Gotta tip your hat to the Missouri Tigers. They came in with a great gameplan and executed. We, on the other hand, did not. Without our top two running backs, three of our top four receivers, and with a defense that can only be described as mediocre - we are, at best, an average, middle-of-the-pack SEC team right now. With that said, if we can get Gurley back and proceed to win out, we will win the East again (MIZZOU will lose at least two or more conference games).While I believe all of that is accurate, something else must be said, and it's pretty obvious: the offense didn't necessarily cost us the game, nor did the defense. Special teams were semi-solid as well (no breakdowns at least). It was the TURNOVERS! Simple as that. Which, I suppose, does mean you can pin it on the O.
Our offense did pretty good, I thought. Bobo had a very good game plan, and with the exception of a few drops and some O-line issues (and the turnovers, naturally), things went well. Our freshman tailbacks did great. Our receiving corps did okay. Obviously, Murray had a tough game, but by the end, he was trying to pull off a miracle and made a couple of bad decisions. I don't think it would have mattered anyway. This was Missouri's game.
And for all of the D haters out there, look at the stats - look at the box score. Look at how many points we gave up off of turnovers. I think our defense played one of their best games of the year, and no one is talking about it. Of course, doing slightly better after being pretty bad all year isn't saying a whole lot, though. And you do know our D ranks 105th in the FBS in scoring defense, right?
Tough, tough game...
I'm going to do my usual Sunday Treatment and A Trip Around the Dawgosphere later today.
GO DAWGS!
Yes, of course, you are right as rain on the turnovers costing us the game, which is all Mark Richt said about the game as well.
ReplyDelete2 more sacks, 4 rushes for 1 yard per carry, 65 quarterback rating, 2 interceptions for points given up when counted upon for scores for us by stark contrast, and fumble into waiting arms of defense at our Goal Line for yet another score, while their quarterbacks were not All-SEC 1st Team Pre-Season as ours but ran and threw for the Touchdowns on these turnovers and of course the 3 and outs as well on Offense, was just not what we all knew we had to have from our 5th-Year Senior Quarterback on this day coming in against a AP Poll Top 25 team, who now is way ahead of us in all the Polls, dropping us to # 6 SEC Team of 7 SEC Team ranked in the AP Poll Top 25 today with only Florida ranked worst than us.
Just not what was expected from our 5th-Year Senior Quarterback All-SEC 1st Team Pre-Season at Quarterback.
Maybe what we've come to see all too frequently from him all 5 years on our campus against top-ranked teams, but not the type of "tough" performance by all accounts of it that we hoped for.
Aaron Murray Era coincides with Todd Grantham Era :
# 1 now 42-4 Oregon .91
# 2 now 41-5 Alabama .89
# 3 now 40-6 Stanford .8696
# 4 now 39-6 Boise State .8667
# 5 now 40-7 LSU .85
# 6 now 40-8 Northern Illinois .83
# 7 now 37-9 Oklahoma .80
# 8 now 35-9 Oklahoma State .79
# 9 now 36-10 Florida State .78
# 10 now 34-12 Michigan State 77
# 11 now 33-11 TCU .75
# 12 now 24-8 Ohio State .75
# 13 now 35-13 Virginia Tech .7292
# 14 now 34-13 Nebraska .72
# 15 now 34-13 Wisconsin .72
# 16 now 33-13 Clemson .7174
# 17 now 32-13 Notre Dame .7111
# 18 now 32-13 Texas A and M .7111
# 19 now 31-14 Louisville .6889
# 20 now 30-14 Baylor bears .6818
# 21 now 32-15 Georgia Bulldogs – Aaron Murray Todd Grantham games .6809
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QUARTERBACKS’ WINNING PERCENTAGE :
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.83 DJ Shockley winning percentage starting QB 10-2
.80 David Greene winning percentage starting QB 42-10
.79 Matthew Stafford winning percentage starting QB 27-7
.68 Aaron Murray winning percentage starting QB 32-15
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Appreciate the comment and the numbers.
DeleteWell, definitely can't deny your numbers. And it is true, AM has a lower winning % than all of the UGA QBs you've mentioned. However, his QB rating, yards, TDs, and many other stats are also better than everyone you've mentioned.
I think you also have to take into account the 2010 season that was Murray's first year. That's where 7 of the losses came from. UGA was a rebuilding team in transition that year.
One thing I mentioned in the post after this one was the biggest problem with the offense, in my opinion, was the line and pass blocking. It's hard for Murray to do Murray things when he has no time and is running for his life.
Yeah, we can make up a lot of excuses.
DeleteThat's what you have to do when the Records we bragged about of David Greene, DJ Shockley and Matthew Stafford were their Winning Percentages.
David Greene, for example was hailed far and wide for his 42-10 Record. Aaron Murray through faults of his own is nowhere near. Aaron Murray is not David Greene. Aaron Murray who will never throw a pass in the NFL, is no Matthew Stafford either. DJ Shockley certainly did live-up to his billing as a dual-threat QB.
David Greene and DJ Shockley both Won SEC Championships for us.
We proved, for example, Saturday at our House, that our Running Backs and OL could absolutely run the football against that porous run defense of Missouri.
Why did JJ Green have only 12 carries ?
Why did Brendan Douglas have only 14 carries ?
Why did Aaron Murray have 4 carries and 45 passes, instead ?
This is the Legacy of Aaron Murray. Call it whatever, but this is a recipe for defeat by the # 12 Undefeated Missouri.
We counted upon our Quarterback to carry us. Instead, we got yet another game like the Clemson game from Aaron Murray...
again.
It is what he does do, and continues to do.
Were David Greene on the field, he would have ridden the horse of JJ Green.
12 carries for 87 yards
And, Brendan Douglas was right behind him with 70 yards.
When David Greene had Musa Smith, Musa Smith had 1,324 yards with fewer yards per carry than JJ Green.
All of us felt really good about JJ Green running the ball against that very poor rushing defense of Missouri.
Instead, he got 12 carries and we threw the ball 45 times instead.
No, David Greene did not do that, did he ?
Aaron Murray turned the ball over, as you write in this blog, and as Mark Richt summarized only after the loss for us all as well, and cost us the game.
I make no excuses for Aaron Murray. I said pre-game Okie State 2009 that Zach Mettenberger should have played quarterback, instead of Joe Cox chronic throwing shoulder and flu-ridden.
There is no question that the Aaron Murray Era is Mark Richt's worst period.
Anonymous, we'll just have to agree to disagree on a good bit of this, especially vis-a-vis AM. But I will say this: you've got a point about rushing the ball more. With what Green and Douglas were averaging per run, and with more runs giving us better control of the clock, that may have made a difference. I actually commented about this on my most recent post.
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