South Carolina vs. Georgia: Turnovers and Penalties Continue to Haunt Bulldogs

Penalties and turnovers are two words coaches try to avoid.

For Georgia head coach Mark Richt, those two words have forced him to sit on the hottest of hot seats in college football.

There was no question Richt and company needed to win against South Carolina for numerous reasons. And in order for him to come away with a win, they would have to avoid penalties and turnovers.

While the Bulldogs were able to overcome some of the mistakes they made against the Gamecocks, but when you have three turnovers and the Gamecocks score 20 points off the turnovers, no team can overcome that.

As a whole, the Bulldogs played well, they looked more energized than they did last week against Boise State and they looked more focused. The offense was able to make some plays and the defense was flying around the football.

But once again, the penalties and the turnovers that the Bulldogs commit proved to be costly and that is why they lost to South Carolina in a hard fought game.

So who is to blame for the mistakes? Do we say the players because of their youth and inexperience, or do we point the fingers to the coaches because the team makes the same mistakes over and over again?

In a situation like this, the blame is pointed to everyone. Players as well as coaches should  have executed better and hopefully this will be a lesson learned for the Bulldogs as they move forward.

The final stats of the game speaks for itself. Georgia outgained South Carolina by nearly 50 yards, had a better third down conversion and they gained more first downs. But Georgia also committed five costly penalties, fumbled the ball twice and one of Murray’s passes was intercepted which led to points.

What’s make this loss more disappointing for anybody associated with the program is Richt’s job is in serious danger, if it wasn’t already. The 0-2 start for the Bulldogs is the worst since 1996 and they have lost nine of their last 15 games. While there needs to be some changes with the program, Richt should not and will not get fired in the next few days. That would kill the morale of the team.

The Bulldogs are a proud program that wants to do better. They showed they had the ability to play up to the level that everyone expects. But in order for the team to take the next step, they have to be more disciplined because if they aren’t on a weekly basis, they will have another six-win season.

And no Georgia fan wants to go through that again.