Even though Lane Kiffin failed to beat Florida, he did manage to beat Georgia this afternoon by a final score of 45-19. Now he, the players, and the fans can finally sing Rocky Top all night long.
However, this is a Georgia blog, so instead of focusing on what Tennessee did right, I'm going to focus on what we did wrong. I mean VERY WRONG.
Tennessee was supposed to have one of the worst passing games in the SEC. Georgia's defense let that "terrible" passing game show up early and never leave. Quarterback Jonathan Crompton was 20-for-27 for 310 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. The one INT was returned for a touchdown, but that still didn't do much to help Georgia.
Our defense also let Tennessee dominate on the ground. Montario Hardesty rushed 20 times for 97 yards and a touchdown (average of 4.9). The other running backs combined for 17 carries and 65 yards (3.8 average). Those are some of the worst numbers I have ever seen for a Dawg defense in a game. I thought our defense was supposed to be great at stopping the run.
Georgia's offense was completely horrible. Mike Bobo could never get the offense going, as they only put up one field goal in the game (both touchdowns and the safety came on defense/special teams). Joe Cox had another terrible performance, going 19-for-34 for 146 yards and two interceptions. That's an average of 4.3 yards per completion. Joe Cox has to be one of the worst quarterbacks to start for Georgia in recent history. Matthew Stafford would never have had numbers that bad in a game.
The Dawgs were also terrible on the ground. After a huge debut last week, Washaun Ealey came out in the second quarter and rushed 10 times for 18 yards and a 1.8 average. All of Georgia's backs combined for 22 carries and 89 yards for a 4.0 average. When a GEORGIA running game puts up only 89 yards rushing in a game, you know something's wrong.
However, after all of this bad stuff, there were a few good moments in the game (Zach Renner's blocked punt and Bacarri Rambo's interception return).
This game can only leave us asking: What has happened to Georgia? We went from being a national championship team in 2007 to being the preseason #1 in 2008 to being #2 in the state after the 2008 season to being completely terrible and unranked this year. Has anyone noticed that ALL of Richt's SEC championships were when he still had Jim Donnan's recruiting classes? The first year he coached with his own recruiting class, we went from SEC champions to 8-4.
We need to seriously rearrange our entire coaching staff. Mike Bobo and Willie Martinez have got to go. Our offensive line coach (whoever he is) needs to go. Mark Richt may even need to go.
In the end, we just need to do something to fix our problems and become a winning football team again.
