Observations from the 35, Tech edition

Okay, so it wasn’t the prettiest of games – after the third fumble in the space of two-and-a-half minutes, you’d be excused if you wondered if either wanted to win the sucker – but let’s not lose sight of the fact that Georgia has now won nine of the last ten games in the series, which is as dominant a stretch as a Georgia fan will likely ever see.

Even better, those last two wins were delivered by the two worst teams of the Richt era.  So, good times, people.

Speaking of which, how badass was it seeing Samuel L. Jackson decked out in red before the game on the big screen?  The only thing better would have been him delivering a little righteous Ezekiel 25:17 on Tech’s butt.

Anyway, on to the game:

• At the start, the joint was rocking as Tech kicked off.  Unfortunately, Chapas’ mishandling of the kick sucked all the oxygen out of the place.
• The defensive line simply got destroyed for most of the night.  It’s commonly thought that the first thing a defense has to do to stop the triple option is to shut down the dive play and that didn’t happen.  The greatest recruiting priority Georgia has in this offseason is to find some viable options for the defensive line.
• The other member of the defense who got blown up most of the evening was Branden Smith, who was taken out of every outside play run to his side (and Tech went out of its way to find him) with ease.  The option is hard enough to defend playing eleven on eleven.  How bad was it?  Grantham had no choice but to pull Smith and replace him with Jakar Hamilton – and the outside coverage improved.
• Needless to say, Justin Houston had a tremendous game, not just with the turnovers, but also in playing the quarterback on the option.  Too bad his support on the pitch man was spotty.
• I thought Brandon Boykin had a good game on defense, with one spectacular play when he tossed off the blocker and blew up an outside pitch for a loss.
• Yeah, in hindsight, it would have been nice if Washaun had taken a knee at the one after Tech’s defense let him run through untouched for the last score.  But why wasn’t Georgia in victory formation there in the first place?  There was only about 1:30 left in the game at that point and Tech had no timeouts left.  Three running plays (if Richt didn’t want to risk a field goal) would have delivered the ball back to Tech deep in their territory with only a few seconds remaining.
• I’m not going to link to today’s Mark Bradley fellatio-fest extolling Paul Johnson’s coaching genius, but you wanna bet that Johnson would have liked a mulligan on his fourth down decision to go for it on Tech’s first drive after Chapas screwed up the opening kickoff?  Those three points he passed up sure would have come in handy at the end of the game.
• As big as the Houston fumble recovery for a touchdown was, don’t forget that it was set up by a tremendous effort from Alec Ogletree on the first down pass attempt to Stephen Hill.  That may have been the best play I’ve seen from a Georgia safety in pass coverage all season.
• I really, truly hope that Isaiah Crowell enjoyed himself last night.  Georgia’s second biggest personnel need is a game-breaking tailback to complement Aaron Murray.
• Nice save, Marlon Brown.
• Caleb King, you’re supposed to follow Chapas when he’s your lead blocker clearing traffic, not turn into the line where all the, you know, tacklers are.
• Man, that touchdown pass to Orson Charles was a thing of beauty.
• Georgia did an excellent job bottling up Tech’s kickoff return team.  Other than that, special teams play was hardly that.  Although at least Blair Walsh didn’t, um, you know what.
• And the defense wasn’t burned on the wheel route.