Good morning, y’all. I have to admit this is the first game I’ve watched completely sober in forever. I find the same things that irritated the beejesus out of me while I was imbibing, bother me when I’m sober.
Daddy used to say, “don’t complain about the farmer with your mouthful”, which was his way of saying don’t complain about a situation that is in your favor. I guess I’m just a whiner. Georgia turned back the infidels from the University of Louisiana AT Monroe by a score of 51-14, but I see room for improvement.
After our first possession, a 3 and out, we unleashed the Kraken, who wears number 27 by the way. Nick Chubb drew first blood with a nifty 14 yard run through a hole so big I believe I could have walked through it. Chubb scored twice and totaled 120 yards on the day, his ninth straight 100 yard game. We were treated to the return of Keith Marshall who scored twice with 73 yards rushing. The big surprise to me though, was Sony Michel. Coming out of the backfield as a receiver, he is frightening, a 31 yard touchdown play to go with his 44 yards rushing. Offensively, we are truly blessed. The indecision at quarterback seems to be in our rear-view mirror. Barring injuries, or stupid boneheaded decisions made by young men away from home for the first time, we look like we can run with the big dogs.
Special teams were exceptional, in the good way. Someone figured out that kickoffs that go deep into the end zone can’t hurt you like squibs can. We made all of our extra points, and generally looked much improved from last year. Our kickoff and punt returns are going to create points this year, I guarantee it!
Defensively, while light years ahead of the Grantham years, we still need a lot of work. I am a true believer in the one true defensive God, Erk Russell. Erk’s quote, “If we score, we may win. If they never score, we’ll never lose.”, should be tattooed on the back of the hands of the defensive players so they can refer to it as often as necessary. For most of Coach Richt’s tenure, Georgia’s defense has looked like the defensive efforts of NBA All-Star games, last team that scores, wins. After the loss of defensive coordinator Brian Van Gorder to the NFL, the Georgia defense has resembled the cast of “Dazed and Confused”, in their level of play.
“Dazed and Confused” reached its zenith a couple of years ago under defensive coach Todd Grantham. It was a common pre-snap occurrence to have nine players wandering around waving their arms for direction from the sidelines. We seemed to have reversed the situation today with only two players wandering around looking for their assignment. I feel zero lost players is the only acceptable number. Sometimes it’s the simple scheme executed perfectly that has the best chance for success. I’m looking forward to a big improvement next week against Vanderbilt.
In defense of the defense, we did have a pick, a blocked punt for a safety and until we completely lost our focus near the end of the half, had held the intruders in check. It’s the loss of focus that kills us. It would never happen if Erk was still around. Erk demanded focus among other things.
Well, Auburn certainly looks beatable, as does Tennessee and Florida. Alabama and South Carolina will require focus, I hope we can find it.