Fleeting Thoughts: South Carolina Edition

I'm writing this from I-85 at 6:30 a.m. on my way to Charlotte following a whopping three hours of sleep. But, I have tickets to the Eagles-Panthers game today and I'm rocking my Brian Westbrook jersey, so I'm full of energy.

Anyway, Tyler Estep and Fletcher Page are being kind enough to handle the game follow-up stuff for me today, and they'll have notes up on the blog following Mark Richt's teleconference tonight, but before that, I figured I'd share a few thoughts from last night's 41-37 Georgia win.

-- First and foremost, it's hard to quantify just how important that win was for Georgia. An 0-2 start would have been a disaster. Instead, the win gives Georgia some momentum heading into a tough road game at Arkansas and gives the offense some actual highlights. As Joe Cox said after the game, "This win meant everything to us."

-- For all the talk about Cox's injury and the conspiracy theories that he was on his way out, Cox played all but one snap and looked pretty good doing it. I said before the game, there's absolutely no chance that Richt was putting a quarterback out there that he didn't think gave him his best shot to win. That was clearly backed up Saturday.

-- Which isn't to say that Logan Gray doesn't deserve more than one snap a game.

-- The offense looked much improved over last week, but I'd say the majority of that had to do with two things: 1.) Joe Cox played much better. Yes, the pick-six was UGLY, and he knew it. But outside of that throw, Cox performed admirably and his passes had a lot more on them than they did a week ago. I'm inclined to believe the flu really had a profound effect last week. 2.) The offensive line played much better. While the pass protection broke down badly on the one play where Cox was blindsided and fumbled, for the most part there was running room and time to throw. It was a much better performance than a week ago against a much tougher front four.

-- Having said all that, Mike Bobo's playcalling still left me a bit puzzled. Just as Richard Samuel was getting into a groove -- and he looked downright mean on the drive capped by his 1-yard TD -- he was essentially pulled from the game for consecutive series. Georgia faced a crucial third-and-4 on their own side of the field at one point, and Samuel was on the sideline in favor of Carlton Thomas, with Cox throwing from the shotgun. It just made no sense.

-- Speaking of personnel, once again Marlon Brown and Rantavious Wooten were absent from the game plan. Brown was in on two plays and Wooten one, but it was at an odd time, almost as if the coaching staff was saying, "Better get them in the game so no one asks why we didn't."

-- Holy cow, A.J. Green is good. He wasn't much more open Saturday than he had been against Oklahoma State, but he just decided he wanted it more. He finished with six catches for 86 yards and had another crucial pass-interference flag come in to salvage a Georgia drive.

"It looks good, but he's done it so much that it doesn't even surprise me," Cox said. "He'll make a catch, and I'll just laugh a little bit like, 'that guy's good, and I'm glad he's on my team.'"

By the way, his 9-yard TD reception in the second quarter was eerily reminiscent of the one he caught against Kentucky from Matthew Stafford near the end of the game. Even more eerie? Cox's rationale behind the throw was exactly the same: "Coaches were going nuts saying to throw it away if it wasn't there, but with a guy like A.J., you always have a chance."

-- Back to Samuel for a second: He ran much harder than a week ago and broke several tackles. Better yet, he picked up the tough yards. There was no going down behind the line of scrimmage. Every run meant something. But his best play? It came on a reception by Mike Moore in which Samuel darted downfield about 15 yards and absolutely leveled South Carolina's safety. Bryan Evans and Reshad Jones have nothing on that guy.

-- There were a couple pretty scary snaps. Ty Frix's snap over Drew Butler's head was the obvious one and went for a safety, but Cox seemed to have trouble with at least three or four others during the game.

-- I told you before the season Brandon Boykin was going to be a stud. He looked strong in coverage yet again, had Georgia's first INT of the season on a play in which he got about 53 feet off the ground, and what else can I say about the kick return?

-- Speaking of Boykin, he's a perfect example of what Georgia will be all about this year. There is a ton of natural talent on that team. From Boykin's big plays to Branden Smith's 61-yard run for a TD to Orson Charles' two big catches (despite the fact that he remains underutilized by Bobo so far) and on down the line. It's going to be a mixed bag as some of these guys get acquainted to their roles, but there's a high ceiling for them.

-- There are going to be a lot of folks angry with Willie Martinez after this game because -- well they have to be angry at someone, right? But take a big step back, folks. Willie called a pretty good game, all things considered. The pass rush wasn't bad, but there were at least a half-dozen times were the rusher would spin the wrong direction or just miss bringing down Stephen Garcia, who played out of his mind. Willie was completely hamstrung by having his top defensive end, Rod Battle, go down with a knee injury and two of his top three Sam linebackers, Darius Dewberry and Nick Williams, miss the game with hamstring pulls. Marcus Washington spent most of the game floating between LB and DE, and Willie was essentially just working with what he had. The middle of the field was open a lot, but it was by necessity. He played a classic bend-but-don't-break style, which was not pretty, but it was effective. The defense was exceptional in the red zone, and South Carolina didn't score an offensive touchdown in the second half. This was not anywhere near as bad as some people are going to make it out to be.

-- Prince Miller's work in coverage, however, left a bit to be desired, and Vance Cuff had two bad flags.

-- On the plus side, this game was a perfect example of why Georgia fans love Rennie Curran. The kid is amazing. He played out of his mind, finishing with a career-high 15 tackles and for the second straight year, he made the defensive play at the goal line that saved the win.

More than just what Curran did on the field, however, was what he did off it. Here are three quotes from Mark Richt about the lead-up to the game. See if you can guess how Curran altered the timeline:

On this week's attitude: “They were down. They were down early on. I think everybody was just in the tank and I wasn’t feeling real good either."

On Rennie's presume thoughts: “Rennie talked to the team before the game and promised them all he was going to play with every ounce of energy he had and with all his heart, and sure enough at the very end, he makes the play.”

On the team's attitude during the game: “I think our guys played about as hard as I’ve seen them play in a long time. There was a special energy. I don’t know why. Maybe there was a special sense of urgency at not going 0-2, knowing we’re at home, knowing it was the SEC. There was so many things riding on it, and for whatever reason I think our boys had as much heart and fire, wire to wire, that I’ve ever seen.”

Richt might not know why, but I think most of you can guess.

-- Beyond everything else, regardless of how worried you now are about the defense or concerned you are about Bobo's personnel choices, you should take a minute today to appreciate what a great football game you watched.

When was the last time you saw a game with a 300-yard passer, a safety, a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, an interception return for a touchdown, a guy kick five field goals, a 61-yard reverse for a TD, a fake punt, one team run 30 more plays than the other and lose, the most points scored in one half of a UGA game in 18 years, a series that has been built on low-scoring affairs turning into a barnburner with 78 total points scored, and then comes down to a final fourth-down play that has as much suspense as most fans in the stadium -- regardless of who they were rooting for -- could tolerate?

That was just a fun football game, folks. And I say that as a guy who made his deadline with just a few seconds to spare thanks to all that excitement.