Has the ship been righted? Thoughts on Vanderbilt

For the second week in a row, the Georgia Bulldogs did what a good team is supposed to do when they play inferior competition. The 43-0 shutout of the Vanderbilt Commodores, may have been the most complete Georgia effort in the last few years. The offense racked up close to 600 yards of offense and the defense did not allow the Commodores to reach the red zone the entire game.

The only negatives of the entire game were the slow start for Aaron Murray (he started the game 1 for 4 passing, missing Kris Durham wide open at the 3 during the first drive), a drop in the end zone by AJ (yes, he’s human), and a missed 31 yard field goal by Blair Walsh. In the first quarter, the defense got burned once again by the wheel route, but that was the only mistake they made all game. The worst performance of the day goes to the coaching staff in the first 5 minutes of the game, blowing all three timeouts. This can’t happen when you are playing a team that actually has a pulse.

The positive were many, but I’ll highlight two that will be important next week against Kentucky. First, Aaron Murray was not relied upon to create the Georgia running game. Ealey put forth his best effort since Tech last year, including a great 50 yard plus run when it appeared the defense had him bottled up. Carlton Thomas added the first two touchdowns of his career and with that we get the first appearance of the Cartlon Dance:


The other thing that the Dawgs did really well was contain All-SEC player Warren Norman. For those of you who don’t know, Norman broke Herschel Walker’s SEC freshman record for all-purpose yards last season. Norman had 33 yards of total offense and was basically a non-factor. If the Dawgs hope to win in Lexington on Saturday, they are going to have to do the same thing to Randall Cobb.

Speaking of Randall Cobb, how the heck does Carolina leave him wide open with the game on the line? With Kentucky’s upset of South Carolina and Florida’s loss to Mississippi State, the East is a complete mess. (The Georgia loss to Mississippi State doesn’t look so bad now that the west Dawgs are 5-2.) If Georgia somehow found a way to win its remaining 3 SEC games (which looks impossible the way Auburn is scoring points) and Florida defeated South Carolina, the Dawgs would end up in Atlanta on the first weekend of December. It is a complete long shot, but stranger things have happened.

The road back to respectability begins Saturday in Lexington. The Wildcats are playing well and will have a lot of confidence heading into the game. If Georgia shows up like they have the last two weeks, winning should not be a problem. Otherwise, we’ll head to Florida with a 3-5 record and pretty much all hopes of making a bowl game gone.

GO DAWGS!!!