- My first thought after the game was over was that if we thought we showed them some Grown Man Football in 2012, we were wrong. Dude, that was just a whoopin'.
- Possible I missed a few, but I had the number of times Gurley was mentioned about even with Chubb.
- That being said, "Baby Gurley" made me puke a bit in my mouth every time I heard it.
- I guess the big question for us is, "When did your nervousness relent?" Only getting a couple field goals despite two early turnovers was uneasy. Then the Tigers came out hot in the second half and I found myself reminding my kids (who had pronounced the game over about an hour prior) that this was a team that came back from twenty down to beat the one team that beat us.
- But Bobo wasn't done. Nick Chubb and Brendan Douglas weren't done. And Pruitt wasn't done either.
- So...turnovers, pressuring Mauk, or time of possession...where do we start? Logic and reason say with the pressure applied to Mauk.
- The defense yesterday was a thing of beauty. Pruitt mixed in different looks for the Missouri quarterback and let his guys go to work. As a result, Mauk spent much of the afternoon on the run with not much of anywhere to throw the ball.
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- And the run defense was much better than I anticipated. Those are two good running backs and as a team Missouri was averaging 178 yards a game on the ground. Georgia held them to 50 yards total.
- Back to the pressure up front, Missouri was 0-7 on third down and Mauk finished 9-21 for 97 yards. Oh yeh, and four interceptions. When he was on the run (when he is the most dangerous and the most likely to covert third downs) he only completed one pass that I remember.
- Overall, a confident defense playing lights out on the road? Yes, I think I like that a lot.
- Next, turnovers. The secondary just seemed to always have the play in front of them. The Missouri receivers are not what Pinkel usually has in terms of talent, but the Pruitt's defensive backs were rarely trailing the play like in previous games.
- The beneficiaries were Mauger, Swann and Sanders. Mauger had two picks!! They just always seemed to know where Mauk was going.
- And the Mauk fumble, man, God bless Leonard Floyd's long arms! (Just watched that play again while typing this and the wife would like to add that he was obviously being held too.)
- The time of possession was skewed heavily in Georgia's favor, mostly due to being +6 in the turnover margin. 42:23 to 17:37. Wow.
- Missouri had 12 drives, only one went for more than four plays. Only four plays in Georgia territory, three of which were interceptions. They were never even in field goal range and only sniffed the goal line once on the last play of the half, a play that ended with a dropped pass that was perfectly placed. And a holding penalty.
- The only word to describe it is dominating.
- And while that word can be used to describe Georgia's punishing rushing attack, it can also be used to describe Hutson Mason's afternoon. Yes, he "managed" the game well, but he also made some throws we haven't seen much of since the bowl game. That touchdown pass to Bennett was perfect. And Bobo used Mitchell well on the outside to stretch Missouri's defense enough to create room for Chubb and Douglas.
Great game. I'm hopeful we'll get Gurley back for the next game. Regardless, Little Rock presents a difficult road test. Halfway through, it's been an eventful season and a very tumultuous week. But Georgia now is firmly in the driver's seat nonetheless.
Go Dawgs!
