What went wrong? Where to start?
- Georgia was 3-for-18 on third down conversions.
- Georgia receivers dropped 3 passes within a yard or two of South Carolina’s goal line.
- Knowshon Moreno had 104 rushing yards on 14 carries. I put this one here because of the next item on the list.
- Matthew Stafford was 19-44 for 213 yards (one INT on the final drive). Why throw the ball 40+ times when the running game could have been a better option?
- Inexperience on the offensive line. I am not sure how many sacks Stafford suffered, but he was constantly under pressure. I bet he feels bruised and battered this morning.
I am not taking anything away from the roosters; they deserve a win over Georgia once every 5-6 years (last win was 2001), so the Dawgs were bound to take one on the chin sooner or later.
For all of Stafford’s brilliant moments, he is clearly still very inexperienced. The South Carolina defense was also much superior to the one Georgia faced from Oklahoma State last weekend. Stafford was inaccurate, but when he did put the ball in the hands of his receivers, it was not a sure bet that the receivers would hang onto the football. Stafford will have to develop touch; instead of gunning it in most situations, he is going to have to trust that he can slow things down.
Moreno looked brilliant. This kid needs to touch the ball 20 times a game, but Georgia did not seem that willing to play smash mouth football inside the redzone. Too often, this has become all too typical of Mark Richt’s teams. No, I am not down on Richt, but I want to see the team man-up between the tackles.
The good news is that the sun still came up this morning, and the loss came early in the season. Inexperience on the o-line will come into play again this season, and if the Dawgs are going to salvage the season, they are going to have to figure out how to score in the redzone.
