College Football Wrap-Up: Week 5

Yesterday in Athens was simply spectacular.  The atmosphere all day long was second to none as far as I’m concerned.  College Gameday was in town and set up just around the corner from our tailgate.  The weather was beautiful, the crowd was one of the best I’ve ever been a part of, and the Dawgs pulled out the victory!

It’s hard to know where to begin with this game.  Murray was fantastic yesterday completing nearly 60% of his passes for 298 yards and 4 TDs.  Furthermore, he led his team down the field for a TD when LSU had taken the lead with just over 4 minutes remaining in the game.  I hope all the talk of “Richt and Murray can’t win the big game” has been put to rest.  September’s not even over with and the Dawgs have beaten the #6 ranked team TWICE.

After the Dawgs made a special teams blunder (or two) in each of their first 3 games, they took advantage of LSU’s mistake on that punt return.  That was a huge play and really countered the turnover we had earlier in the game.

I thought Cam Cameron outcoached Todd Grantham yesterday.  In my opinion, that LSU offense was more prolific than Clemson and South Carolina.  Mettenberger was threading the needle on certain throws and both of their starting WRs (Jarvis Landry & Odell Beckham) will be playing on Sundays.  They were killing us with that crossing route all game.  On a positive note our run defense was solid and we were able to sack Mettenberger 4 times.  More importantly you have give credit to the Dawgs getting the stop they had to have when the game was on the line.

At one point, I saw 5 true freshman on the field sprinkled in with many sophomores and redshirt freshman.  These young players are getting better each game.  Josh Harvey-Clemons (sophomore) had 15 tackles, 1.5 TFL, and a pass break-up.  Tray Matthews (freshman) made 2 great hits that broke up what would have been long completions for 1^st downs.  Leonard Floyd (freshman) and Jordan Jenkins (sophomore) both had big sacks in the 4^th quarter.  Everywhere you look on defense you see young, talented players that are only going to get better with some playing time.

Speaking of Floyd, he is now tied for 3^rd in sacks among SEC players while Clowney is 9^th.  I never would have guessed that before the season.

I’ve harped on the fact that holding is rarely called anymore when it seems very obvious on certain plays but apparently those officials yesterday have a different understanding than I do of what constitutes pass interference.  Don’t get me wrong, UGA got away with it on a couple of occasions but I bet LSU could have been flagged for it at least a handful of times.

If you had told me before the season that Georgia would face 3 Top 10 teams in the first 29 days of the season and win 2 out of 3 with the only loss being a 3 point road game I would have taken it in a heartbeat.  Georgia is just the 5^th team in the last 15 years to defeat 2 Top 10 teams before October 1^st.  Through week 5, Georgia has played the toughest schedule in the nation according to the Sagarin ratings.

Georgia’s offense is playing at a very high level.  The Dawgs are averaging over 41 points per game.  When you think about the competition we’ve faced (3 Top 10 teams) and the fact that our two best offensive playmakers have missed all (Malcolm Mitchell) or a good portion (Todd Gurley) of those games it’s really mind boggling.  Coach Mike Bobo certainly doesn’t get the respect he deserves.

LSU had played 63 straight games without allowing 40+ points prior to Saturday’s game.  The last time they allowed at least 40 points was in 2008.  The opponent?  UGA.  The Dawgs won in Death Valley in October 2008 52-38 with Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno, AJ Green, and company.  However, the defense scored 14 of those 52 points  that day with Darryl Gamble picking off two passes and returning both for TDs.

I certainly hope that Todd Gurley gets healthy soon.  He is such a punishing runner and while he was very durable last year (missing no significant time in 14 games) he has already missed a big portion of two games so far this season.

Georgia should be favored in every game from here on out but I believe this week’s game against Tennessee is a trap game.  The Dawgs are coming off an emotional win versus LSU and now have to travel to Knoxville.  Butch Jones is looking for his signature win in his 1^st season and he will pull out all the stops to upset the Dawgs.  I very vividly remember Tennessee upsetting Georgia in 2004 the week after an emotional win over LSU.  I hope the Dawgs are done celebrating the win and ready to get to work on this week’s gameplan.  The only thing that makes me feel better is that John Jancek and Willie Martinez are running their defense.

My only non-Dawg, CFB thought this week is now that USC was the 1^st to drop the hammer on their coach, who is next – Texas or Nebraska?