Dawgs Ready to Sink Anchor Down... Anchor Way Down

What the hell is Anchor Down supposed to mean? I spent 9 years in the Navy and that is a term wholly unassociated with seamanship. In fact, if the anchor is down, then the ship doesn't go anywhere. At Navy, we sang Anchors Aweigh, which means the anchor is up. That is how you sail down the field. So right off the quay, Vanderbilt starts with a Davy Jones Locker load of FAIL.

 Before the Missouri game, I thought the game had an Arkansas 2009 feel to it. And for three quarters, that was not far off the mark. But in the 4th quarter, that game morphed into Tennessee 2003, a 41-14 Dawg victory in which Georgia exploded for 21 points in a short period of time in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Now, I am trying to figure out what kind of feel this game with Vandy has. Some want to say it will be like Auburn 2011 in which Georgia flattened Auburn 45 - 7. The apparent motivation for that total annihilation was the many cheap shots from the punk Nick Fairley in 2010. Which brings us to the cheap shots from Vanderbilt in 2011 that may be avenged in 2012. But, this Vanderbilt team is significantly better than 2011 Auburn so I don't think that is what we will see. I have a feeling this will be more like South Carolina 2003. Remember in 2002, we narrowly escaped Columbia with a 13-7 win thanks to a huge game by David Pollack. South Carolina was so unhappy and felt that we were lucky to win. They came to Athens in 2003 expecting big things. Georgia was ranked #8 and SC was ranked #25. Georgia plodded to a 17 - 0 halftime lead behind a bend-don't-break defense and workmanlike offense. The second half was more of the same as Georgia moved to 24-0 before SC found the end zone. Then Damien Gary returned the ensuing kickoff as Georgia closed it out 31-7. This is what I see in the crystal ball.

I expect Georgia's defense to play focused and to fly around and gang tackle. I know that they will give up a few plays just because we still don't have everyone back and some young guys are still learning. The key is whether the missed assignments yield touchdowns. Regardless, I don't see Vanderbilt's offense scoring more than 14 points.

Meanwhile, Aaron Murray and crew will continue spreading the wealth around from multiple formations and a relentless combination of power running, vertical passing, play-action runs as well as some bubble screens and maybe a nice Fullback 344. If/when this offense executes, it is a lethally efficient and well-balanced machine. I expect the Dawgs to methodically add scores like they did against SC in 2003... 7 or 10 in the first quarter, another 7 in the second. Then another 7 in the third and winding it up with another 10 in the fourth resulting in a 34-14 win. It will be workmanlike. Explosive at times, but more often very controlled lengthy drives. I truly hope that the offense can find a way to reach 40 points to make it 4 consecutive games with greater than 40 points. Either way, we will cruise to a comfortable win.

The Hunker Down Beer Challenge will be in full effect. I have picked up a six pack of Sweetwater IPA. I hope I will exhaust that and have to dig into some of my other, higher ABV beers.

Go DAWGS! GATA!!!