Behind a Darryl Gamble 40-yard interception return and the throwing of Matthew Stafford and running of Knowshon Moreno, Georgia jumped out to a 38-17 lead on the way to earning a 52-38 win at LSU (5-2, 3-2). Gamble added 53-yard interception return for a touchdown late in the game and Georgia moved to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the SEC. Stafford passed for 249 yards and two touchdowns and Moreno finished with 163 yards rushing and a touchdown, as the Bulldog offensive line stood up to the LSU defense. Here are six more observations on the Bulldogs’ win.
1. The Receivers: A.J. Green and Mohamed Massaquoi are the big names, but Georgia got contributions from Michael Moore, Demiko Goodman, Kris Durham and Kenneth Harris. Moore caught three big passes in the first half, Goodman had a 17-yard reception, Durham made a tough catch along the sidelines in the second half and Harris caught a 5-yard touchdown. Most importantly, with the exception of a third-quarter Green drop, the receivers caught every catchable ball from Stafford and even caught the ones that were not perfectly thrown. Green made up for his mistake one play later by catching a 49-yard touchdown pass.
2. Versatility: After the team’s last practice of the week on Thursday, it became apparent that tight end Tripp Chandler would not play, but fellow tight end Aron White would attempt to play. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs would have to play short-handed at the position for their fourth straight game, as Bruce Figgins, who has a hurt shoulder like Chandler and White, got the start. To compensate, Georgia continued to deploy fullbacks Brannan Southerland and Shaun Chapas in the game at the same time, with one being used in an H-back/tight end role. The Bulldogs even added a wrinkle in third-string fullback Fred Munzenmaier, who scored on 1-yard touchdown run to put Georgia up 7-0 with Southerland and Chapas also in the game. White eventually made his presence felt by catching his first collegiate pass, a 48-yarder that got the Bulldogs out of bad field position.
3. Defense Was Bent, Not Broken: Perhaps looking to take a page from the book of Alabama, LSU opened the game in a five-wide receiver set attempting to put the thought of the pass in the Bulldogs’ mind so Georgia would not gang up on the Tigers’ running game. However, Gamble’s first interception showed that the Bulldogs were more than capable of standing up to the LSU passing attack. The Tigers subsequently had success running the ball on Georgia, especially up the middle behind mammoth left guard Herman Johnson and center Brett Helms. The Bulldogs, however, stepped up to that challenge in the second half, as they stuffed the Tigers’ power game. LSU countered with backup quarterback Andrew Hatch and a spread/run type of offense that helped get them back into the game. However, with LSU down 45-31 with 5:00 left in the game, the Bulldogs blitzed the Tigers out of their last chance to get back into the game before Gamble punctuated the defense’s performance with his second pick-six on the Tigers’ next possession.
4. Big-Play Ability: Plays like Green’s touchdown and Moreno’s 68-yard third quarter touchdown that put Georgia up 38-17 are trademarks of the types of teams that contend for national championships. The Bulldogs put up nearly 900 yards in total offense in their last two games, but only scored a total of 50 points thanks to troubles in the red zone and on third down. Thus, those wins did not look as impressive as they could have. Add plays like the ones Green and Moreno made against LSU, and those wins are likely blowouts and the public perception of how Georgia is playing is totally changed. Also, Gamble’s two interceptions for touchdowns are examples of a big-play defense. The final score and those plays will be shown on highlight shows for the rest of the week, upping the national feel around the Bulldogs and quite possibly giving them some more juice in the human polls.
5. Defensive End Pressure: Georgia was able to put pressure on the LSU quarterbacks and the defense did not have to blitz to do so. Defensive ends Justin Houston, Jeremy Lomax and Jarius Wynn had their moments. Houston disrupted a second-quarter Tiger screen pass and forced a big intentional grounding call in the third quarter that helped halt one LSU drive. Lomax and Wynn combined for a sack to start the fourth quarter.
6. Florida Awaits: With the LSU game behind them, the Bulldogs can look to the next step of their gauntlet of a schedule, Florida. Despite how well Georgia is playing, the Gators might be playing even better after beating Kentucky 63-5, LSU 51-21 and Arkansas 38-7 in their last three games. Of course there will be a lot made of the Bulldogs’ end zone celebration from last year, but some other areas o might cause Georgia more concern. The Bulldogs gave up several big plays of their own against the Tigers, as LSU put up 38 points. The tackling was inconsistent and Georgia had problems with screen passes, something Florida (6-1, 4-1) can be dangerous with. The Bulldogs must also limit their penalties and not give the Gators any cheap yardage. But the game everyone circled has finally arrived and both Florida and Georgia will have a lot to play for.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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