GEORGIA 42 - FLORIDA 30

Keys to Victory

On Friday, I overstated the obvious things the Dawgs would have to do to beat the Gators. Well, in a nutshell, the Dawgs took my advice.

1. Must establish the run. Check. Knowshon Moreno - 33 carries, 188 yards, three touchdowns.

2. Must connect on a deep ball early. Check. Second play of second possession, Stafford hit Mohamed Massaquoi for an 84 yard touchdown on a fly route. Longest pass of Stafford's career.

3. Defensive front 4 must get a strong push into the Gator backfield and cause disruption and keep our LBs free to make plays. Check. Our front four contributed 5 sacks and 1 other tackle for loss. In addition, our linebackers made most of the tackles instead of our safeties and corners. Four of the top six tacklers were LBs. That tells me that our front four kept the Florida O-line occupied. Perfect example was Florida's possession when the score was 28-24. Around our 33 yard line, on second down, Rennie Curran was able to stunt untouched in to the Gator backfield and drop the ball carrier for a 2 yard loss. Two plays later, on 4th and 2, again Rennie Curran shoots untouched into the backfield to tackle Andre Caldwell for a 3 yard loss. This was the defensive series of the season.

4. Our defensive front 7 must play balls out on every down giving tremendous effort on every snap. Check. Those guys played like heroes. They looked strikingly similar to the performance they had against Oklahoma State when we sacked Bobby Reid six times. Great effort and determination all around.

In my final analysis, I opined:
In the end, we need a huge performance from Moreno, a sound performance from Stafford and a superhuman effort from our defensive front seven. When we get all of these things, we will win.
Check. Check anc checkity check check!

Damn fine performance and it all came together because of a great attitude from the coaches, players and fans. The celebration gambit brought it all out of us. WHAT A DAY!