Saturday’s Georgia-Alabama game taught us a lot of things about the Georgia Bulldogs.
First of all, despite Nick Saban getting all the attention and all the hype, there was Mark Richt leading his Bulldogs to yet another road victory against a ranked team. Since 2001, the Bulldogs are 9-2 in true road games against ranked opponents. Richt simply knows how to prepare his teams for quality opponents in hostile environments. It isn’t a surprise that over the past decade, the Bulldogs have been a model of football consistency. It all starts with the head coach.
Secondly, we learned that Matt Stafford is pretty darn good. Stafford’s only a sophomore, and he was thrust into the middle of a circus, the way the fans and media in Alabama were reacting to Saban leading the Crimson Tide back into the rankings.
Stafford remained poised throughout the game, and made a few nice throws late in the fourth quarter to set up a potential game winning field goal. A fourth down double clutch throw to Tripp Chandler on 4th and 2 was particularly impressive. Instead of forcing a pass to Thomas Brown out of the backfield, Stafford brought the ball down and found his second option in Chandler for a 10 yard gain. If Brandon Coutu’s 48-yard attempt went a little more to the right, then Stafford’s pass to Chandler would have been the key play in the game.
But instead, Coutu missed and the game went into overtime. But with the Bulldogs only down three, Stafford dropped back and floated a perfect over-the-shoulder pass to Mikey Henderson for the game winning touchdown. The kid simply knows how to play quarterback.
Finally, we learned that the Bulldogs are resilient. A week after a tough loss to an arch-nemesis in Steve Spurrier and South Carolina, the Bulldogs marched right down the field and scored an early touchdown.
After they blew a 10 point lead at the end of regulation, they marched down the field again and gave themselves a chance to win the game.
And after yielding a field goal to start overtime, they struck swiftly, hitting the Crimson Tide with a perfectly placed touchdown pass.
The young Bulldogs grew up a lot during the game and will look to take a bite out of the SEC East.
The Arkansas Razorbacks have a lot of problems right now, and the rest of the SEC is leaving them in the dust.
To be sure, Darren McFadden and Felix Jones running the ball isn’t a problem right now. McFadden gashed out 173 yards rushing against a Kentucky defense that had no way to stop him—while Felix Jones carved out 133 yards rushing on only 12 carries.
But everywhere else, the Razorbacks are deficient. Casey Dick just isn’t a good quarterback. He completed under 50% of his passes against Kentucky and threw two interceptions. In fairness though, his receivers didn’t help him out, dropping a multitude of passes—especially on 3rd downs.
Third string runningback Michael Smith coughed up a fumble late in the second quarter, whic
Erick Blasco's College Huddle: Week 4
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4 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Timothy Edwards about 1 year ago
Good job, Erick. I look forward to reading your College Huddle piece every week.
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Timothy Edwards about 1 year ago
While I realize the possibility of an SEC-PAC 10 Bowl Game is almost non existant ( I dont think any of the bowls have that tie in), how fun would an Oregon vs. Kentucky, Dennis Dixon vs. Andre Woodson matchup be for college football ??!!
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David Williams about 1 year ago
Ohh man, that sure would be a matchup to see. I wonder what the Ducks offense has pulled up its sleeves for the rest of the season. Quarterback throwback? Fake spike? Fumblerooskie? well i guess that's outlawed now but its the thought that counts.
Erick, don't worry about picking A&M. I'm sure just about everyone did after Miami's embarrassing loss at the hands of OU, well except for me haha (I had my fair share of bad picks though). I guess OU really is that good.
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Erick Blasco about 1 year ago
I really wish the Pac 10 had better bowl tie-ins. The Holliday Bowl is generally fun but it should take place on New Year's Day, and at least one game should be an SEC-Pac 10 challenge. I have no problems with a few quirky bowls pitting, like, the #2 team in the WAC against the #5 team in the Pac 10, but I think it should be possible for a conference to play a bowl game with any number of teams in other conferences.
For example, maybe one of the two Big 10-SEC tie ins can be changed to one, so that the SEC plays the Pac 10, and the Big 10 can get a game against maybe a Big East team, or maybe a WAC game where the Big 10 #6 plays in the Hawaii Bowl.
I'm just thinking out loud here, but Pac-10-SEC matchups could be very fun.
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