Two big lessons from yesterday.

The SEC has a lot of great things going for it right now, but quarterbacking ain’t one of ’em.  Here’s the lists of the current statistical leaders:

PASSING AVG/GAME		Cl	G	Comp-Att-Int	Pct.	Yards	TD	Long	Avg/G
1.	Casey Dick-AR	SR	3	67 – 114 – 4	58.8	831	5	76	277.0
2.	M. Stafford-UG	JR	4	62 – 102 – 0	60.8	919	5	61	229.8
3.	Jevan Snead-UM	SO	4	55 – 102 – 7	53.9	844	6	64	211.0
4.	Chris Smelley-SC	SO	4	74 – 116 – 5	63.8	800	6	34	200.0
5.	J. Crompton-UT	JR	3	56 – 100 – 4	56.0	591	2	48	197.0
6.	Chris Todd-AU	JR	4	61 – 107 – 3	57.0	722	2	58	180.5
7.	Tebow, T.-UF	JR	3	38 – 64 – 0	59.4	489	5	48	163.0
8.	Mike Hartline-UK	SO	3	53 – 93 – 0	57.0	461	2	37	153.7
9.	J. Wilson-UA	SR	4	56 – 94 – 1	59.6	542	5	36	135.5
10.	Wesley Carroll-MS	SO	4	51 – 95 – 6	53.7	528	3	50	132.0

PASS EFFICIENCY		Cl	G	Comp-Att-Int	Pct.	Yards	TD	Long	Effic.
1.	M. Stafford-UG	JR	4	62 – 102 – 0	60.8	919	5	61	152.6
2.	Tebow, T.-UF	JR	3	38 – 64 – 0	59.4	489	5	48	149.3
3.	Jarrett Lee-LS	FR	3	27 – 50 – 2	54.0	382	4	39	136.6
4.	Chris Smelley-SC	SO	4	74 – 116 – 5	63.8	800	6	34	130.2
5.	Jevan Snead-UM	SO	4	55 – 102 – 7	53.9	844	6	64	129.1
6.	Casey Dick-AR	SR	3	67 – 114 – 4	58.8	831	5	76	127.5
7.	Chris Nickson-VU	SR	4	30 – 52 – 0	57.7	292	3	49	123.9
8.	J. Wilson-UA	SR	4	56 – 94 – 1	59.6	542	5	36	123.4
9.	Tyson Lee-MS	JR	3	30 – 45 – 0	66.7	291	0	25	121.0
10.	Chris Todd-AU	JR	4	61 – 107 – 3	57.0	722	2	58	114.3

Let’s put it this way:  right now, statistically speaking, Chris Smelley (yes, that Chris Smelley) is the fourth best quarterback in the SEC.  Or put it this way:  right now, Florida and Georgia have a huge advantage at quarterback over every other school in the conference.

Speaking of Georgia, I went to bed last night thinking exactly about what Matt Hinton posts about here, regarding what the emergence of A. J. Green means for the Georgia offense.

… if Green really is what he looks like from here on: Georgia’s offense is impressively, horrifyingly complete, moreso now than any other point in the Mark Richt administration. Stafford’s never had a true No. 1 receiver, as D.J. Shockley and David Greene before him never had a runner approximating Knowshon Moreno. Saturday night was a full cabinet on full display, and an open invitation to anyone who ever said “just stack the box.”

Admittedly, I’m not horrified by it.  But ask yourself as we hit the 3-4 game mark on the season, which of the conference contenders have the most upside right now on the offensive side of the ball.  I’d argue that the list would consist of three:  Florida is sorting out its personnel at running back, LSU may have found its quarterback and Georgia may have found its balance to Moreno.

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Have thumb, will channel surf.

There’s nothing like being a couch zombie for twelve hours.  Aside from Georgia-Arizona State, here are my impressions from what I got to see yesterday:

• East Carolina at NC State. There’s a reason non-BCS conference teams generally have trouble holding up against tough scheduling over time.  It’s called lack of depth.  Injuries on defense clearly hurt ECU, which yielded 384 yards to a team that had been an offensive basketcase to date.
• Mississippi State at Georgia Tech. I don’t want to take anything away from Georgia Tech, which racked up 500 yards on what was a supposedly salty MSU defense (and did it mostly with a second string QB), but, Mother of God, why does Woody McCorvey still have a job?  If anything, the Bulldogs look even worse on offense than they did last year.  No offense combined with a minus-four turnover margin is an excellent formula for getting your ass kicked.  Ugly, ugly football team.
• Iowa at Pittsburgh. This one’s destined to wind up on the list of the ten most forgettable games of 2008, if anyone remembers to compile it.
• Virginia Tech at North Carolina. And you think Georgia has problems with penalties.
• Wake Forest at Florida State. No touchdowns, less than five hundred yards total offense and nine turnovers between the two teams.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is your ACC.
• Florida at Tennessee. Man, what a train wreck.  If there ever were a game where the final yardage totals told little about the actual game story, this was it.  I’ll never feel sorry for Fulmer, but there’s no denying the pain he was in on the sideline as everything blew up around him.  This just isn’t the same team without Cutcliffe on the staff.
• Alabama at Arkansas. That’s what things look like when you make Casey Dick the centerpiece of the offense.
• LSU at Auburn. I can’t fight this anymore.  I like Les Miles as a head coach.  The guy still has the biggest pair in the conference and he’s not afraid to use ’em.  The onside kick was just a hint of things to come, but the message it sent to Tuberville was clear:  you’d better believe I’m just as crazy as I was last year.  And I’ve still got no idea how Jarrett Lee got off that good a pass to Chris Mitchell for that first touchdown.  Just a great game to watch from beginning to end.
• Rice at Texas. I know the ‘Horns haven’t played anybody yet, but neither has Oklahoma, when you think about it.  Colt McCoy is playing great ball right now (77.8% completion ratio!) and nobody’s really paying attention to him or his team.  Texas looks as good as anyone right now.

Like we couldn’t have guessed.

Georgia is ranked third nationally in rushing defense, at 45.8 yards per game.

But it’s a dry heat.

Photo courtesy David Wallace/The Arizona Republic

The best adjective I can come up with to describe Georgia’s win in the desert last night is workmanlike.  The Dawgs did what a team should do when it’s possessed of superior talent – move the chess pieces around, take advantage of the matchups and grind the other team down.  The end result was a 27-10 win that, as the cliché goes, wasn’t as close as the score might indicate.

Rudy, those “guys in uniforms”?  Their names were Rennie Curran and A. J. Green.

A few thoughts/observations:

• With as much poo as was being flung in Willie Martinez’ direction after the South Carolina game, let’s not forget that in its last two games, the Dawg defense has given up 22 yards rushing on 35 attempts.  As a team, you’re going to win a lot of games if you play at that level over the course of a season.
• Four games in, zero interceptions for Matt Stafford.  At the risk of repeating myself, as a team, you’re going to win a lot of games if you play at that level over the course of a season.
• I loved that play action roll out pass to Tavares King.  Great call and gorgeously executed.
• Yes, the safety play was much better and the pass rush looked good, particularly in the second half.  But that was against a team the couldn’t run the ball to save its life and had a patchwork offensive line.  Let’s wait and see how they do against ‘Bama.
• Twelve of the sixteen completions went to Massaquoi and Green and Stafford throws for a career high 285 yards.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.
• Twelve penalties for 104 yards.  Every week, we keep saying this is stuff that can be fixed, but so far, nothing’s changed.  The most troubling part is watching some of the dumb stuff keep drives alive – penalty yardage accounted for more than half of the total yardage on ASU’s first scoring drive.
• I watch our kickoff coverage and I watch Brandon James.  I am concerned.