Yesterday was a wonder autumn Saturday. Wubya and I travelled north to the Classic City to watch our beloved Georgia Bulldogs take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Mississippi State showed their distain and disrespect for Georgia by jumping on the “G” during the pre-game, and the Red & Black Attack took exception to their actions. The entire UGA team, including the injured players, ran to midfield to push MSU of the “G”. It was a beautiful thing.
You could tell the Mutts’ actions insulted the Dawgs. Instead of playing out of control when the game started, UGA channeled their aggression and completely dominated MSU. The score appears close, but Mississippi State never had a chance. Our defense simply overpowered them and probably should have had at least three more interceptions. Sanders Commings and Shawn Williams had 1 interception each. Cornelius Washington had 2 sacks. The defense forced 1 sack and held the Mutts to 213 total yards.
Isaiah Crowell is legit. He hits the hole hard, has great vision and cut back ability, and he always falls forward. He still needs to learn how to black. Crowell finished with 104 yards off 22 carries. The touchdown run they reversed was sweet. Carlton Thomas added 35 yards and 1 touchdown and Richard Samuel added 28 yards. Although Samuels did not finish with lots of yards, he is starting to get his running back vision. I have been critically of his play, but I like the fact that he is willing to put team first and play whatever position they need him to play.
Coach Mark Richt and Mike Bobo need to talk with Aaron Murray immediately because he is in the middle of a sophomore slump. The 3 interceptions he had were reminiscent of the ones Joe Cox use to throw – just plain bad. Georgia won yesterday’s game in spite of him. Murray’s staying in the pocket too long and he needs to stop keying in on one receiver. On a positive note, he went 13 of 25 for 160 yards and 2 touchdowns. He threw to six different receivers – Orson Charles (46 yards and 1 touchdown), Tavarres King (21 yards), Carlton Thomas (14 yards), Michael Bennett (11 yards), Chris Conley (8 yards), and Malcolm Mitchell (60 yards and 1 touchdown).
It is hard to believe that Mitchell is a true freshman. He is not afraid to catch the ball in traffic and he makes the big catches. One of my favorite plays of yesterday was a catch he did not make. It was third and long and Murray overthrew the ball, but Mitchell laid out to at least to catch the errant threw. That is heart. We may be seeing the next A.J. Green.
Overall, Georgia played a great game and the offensive and defensive lines deserve most of the credit; however, I have two concerns. First, Aaron Murray has to find his game. He has not played a complete game this season and I believe he is trying to do too much. Murray needs to take it easy and let the game come to him. Further, Murray needs to take care of the ball. He has thrown more turnovers in 5 games than he did all last season.
Second, Georgia’s offense must improve when Isaiah Crowell is not in the game. The offense looks anemic and out of sync when Crowell’s on the sideline. The Dawgs had this same issue when Knoshown Moreno left games two seasons ago. Two things generally happen – Richard Samuel and Carlton Thomas fail to gain yards or UGA abandons the run altogether. Either way, this is not good for the Red & Black Attack. Hopefully, the Dawgs can get this worked out as they head to Rocky Top.
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