BULLDAWGED: Dawgs Bite 'Bama

This game taught us a lot of things about the Georgia Bulldogs.

First of all, despite Nick Saban getting all the attention and all the hype, there was Mark Richt leading his Bulldogs to yet another road victory against a ranked team. Since 2001, the Bulldogs are 9-2 in true road games against ranked opponents. Richt simply knows how to prepare his teams for quality opponents in hostile environments. It isn’t a surprise that over the past decade, the Bulldogs have been a model of football consistency. And it all starts with the head coach.

Second, we learned that Matt Stafford is pretty darn good. Stafford’s only a sophomore, and with the way the fans and media in Alabama were reacting to Saban leading the Crimson Tide back into the rankings, he was thrust into the middle of a circus.Stafford remained poised throughout, and made a few nice throws late in the fourth quarter to set up a potential game winning field goal. A fourth down double clutch throw to Tripp Chandler on 4th and 2 was particularly impressive. Instead of forcing a pass to Thomas Brown out of the backfield, Stafford brought the ball down and found his second option in Chandler for a 10 yard gain. If Brandon Coutu’s 48 yard attempt had gone a little more to the right, than Stafford’s pass to Chandler would have been the key play in the game.

But instead, Coutu missed and the game went into overtime. ‘Bama got the ball first, but only managed a field goal. But with the Bulldogs only down three, Stafford dropped back and floated a perfect over-the-shoulder pass to Mikey Henderson for the game winning touchdown. Stafford showed poise throughout the game, and showed his talent with the perfect pass to Henderson.

The kid simply knows how to play quarterback.

Finally, we learned that the Bulldogs are resilient. A week after a tough loss to an arch-nemesis in Steve Spurrier and South Carolina, the Bulldogs marched right down the field and scored an early touchdown.

After they blew a 10 point lead at the end of regulation, they marched down the field and gave themselves a chance to win the game.

And after yielding a field goal to start overtime, they struck swiftly, striking the Crimson Tide down with a perfectly placed touchdown pass.

The young bulldogs grew up a lot during the game and will look to take a bite out of the SEC East.

—E. Blasco