Good morning, y’all. As I pointed out earlier, there is no greater bond for the male of the species than college sports, football most particularly. I believe it was Jeff Foxworthy that said, “all Southern men know how to drive NASCAR and coach football”. I completely agree. In the spirit of male bonding, I wheeled my band mate, Axel Rhodes, down to the Rec room to catch the game on the big screen.
Well, I call it game, I guess, because two groups of finely tuned athletes met on the field of honor, to do battle for their respective supporters. Like last week, the game got off to an optimistic start, it was 0 to 0 at kickoff. Things immediately deteriorated to hell on earth for the Georgia faithful.
Our all world running back, Nick Chubb, went down with a horrific season ending injury on the first play of the game. I can’t explain the sudden loss of God’s love or the spite of the “karmic witches”, or whatever forces were in play that predisposed this event. I watched Lawrence Taylor break Joe Theismann’s leg on Monday Night football a long time ago, and I believe watching Nick Chubb’s was worse. By all accounts he is a fine young man and I am deeply saddened by the event and wish him a speedy recovery. He will be greatly missed.
It was the end of the second quarter that the wheels came off of the cart. The Bulldogs sported a 24-3 lead over the inbreds of Tennessee when Coach Richt went “Classic Richt” and allowed the team to go stupid. The Volunteers scored twice in 38 seconds, and the point differential became 7 points with the Volunteers getting the second half kickoff. Classic Richt.
For the second week in a row, the failure to compete rested mostly with the offense. Special teams are in desperate need of an overhaul, staring with the punter. I believe I could get more hang time under a ball than our current punter, and I’m old. The defense was on the field all night, a tribute to our offense not being able to mount a sustained drive. Apparently our NFL offensive coordinator doesn’t know the importance of possession. It is clear our Offensive coordinator has not learned the playbook yet. Otherwise, why would he keep calling the same plays? I will say that keeping the offense on the bench the whole game kept them fresh right up until the end. The Volunteers running 90 plays didn’t help our defense much though.
Offense:
Greyson Lambert was adequate, not horrible. He was 15 of 33 for 279 yards for two touchdowns and no interceptions. Greyson has issues, not the least of which is locking on a receiver.
Nick Chubb is a fine young man who deserves to be tied with Herschel for the consecutive 100 yard games. I wish it had been more, and I wish him a speedy recovery.
Sony Michel took over the reins from Nick Chubb and acquitted himself well. He finished the day with 145 yards rushing and 26 yards in the air. Clearly he will be our “Big Dog” going forward.
Malcolm Mitchell contributed 85 yards receiving, on just 5 receptions. Malcolm caught a real beauty for a touchdown.
Reggie Davis was the big receiving star with 101 yards receiving, on just 3 receptions. Reggie caught one touchdown and dropped the game tier. It sucks to be the goat, hopefully it will be a great learning lesson for him.
Defensive: the Dawgs continue to look improved, but can not be counted on to take over the offensive’s scoring responsibilities. First blood of the night was drawn by a fumble recovery carried back for a touchdown. Hope sprang at that point only to be dashed just before half time. Again, the lack of offense on our part left our defense on the field the whole day. I was wore out from watching them play, I can only imagine how tired they were.
Special teams: are just a mixed bag of nuts. I guess if we can keep them on the positive side of the scoring we can call them a wash. Morgan was 1 of 2 in the field goal department and hit all of his extra points(4). Reggie Davis contributed with 73 yards in kickoff returns and 71 yards in punt returns, one for a touchdown.
Time of possession was once again skewed to the opponent, 34 minutes to 26. Somebody needs to fix that.
Well, at least Georgia Tech lost, but Florida is undefeated. The team that showed up this week could lose the rest of their games, including Georgia Southern. Could life get any more interesting?