December 29, 2009
Monday, December 28
AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl, 5pm on ESPN
Texas A&M Aggies (6-7) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (8-5)
Get ready for a shootout: watch this game if you like points. What’s that old saying , “Defense wins games”?.. Defense is going to be irrelevant in this one. Offense is going to win this game; whoever has the ball last might be the winner. Both teams had disappointing seasons as Texas A&M expected to get at least eight wins and Georgia expected to not miss a beat despite the losses of Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno to the NFL last year. At times, the Georgia offense has struggled but after a short benching, senior quarterback Joe Cox stepped up his game and the Bulldogs have rolled offensively since, but the defense has been a problem all year unless they can build off of stopping Georgia Tech in its final game. Georgia fired defensive coordinator Willie Martinez and I don’t know who is going to be in charge of the defensive plays yet. For the Aggies, this is a team that would have upset No. 2 Texas is they could play better defense. But this is a team that nobody can figure out, because one week they will get smoked and the next week they will win. They lost to Oklahoma and Kansas State by a combined 127-24, but went toe-to-toe with Oklahoma State and Texas and even routed Texas Tech.
Even though I said defense might be a non-factor in this game—big plays are going to happen—still keep an eye on Texas A&M rush linebacker Von Miller. No. 40 leads the nation in sacks and goes against a subpar Georgia offensive line with a quarterback in Joe Cox who doesn’t have much mobility. On the Georgia side, they have a couple of interior defensive lineman in Geno Atkins and Jeff Owens that are hot NFL prospects, but if they get pressure through the middle, A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson will be flushed from the pocket, which is something you don’t want to do. Johnson is a very special dual-threat talent and he alone torched Texas’s No. 2 ranked defense for 439 yards and he has a good group of receivers to work with and I want to highlight the freshman receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu, he is going to be something special. But, Georgia has an elite receiver in their own right with sophomore AJ Green who could be the number one receiver for the 2011 NFL Draft. A&M did not have answer for bigger receivers like Texas’s Malcolm Williams so they’ll have their hands full with Green.
Prediction: Texas A&M 40, Georgia 33
Result: Georgia 44, Texas A&M 20
Texas A&M has been on an up-and-down roller coaster all year long and I should've known this game would turn out the way it did after the Aggies played so well in their last game against Texas. That meant they were due for a down game and here it was at they never really showed up and were all-around sloppy.
With the two defenses we expected a shootout, but only one team participated and that was with a lot of help from its defense. After firing a bunch of guys on the defensive coaching staff, a lot of credit goes to Georgia's defense for how they prepared and stepped up in this game.
It took Georgia a while to get going offensively, but they really held Texas A&M sack leader Von Miller out of the game. Neither team scored until just under three minutes left before halftime when the Aggies finally scored a touchdown, and then the very next play was a Brandon Boykin 81 yard kick return for a Georgia touchdown which continued the streak of Georgia special teams plays after they blocked an A&M 50 yard field goal attempt earlier in the game.
Still before halftime, Georgia blocked the A&M punt and recovered the ball at the 2 yard line where Caleb King ran in for the easy touchdown (although he fumbled the ball and was recovered in the endzone by Michael Moore).
Texas A&M led by the electrifying junior quarterback Jerrod Johnson tied the score up at 14 on their first possession of the second half, but it was all down hill from there. Georgia scored and A&M had to punt again and this time it was a high snap over the head of the punter and Georgia pounced on it.
Johnson had been so good all season long about not turning the ball over and only threw four interceptions all season including a Big 12 record of 242 straight passes without an interception, but A&M's offense was off and Johnson threw two interceptions in the second half that all led to Georgia points as the Bulldogs scored 31 straight points before A&M scored a meaningless touchdown in the final minute.
My Player of the Game: Geno Atkins, Georgia Defensive Tackle
Honorable Mention: Reshad Jones and Caleb King
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