Battle Out; Houston Back

Defensive end Rod Battle has lost his senior season to an ACL injury. Two lineman go down to season-ending injuries early in the season. Sound familiar?

I always feel sorry for someone losing his season to an injury, especially a senior season.

Welcome back Justin Houston. Houston returns for the Arkansas game after a two-game suspension. Possibly Georgia's best pass rushing defensive end, his return couldn't come soon enough. All reports are that Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett is a statue back there. Here's to that being true.

Injuries...Can it get any worse?

I found out this morning that Tony Wilson will now miss the remainder of the season. While on paper this may seem like a minimal loss, but Tony Wilson is by far the best blocking wide receiver we have. Need proof, watch the block he throws at the :07 mark on an ASU lineman:

Wilson's injury adds to an expanding list of Dawgs who will either be out for a while or miss the remainder of the season. Here's just a sample of the current injury list:

Out for the year: Marcus Washington, Trinton Sturdivant, Jeff Owens, Tony Wilson, Bruce Figgins

Out for a while: Kris Durham, Tripp Chandler

Questionable: Knowshon Moreno, Rod Battle, Dannell Ellerbe

Just Getting Back: Brannan Southerland, Quentin Banks

Many will say that good teams have deep depth and the loss of one player should not make that much of a difference. However, as Georgia fans we do have a couple of instances to point at where the loss of one player really hurt us:

Shockley, just after the ankle injury against Arkansas in '05

Losing DJ in '05 for the Florida game completely changed that season. We lost to Florida without DJ and to Auburn with a still recovering Shockley a few weeks later. The full potential of that team was on display against LSU in the SECCG. Who knows how that season would have finished without the injury.

While losing a defensive lineman is not quite the game changer that losing a quarterback is, I am beginning to think that the loss of Jeff Owens really has shifted the way early 2008 has gone. Without our senior leader in the middle, teams have been able to crack down on Geno Atkins and our ends to keep pressure off the quarterback. Willie's system of soft coverage works well provided you are pressuring the quarterback, but without that force in the middle, QBs like John Parker Wilson and Chris Smelley have had ample time to make their reads. The loss of Ellerbe early last week only exemplified this for Bama.

This off week should allow us to heal some and hopefully we get a full strength Brannan Southerland back for the Tennessee game. We need to send a message that the Alabama game was a fluke and we still are a team capable of playing in a BCS bowl.