All right, let’s start with the good news.

The Bulldogs started strong by leaping out to a 14-0 lead on the road, converted 40 per cent of their third downs, averaged almost five yards per rush, rolled up 520 yards of total offense despite holding the ball for barely 25 minutes of clock time, incurred only five penalties for 58 yards, and scored 42 points on a Kentucky defense that had given up more than 24 just once all season long.

Matthew Stafford had statistically his best day as a Bulldog, completing 17 of his 27 pass attempts for 376 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. Knowshon Rockwell Moreno averaged 5.6 yards per carry, rushed for 123 yards while hauling in three passes for 40 yards, and found the end zone three times. Mohamed Massaquoi snagged eight passes for 191 yards and a touchdown, A.J. Green went up and grabbed the game-winner in the back of the end zone, and Michael Moore once again proved reliable in the clutch with two catches for 68 yards.

Also, the Bulldogs won.

That brings us to the bad news.

The Wildcats, who are as injury-riddled as the ‘Dawgs (if not more so), held the ball for nearly 35 minutes, converted eight of 17 third downs (usually in short yardage situations) and two of three fourth-down tries, and scored 38 points, all with a wide receiver at quarterback. Randall Cobb---no, not Randall "Tex" Cobb; we’re playing S.E.C. football here, not searching for Nathan Arizona’s baby---ran the ball 18 times for 82 yards and three touchdowns while hooking up on 12 of his 20 passes for 105 yards and, mercifully, one crucial interception.

Of course, the fact that the ‘Cats did all this to the ‘Dawgs while amassing only 331 yards of total offense is more than a little telling. Due to the increasingly ludicrous offense-boosting kickoff rules, the Blue and White began their first scoring drive from their own 40 yard line after Blair Walsh’s kickoff went out of bounds. The second quarter possession on which Kentucky tied the game began at the home team’s 33 yard line when the Red and Black turned the ball over on downs.

The Wildcats’ third quarter field goal was set up by Tony Dixon’s 28-yard kickoff return out to the U.K. 35 to begin the second half. The home team took the lead when Danny Trevathan blocked Brian Mimbs’s punt to give the Bluegrass State Felines custody of the pigskin at the Georgia nine yard line. Mimbs’s next punt went just 18 yards, setting up Kentucky at the Bulldogs’ 29 yard line. The ‘Cats scored three plays later.

I’m not picking on Mimbs, I’m just saying. (Associated Press photograph by Mary Ann Chastain.)

After Georgia scored to reclaim a 35-31 lead, Winston Guy broke a 96-yard kickoff return to set up another three-play touchdown drive. The Red and Black’s next two drives appeared promising until Massaquoi fumbled in U.K. territory, but both turnovers could be classified as what appellate courts call "harmless error": Kentucky took over on Georgia’s 49 yard line and the Wildcats’ 38 yard line, respectively, yet those two first and tens turned into a fourth and 15 at the Kentucky 46 and a fourth and eleven at the Georgia 35, producing no points.

From there, Massaquoi atoned for his earlier miscues by taking Stafford’s first pass on the Bulldogs’ final drive for 78 yards to the U.K. seven yard line. A foolish (albeit apparently accidental) facemask penalty on what otherwise would have been a game-sealing fourth down stop by the Georgia D gave the Wildcats new life, which Demarcus Dobbs proceeded to snuff out with the pick that at long last ended all doubts as to the final outcome in the final minute.

Kentucky moved the football more than they should have, but they seldom had to move it much. As was the case in Jacksonville last weekend, the initial blame for the opposition’s unsightly point tally must be laid at the feet of the offense that gave the ball away and the special teams that set the other team up with good field position. There is plenty for which to blame the defense, but, when a new U.K. quarterback who hasn’t put a lot on film is set up with field position ranging from good to great in his home stadium all afternoon, even a solid defensive effort is going to be made to look bad.

Consequently, I’m more concerned about the kicking game than I am about the defense. The Wildcats began three of their five first-half drives at or in back of their own 30 yard line; that trio of possessions produced no points and, on average, lasted four plays apiece and generated fewer than 20 yards each.

Kentucky never had to drive the length of the field. The Wildcats’ longest drive was 67 yards. Only two of their 13 possessions went for more than 50 yards. Just four U.K. offensive series covered as many as 35 yards of real estate. Had the Blue and White started in the neighborhood of their own 25 or worse as often as the ‘Dawgs did, Georgia would have won the game by at least two touchdowns.

As I noted earlier, the last two Saturdays have borne a disconcerting resemblance to the middle years of the 1990s, when beatdowns by the St. John’s River and shootouts in the Bluegrass State were the norm. I have to admit that it starts to look more like the rule than the exception when three straight opponents hang 38 or more points on the Bulldogs, but a couple of asterisks have to be appended to those tallies: Alabama hung 41 points on Georgia at home and every one of them accurately reflected the prowess of the opposing offense. The last three games were played in Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, and Lexington, and, in every one of them, the numbers artificially were inflated by garbage time yardage after the game was decided (at L.S.U.) or by offensive and special teams miscues (against Florida and at Kentucky).

There are problems in need of correcting; maybe there even are changes that need to be made among the members of Mark Richt’s coaching staff. Right now, though, we in Bulldog Nation have more immediately concerns. The Red and Black are 8-2, with two games remaining in which they may earn a New Year’s Day bowl berth, a top ten ranking, and a sixth ten-win season in a seven-year span.

Considering all of our lofty preseason expectations, that might not sound like much for which to play. I suspect a similar sentiment was heard in Tallahassee near the end of the 1992 season that was Florida State’s sixth straight ten-win campaign with nary a national championship to show for it . . . until the ‘Noles, with Mark Richt as their quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator, proceeded to finish No. 1 in the nation twice in the next seven years.

Forget about all that for now, though. Next Saturday, the Bulldogs will renew the Deep South’s oldest football rivalry when they travel to the so-called Loveliest Village to face an Auburn team that was tied with Tennessee-Martin---not Tennessee, but Division I-AA Tennessee-Martin---with just over six minutes remaining in the third quarter. Now, as ever, there is nothing wrong with being a Georgia Bulldog that beating Auburn can’t fix.

Go ’Dawgs! Auburna delenda est!

I expect a repeat of the Tennessee game, in which Georgia wins relatively narrowly on the scoreboard a contest which was not quite as even on the field as it appeared on the ESPN scroll. As long as the Bulldogs protect the football better than they did last Saturday, they should be able to keep the Commodores in check, although no one who is familiar with Vandy under Bobby Johnson believes the visitors will fold their tents and surrender.

Georgia needs to jump on the Commies early in the contest. Vandy’s stingy defense has given up just 98 points this season, but 57 of those were surrendered in the first quarter. The Bulldogs need to demonstrate their dominance from the outset. Otherwise, it will be a longer afternoon than it has to be for the home team on homecoming.

My Prediction: Georgia 24, Vanderbilt 14.

So I wrote on Friday afternoon, marking a rare instance of accurate forecasting on my part. (MaconDawg, by the way, nailed three of his five predictions, as well, so it was a good day here at Dawg Sports.)

That, by and large, was the size of it. Georgia led in first downs (25-14), total yards (425-245), passing yards (194-131), rushing yards (231-114), yards per pass (8.4-4.1), yards per rush (5.8-4.4), time of possession (32:26-27:34), and, as predicted, points (24-14). Although the turnovers were even---each quarterback threw two interceptions and neither squad lost a fumble---that was one of the phases of the game Vanderbilt consistently had been winning, so the Bulldogs did well to give the ball away only as often as they took it away . . . especially since there must have been literally half a dozen missed opportunities for the Red and Black to pick off Commodore passes.

Those were not the Classic City Canines’ only squandered chances, however. The ‘Dawgs did well by having to run only eight third down plays, but they moved the chains only on one of them. (Am I reading the stat sheet correctly? Can that be right?) Blair Walsh missed a pair of field goals, either of which would have kept the game out of doubt in the fourth quarter. While the penalties were down overall (5 for 47 yards) and one or two of them were arguable, a pair of pass interference penalties preserved the touchdown drive late in the second quarter that kept Vandy in the game.

Any game that doesn’t end in a 49-0 win with neither injuries nor penalties lends itself to second-guessing, but, with the next four Saturdays sending the Bulldogs to Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, Lexington, and Auburn, it’s hard to resist asking whether such an effort as this was good enough. Extenuating circumstances (injuries chief among them) have caused Georgia’s clear potential for greatness to emerge only intermittently, but the Red and Black are moving in the right direction.

Kickoff coverage, once a glaring weakness, is improving. The offensive line issues, while by no means eradicated, have been addressed to an extent you would have thought impossible had I told you in July that we would lose two starting left tackles by midseason. The fullback position has become a distinct strength.

Knowshon Rockwell Moreno earned 172 yards on 23 carries and was spelled capably by Caleb King (11 carries for 40 yards). A.J. Green had another stellar day (7 catches for 132 yards and a touchdown), including an outstanding first quarter. Matthew Stafford quietly threw for 194 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

It is quite true that the Bulldogs’ losses to season-ending injuries mandate that Georgia mix it up offensively, although the ‘Dawgs did a nice job of adjusting. Unable to run it up the gut against Tennessee, the Athenians used the toss sweep to good use; when the ‘Dores came prepared with a plan to neutralize that weapon, the Red and Black quickly adapted to take advantage of their newfound opportunities to run it between the tackles.

Tankertoad said it best when he noted during this afternoon’s comment thread that, last year, Mark Richt "did things to ‘amp up’ the team. Somehow, this year, he needs to do things to get the team ‘in the zone’, in sync, on the same page." Depending upon how one is inclined to view glasses in which the waterline is at the midpoint, this Georgia team is either a play or two away from greatness or a play or two away from mediocrity.

I tend to think that this Georgia team is an injury or six away from being the team we thought they would be, but, the breaks being what they have been and the realities being what they are, this fact remains: Georgia is 6-1 overall, 3-1 in the league, in first place in the S.E.C. East, and in a position to have the division crown come down to the winner-take-all showdown by the St. John’s River we all have expected since January.

Style points count in the polls, but not in the conference standings (and, not for nothing, but ESPN portrayed today’s win in a pretty positive light). A double-digit win over a ranked division rival is a good day’s work and I, for one, feel like a Bulldog this Saturday night.

Go ‘Dawgs!

I enjoy an emotional game as much as the next fellow, but games that are about who is more fired up than whom wind up at one extreme or the other, as evidenced by the last two occasions on which the Bulldogs wore black jerseys when facing Yellowhammer State-based squads between the hedges. Because it is impossible to be emotionally inflamed for every challenging game---and the ‘Dawgs are at the point in the season at which every game is a challenging game---a team has to win some of them in strictly a businesslike manner.

So it was against Arizona State on September 20, and so it was against Tennessee yesterday afternoon. (Let us leave aside for now the fact that both the Sun Devils and the Volunteers now stand at 2-4; the Bulldogs have twice as many victories over Division I-A teams with winning records as our division rivals from Gainesville can claim.) Everywhere except on the scoreboard, Saturday’s Sanford Stadium showdown was a thumping.

How else do you describe a game in which Georgia holds the ball for over 42 minutes and gains 29 first downs to the Big Orange’s ten? How else could you characterize a contest in which the Red and Black converted more than half of their third downs (9 of 17) while holding the visitors to a one-third conversion percentage (4 of 12)?

Matthew Stafford connected on 25 of his 36 attempts for his first 300-yard passing day in a Bulldog uniform. Knowshon Rockwell Moreno became the first running back to rush for over 100 yards against the Volunteer defense this season. Meanwhile, Tennessee tallied a lone rushing yard---one; count it: one---and, even discounting Nick Stephens’s 15 lost yards on sacks, the tailback tandem of Lennon Creer, Arian Foster, and Montario Hardesty combined for 25 yards on 11 carries.

Tennessee twice threatened to climb back into the game, both times due to Georgia miscues (about which more forthwith), but the Bulldogs built up leads of 13-0 early in the second quarter and 20-7 at halftime in the course of amassing 458 yards against a fairly stout Volunteer D while holding the Big Orange to a measly 209 yards of total offense.

The day was far from perfect, of course, as evidenced by the Bulldogs’ 12-point margin of victory. After the indignities of the past two seasons, in which U.T. drubbed the ‘Dawgs once in Athens and again in Knoxville, this game could and should have been, at a minimum, 35-0.

A.J. Green just flat dropped a touchdown pass at the goal line for no good reason whatsoever. The defense missed a couple of shots at contest-clinching interceptions and failed to force a turnover all game. The penalties, which appeared throughout much of the first half finally to be under control, once again got out of hand in the second half, to the tune of 76 yards surrendered on eleven flags.

Stafford threw more interceptions (2) than touchdown passes (1), and both of the Georgia quarterback’s picks ended what would have been Bulldog scoring drives and led to what became the only Volunteer scoring drives; absent those two bad passes, the final score would have been, at worst, 32-0.

While I appreciate, respect, and even agree with the argument that it is better to be beaten deep than dinked and dunked to death, it isn’t any fun watching it happen to your team. My hope for Prince Miller is that he will turn out to be a latter-day Bruce Thornton---picked on unmercifully while experiencing growing pains before turning into a first-class defensive back---but, for now, it is painful watching him struggle in pass coverage.

Not all of the adversity the ‘Dawgs encountered was their own doing, of course. The unfortunate loss of Vince Vance was no one’s fault, naturally, nor was the fact that the S.E.C. officiating crew that sets new standards for incompetence set up the Bulldogs with third and goal on the three after a penalty that is supposed to produce an automatic first down.

In the end, though, there was much more to like than to dislike in Saturday’s performance. Mohamed Massaquoi had a great day and Demiko Goodman had a good one. The forward wall of the Georgia offense kept Stafford upright and able to throw, which was very impressive, considering the attrition in the Georgia ranks and the quality of the Tennessee defense.

In a not unrelated item, Brannan Southerland’s overdue return proved well worth the wait, and, not to be outdone, Shaun Chapas stepped up his game. Asher Allen remains Asher Allen and C.J. Byrd made some nice plays, as well.

While it’s unfortunate that Blair Walsh had to attempt four field goals, he split the uprights on all four of them, even though one of them was a bit harrowing and I’m not altogether convinced that the wind rendered it wise to let the third quarter expire before letting the true freshman try a 41-yarder at the other end of the field. Brian Mimbs returned to the form he displayed against South Carolina and we appear finally to be getting away from this nonsense of placing kickoffs anywhere other than the end zone.

I could have done with a few more touchdowns and I carry some sense of dread that another such effort of dominance on the stat sheet but not on the scoreboard will not suffice against L.S.U. or Florida or, heck, Vanderbilt. Nevertheless, the ‘Dawgs did what they had to do, converting critical third downs and closing the deal when the chips were down.

Clinging to a 13-7 lead and facing third and eight at their own five yard line, the Classic City Canines moved the chains to spark a drive that went 97 yards in nine plays, culminating in a touchdown with nine seconds remaining until halftime. After the Georgia defense later forced the Vols to go three and out, the Red and Black ran the ball 14 times in their next 16 plays, covering 76 yards and tacking on the game-icing field goal after taking eleven minutes off of the clock.

The Bulldogs played good football and moved the ball well on what is still a stout S.E.C. defense. I will admit that I am not unbiased upon this point, since my wife teaches with this particular walk-on’s father, but, for me, the emblematic play of the game is one you probably didn’t notice. On what I believe was Georgia’s last kickoff, Chad Gloer nearly made---arguably, should have made---the tackle that would have left the Volunteers with particularly poor field position, but, having missed his chance the first time, he got back up, gave chase, and made the tackle the second time. It wasn’t perfect, but it showed a refusal to let up and it got the job done.

The final score, while disappointing, was not surprising, particularly if you happened to read this weblog before the game. (Heck, I even picked the honorary game day captain correctly!) If you want to win a football game, you have to out-think, out-tough, and out-play your opponent. Georgia did that, and, anytime you can walk away from an S.E.C. football game with a win in your hip pocket, you’ve had a good day. I, for one, am not going to fret (for now) that the good was merely good and not great. When good is good enough, I’ll take it.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Now, that was more like it!

It’s not that last week’s performance was bad; quite the contrary. It’s just that the win over Georgia Southern seemed to fall somewhat short of the hype. Saturday’s victory between the hedges, though, represented both a step up in the weight class of the opposition and a step-up by the Bulldogs, who looked yesterday like what they will be on my BlogPoll ballot tomorrow . . . namely, the No. 1 team in the nation.

From the booth, Mike Bobo called one of the best games of his brief career as his alma mater’s offensive coordinator, methodically building a 21-0 lead before Demarcus Dobbs’s 78-yard interception return appeared to break the game wide open. After the Chippewas clawed back to within two touchdowns on their first drive of the third quarter, Georgia did not hesitate to go for the kill; two plays, 62 seconds, and one 52-yard Knowshon Rockwell Moreno run later, the Red and Black had resumed a comfortable 35-14 lead.

From there, it was all Bulldogs. Central Michigan managed only a 30-yard field goal as the Classic City Canines pounded out three more touchdowns. An inopportune fumble on a poor center-quarterback exchange to second-stringer Joe Cox probably deprived Richard Samuel of his second score of the game, but that was one of few flaws exhibited by the ‘Dawgs on this day.

On the other hand, one of the flaws exhibited by the officials was their apparent ignorance of the fact that this is holding.

Much-ballyhooed double-threat signal-caller Dan LeFevour got his passing yards because Willie Martinez gave them to him in a swap the Georgia defensive coordinator was happy to make in the course of holding C.M.U. (Coach Martinez’s last stop on the road to Athens, incidentally) to 59 rushing yards and 2.7 yards per carry. Matthew Stafford, not hitherto known in these parts as the second coming of Fran Tarkenton, ran for more yards (25) than LeFevour (19), including a 22-yard scamper on third and long deep in Bulldog territory to sustain a scoring drive.

Stafford’s run produced one of 25 Red and Black first downs and represented one of the nine conversions the Athenians managed on a dozen third-down tries. The Chips, by contrast, saw their high-powered offense limited to 17 first downs and a mere half-dozen conversions on 15 third downs. Four of Central Michigan’s first five drives failed to produce so much as a single fresh set of downs.

The Bulldogs racked up 552 yards of total offense and demonstrated impressive balance in the process, throwing for 289 and rushing for 263. Moreno could do no wrong, averaging over nine yards per carry, collecting 168 yards and three touchdowns in 18 rushes, and at one point causing me to wonder whether Larry Munson was up in the booth yelling, "He’s jumping over people!" Moreno added 30 receiving yards on three catches for good measure.

Samuel made the most of his eight touches, racking up 44 yards and a score . . . which, based upon the third-string tailback’s reaction to the late turnover, was one touchdown too few in his book. When Caleb King’s 4.0 yards-per-carry average brings up the rear among the Bulldog backs, the ground game has had a good day.

Let’s not slight the passing attack, though. Cox came into the game late and the offense barely missed a beat. The backup quarterback threw five passes for five completions and 76 yards. Aside from a drop by Kris Durham over the middle, the ‘Dawgs looked sharp through the air all day. A.J. Green and Mohamed Massaquoi lived up to their billing and both Michael Moore and Israel Troupe had good games.

No, the game wasn’t flawless. Georgia was set back 70 yards on nine penalties, although much of Central Michigan’s limited success came on some questionable no-calls by the officials. The special teams were not as strong as we have come to expect, as the directional kicks Blair Walsh has been instructed to make yielded more and bigger returns than are acceptable. I agree with the always insightful SG Standard: if we can put it out the back of the end zone, why don’t we?

These, though, are decidedly minor quibbles. Georgia closed the deal in dominant fashion, producing a game which was fun not only for the fans but (judging by the dancing on the sidelines during a T.V. timeout and by the good-natured ribbing dished out by Dobbs during the postgame show) also for the players.

On a day on which Southern California and Louisiana State both took the afternoon off (the latter, by necessity; the former, by design), Ohio State struggled mightily with overmatched Ohio (Ohio) in the national game of disinterest, and Florida led depleted Miami (Florida) by six points after three quarters before classlessly leaving Tim Tebow in the game to tack on trash (and trashy) points at the end, there appeared to be no genuine challengers to Georgia’s standing atop the sport outside of a couple of strong performers in the Big 12. (No, Texas and Texas Tech, I’m not talking about you!)

Nothing personal, coach, but . . . a 28-13 halftime lead over U.T.E.P.? Really?

Beyond that, here are a handful of other random observations regarding the Saturday just behind us:

• I have attended both games this season as one-half of a father-son outing, but, because I went to the Georgia Southern game with a five-year-old and to the Central Michigan game with a 65-year-old, I was able to stay all the way to the end this time. When the Redcoat Band struck up "Krypton Fanfare," I was reminded how right my wife is when she says that, rather than own the fourth quarter, she would rather own the first, second, and third quarters and leave the fourth period to the scrubs. Better that than sleepwalking through the first 15 minutes or more and needing to turn it on late like some teams I could name.



• Speaking of the Saurians, does Tim Tebow not see the cognitive dissonance between being the sort of football player who writes Bible verses on his eyeblack and being the sort of football player who plays for Urban Meyer? Can the Gator Golden Child quote me chapter and verse on the part where Jesus said, "Blessed are they who leave their starters in during the final minute of the fourth quarter so they can run it up, for they shall inherit the earth"? Who knew that Florida would one day hire a coach that made us long for the graciousness and dignity of the Steve Spurrier era?



• While we’re on the subject of running it up, I hope no one thinks Georgia did that by hanging half a hundred on the Chippewas. As I pointed out earlier, breaking 50 on C.M.U. is hardly novel for a B.C.S. conference team playing at home and the fourth-quarter offense was pretty much straight up the middle; it only got out of hand because Samuel came to play (which is to his credit) and there’s only so long Michiganders can be expected to hold up in Georgia humidity. Here’s how much the ‘Dawgs weren’t trying to run it up . . . by the end of the game, we had a white guy "possession-type receiver" out there returning punts!



• Here’s how the postseason coaching dominoes are going to fall: Tommy Bowden will be fired; Bobby Johnson will replace Coach Bowden at Clemson; Skip Holtz will replace Coach Johnson at Vanderbilt; Steve Spurrier will replace Coach Holtz at East Carolina. Hey, it’s bound to yield better results than the last time he replaced a Coach Holtz at a directional Carolina.



• No, I’m not talking trash to South Carolina. The Gamecocks always bring their best game to the confrontation with Georgia, and they will have two extra days to prepare, a strong incentive to right the ship after losing to Vanderbilt, a very stout defense, and a home field advantage that no Bulldog fan could deny is genuine and daunting. The good news is that this is likely to be a defensive struggle in which the first team to 20 wins. The bad news is that, the last time the ‘Dawgs scored 100 or more points in a two-game span was against Vanderbilt and Kentucky in 2002. The next week, Georgia lost to Florida by a 20-13 final margin. The Red and Black will have to be extremely wary heading into Columbia.



• I always enjoy seeing national championship Georgia squads from other sports being honored at halftime of a football game, but it’s a little odd to see what other Bulldog teams look like. The men’s tennis team looked like any eight guys selected at random from a fraternity block of seats in the student section and, as a guy sitting in front of me pointed out, the equestrian team must be second only to the football team as the Georgia squad having the most members. "There’s 40 girls out there," the fellow in the row before me noted, "and that means there’s got to be 40 horses, too."



• I was disappointed in the presentation of the football lettermen holding their reunions. The groups were introduced by team year without further embellishment. Between the 1998, 1988, 1983, 1978, 1968, 1958, and 1948 teams, there were some accomplished squads out there, but only the "Wonderdogs" received special mention. There were two S.E.C. championship squads, a ten-win Cotton Bowl championship squad that narrowly missed out on a national title, and Vince Dooley’s final team out there. Those guys deserve more credit than they were given on Saturday.



• I was mildly nonplussed that the televisions in the Tate Center were showing Boston College-Georgia Tech and Auburn-Southern Miss before the game. At the time, Ohio State was locked in a real battle with a M.A.C. team nowhere near as good as the one the ‘Dawgs were getting ready to throttle. We need to start thinking of ourselves as a national program. The Tate Center televisions ought to be showing us the Buckeyes’ and the Trojans’ struggles. Do you think U.S.C. fans are following U.C.L.A. games more intently than, say, L.S.U. games?



• In week one, the preseason favorite to win the A.C.C. was manhandled by an average or slightly above-average S.E.C. squad on a neutral field. In week two, the successor squad to take over the position of A.C.C. frontrunner needed a last-second 41-yard field goal to avoid being upset on its home field by a below-average S.E.C. squad. Is the S.E.C. that good or is the A.C.C. that pitiful? Is it fair to treat the A.C.C. champion as this year’s "B.C.S. buster"?



• If you even thought about being impressed by Florida’s 26-3 home win over Miami in a game in which the Gators managed seven offensive points in the first 45 minutes of play before cheaply pouring it on at the end, I would remind you of the following outcomes from the Hurricanes’ previous dozen outings: Oklahoma 51, Miami 13; Virginia 48, Miami 0; Virginia Tech 44, Miami 14. Pouring it on in the fourth quarter to beat the ‘Canes at home by 23? Please. The only thing remotely impressive about last night’s game in Gainesville was Erin Andrews.

It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Where actual defeat is all but unthinkable, what constitutes victory? On August 10, I answered that question in this manner:

From where I sit, a win, all by its lonesome, will prove nothing; I will need to see four of the following five things occur before I am willing to call any victory over Georgia Southern on August 30 an encouraging sign:

• Georgia scores at least 45 points



• Georgia Southern scores no more than 17 points



• Georgia scores on the Bulldogs’ first possession of each half



• Georgia Southern does not score on the Eagles’ first possession of either half



• Georgia’s offense has at least four plays covering 20 or more yards

Well, Georgia scored exactly 45 points, but Georgia Southern scored four more than 17 points. (Credit MaconDawg with correctly predicting the margin of victory, if not the actual final score.) The Bulldogs’ first drive of the first quarter covered 57 yards in five plays for seven points and their first drive of the third quarter covered 71 yards in two plays for seven points. The Eagles’ first possession of the first half was a three-and-out that lost four yards and their first possession of the second half was a three-and-out that gained seven yards.

Finally, the Red and Black had four plays of well more than 20 yards---namely, a 36-yard completion from Matthew Stafford to A.J. Green, a 61-yard completion from Stafford to Kris Durham, a 37-yard completion from Stafford to Knowshon Rockwell Moreno, and a 47-yard completion from Stafford to Mohamed Massaquoi---ere the opening minute of the third period had elapsed.

All right, that’s four out of five. Mission accomplished, right? So why do I feel as (relatively) badly as I do about what was, according to every indicator, a fine day for the ‘Dawgs?

It certainly isn’t that I had a rough day; far from it. My kindergarten-age son, Thomas, and I left at an early but not unreasonable hour, made the trek to Athens, and were in our seats in time for the initial festivities of the 22nd consecutive home opener I have attended between the hedges. (I am proud of that record; in 1996, I had to leave a friend’s wedding reception early and change clothes in the car in order to get to Sanford Stadium in time. Don’t get me started on weddings that take place during football season. . . .)

As father-son outings go, this was one of the best, just the boy and me, there to see Uga VII anointed and the top-ranked team in the land on the field. As on-field efforts go, this one was pretty solid. Stafford had what was statistically his best day ever in a Bulldog uniform, hooking up on 13 of 21 attempts for 275 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. Despite a disastrous early series that was as inefficient in its execution as it was premature in its timing, Joe Cox was passably effective in the backup role, completing four of six passes for 48 yards and another score.

Offensive line issues aside, the Georgia ground game’s production (212 yards) more than doubled up the Eagles’ rushing output (102), with Moreno making the most of his eight carries by tallying a trio of touchdowns and Caleb King living up to the early hype by racking up 95 yards on a dozen rushes for a higher per-carry average (7.9) even than that managed by the fellow whose jersey (or, at least, a replica thereof) I was wearing (7.4).

Blair Walsh, the true freshman placekicker whose position was the subject of so much preseason angst, got off to the best start of any Bulldog, burying the opening kickoff deep in the end zone for a touchback and making good on a 52-yard first-quarter field goal attempt that would have been the stuff of Kevin Butler-like legend had it been tried from ten yards farther away (and it certainly had the distance to have been good from that much farther out) and against an actual rival. More than half of the third quarter had passed before Georgia Southern scored its first points of the contest.

Except under the most extreme of circumstances, I probably err on the side of being overly positive rather than needlessly dour, at least where football is concerned. Nevertheless, I came away from this outing feeling that the glass was half-empty rather than half-full. (I freely concede that this may be attributable to the fact that Thomas didn’t last quite as long as I had anticipated, so I listened to the second half in the car on the way home. Short of the occasional miracle---the aforementioned Butler field goal; Buck Belue to Lindsay Scott; Verron Haynes’s touchdown catch in Knoxville; etc.---no Georgia game ever seems to be going as well in a Larry Munson play call as it is in person.)

These facts indisputably are facts:

• Georgia Southern matched Georgia score-for-score in the second half. Yes, it was against the scrubs, but if the Bulldog reserves are merely the equal of a Division I-AA team---even a good Division I-AA team (and it has yet to be established that G.S.U. is much more than average)---then the ‘Dawgs are not the equal of Auburn, Florida, or Louisiana State, much less Ohio State or Southern California.



• For all his statistical proficiency, Stafford was less sharp than he seemed on paper. Georgia Southern’s obviously intimidated receivers had the fear-induced dropsies; Georgia’s receivers weren’t failing to catch the ball, but the Bulldog quarterback overthrew open receivers on more than one occasion and the only reason the two-play scoring drive that opened the third quarter wasn’t a one-play scoring drive that opened the third quarter was that Massaquoi had to slow down to bring in the ball. Had Stafford hit him in stride, it would have gone 71 yards for six points.



• Jeff Owens was lost early in the outing, and, evidently, not just for the short term.

Get well soon, big guy. (Photograph by Kelly Lambert for Athens Banner-Herald.)

• Although Green and King undeniably had solid games, they also made freshman mistakes. Green incurred a false start penalty on second and three that caused a drive to stall, forcing Georgia to settle for a field goal when the ‘Dawgs were nine feet away from a first down at the G.S.U. 31. King’s subsequent failure to pick up a blitz could have gotten his quarterback killed had the opponent been from the Southeastern Conference rather than from the Southern Conference.



• Following a hot start, Walsh cooled considerably. His first kickoff went 70 yards, but his second went 50 (and was returned for four), while his third went 67 (and was returned for 45). His next five kickoffs set up the Eagles on the 24, 27, 30, 30 (before a 15-yard personal foul penalty against Georgia), and 32 yard lines, respectively; none made it into the end zone.



• Speaking of the 15-yard personal foul penalty, the Red and Black drew eleven flags, many for flinches at the line of scrimmage, as the offense incurred its share of false start penalties and the defense received more than its share of offside penalties.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not displeased with this afternoon’s effort. I’m not even not pleased in any meaningful way, if that makes sense. Arguably, this was Georgia’s best effort ever against a Georgia Southern squad, inasmuch as the Bulldogs neither allowed a 40-yard option run by the Eagle quarterback to give the visitors a 7-0 first-quarter lead (as in 1992) nor registered an underwhelming 29-7 victory (as in 2000) nor surrendered four touchdowns (as in 2004).

This was a fine game by a fine team. If Georgia had taken the field ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press poll, I might actually have been happy with this result.

However, Georgia didn’t take the field ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press poll, and, at this level, style points matter. Truly elite college football teams take on in-state opponents from lower divisions in their season openers and trounce them 43-0, or they beat the defending Division I-AA national champions 41-13, or they beat the defending W.A.C. champions 56-10, or, at a minimum, they shut out somebody from the Sun Belt. Some truly elite college football teams even travel across the country to face B.C.S. conference opponents that attended bowl games last season and thump the home team 52-7 in a trouncing so utterly routine as to be uninteresting.

On the plus side, my daughter, Elizabeth, had her game face (or, at least, her game outfit) on today.

The question is a stark and simple one, and it was stated plainly by Quinton McDawg: "So, was that the performance of a No. 1 ranked team?"

I have to state, in all candor, that it wasn’t. It was the performance of a top ten team, certainly. It was the performance of a team that is capable of finishing first in the land, undoubtedly. At this exact moment, early in the 2008 campaign, though, I cannot conscientiously claim that the Bulldog team that took the field in Sanford Stadium today would have beaten either the Buckeye team that took the field in Columbus or the Trojan team that took the field in Charlottesville.

Georgia will be in my top five, but, when I cast my BlogPoll ballot after all the gridiron action this Labor Day weekend is done, the Bulldogs no longer will be ranked No. 1. They will occupy that position in my heart, always, but, at this instant, my head knows better.

Go ‘Dawgs!