Because with this year’s model of Georgia football, nothing says “we got this one, thanks” quite like running plays from the huddle for a solid quarter of the game.
Unless it’s giving carries to Boo Malcome.
Anyway, on to what I saw.
- I don’t think there’s any question that the game turned on the McCalebb fumble that occurred after Crowell dropped the ball. Whatever hope Auburn had to make a game of things quickly evaporated in the next minute.
- That was big, but the most electric moment, not just of the day, but for a longer time than I can remember, was the Rambo pick-six.
- But neither of those wound up being my favorite play. Honors for that had to go to Bruce Figgins and his TD catch. I’m a sucker for 344-Fullback and that was the best executed version of the play I’ve seen yet. Kudos in particular go to Carlton Thomas who threw a killer block to set things up.
- Murray looked as poised as I’ve ever seen him. Every one of those TD passes came off of beautiful throws. All of which goes to show that if he’s got the time to set and go through his mechanics properly, he’s a damn fine quarterback. Right now, he’s playing on a different level.
- In the Battle of the Highly Paid Coordinators, it’s now Malzahn 1, Grantham 1.
- The thing I bet Grantham took away from Auburn’s first drive wasn’t that the Tigers scored, but that they gave up on the run.
- And Mike Bobo vs. Ted Roof wasn’t a fair fight. That was the best-prepared, best-called game of Bobo’s career. Murray’s abuse of the Auburn secondary was a beautiful thing to watch and that’s a tribute to Bobo getting him ready and putting things to work at the right time.
- The first fumble was Crowell’s fault. The second one wasn’t. That was just a case of the Auburn defender getting the snap count right and disrupting the handoff.
- What gives, Drew Butler?
- John Jenkins is quietly, steadily turning into a dominant player.
- Jarvis Jones was his usual play making self yesterday, all over the field. Auburn paid a lot of attention to him, not that it did much good.
- The other problem with paying too much attention to Jones is Alec Ogletree.
- Another bouquet deserves to go to Will Friend. Okay, maybe the o-line still needs some work blocking running back screens, but that was the most dominant run blocking performance we’ve seen in a long, long time. And some of Murray’s confidence in the pass blocking was reflected in his mechanics.
- Speaking of blocking, the fullbacks kicked some major ass. Watch the replay on Crowell’s TD run and see what the Auburn defender does as Ogletree comes up to lay the wood on him.
- Speaking of which, is there anything more beautiful in SEC play than watching an offense line up and ram the ball down the opponent’s throat as we saw on that drive? Georgia didn’t throw a pass after the first drive of the second half and still outscored the Tigers 10-0 the rest of the way.
Really, I could go on, but one of the dangers in recounting a game like yesterday’s is that you wind up coming off as little more than a sunshine pumper. It’s just that you had to be there to see it.
Congrats on the win, gentlemen. You deserve it.
****************************************************************************
UPDATE: If you haven’t looked at the box score yet, you should. It’s mind-boggling.
Team Stat Comparison
Auburn Georgia 1st Downs 9 30 3-11 12-15 0-2 0-0 Total Yards 195 528 Passing 144 224 12-23 14-18 6.3 12.4 Rushing 51 304 25 56 2.0 5.4 Penalties 3-14 8-60 Turnovers 3 2 2 2 1 0 Possession 19:05 40:55
Sometimes you have to admit that stats aren’t bullshit.
Get The Picture 
Someone said it was a beatdown of Hawaii proportions, and I agree. It was the most complete game I’ve seen us play in a long time. It feels good to have a good defense. That solves a lot of problems.
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Best game we have played in years. Feels sooo nice today!!! Way to go DAWGS.
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On that Rambo return for TD, I especially like the block by Shawn Williams in the bottom left corner at about 12-14 seconds in the video.
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I love me some 344-Fullback…
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Shawn Williams is sick. The block he thew on Rambo’s pick six was criminally beautiful. We are hurting people and the are quitting. Love it.
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What a day. Maybe, just maybe – the UGA OL is Baaack !
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“It’s a lot more fun to coach when you’ve got a great defense,” Richt said.
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“It’s just that you had to be there to see it.”
The dismemberment of the University of Auburn looked pretty awesome on television too. The downside was that you couldn’t smell the blood.
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And listening to Gary danielson talk about our defense. Man that’s right.
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Gary is definitely on the bus.
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I had a thought that Malzahn felt his offense was under-manned when he pulled out every trick play in the book on Auburn’s first 2 possessions. It worked for a touchdown, but after that the front 7 started caving things in.
Aaron Murray was in a zone for sure.
From the living room point of view, I wasn’t that worried at Crowell’s first fumble. I felt the defense could hold, same as the Florida game. I think we were already up 21-7 too.
If you’re a good size defensive back, say 210, and you see Bruce Figgins coming with a full head of steam, that’s above and beyond the call of duty.
Along the same lines, how would you like to be fighting Kwame Geathers for a fumbled ball?
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It was 14-7 when Crowell fumbled. A good Auburn drive there could have changed things. Of course Auburn learned what happens when you scheme for trickeration. IT FAILS! Trickeration is not an offensive style, but I am sure Malzahn was planning on running trick play after trick play.
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I was pleased that we actually seemed to adjust to the trickeration after the TD. I was even more pleased when we subsequently strangled their offense.
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Yeah, the Senator left that one out, plus the sack. These nose tackles are something special. Think many of these players will give us another year rather than go in the draft. They need it and so do we. Could be a big team coming back next year.
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Senator,
The best block was clearly thrown by Alex Ogletree. When he came in and destroyed McCaleb(sp), who was supposed to be blocking him.
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Nah. Rambo with the flair out screen pass to the left. Ain’t it great that we can have a hit appreciation blog for a change? What I like most was , while the blocker was timberrring, ‘Tree’s head was seeking the QB who was targeted next. He slowly took his eyes off the prize to watch the line take care of the runner who sure as hell didn’t come in ‘Tree’s direction.
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Oops! Think that was Boykin that hit the screener-spleener.
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I almost called 911 to report the mugging I was witnessing in Sanford stadium. After the win in Jax and the way they played against NMSU, my confidence was soaring coming into this game. The Dawgs did not disappoint.
Jarvis Jones is creating sacks just by getting close to the qb.
Ogletree is still young at linebacker but wow. He is dominating.
Butler has got to snap out of this. We seem to have found a solution to half of our kicking problems.
Bennett and the rest of the receiving corps are impressive. All of them.
Murray seems to be gaining confidence each week. When he scrambles it just seems to take the heart out of the opponents. Here is a guy that will kill you with his arm or legs. His assault on the record books is just starting.
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Murray WAS putting nearly every pass right on the money.
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A lot of gameballs to go around today for sure, but Bobo deserves one in a big way.
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Speaking of game ball distribution elsewhere, someone slipped into third person and barked out orders for an equipment manager to get a pencil stat:
“Steve Spurrier was so giddy about beating the Gators 17-12 that he handed out so many game balls in the locker room that he lost count.We gave out a lot of game balls,” Spurrier said. “The head coach was in a happy mood today.”
“Mike Matulis, the right tackle from Florida, we gave him a game ball, too. He played super. I can’t count them all right now. I told (director of equipment Chis) Matlock to get his pencil and write them all down. Spurrier said Saturday’s win was one of his biggest.”
http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20111112/ARTICLES/111119850?tc=cr
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… and emptiest.
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Congrats again, Dawgs.
I don’t want y’all to take this the wrong way, but remember you were playing Auburn. They absolutely stink.
Other than that, great game and I enjoyed the beat down. 🙂
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BD,
You are a very civil poster as an opposing team goes but go away on this. The Dawgs beat a hated rival like a drum so chest’s need to be thumped. This same team whipped your ass last year. Just Auburn?
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I agree. After sleeping on this BD comes back back as a snarky little troll? Just remember who is 3-1 against the Tide and STFU.
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We looked at least as impressive as, and were actually probably more impressive than LSU vs Auburn. Let’s see how you look against them.
We dominated Auburn in a big way. Think we beat them worse in every statistical category than LSU just beat Western Kentucky. We could’ve been these guys 60+ to 7. We instead only threw 1 pass in the entire second half (even though our QB was playing insanely well).
We deserve some credit. I’d honestly be surprised if Bama dominated Auburn like we just did. You simply don’t have the QB.
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Thanks for falling in line with the talking heads and so called experts in the media with the current narrative of once Georgia beats a team they must stink.
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Simple example of dawggraded right there
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Let’s don’t be as hard on BD as we were the other day. After all he came on before the game and gave some ammo. There, we softened them up for you. Take it with the appreciation that it deserves and like the man said, Git!.
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I didn’t mean that as a troll. Seriously. (Had to go to a funeral or would have replied sooner.)
I meant it as a snark at Auburn. They are a seriously bad team and you hammered them as you should have.
I don’t think we’ll beat them that bad, for the record. Our passing game isn’t in the same league as y’all’s so I think it’ll take us longer to put them away.
Have a good one,
BD
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I don’t get you, BD. Your are smart, gracious and gentlemanly in your posts. And I understood what you meant about beating Auburn.
So WTF are you a Bama man? Kidnapped as a child?
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Maybe so.
Although I think my relatives came from the Georgia penal system. 🙂
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Our penal system was Florida before they became a state. Now their whole damn state is a penal system surrounded by interrment “villages”.
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And again — Total Plays from Scrimmage: UGa 74, Abuurn, 48! (and this with 56(!) rushes). The Bobo Plan continues apace. Against UK the Dawgs may manufacture 90, and win by 50.
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I think we can and should.
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No way Grantham let’s them score 40.
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I’m pretty sure he meant 90 plays for our offense.
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that’s what i thought he meant for sure.
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Now we know how good this team can be when the offense plays as well as the defense.
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In small college football news, Faulkner beat Union 95-89 yesterday. It was tied at 75 after regulation. Yes, that is a football score….and the second highest score ever after the famous Cumberland/GT game of 220-0.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/11/an_naia_football_record_faulkl.html
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Now we have an idea where you are from, Scott. Go tell your buddies what you have seen here and be afraid. Be very afraid. A monster is coming from the East. Before that we wil have a Fing Scooter raffle in Atlanta. You boys need to get several for your team.
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My favorite pregame highlight was the note on the scoreboard warning boosters about providing benefits to players while Auburn was warming up. Nice touch Athletic Department.
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One thing I kept seeing was our receivers stopping and coming back for passes while their defensive backs just kept going. That happened on that big pass to King on the first drive, on Mitchell’s TD, and a few other times that I can’t remember specifically. This can mean several things:
1) Our receivers are damn good at running their routes, and they’ve developed a good chemistry with Murray.
2) Our receivers are doing a great job of selling that they’re running deep and then just stopping on a dime.
3) Auburn’s defensive backs:
–Are incredibly unobservant to those they’re covering (kind of an anti-Willie Martinez approach)
–Like Luis Mendoza in the Mighty Ducks 2 and 3, they are unable to stop
–They are distracted by someone waving money down the field.
Did anyone else notice this? I’m thinking the first option is the most likely, with the second two factoring in. Kudos to Tony Ball though– I don’t think there’s a unit that has become so quickly a strength, and we’ve got everyone back next year. Apologies for the outline form here– it is exam season in law school…
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I assume it was a tendency Bobo noticed watching film and worked it into the gameplan. If they were covering in a certain technique one-on-one, throw it behind the receivers and have them come back to it.
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I noticed. It was clear that AU’s secondary was expecting what Chizik kept calling our “vertical game,” i.e. long bombs. Bobo could see from our first series on that AU kept 2 safeties deep to guard against the deep pass. Interestingly though, the presence of deep help meant that the CBs were free to stop with the receivers; they didn’t have to keep anything in front of them. Did they have bad technique or did Roof simply not prepare them? No clue here.
Gotta credit Bobo too. The timing on those routes & passes was too good; it was clear we’d been practicing them. My suspicion is that, after watching how UF’s secondary stuck to our receivers’ hips, Bobo worked on the comeback routes as a response to tight coverage. The Conley reception clinching the UF game came on such a route; that could have catalyzed a strategy.
And what law school in America is holding exams in the middle of November? I’m sorry for you, man.
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classic NFL timing routes. love them.
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Just got back to Destin from Athens..TOTAL DOMINATION..congrats Dawgs, that was one epic beatdown of my Tigers…. But I still had a great time with my UGA friends that I grew up with..Athens is a GREAT college town.
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Very gracious, JayBird
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Senator, in the battle of high salaries, did you include Cam’s in Malzahn’s tally?
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Oh and by the way, all of those folks screaming for Hutson Mason to replace Murray, did you notice Murray had as many TD passes as incompletions? And his QB rating was over 250? Not only should the “Fire Mark Richt, and it’s all Bobo’s fault” talk end, so should the “Murray isn’t an SEC QB” talk.
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That’s actually the problem Tim. Mason’s not only good enough to start for every other team in the SEC, including Arkansas IMHO, he would be pushing Murray for first team All-SEC if he was on another SEC squad. Can you imagine how good Bama would be if Mason was their QB? Scary thought.
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Who do we give credit to for the tutelage and growth of a 3-star player we took for insurance? You bet he was skilled as his hs record shows, but not SEC skilled and now with SEC confidence. Hope he stays, but a person has the right to better his career early on. Maybe it will all end up good. Don’t forget LeMay in the wings.
By the way, Senator, what’s wrong with pumping sunshine? Bringing light to dark places ain’t bad. ‘Course that won’t help Red trying to peer with one eye out of his anal orifice. But he overcomes that affliction and gives us rays every day. We don’t get the associated smell on this blog so what’s to not like.
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“Who do we give credit to for the tutelage of” Mason? I give the credit to Bobo and Richt.
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I think AU giving up on the run was about the highest praise to be given to your D. There was no way they beat you with their passing attack, yet they tried it anyway.
This game was also interesting to me because both UGA and Bama run varieties of the 3-4. I sure do hope Malzahn elects to leave Dyer out of the game plan against us.
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At the end of the 3rd and half way through the 4th they struggled mightily and proudly. Their D still had energy by the way they stopped the run after it hit the secondary. They were trying, but the higer energy of the RBs was not to be denied. The Dawgs beat them against all they had. Of course the fact that Thomas’s little ass didn’t try to avoid any of them and he actually veered into a tackler on one trip when he could have picked up 5-10 more downfield showed some hard-nosed spunk. He looked for someone to crash into. That kid looked like he had a hardon for Auburn.
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“I sure do hope Malzahn elects to leave Dyer out of the game plan against us.’
Not sure it will matter much, based on what I’ve seen from Bama’s front 7.
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It really didn’t matter much yesterday, either.
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Rivals highly subjective Power Rankings had Grantham at #13 for DC. Wonder how much he goes up after this week. For HCs, Chizik was at 20 with CMR at 21. Think Richt leap frogs him (in a big way)?
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Bobo’s called a lot of great games, they just haven’t been the blowouts they should have been because of porous defense. If we had some combination of Van Gorder and Grantham instead of Martinez sine 2005, Bobo would be a D1 head coach by now instead of the whipping boy for 45-42 losses.
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In the fourth quarter we were going to run the ball, they knew it and still couldn’t stop us.
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Pingback: Basking in the Afterglow « Obi's Sister
So I have been reading about how Bobo needs to be more like Gus on a lot of different boards. Yesterday I hit an Auburn board and they seem to Hate Gus more than some people hate Bobo. You know, people also hate Mularkey. So I came to a conclusion. People have to have someone to blame and it appears to be either the OC or the DC that gets all the blame. Sometimes they are right, Willie being a prime example. But a lot of other teams think that Gus would be a great OC for them, or HC for that matter.
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The O-Line was playing pissed. Ben Jones was getting paybacks on every single snap. Me likey.
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I didn’t realize we went over 300 yards rushing. Damn, it feels good to be ballers again
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