Lilly’s Dawg Blog
The Dawgs looked great, once again, in winning the Souths old rivalry in Athens on Saturday. Both sides of the ball played well along with some good special teams play, and people are now feeling good about the Alabama match up. I am not on that bandwagon just yet because we still have to crush the little bumble bees first. The stats of the Auburn game were impressive in favor of the Dawgs who controlled possession by 38:51 to 21:45, outgained the Tigers, or whatever they are today, 516 yards to 274, and the defense held them to 100 yards rushing on the night. We still had trouble in the red zone, and I think the problems are now in the kids head for sure. I don’t know how to fix the problem other than going out and blowing the other team off the ball one big time. However, it was still a fantastic day for Georgia Football!
The pregame was taken to another level when Thomas Davis was on hand to call out the Dawgs. The crowd was more than willing to yell GEORGIA BULLDOGS with the Davis. I remember one game on ESPN when the announcer said: “there is not much forward motion in the pile when Thomas Davis gets there.” The man was a heat-seeking missile that laid the lumber to anybody on the other team. He still loves Georgia, and he will be one of my top five favorite players of all-time.
Later another legend, Matt Stinchcomb, was back in Athens to be honored for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. He will be inducted on December 4th in New York, and he will become the fourteenth member from Georgia to receive the honor. Congratulations to a good man, a great player, and a Damn Good Dawg.
The offense came out and marched 80 yards down the field on their first series. I thought we would get at touchdown and be on our way to blow out. But, once again we stalled and could not punch it in for six which started me thinking about what if’s again. Then when Auburn scored on a trick play, I let the doubt bug crawl into my head. We then had another long drive only to stall yet again which lead to another field goal. I was not happy, but I have learned that under coach Smart the team seems to always get it going in big games.
I did not have to wait long for Georgia to take the lead and restore my confidence that we would win the game. An 8 play 59-yard drive ending with a 14- yard pass to Tyler Simmons put the Dawgs back in front which is where they would stay the rest of the game. Fromm then threw another perfect pass to Terry Godwin for a 38-yard touchdown which made the score 20-10 to end the first half.
The Dawgs got the ball to start the second half and did not waste any time scoring on another beautiful run by D’Andre Swift. The line of scrimmage was on the Dawgs own 23-yard line with Swift as the lone man in the backfield. Then a gaping hole opened which Swift raced through immediately where he was confronted with two Auburn players. He made a quick move with his hip to fake the would-be tacklers out, and he was in the open field where he outran those is pursuit. If Swift had not been hurt early in the year runs like this would have in high up in the Heisman Trophy talk.
The defense took over the game and stuffed Auburn the rest of the night. The Tigers or birds never got any momentum on offense and never threatened to score. Overall the defense has played three great games in a row over three ranked teams. There has been a lot of improvement, and it is clear the coaches are earning their money week to week.
I have seen players flying all over the field over the last three games, and I love how we now gang tackle on big plays. Our young guys have improved to the point that other teams are having trouble finding weak spots. Yes, I know, Alabama will expose us! I get it. However, at this point, I am happy and impressed with what I have seen so far this year. My main concern now is not to get anybody hurt the next two weeks. Especially against that silly offense Tech runs with the chop blocks.
Rodrigo Blakenship is our KICKER! Not our tailback or our quarterback. He needs to kick the ball and push any return man out of bounds, and that is it. It was painful to see him try to make tacklers miss on the LSU fake field goal, and the pass against Auburn was not much better. I wonder if Hot Rod laid awake the night before the game dreading the fake field goal calls? I don’t think he is very comfortable trying to make a play. Now, coach Smart has got some heat for calling a fake field goal in the fourth quarter. There are even rumors that Coach Gus called it a bullcrap call. I disagree. The touchdown would have made the game a three-score game which would have put the game out of reach. I like that idea. Was it disrespectful? I ask was it disrespectful for Coach Gus to say on national television that “we beat the dog crap out of them” last year? Or was the loud music and awful crowd behavior towards our players and fans at Auburn disrespectful last year? You make the call. I know how I feel.
Last night I was watching a college football show with my son, and they ran an interview with Nick Saban. He was asked if Tua would be sitting out the next game against the Citadel. Coach Saban snapped back that it wrong to suggest that the team Alabama was playing this week was not good enough for our starter to start the game. He then walked off. I admit I was going to skip over UMass this week and go ahead and start in on Georgia Tech. I learned a lesson from coach Saban. So, I will end with a classic coach Dooley quote about possible weaker teams as next weeks opponent. He always wanted to say at least something good about the opposing team. UMass has a good punter, and they will punt us deep all day. Dawgs favored by 43 ½.