By: Jordan Thomas
The Bulldogs, coming off a relatively easy win against UL Lafayette, went into Williams-Brice Stadium in search of their second victory. Unfortunately for the Dogs, South Carolina’s freshman HB Marcus Lattimore was not on the same page. In only his second game, he demonstrated why he was the #2 running back in his recruiting class last year and exploited UGA’s defense in the process. He carried the ball an astounding 37 times for a total of 182 yards on the ground and crossed the goal line twice. Lattimore’s 182 rushing yards is the most by any halfback under Spurrier’s tenure. Maybe this is what Coach Spurrier and his Gamecocks have been missing. In their last 3 competitions at home against the Bulldogs, South Carolina has only managed to rush for 53 yards. Needless to say, Lattimore thrashed that statistic by rushing over 100 yards in the first half alone.
From here on out, Georgia’s defense has their work cut out for them. They missed tackles all over their place. Their defenders were trying to arm tackle and simply throw their shoulders at SC’s players. At times, their secondary even looked afraid to come up and attempt to stop the run. In addition to that, their pass defense did not look much better as the Gamecock’s receivers used their size to jump right over Georgia’s corners, Branden Smith and Brandon Boykin. South Carolina’s 6-4, 233 lb wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey hauled in 7 catches for 103 yards. However, this was primarily set up by the Gamecock’s run game which made Georgia’s safety creep up into the box, and thus one-on-one coverage resulted on the outside.
Many UGA faithful faulted this loss on the absence of A.J. Green. The offensive unit was stagnant to say the least, but the game was not lost because of him. It was lost because of Lattimore’s dominating rushing performance which allowed South Carolina to control the clock. Georgia’s redshirt freshman QB, Aaron Murray only threw the ball 21 times and completed 14 of those attempts. Even if Green was playing, he would not have seen the field much just like the rest of the offense. However, after the devastating news last week that A.J. will be suspended for four games (only 2 more now), Georgia better start finding other options to get the ball to. Washuan Ealey produced well for the Bulldogs and their run game until he fumbled 3 yards away from the end zone with the game 14-6. This was a very crucial play for the Bulldogs as they looked like they were about to close the gap with the Gamecocks and make it a very close game. Ealey was the bulldog’s leading rusher with 19 carries for 75 yards. The Bulldogs will have to put this loss behind them and come out ready to play the Arkansas Razorbacks as they come back home to Sanford Stadium.
UGA NABJ 