Ugh, Saturday’s contest sure was ugly wasn’t it? It’s going to make doing a recap tough, but let’s hit up the X’s and O’s and save the Gloat Fest 2007 for another post. In other words, expect this to be short. I can’t wait to brag.




The Stats Say:

Lies! All of them! From the stats it looks like Georgia had a dominating offensive performance (420+ yards and 30+ points scored), but the game was actually much closer than that. There are really only two things you can point out for sure:

• Tech did, in fact, keep Knowshon Moreno in check, but still surrendered numerous yards on the ground to Thomas Brown.

• Tech’s sack-happy defense had could did not have enough time to get to Matt Stafford. The team that leads the nation in sacks only had one against the Dawgs, which you can attribute to solid offensive game-planning, and the superb job that Stacy Searels has done with this young unit.

The Good:

Thomas Brown – Tech’s Defense worried so much about Knowshon that they forgot Brown could run. When you scamper for 130+ yards against the seventh ranked defense in the nation, you had a good day. His efforts helped set up the play action pass and his late touchdown run put the game away. All in all, it was a great way for the Senior to go out.

Matt Stafford – Again, Stafford proves himself to be a “big down” quarterback, but not the “every down” quarterback. Some of his throws will ill-advised, but the passes to Bailey and Mo Mass were things of beauty. He is really learning to put touch on the deep ball. Whoever we play in the bowl game better have a strong secondary or we’re going to torch the mess out of them.

WR Corps – These guys are doing a lot of things right. I have yet to see them crocodile arm any passes out of fear of getting hit, drop balls that were perfectly placed, or drop key blocks. These guys are doing nearly everything right and are coming up in big ways when the team needs them to. I have not been a huge fan of John Eason, but whatever he’s done with this group has been huge. Mo Mass and Sean Bailey both had solid games and seven different receivers caught passes on Saturday.

The Entire Defense – Our LBs are still ball hawking, we’re still getting pressure with the D-line, and the Secondary is playing the pass better than they have all year. There were still some weak spots regarding tackling and we were burnt deep a few times and just got lucky that Tech didn’t convert, but all in all it was a good effort by the entire group. Tashard Choice is a good running back and aside from that one drive where he was unstoppable, we did a pretty good job of keeping him contained.

Ball Control – Part of this can be attributed to Georgia Tech’s atrocious offense not being able to stay on the field, but our offense again showed amazing balance and sustained a few clock-eating drives. The key to Tenuta’s defense is for all their legs to stay fresh for the blitz and you could tell by the end of the game that we had just worn them slap out.



The Bad:

Sloppy Play – Both the Dawgs and the Jackets had poor showings on either side of the ball by surrendering big yards at certain times, as well as not taking care of the ball on offense. The turnover margin went in the Dawgs’ favor, and a case (though not a strong one) could be made that the Dawgs got a call or two here and there. However, Tech shot themselves in the foot, and if you want to bitch about officiating, then we can revisit the 1999 game and count that as a win for the Dawgs.

Flat Openings – I’m not sure if we just thought we were going to cake-walk Tech or what, but we started flat on the road again. I think part of the problem is that none of these kids have lost to Tech (but can you really consider that a problem?), and therefore they just don’t know what it’s like to lose to the Yellow Jackets. If they knew how much heck they’d receive for losing, then we probably would’ve come out and destroyed them from the start. Maybe they just didn’t come out playing with enough emotion, or HEART. Yeah, that previous sentence is meant to be sarcastic.




Overall:

I think Dawg fans will look at the “W” and be satisfied, and ultimately, that’s how they should take it. In my mind, it’s always nice to walk away with a win, but I wish we could’ve played a little bit more solid ball and hung about 50 on the Jackets. Let’s not forget that the Dawgs were driving and could have scored one more time to further the embarrassment, but Mark Richt is not that kind of guy, and to be fair, Chan Gailey doesn’t deserve it anyway. He’s down right now and there’s no reason to kick him.

More on this later during the Gloat Fest that is coming, but Georgia Tech just isn’t Georgia. Plain and simple. If they would have won, it would’ve been because Georgia shot themselves in the foot (which we tried to do a few times), and not because Tech has better players, better coaching, or anything like that. They just don’t. End of story.

Gloat Fest up next.



Until next time kids.

Be safe.

Labels: College Football, Game Recaps, Tuck Fech, UGA Football