Not bad for a rookie

Think true freshman A. J. Green is having an impressive year?  You’d be right.

… Green’s 49-yard catch down the left sideline set up his diving 17-yard touchdown that put Georgia up 7-0. He has 573 receiving yards through seven games, a total that would have led the 2005 and the 2006 Bulldogs in those seasons.

Sean Bailey led the Bulldogs last year with 615 yards.

And he’s just scratching the surface, it seems.

“I’ve learned a lot from the first game,” Green said. “I don’t have to ask people what my route is and stuff like that. Now I can just go out there and play my game.”

Oooo, it makes me wonder.

A few questions from the world of college football after yesterday’s results.

• Do they play defense in the Big XII? Yes, I know Texas did to Missouri what Alabama did to Georgia.  And Colt McCoy is on a different level from every other college QB right now.  But the #1 and #11 teams in the country racking up almost 1,000 yards of offense?  That’s Conference USA territory, man.  (Just a reminder – Oklahoma and Texas combined for almost 900 yards the week before.)  By the way, not to be outdone, Oklahoma and Kansas, both ranked, approached 1,200 yards of offense yesterday.
• Will the last ranked team in the ACC turn off the lights? All three ranked teams in the conference lost yesterday.  Virginia, which a month ago looked like the worst team in the nation, now sports a winning record and is technically in contention for a division title right now.  Ugh.
• Not so cocky now, are you, dipwad? Yeah, Stephen Garcia sure had it going on in the second quarter last night.  For a redshirt freshman making his first career start, he sure got full of himself quickly, too.  Then, LSU, realizing it was playing a team with a mediocre offensive line and a non-existent running attack, fell back on the tried and true method of shutting down a team like SC (can I say that?):  go beat the hell out of the quarterback. Two fumbles and -7 yards of offense in the fourth quarter later, it was 24-17 LSU and Mr. Garcia seemed a lot humbler.  Welcome to the SEC, keed.
• Is 2008 Washington State the worst BCS conference team ever? Check out some of the stats from its game yesterday with Southern Cal:  Washington State has allowed 66, 63, 66 and now 69 in four of its conference losses; the Trojans outgained Washington State 408-17 in the first half and 625-116 for the game; it was the first time USC had three 100-yard rushers in a game since 1977; on offense, the Cougars never crossed midfield and WSU didn’t advance past their own 38-yard line until the third quarter — when third-stringer Logwone Mitz lost a fumble at the WSU 40 at the end of a run.
• Is Tulsa going to crack the Top 25? The Golden Hurricanes haven’t played anybody, but they’re 7-0 and games like this tend to get voters’ attention.  They’re looking like they might be this year’s Hawaii.
• Will Ohio State jump Georgia in the polls? Big road win over #20 Michigan State, and the Buckeyes are back, babee!  Fear not, Dawg fans.  For better or worse, the poll rankings for both teams are about to sort out in the next few games.

Wanker of the day

Mark Bradley, capping off a column about his disappointment in the Dawgs had this to say:

Heck, I’m starting to wonder if Georgia is the best team in Georgia.

Heck, indeed.  That’s why they pay him the big bucks, I guess.

They make blind pigs look smart.

I’m, like, totally shocked by this.

Thoughts from the 35, Vandy edition

Remember when you were ten and your mom served you dinner with this meat in a some sort of mystery sauce that made you gag along with vegetables that you didn’t like (hell, what vegetables did you like when you were ten?) and you had to eat it all in order to get ice cream for dessert?

That’s what yesterday’s game was like.  With the passing of each missed field goal, the inevitable defensive collapse at the end of the second quarter, every dropped interception, the score after the turnover and the head scratching three and out at crunch time in the fourth quarter, I just wanted to get to the end of the game and the win.

Some specific observations, in no particular order:

• As if there were any doubt, Knowshon Moreno proved again that he’s the heart and soul of this team.  The two big runs he cranked out to start the big fourth quarter drive got the team and the crowd energized.  In a weird way, it reminded me of David Greene coming off the bench in the fourth quarter against Georgia Tech to salvage the win in ’04.
• Stafford’s mechanics are still inconsistent.  Two of the long balls he threw were underthrown because of footwork and the last one, which had it been thrown properly would have been a touchdown, wound up being picked off.  On the other hand, the TD throw to Massaquoi was flat out perfectly thrown.  It’s got to be driving the coaches a little crazy.
• Huge game from Reshad Jones.  Darius Dewberry, of all people, turned in the best game of his career.
• I don’t know what’s happened to Brian Evans who’s gone from being the player on defense who improved the most over the ’06 season to the one benched in the second half in favor of Vance Cuff.
• That hit by Asher Allen to shut down Vandy’s last gasp drive was awesome.
• When’s the last time you watched an SEC game with zero offensive holding calls?  And when’s the last time you watched an SEC game when the offensive linemen on both teams didn’t hold?
• In a way, I understand why Georgia kept throwing the ball on first down – Vandy kept loading the box with eight and kept cheating at least one safety up as soon as the ball was snapped – but when Moreno kept ripping the defense for 7+ yards a crack, why worry about it?  Feed the beast.
• If there was any doubt about the tight end being reduced to nothing more than an afterthought in the passing game, there was a play in the fourth quarter that removed it.  Figgins ran a crossing pattern on a play where Stafford underthrew Green in single coverage and found that nobody in Vandy’s secondary even bothered to cover him.  Figgins gave up on his route before the ball was thrown. You could tell from his body language that he knew there wasn’t a player on the field, including his quarterback, that was taking him seriously on that play.

All I can say after yesterday is that play time is over.  The Dawgs need to find that edge that got them going last season starting in the Florida game.  Dominating teams statistically while leaving them in the game probably won’t be a good working strategy in the next two weeks.

On the other hand, if you want to guarantee me two ugly one point wins in Baton Rouge and Jacksonville right now, I’ll take ’em.  Happily.