Friday, October 17, 2008

The Most Underrated Ranked Game in History

From watching ESPN and the national media, you'd never know that #10 was playing #22.  Perhaps a small bit of coverage has been afforded this weekend's matchup between the Dawgs and Commodores, but other than that, nothing doing.  So without further ado, let me bring you into the keys of the game.

1)  Slow down Georgia's high powered offense.

Matthew Stafford has a cannon, there's no secret to that, and this year he's got a couple of excellent weapons on the perimeter with Mohammed Massaquoi and the freshman wonder A.J. Green.  Georgia's running game needs no introduction either behind the legs of Knowshon Moreno.  On paper, this team should roll up some big points, but it just so happens that they are playing against the kind of defense that can give this team fits.  Vanderbilt excels at slowing the game down and keeping the score low, and the high powered passing game goes up against a team that loves to get turnovers and make big sacks.  Working even greater into Vanderbilt's advantage is the fact that Georgia has lost both their first and second team left tackles to season ending injuries.  That's not a great sign against a team that gets tremendous pressure on the QB.  Stafford is a lot more cool in the pocket than any other quarterback Vandy has faced this year, but if we can get the pressure on him, Stafford is prone to throwing picks because of the confidence in his arm and we can make some big plays.  Clint Boling moved over from guard to left tackle this game and allowed no sacks against Tennessee, but if this teams front seven is clicking we'll get some good hits on Stafford and hopefully slow the game down.

2)  No mistakes

This is key for Vanderbilt in every game, but taking care of the ball is extremely important against an offense that can score quickly.  Dominating the field position battle will be huge for Vandy in coming away from Athens with a win.  CBJ made the smart move in going with Mackenzi Adams, who does a great job managing the game and opens up the passing game a little better than Nickson does.  Hopefully that'll make Georgia not load the box up and give Jared Hawkins and Jeff Jennings some running lanes.  Georgia's defensive line is more succeptible this year than in pass years, and if we can get good push and run a controlled offense, we can come out on top.

3) Don't succomb to the pressure of the environment

This weekend is Georgia's homecoming, and they'll be wanting to get a big win here and make a statement heading into Florida.  After playing so closely, don't bet the Dawgs will look past Vandy this year.  But this Vandy team is a much more prepared team than the Dawgs have ever faced, and with Adams taking the reigns for the full game we can sustain long drives, keep Georgia's defense on the field and take away some of the offense that Georgia can produce.  Keeping Knowshon from a big game is going to be huge and we'll need the best performance from Chris Marve and John Stokes that we can manage.  All in all, I think we have a great shot at winning this ball game.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

we def have a great shot and i'm looking forward to it. go dores!

Anonymous said...

get ready boys! this shizzle bout to go down in some history!!! you've been THUNDERSTRUCK!!

Anonymous said...

OFFICIALLY SOV. 21-7!!! we suck

Anonymous said...

as georgia takes the clock down to three minutes and the inevitable is upon us i find myself saying, "hey, it's okay. we're at georgia and we're vandy. we're not supposed to win". which is fine and all, but i didn't want this season to be the same as every season ever. anybody need four tix to duke? i think i'm sticking to my college, unc from now on rather than where i grew up. at least we're winning the big ones now.

Aaron said...

Turnovers killed us. Playing calling killed us. PUTTING IN NICKSON!?!? JG is starting to emerge, and i love it. Duke is better than we think, but hopefully we will be fired up after 2 losses.

Stanimal said...

The sad part about yesterday's loss was that we were running the ball well. To be 3rd and short the number of time we were and covert only 5 out of 14 times on 3rd down is terrible, and is a testament to Ted Cain's poor play calling.

Defensively I was not overly upset. This is a high powered offense that's supposed to generate some points, and our bend but don't break defense did a good job for the most part keeping them out of the end zone. Knowshon got his yards, but we did a great job in coverage and if we could have prevented one more big play, then we would have had the game. Georgia did everything to help us out in this one, but the offense just couldn't move it.

That being said, I nominate Ted Cain for "Goat of the Game". He clearly doesn't know how to challenge defenses in the SEC. I counted maybe two play actions the whole game. This team can pass the football, Mackenzi is actually a pretty good passer, and the plays that Cain calls are just atrocious.