Georgia 28, Austin Peay 6

 

Georgia wins, but not impressively. In fact, like many of our wins last season, we won ugly. The Bulldogs failed to cover the spread by 18½ points which I don't care about from a gambling perspective (I don't bet on games), but it's as good an indicator as any that we should have been better.

The Bulldogs are 2-0 and Gunner Stockton completed 26 of 34 passes (76.5%) for 227 yards. But this game will be remembered mostly for the end of the first half, when the Dawgs got the ball to the Austin Peay one-yard line with 32 seconds left to play, but couldn't score a single point after five plays. Even after a long, long halftime due to a nearly two-hour rain delay, Smart couldn't get the team fired up, as they played about as listlessly in the second half as they did in the first. To be honest, it was only the defense that kept us in the game.

Many are blaming the disappointing performance of OC Mike Bobo; others blame o-line coach Stacy Searels. Preseason prognosticators were split between doubting Georgia over QB Stockton and over last year's o-line performance. Today's game gave reasons to support both groups of doubters.

Georgia started its season with two cupcake teams - Marshall and Austin Peay. We're going to have to play a whole lot better on both sides of the ball than we did the last two weeks as we start our SEC schedule next Saturday in Tennessee.

The Vols won their game today, 72-17, over East Tennessee State, and won last weekend, 45-26, over Syracuse.  The Bulldogs will face them in Knoxville next weekend, home field, and unless some some major changes are made to Georgia's game, the Vols will be take a double-digit lead over the Dawgs.

The best case: Smart is a great coach, one of the all-time best, and if anyone can do what has to be done between now and then, it's him. Also, Georgia seems to play it's best game against the toughest opponents. Let's hope that trend continues to next weekend.