Football Atlanta - Online
www.FootballAtlanta.com

After Slow Start, Georgia Dominates UT Martin

QB

By Don Stone - Georgia Football Magazine and Football Atlanta

 It's difficult to imagine a fan base being upset with a 48-7 victory. But, that appears to be the case with Saturday's season opener vs UT Martin.
  True, the team did get off to a sluggish start. Carson Beck's first drive at quarterback went three and out and the team didn't get on the board until a Brock Bowers three yard TD run with 3:40 in the first quarter. It took another quarter for the next points as Beck ran one in from four yards to put the Dawgs up 14-0 with 4:29 left in the first half. They settled for a 23 yard field goal to make it 17-0 at the half.
  The crowd seemed a bit restless as the second half began...not because anyone had a fear of losing, but more results from the offense were in order. By the end of the third quarter, 14 more points had been added with an impressive 54 yard catch by Mikhi Mews and a 2 yard rush by Roderick Robinson II.
  By the fourth quarter, Kirby Smart was sending in a parade of freshmen to the point that you couldn't recognize anyone in a red uniform. But that was a good thing, giving new players some valuable playing time. One of those was Brock Vandagriff ,who impressed with a two play scoring drive highlighted by a 21 yard TD pass to Oscar Delp.
  The Skyhawks finally began to move the ball a bit with 95 of their 260 total yards coming in the 4th quarter against those backups. They managed a touchdown when graduate quarterback Kinkead Dent found Trevonte Rucker in the corner of the end zone. Replay looked obvious that he didn't have his feet in bounds. But, the refs gave him the points anyway.
  UGA added another field goal and a defensive score with Jones taking an interception to the house.
  "The next step in this process is, what is the feedback?," Smart said. "And I'm not talking about feedback from you guys, unfortunately I don't care what you think or what you say. We get to watch the tape and say, 'What does the feedback say?' and figure out who we are and where we go from here."
  There were a lot of mismatches in opening weekend highlighted by huge point differentials. Forty one points should qualify for that. But, some fans felt it should have been wider. I guess that's what you get with two straight national championships. You're supposed to do what you did to TCU every time. I imagine we'll see more of the same next week as Ball State comes to town for a Saturday early noon kickoff.

Geo