Sometimes statistics don’t lie, they just don’t say much.

With Saturday’s win over the “it’s just a flesh wound” Troy Trojans, Georgia is now 7-2 overall, 4-2 in the conference, first in the SEC East and 10th in the BCS standings.

All of which sounds pretty special, right? Yet, statistically speaking, Georgia doesn’t look particularly special – good or bad – doing anything. The NCAA measures teams in seventeen categories, and Georgia ranks between 28th and 51st in twelve of them. The worst national ranking the Dawgs sport is 80th in total offense; their best is punt returns, where they’re 12th.

It’s a similar story in the conference. Georgia ranks somewhere between third and seventh in all but four of those same categories in the SEC. Its worst showing is in pass efficiency defense, where it’s tenth (which is no big surprise, considering the offenses it’s played in its last two games).

So why does the whole seem greater than the sum of its parts? Mainly, I think, because the coaching staff has been very careful on offense to focus on maintaining control. Georgia still ranks first in the SEC and in the country in giveaways, with nine. It’s middle of the pack in penalties (in fact penalty yardage applied against that of opponents is a virtual wash so far this year). And even with the pick in the end zone on Saturday, Georgia still has the most efficient offense in the red zone in the SEC (94.1%!).

That all being said, going in to the second week of November, there is one stat that jumps off the page at me:

SACKS AGAINST            G  Sacks Yards

---------------------------------------

1. Tennessee...........  9      3    24

2. Arkansas............  9      8    60

3. Georgia.............  9     11    95

   Florida.............  9     11    65

5. Vanderbilt..........  9     12    78

6. Mississippi State...  9     14   115

7. Auburn.............. 10     19   125

8. Alabama.............  9     21   125

   Kentucky............  9     21   152

10.LSU.................  9     22   138

11.Ole Miss............ 10     26   167

12.South Carolina...... 10     29   200

11 sacks allowed in nine games? Third in the SEC? Those of you that called that in the preseason, please step forward. I know I sound like a broken record on this, but the job Stacey Searels continues to do this season is nothing short of remarkable.