The top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs’ 45-21 season-opening victory over the Georgia Southern Eagles was akin to a boxer who starts a title run by spending time in the ring with an ill-equipped sparring partner. The mismatch was obvious early on. Georgia Southern opened the game on offense with some nicely designed quick passes, but could not execute and suffered a three-and-out.
“Georgia Southern was breaking in young guys and was a little bit concerned about putting them out there and making them win or lose the ballgame,” said Georgia head coach Mark Richt.
Even when the Bulldogs were not sharp—Asher Allen dropped the first punt return of the game, for instance—they were still a step ahead of the Eagles. Allen picked up his muff and ran nine yards. The Bulldog offense then ran off 57 yards on just five plays to score its first points of the season. Knowshon Moreno’s two-yard touchdown run capped off a drive that featured a Matthew Stafford 36-yard pass to freshman wide receiver A.J. Green, giving Georgia a 7-0 lead.
Despite the discrepancies in talent, however, the Eagles pushed the Bulldogs throughout the game, threatening to score on their third possession. Assisted by Georgia penalties, the Eagles were able to drive to the Bulldogs’ 8-yard line, but came away empty after a Jarius Wynn sack of Antonio Henton and a Jesse Hartley missed field goal.
The Eagles got the ball back after a Richard Samuel fumble and marched to the Bulldog 1-yard line. But middle linebacker Dannell Ellerbe intercepted a Henton pass in the end zone to end the drive.
On the ensuing drive, Stafford found junior split end Kris Durham on a 61-yard touchdown pass for a 17-0 Bulldog lead as the rout was on. Stafford finished the day with two touchdown throws on 13-for-21 passing for 275 yards, while Durham added 74 yards on three catches. Those 275 yards for Stafford were a career high. “Hopefully if we keep this up, we’ll be a pretty dynamic offense,” Stafford said.
Moreno, who spent a lot of fall camp wearing a non-contact jersey to protect a sore shoulder, added two more rushing scores as he finished the day with 59 yards on eight carries. “I feel good,” Moreno said. “It was fun to get back out there and play a game and make some plays.”
Despite the Samuel fumble, Georgia got significant contributions from their freshmen. Some of the Bulldog freshmen that impressed were Green, placekicker Blair Walsh, weakside linebacker Marcus Dowtin and defensive tackle DeAngelo Tyson. Green finished with two catches for 40 yards and a touchdown. Walsh kicked the opening kickoff into the end zone for a touchback, connected on a 52-yard field goal and converted on all six of his extra points. Samuel rebounded from the fumble on his first career carry and finished with 34 yards on six carries.
“After the fumble, Stafford, Knowshon and a couple of the coaches came up to me and said ‘let it go, it happens to everybody,’” Samuel said. “I just let it go and thought about the next play.”
Samuel was the second tailback Georgia played, while redshirt freshman Caleb King was the third. King led the Bulldogs in rushing with 95 yards on 12 carries.
Backup quarterback Joe Cox even saw some rare first-quarter action, coming in on Georgia’s third possession of the game. Cox finished 4-for-6 for 48 yards and a touchdown in mostly mop-up duty.
Lee Chapple started the game at quarterback for the Eagles, playing the first three possessions. Henton then took over midway through the third possession before Chapple came back in the second half to engineer a pair of touchdown drives that covered 53 and 82 yards, scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run. Samair Baker scored on a 2-yard touchdown run for the Eagles.
Richt attributed the Eagles’ offensive success in part due to the fatigue of his team on the humid Athens Saturday. Georgia’s biggest scare of the day, however, occurred at the 7:15 mark of the first quarter when Third Team SEC Coaches Preseason All-SEC defensive tackle Jeff Owens had to be assisted off the field with a possible serious knee injury. Owens left the stadium after the game to have X-rays taken at Athens’ St. May’s Hospital. “I don’t think he’ll be playing anytime soon,” Richt said. “We’ve just got to confirm what we think [the injury is].”
Henton finished the day completing 10 of 18 passes for 102 yards and a late fourth quarter 34-yard touchdown pass to Leander Barney. Chapple was 9-of-18 for the game with 86 yards, and Darell Norman led the Eagles in rushing with 60 yards on 12 carries. Georgia amassed 535 yards of total offense compared to Georgia Southern’s 290.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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