back by committee. Fortunately, we’ve got a week off to coach up these young lads before our showdown with the Gators in Jacksonville. At this point I think the coaches should draw on every player who ever won the red and black to come back and offer tips of the trade to this team. They definitely need a spark, particularly on offense.
Offense:
Greyson Lambert was adequate, not horrible. He was 23 of 32 for 178 yards with no touchdowns and one kick in the crotch interception. Greyson continues to exhibit a lack of comfort in the pocket and a lack of vision.
Sony Michel did his best to take over the productivity of Nick Chubb and competed well. He finished the day with 87 yards rushing on 26 attempts and added another 13 yards in the air. There seems to be concern he can’t taking the pounding of SEC football, and so we featured:
Brendan Douglas, who finished the day with 24 yards rushing on 9 attempts and added another 15 yards in the air. Brendan is a bulldozer, he is not a finesse runner. Brendan needs to learn that its ok to run over his teammates if that’s where the hole is.
Malcolm Mitchell contributed 49 yards receiving, on just 7 receptions. Malcolm and Greyson seemed to be out of sync as to what play had been called a couple of times. In Malcolm’s defense, he was being held a lot.
Terry Godwin, a Freshman, was the big receiving star with 78 yards receiving, on just 6 receptions. Terry added 49 yards on punt returns in relief of the injured Isiah McKenzie. Terry gives us hope for the future.
Defensive: the Dawgs continue to look improved, and I was very impressed with the Freshmen play. I will say that Coach Richt took a lot more risks in this game than he did with Tennessee or Alabama. I think it was a lack of respect in Missouri’s offense rather than an epiphany involving our defense. It was good to see a pass rush and to hear some names called out, like Lorenzo Carter, who were supposed to be game changers.
Special teams: are our “box of chocolates”. We covered kickoffs well and then embarrassed ourselves on an onside kick attempt. The ball didn’t go ten yards. I appreciate the trickeration, I just expect better execution. Marshall Morgan was 3 of 4 in the field goal department, it took two tries to kick the game winner. Terry Godwin looked good with 49 yards in punt returns. Collin Barber’s punting was adequate, which I guess is the best we can hope for.
Time of possession was tilted in our favor, 39 minutes to 21. Glad the coaches got my memo.
Taking comfort in other people’s sorrow, Georgia Tech lost again. Thank God LSU took care of Florida, setting up a monster game in Jacksonville. I just wish I could be there. Could life get any more interesting?