He's Their Choice

Here's what REALLY worries me. In an earlier post I stated how we can get to the SEC Championship game, if not beat LSU there, even though we lost to SCarolina. But this year, I'm not worried about SEC.

I'm worried about the streak.

SCarolina showed that we can't defend the run up the middle against a good team. How, then, are we going to stop Teshard Choice? The kid ran for a buck fifty-eight on us last year in Sanford Stadium, how much do you think he's going to drop on us in Bobby Dodd?

We have GOT to get stronger up the middle or we're toast. And those damn NATS fans will be laughing all over us for a solid year, because it's a holiday in Atlanta when they beat us. Not that the last three games of last year weren't special -- all three will hold special places in my heart -- but they were special for the wrong reasons. I don't want another season like 2006.

I agree we didn't stop the run up the middle very well. I think it has to do with the Martinez defensive philosophy. Fact is we don't blitz much. No run blitz, and our pass rush is dependent on the front 4.

I don't know if its because we have relatively new guys in the secondary or Martinez has that much confidence in our D line. I think we do a good job stringing out sweeps and such but I agree we were soft in the middle against SC.

I can't really blame the defense for this loss though. I had a high school football coach whos philosophy was that: 1) If the defense holds the opponent to less than 24 pts and you lose then the loss is on the offense and 2) If the offense scores 24 points or more and you lose then its on the defense. He lived by this mantra and I think it is appropriate here. The defense played a decent game. Granted there were a few missed tackles but keep in mind we held them to 3 FGs and a TD. SC was 1-11 on 3rd down.

The problem in my opinion was with the offense. Again we failed to make the big plays. We were slow to adjust in the 1st half when it was obviously we were not going to get away with the same offensive scheme that won us the game against Ok St. Our offense was pretty vanilla in the first half then we opened it up in the second and just had miserable performance on their side of the field. We had to settle for 4 FGs and we missed one in the first half. No TDs the entire game. We ran the ball relatively well but yet again we have problems with the passing game. Stafford was 19-44 for 213 yds and 1 INT. A 43% completion rate just isn't going to cut it. Granted some balls were poor throws but some balls were catchable. When it hits you in the hands there is no excuse for not catching it. Im no coach or player so this is just my opinion but then again Im not here on a football scholarship, I dont get paid six figures and have no chance at the NFL. These are just my observations. Im still a dawg (albiet a little bummed out).

Go Dawgs!!!