My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/bulldogs-blog/
and update your bookmarks.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Good News, Bad News: Week 6

It's Tuesday, so that means it's time to share a little good news with you, and also to punch you in the gut with a little bad news, too. As always, we start with the bad news...

BAD NEWS: The last time Georgia lost two of its first five games was all the way back in 1996, Jim Donnan's first season when the Dawgs finished 5-6.

GOOD NEWS: If Georgia wins out the rest of the way, it will still be the SEC East champion. The only other team that can say that right now is Florida.

BAD NEWS: Georgia has 13 turnovers this season, and all but one came within four plays of a drive starting. The Dawgs also have 14 three-and-outs this season. Add those together, and Georgia's offense is off the field in four plays without getting points on 40 percent of its drives this year.

GOOD NEWS: The refs admitted they blew the call for excessive celebration against A.J.

BAD NEWS: They completely missed this one -- and it resulted in a nasty headache for Caleb King. Seriously, Reshad Jones must be wondering what he did wrong when he gets flagged for seemingly clean hits and that one goes unpunished.

GOOD NEWS: Georgia had zero penalties in the first half last week.

BAD NEWS: Georgia had seven penalties in the second half, and one of them had to be apologized for by the refs two days later.

GOOD NEWS: Tennessee is starting its week off on a bright note. Ah, Lane, you run a tight ship, buddy.

BAD NEWS: I forgot to link to this story earlier, but the actual story is good news for Georgia's women's golf team and head coach and Macon native Kelley Hester.

GOOD NEWS: Joe Cox can indeed stretch the field, despite what people seem to still be saying. Check out the yards per completion from SEC QBs this year...

QBYPC
Comp%
Mallett 17.13 54.47
Todd 15.18 58.70
Tebow 14.61 64.71
Cox 14.22 59.03
McElroy 13.92 65.55
Snead 13.48 51.43
Jefferson 11.50 62.50
Lee 11.48 54.72
Garcia 11.13 60.00
Crompton 10.98 54.67
Smith 10.64 46.48
Hartline 9.60 60.18

Looks like Cox is making big plays when he needs to without much problem. Only the big-armed Mallett and Auburn's Chris Todd -- who hasn't exactly played the stiffest of competition so far -- are significantly ahead of him.

Add to that Cox's 59.03 completion percentage, and things look even better. That's good for sixth in the SEC, but above him on the list are Hartline, Jefferson and Garcia, who clearly aren't throwing deep as often (as evidenced by their low YPC).

Combine the two and it looks to me like the best combination of accuracy and ability on the deep balls are Tebow, McElroy and Cox. Two of those three are on top-three teams. One is playing on an offense with zero running game, just three scholarship receivers being used and virtually no offensive experience at the skill positions. (Albeit, he does have A.J. Green)

BAD NEWS: Georgia is getting killed in time of possession this season, holding the ball for just 140:35 through five games -- or just a shade over 40 percent of the time. In the Dawgs' two losses, they have the ball, on average, almost seven minutes less than the opponent.

GOOD NEWS: Georgia may have finally found an answer to its tailback issues in Washaun Ealey, who looked impressive in the second half against LSU.

BAD NEWS: Georgia is still 105th nationally in rushing offense, at just 3.29 yards per carry. Tennessee, on the other hand, is fourth in the SEC at stopping the run.

GOOD NEWS: If Ealey does become a star, a lot of folks will already have his jersey.

BAD NEWS: He says he doesn't plan to keep No. 24 next year. He wanted No. 3 and he plans to switch to it after Bryan Evans graduates.

GOOD NEWS: You can follow the producers of "Lost" on Twitter.

BAD NEWS: There's still five months left before I have a reason to care about what they tweet.

GOOD NEWS: Georgia has played Tennessee following a loss just once since 1993. That was last year, and the Dawgs dumped the Vols 26-14.

BAD NEWS: Georgia is out of the top 25 for the first time since 2006, despite its two losses coming at the hands of two top-10 teams.

GOOD NEWS: We've got another week to watch football, and there's almost no way this trip to Knoxville can be worse than the last one.

4 comments:

Blog Goliard said...

Here's another pair for you:

Good News: Georgia's football program is still about the most profitable one going.

Bad News: But it still apparently doesn't bring in enough money for us to afford play clocks and referee microphones.

At least it's not just us. This stuff goes down all the time across the country every Saturday--though I can't imagine why. Clocks and microphones aren't exactly cutting-edge technology; and multi-million dollar sporting programs ought to be able to afford equipment designed for mission-critical, 99.99%-minimal-uptime applications. No?

Yes, I'm grouchy enough to be fussing over busted play clocks this morning. It's that kind of week in Athens so far.

Anonymous said...

Don't lie David. You know you care what the Lost producers are tweeting right now.

jrt said...

I think it resulted in a broken jaw for King.

jrt said...

My bad, didn't see it posted below!