First off, let me say... the Missouri people are just the salt of the damn Earth. Other than Sheldon Richardson's "Old Man Football" comment the team and the fan-base has been first-class. Glad to have those guys in the SEC. Pay attention average UGA fan, you could learn something.
OFFENSE
QB: A+
Connor Freakin' Shaw. If Spurrier tells you that someone's throwing the ball around well on Monday, they're throwing the ball around well on Monday. I don't need to remind you what he did, but it was legendary. He went through progressions, found the open guy, threw the long ball well, and ran when he needed to. Hopefully this will quiet the QB discussions that have been going on for awhile now. Did he outperform my expectations? Yes.
RB: A
Marcus wasn't flashy, but he ran well and never went down with the first hit. Had we handed it to him more, he would have easily ground out over 100 yards. He did a great job of catching the ball out of the backfield as well. Please don't ask him to lead block on the goal line anymore though, I think the whole stadium sucked in their breath at that. I've heard some people ask about Mike Davis, but Kenny was doing an excellent job in there, especially in the blocking game. We ran a few two back sets, but color me unimpressed with the plays we ran out of it. Solid game.
WR/TE: A+
Wow. Everyone did well... everyone. Aside from Nick Jones being tackled by the 5 yard line, these guys dominated. Special props for the TE's, who just owned the short-yard passing game on Saturday. Mizzou's LB had no answer for them, and Connor just ate it up. DL Moore may have not gotten many looks, but he did a great job of blocking downfield. Well done.
OL: A
If I was being TOTALLY honest I'd probably give them a B, but after their last few performances it feels good to put them in the A category. We might have found our starting LT. Make no mistake, Mizzou has a talented, if not especially deep DL. While they're not Georgia, they can cause problems. Mizzou stacked the box, and our guys still created lanes. Pass protection was fantastic, and the line was very, very active. Nice to see these guys bounce back and hit someone in the mouth.
DEFENSE
DL: A+
Nasty. Franklin was scared, he even sorta admitted it later. Aside from allowing lanes for the delayed draw every now and then, these guys CLAMPED down on the run, and added pressure to a QB who is used to catching, turning, and throwing. I went back and watched my DVR after I got home, and it's amazing how disruptive Clowney was. If he wasn't getting pressure, he was changing the direction of the play. Yes, Mizzou's OL is battered and bruised, but our guys came to play.
LB/Spur: B
I might catch some slack for this, but they failed to run support a few times, and struggled occasionally in short pass coverage. Also...where the hell was Shaq's interception? I thought that was a thing we were doing now.
CB/S: A+
TJ Moe was confused after the game. He thought they didn't do enough to get open. It was because our guys didn't let you get open TJ. Smothering. Gurley stepped up. Once we get Auguste back, this unit is going to be dangerous.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Overall: A
Hot damn!! Our return game was dynamite, we punted well AND WE MADE A FIELD GOAL. In fact, our special teams play was a key component of our win. I feel like typing that twice just to see how it feels. In fact, our special teams play was a key component of our win.
COACHING
Overall: A
This is what Spurrier and Co. can do with two weeks to prepare. A game that I thought would be a war, and had the potential to get away from us, was a comfortable win. Make no mistake, Mizzou has talent and will win some games in the SEC (I think they'll beat Tennessee). Remember, these guys took UGA to the wire. Yes, they were home when they did it, but we came out and took control from the very beginning. Even after the first quarter, when our mistakes cost us 14 points I wasn't worried. We just had a great game plan on both sides of the ball. Hats off to the staff, they had our team prepared.
INTANGIBLES
Overall: A
Georgia gave up 371 yards to Missouri. We gave up 255, 75 of them on a meaningless 4th quarter drive against our backups. We piled up 396 yards of total offense against Missouri, compared to UGA's 355. Does this mean we're better than UGA? Well, in and of itself no. UGA put up a much more impressive showing against Vandy than we did. More than anything else it speaks to the home field advantage in the SEC, something they should think about before they start buying bus fare to Atlanta.
In relation to this game, however, it speaks to how well PREPARED our team was. We had a few mental lapses, but for the most part we came out and executed flawlessly, in a game that really mattered. We're getting better as the year goes on, and getting healthy for our stretch run. The door's wide open and if we play like we did last Saturday, we'll walk right through it.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, where does this leave us? Are we legitimate national title contenders, as I'm sure some on the board are claiming? Is this game an aberration and will we backslide against UK? I don't know, which is part of the fun of football, but I do know this... we are a very, very good team and if we play to our potential we'll be playing Alabama in Atlanta. We still have to get through UGA, Tennessee, and Florida, but after this weekend it we look like the best team in the East. I'm not even going to try to predict how the rest of the season will turn out (God knows I wouldn't have predicted Saturday's result the way it happened) but you have to feel really, really good about our chances now. We've been ranked in the top 10 all year, and this week we finally played like it.
I'll take that.
Next week, go into UK focused, win the game, and come out with nobody hurt. That's the ideal scenario. How many times have we reached a high ranking, only to lose to an inferior team the next week? Don't read the press or look at the polls guys... just do your work.
Keep grinding.
__________________
OFFENSE
QB: A+
Connor Freakin' Shaw. If Spurrier tells you that someone's throwing the ball around well on Monday, they're throwing the ball around well on Monday. I don't need to remind you what he did, but it was legendary. He went through progressions, found the open guy, threw the long ball well, and ran when he needed to. Hopefully this will quiet the QB discussions that have been going on for awhile now. Did he outperform my expectations? Yes.
RB: A
Marcus wasn't flashy, but he ran well and never went down with the first hit. Had we handed it to him more, he would have easily ground out over 100 yards. He did a great job of catching the ball out of the backfield as well. Please don't ask him to lead block on the goal line anymore though, I think the whole stadium sucked in their breath at that. I've heard some people ask about Mike Davis, but Kenny was doing an excellent job in there, especially in the blocking game. We ran a few two back sets, but color me unimpressed with the plays we ran out of it. Solid game.
WR/TE: A+
Wow. Everyone did well... everyone. Aside from Nick Jones being tackled by the 5 yard line, these guys dominated. Special props for the TE's, who just owned the short-yard passing game on Saturday. Mizzou's LB had no answer for them, and Connor just ate it up. DL Moore may have not gotten many looks, but he did a great job of blocking downfield. Well done.
OL: A
If I was being TOTALLY honest I'd probably give them a B, but after their last few performances it feels good to put them in the A category. We might have found our starting LT. Make no mistake, Mizzou has a talented, if not especially deep DL. While they're not Georgia, they can cause problems. Mizzou stacked the box, and our guys still created lanes. Pass protection was fantastic, and the line was very, very active. Nice to see these guys bounce back and hit someone in the mouth.
DEFENSE
DL: A+
Nasty. Franklin was scared, he even sorta admitted it later. Aside from allowing lanes for the delayed draw every now and then, these guys CLAMPED down on the run, and added pressure to a QB who is used to catching, turning, and throwing. I went back and watched my DVR after I got home, and it's amazing how disruptive Clowney was. If he wasn't getting pressure, he was changing the direction of the play. Yes, Mizzou's OL is battered and bruised, but our guys came to play.
LB/Spur: B
I might catch some slack for this, but they failed to run support a few times, and struggled occasionally in short pass coverage. Also...where the hell was Shaq's interception? I thought that was a thing we were doing now.
CB/S: A+
TJ Moe was confused after the game. He thought they didn't do enough to get open. It was because our guys didn't let you get open TJ. Smothering. Gurley stepped up. Once we get Auguste back, this unit is going to be dangerous.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Overall: A
Hot damn!! Our return game was dynamite, we punted well AND WE MADE A FIELD GOAL. In fact, our special teams play was a key component of our win. I feel like typing that twice just to see how it feels. In fact, our special teams play was a key component of our win.
COACHING
Overall: A
This is what Spurrier and Co. can do with two weeks to prepare. A game that I thought would be a war, and had the potential to get away from us, was a comfortable win. Make no mistake, Mizzou has talent and will win some games in the SEC (I think they'll beat Tennessee). Remember, these guys took UGA to the wire. Yes, they were home when they did it, but we came out and took control from the very beginning. Even after the first quarter, when our mistakes cost us 14 points I wasn't worried. We just had a great game plan on both sides of the ball. Hats off to the staff, they had our team prepared.
INTANGIBLES
Overall: A
Georgia gave up 371 yards to Missouri. We gave up 255, 75 of them on a meaningless 4th quarter drive against our backups. We piled up 396 yards of total offense against Missouri, compared to UGA's 355. Does this mean we're better than UGA? Well, in and of itself no. UGA put up a much more impressive showing against Vandy than we did. More than anything else it speaks to the home field advantage in the SEC, something they should think about before they start buying bus fare to Atlanta.
In relation to this game, however, it speaks to how well PREPARED our team was. We had a few mental lapses, but for the most part we came out and executed flawlessly, in a game that really mattered. We're getting better as the year goes on, and getting healthy for our stretch run. The door's wide open and if we play like we did last Saturday, we'll walk right through it.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, where does this leave us? Are we legitimate national title contenders, as I'm sure some on the board are claiming? Is this game an aberration and will we backslide against UK? I don't know, which is part of the fun of football, but I do know this... we are a very, very good team and if we play to our potential we'll be playing Alabama in Atlanta. We still have to get through UGA, Tennessee, and Florida, but after this weekend it we look like the best team in the East. I'm not even going to try to predict how the rest of the season will turn out (God knows I wouldn't have predicted Saturday's result the way it happened) but you have to feel really, really good about our chances now. We've been ranked in the top 10 all year, and this week we finally played like it.
I'll take that.
Next week, go into UK focused, win the game, and come out with nobody hurt. That's the ideal scenario. How many times have we reached a high ranking, only to lose to an inferior team the next week? Don't read the press or look at the polls guys... just do your work.
Keep grinding.
__________________
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