Fleeting Thoughts: OSU Edition

I've got an absurdly early flight so I can't make any promises about what today will bring in terms of posts, but I wanted to offer a few thoughts, some of which you guys have already expressed in the comments:

-- What impressed me about the defense was their resiliency. That was something they never showed last year. Holding OSU to the field goal at the end of the first half was big. Probably should have happened again before Robinson's 1-yard TD run. That spot was generous on the fourth-down play.

-- What didn't impress me about the defense was that, once again, there were no sacks and no turnovers created. Even if you believe the offense will get better, it's clearly not a team that's ready to win without a few breaks going their way, and the defense is going to have to make that happen.

-- I like the idea of moving Geno to D-end, but it really didn't have much effect. Yes, you want your best players on the field. But would Geno have been better served playing the position he knows best?

-- The secondary did alright. Dez Bryant was as advertised -- just an exceptional receiver. It was impressive enough to hold him to three catches, and the third probably was a situation that was dictated by the atrocious personal foul call on Reshad two plays earlier. Okie State had a great mismatch throughout the game with Bryant, and Georgia's DBs held their own.

-- Blame Joe Cox if you must. There were certainly a number of throws he made that simply aren't going to cut it at this level. That was concerning. But he's hardly the real problem on offense. He had too many drops, A.J. was absolutely blanketed because there was no help from the rest of the wideouts, and the playcalling after that first drive was abysmal.

-- The O line looked good but nowhere near great. Oklahoma State's front four is extremely undersized. Georgia's line should have dominated. And if the Sturdivant injury is as bad as it looked -- well, it won't be good.

-- Richard Samuel had some nice runs and his speed was evident, but he just didn't show the ability to get beyond that first contact. He can't continue to go down that easily after contact if he's going to be an every-down guy.

-- Carlton Thomas has the potential to be a nice weapon in the passing game, but 1.) the coaches really didn't appear to have any confidence in him as a runner, using him only when they absolutely had to, and 2.) he looked awful at tailback.

-- Add those last two together and it means this: Georgia missed Caleb King, and the Dawgs cannot afford for him to be an afterthought this season.

-- The wideouts -- WTF? The Dawgs got nothing from Troupe & TK, so why didn't Wooten or Brown even see the field? At the very least, Brown creates a mismatch that Oklahoma State would have had to at least think about. As it stands, the OSU defense saw almost nothing unexpected after that first drive.

-- The offensive playcalling was way too vanilla. It looked as if the coaches believed in Samuel and Green and no one else, and that wasn't hard for Okie State to figure out. Honestly, the worst part about the performance today was that it looked like the offense was simply 11 guys who just met earlier that day. There were no indications that they had been practicing together for the past five weeks.

-- Drew Butler's final numbers looked great, but his punts really didn't. He got two very fortuitous bounces, but that's not always going to happen.

-- The kickoffs were a problem again. Seriously, this is at a point where Richt needs to step in and force a change in philosophy here.

-- There were about a half-dozen players (and maybe more) who needed IVs. Richt said several players were slow to come back on the field after the half because they were getting fluids. It was hot on the field, but it wasn't THAT hot. What happened to the grueling conditioning these guys had been doing? It seemed like they were unprepared for the intensity, and that's not something a Big 12 team should ever have over an SEC opponent.

OK, I'll have updates after Richt's 5:15 teleconference.