Saturday, September 05, 2009

#13 Georgia 10, #9 Oklahoma State 24

I’ve been waiting all summer of Georgia football and it finally arrived, but in a losing effort as the Bulldogs travelled out west to lose to the Cowboys. The G-Day defense started its march toward redemption from last year’s nightmare season as they held the “high powered” OK State offense to rather pedestrian statistics. The Cowboys’ much hyped quarterback, Zac Robinson, finished with 135 yards, star running back, Kendall Hunter, finished with 75 yards, and top receiver, Dez Bryant, 77 yards.

Georgia fans knew the offense would miss Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, but the question was how much the team would miss them. Today, they missed a ton, as the Dawgs struggled to move the ball and failed to protect the ball, allowing 3 turnovers – 1 interception and 2 fumbles.

Fifth year senior Joe Cox finally got his chance to start for the Bulldogs. At times he looked poised, but other times he looked liked a career backup. Cox finished 15 of 30 for 162 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. However, Cox did a great job distributing the ball, with passes to a wide variety of players – A.J. Green, Orson Charles, Carlton Thomas, Aron White, Richard Samuel, Shaun Chapas, Michael Moore, Caleb King, Tavarres King, and Branden Smith.

Richard Samuel got the start at running back, rushing for 87 yards on 20 carries. Standout wide receiver A.J. Green finished with 52 yards, but his production was limited by Cox’s shaky play. Michael Moore continued to show his potential with 1 touchdown pass.

The Dawgs offense, especially Joe Cox, is going to have to improve if the team wants to not only compete but win games this year. It’s clear that Cox doesn’t have the arm strength of former starter Matthew Stafford. To compensate, Cox needs to improve his accuracy in the short and intermediate passes and be smart when he throws the long ball. Additionally, he needs to improve his presence in the pocket and learn when the throw the ball away and not take the sack.

Although Coach Richt did a great job of mixing things up and introducing dual threat quarterback Logan Gray and multiple purpose freshmen Branden Smith. He needs think of creative ways of getting the ball into A.J. Green’s hands and possibly relying more on the running backs and not Cox.

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