I know I should be grateful that my Dawgs beat Western Carolina 45-16, but I was really not that impressed. Let me preface this by saying that I haven’t seen the game because I was at the lab, but Kit kept me updated with texts (big thank you!) and I caught the 2nd half on the radio. I’m gonna catch the replay on CSS tonight for sure.
My biggest complaint is our Defense. Again. The stats speak for themselves. Someone please explain to me why Willie Martinez cannot get our guys to stop a mobile QB or the running game for that matter? It’s not like this is a new problem for us! I swear, he has this innate ability of making talented athletes look like idiots on the field. Why for God’s sakes, do we continue to run the same crappy schemes when we know it’s useless? How is it that we recruit mega-watt talents, yet when they get to Georgia they suddenly lose the ability to tackle?
This is Georgia’s Defense… great.
Continuing the crappy trend of not causing turnovers, we had 1 sack for a loss of 8 measly yards. No interceptions. They give up 3 fumbles and we can’t grab 1??? We gave up an unbelievable 201 total net yards to a team that has been the whipping boy for other SEC programs. Both Florida (last Nov) and Bama, 2 teams we meet very soon in case you’ve forgotten, took WCU to the woodshed. Yet we let them run up and down Sanford Stadium and allowed them to control the ball all day – their time of possession was 32:56 vs. our 27:40. Nice.
I did not want to jump on the “Fire Martinez and Jancek” bandwagon, but I’m more than willing to start the petition at this point! I’m done with the excuses and the inconsistency. I’m sure they’re good men, and I don’t wish them to be in the unemployment line – I know they have families & I’m not that cold – but enough is enough. I’m sorry, but I’m a very results oriented type of person. Coach Martinez and Coach Jancek just are NOT producing winning results. I’m stunned that we gave up 138 passing yards… that’s an average of almost 6 yds/pass. Does anyone honestly think we’re gonna stop Bama next week with this pathetic excuse of a Defense we’re displaying? If you do, then you need to have your head examined or take off your red & black goggles.
More of this please.
The other stat that jumped out at me was our kick return coverage, or lack thereof. WCU had 6 returns for 211 freakin’ yards! My God, how the hell did we let Western Carolina return kicks for 211 yards??? We had 2 for 27. No joke. I was listening to Munson as Western was returning a kick and I was stunned as he’s talking about WCU running through our Defense. You gotta be kidding me!
There were several bright spots though. Probably more than I’ll mention in this posts because a) I’m pretty negative at the moment and b) I’ll see more when I watch the game.
Again looking at the stats, we converted both 4th down opportunities, and held WCU to a 33% 3rd down completion rate.
Offensively Matt was much better, going 14 of 20 for 174 yards and 2 TDs with no ints. This year is like night and day for him interception wise; only 1 for the season and that was at the end of the SCUm game on a desperate attempt to win it at the last second.
I was really worried after watching him last week. He was constantly throwing off that back foot and looked rattled all night. When he’s confident & cocky, he can command that offense. But when he’s unsure and can’t right the ship, he looks like a kid playing a man’s game. I’m convinced that SCUm game was an anomaly – he’s too talented & driven to accept those kind of results from himself. I’m not superstitious (like some people) but maybe the loss of his IPOD had something to do with the loss of his mojo…
More good news, Joe Cox seemed to manage the 2nd half pretty well. God knows we may need him if Stafford goes down with an injury, which is a definite possibility considering our inexperienced O line. He led some successful drives, but his stats are pretty average: 3 of 6 for 48 yards and 1 TD. More than half of his yards were from the TD strike. But, he didn’t throw an interception or hand the ball over to the Catamounts, thank God.
All hail Knowshon Moreno! I’m seriously considering naming my first child after him. This kid is a beast, no doubt - more than a 100 yard (all purpose) day. If Caleb King turns out to be as good as we think he is, then those 2 will be a force to reckon with next year. Anyone think Thomas Brown will start for Bama? Not me.
Bobo please just give him the ball at Bama!
Definitely praiseworthy: Ten different receivers caught the freakin’ ball. I’m not sure if 10 different receivers caught the ball all last season! Although TJ Gartrell’s one catch was for -3 yards, but at least he caught the damn thing. Pretty pathetic when we gotta celebrate a catch for negative yardage though. Ugh. But, Demiko Goodman is certainly back from his injury - I can’t wait to see his 34 yd TD catch from Joe Cox.
Welcome back Demiko!
All in all though, I just wasn’t impressed. I was really hoping for a dominant performance that would boost some confidence going into next week’s game with Bama, especially since they pulled out the big win against the Hogs. Now I’m left feeling like Pat Dye may be right, just a few years late.
Btw, I caught a few minutes of the OK State / Troy game Friday night before going out. Seeing Troy man-handle OK State not only made our win over the cowboys seem less impressive, but now it has me worried about handling Troy in November…
At least we can count on beating Auburn though 
Go Dawgs!
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Frst thing yes you can use the flag, not sure where i found it though.
Second…
Georgia’s defense held the catamounts to 201 yards of total offense, which is not bad by any means. 138 yards passing, and 63 yards rushing. Seems that the defense stopped the rushing game pretty well to me.
Rushing by game:
Ok State 70 yards rushing
S. Carolina 140 yards rushing (this is bad)
W. Carolina 63 yards rushing
The 2 teams that use an option with a mobile QB we have held to failry low rushing totals. The one team that ran straight at us was the problem.
To compare:
Alabama gave up 247 toatal yards and 76 yards rushing ( both stats worse than Georgia’s).
Florida hasn’t played Western Carolina this year.
Yes our defense needs work, but it’s not nearly as bad as you are making out. Now our offense is a completely different story. The defense has not allowed over 16 points a game which is decent, but the offense has not got to get better.
One other thing, the Spurrier sucker. I’d like to be able to use it in the future. Would that be ok?
Carolina:
Thanks for permission on the flag – I think I can save it and post it here. I LOVE that! And yes absolutely, you can use the sucker pic. I thought that was hysterical! It’s not mine though – I got the image from a site that sells the t-shirts and I cannot seem to find that site right now. Sorry, but just save it from my site for now if that’s okay.
I realize I may be a little harsh about our D, but this is a LONG TIME COMING from me. I’m frustrated beyond measure and miss the dominating presence and reputation we’ve long had. Looking at SCUm’s D (hate to admit this) just reminds me of what we aren’t anymore.
And sorry, but I respectfully disagree… I think allowing a Div II team 201 yards of offense is unacceptable. I don’t care if they never scored a point, allowing them to move the ball and dominate the time of possession, especially by our first team D, is embarrassing to say the least. If we allow the Catamounts to run up 201 yards of offense AT HOME then how on earth can we hope to stop Bama on the road?
Yes, I know Florida hasn’t played WCU this year – I was talking about their game at the end of last season, in November, I believe. I was speaking specifically to their recent history with SEC teams. Good point – I’ll be sure to clarify that in the blog – thank you for pointing that ommision out for me.
The point you bring up about points our D allows is troubling to me for several reasons.
1. that win against OK State really doesn’t hold much weight anymore considering how Troy just ripped them a new one Friday night.
2. SCUm’s Offense is deplorable and Blake Mitchell is a joke. If not for their D (which was pretty impressive) and Stafford’s rocky night, no way they would’ve won that game.
3. It’s Western Carolina, a Div II team. Sorry, but the fact that we gave up 16 is pretty depressing. We shouldn’t have given them that many opportunities, imo. Thank God, we only let ‘em in the endzone once. But, they’re no App State – once was too many for a true cupcake.
I’m so glad you left a comment, and I’m sorry that we disagree in some areas. However, I do see your point and I appreciate your argument. You’ve certainly encouraged me to thik more before writing while frustrated in the future. I should know better!
No doubt our defense has much room for improvement, people prefer the blitzing style defense that VanGorder used over the style that Martinez uses, me included and because of that the defense gets the blame. However I still beleive that our defense has been blamed for alot of problems when the offense is the problem. I believe that if our offensesive problems gets fixed then our defense appears that much better. But that’s just my thoughts.
Hey Ace, great post girl; love the expert analysis
You’re sure as hell are better than Zeier. Jesus, I’m a fan and all, but he is not meant for a radio show.
I see your points and agree with you about the offense. In every write-up I’ve seen the last couple of days people are just talking about how the win was “ho-hum” and average. I gotta agree. To only get 3 in the first quarter is inexcusable!
And I 100% agree with you about the defense. They looked pretty good against OKSU (which doesn’t mean shit now), pathetic against carolina, and awful again this weekend. I’ve been saying since last year that Jancek needs to go and take Willie with him. I’d give my left nut for BVG to be back. When he left so did our Defense.
Great job girl – love it! Are you gonna bet at Chris and Amy’s party for the Bama game saturday? Let me know. Check your email, btw. And skip that damn internship chick; I need to see ‘ya!
We were at the game and I gotta say, I walked away more frustrated then I did at the SCUm game. THe 2nd half for the offense I won’t count because Cox and Barnes came in. But the D was still rotating Dent and other starters.
They did not look good at all. Dent had a great day and you can tell he wants the job. Think I read on the abh yesterday where he led the team with tackles.
The o was sluggish to start. I know we were playing a div 2 team, but I expected them to come out blazing just to get the losing taste out of their mouths. Same expectation for the D. But, nay nay! Per usual. Pisses me off!
I don’t see us leaving Bama with a win. I hate like hell to write that, but after watching us this season, I think we’ll be lucky as hell to get 6 wins. A bowl berth is a pipe dream right now.
Let me know ally when you start that petition – I’ll sign it.
Btw, glad to see you last night. Thanks for the wine! Miss O will be calling you today to apologize. She cried for you when she woke up this morning. I think you’re right – she must be coming down with something.
I finally found your blog! Andrea forwarded me the link today. I can’t believe you have time to do this! Chris saw it the other day at Bill’s and then asked me why I don’t talk about football like you.
Friends don’t make friends look bad to their husbands, K?
So glad you’re gonna come over Saturday. So far we’ve got about 20 people coming, including some friend’s of Chris’s from work – Bama fans
My brother and his best friend are gonna be here for the weekend. I’m dying for you to meet Matt!
See you Saturday – go dawgs!
I think that CarolinaDawg’s point is a very good one.
vs. Bama, WCU had 76 rushing yards and 171 passing yards (247 total)
vs. UGA, WCU had 63 rushing yards and 138 passing yards (201 total)
Other than UGA giving up fewer yards than Bama, the big difference is that 121 of WCU’s yards came in the 4th quarter from the 8:30 mark til the end of the game. Everyone-gets-in-the-game time.
WCU got just 53 of their yards in the 4th quarter at Bama.
We were tied 3-3 after one quarter: our defense had given up a net zero yards to WCU at that point. We gave up (-20) yards in the 3rd quarter. Until mop-up time at the end, WCU didn’t have a drive longer than 40 yards.
Your point about kick coverage is absolutely right. Very poor job. That’s how WCU could have a couple of drives 26 and 40 yards in length and still be in field goal range. Cover the kickoffs better, and both of those FGs are punts.
Time of possession doesn’t matter too much in games like this: when it takes us 30 seconds to score, we’re just not going to have the ball for long.
WCU wasn’t much of a challenge for the defense, but they played pretty well.
Groo:
Thanks for visiting my blog and for posting!
You’re absolutely right about CarolinaDawg’s points. He is right.
I should apologize – I feel awful.
When I wrote this post I was pretty frustrated after listening to the game & before I watched the replay.
The frustration with the D has been a long time coming for me and a big concern for Saturday’s game.
I guess it was irresponsible to rely on my initial reaction and stats without doing some more research. It was sort of a rant due to frustration on my part.
I know I picked on the Defense more than the offense in this post.
Believe me I want nothing more than to see them prove me wrong this weekend!
And thanks for pointing out the yardage totals in the 4th quarter – I did not know that!
I love your blog and am so glad you posted here.
Thanks for adding to the discussion!
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