Live Blog: Georgia vs. LSU

PREGAME:

-- We're about 15 minutes away from kickoff. I just spent the past half-hour or so down on the field, where the weather is much nicer than it was a week ago. Unfortunately, however, I did a leg workout at the gym yesterday for the first time in --- well, let's just say a very long time. So walking back up through the stands to the press box was nearly impossible. I'm old.

-- Mark Richt said he expected at least 200 recruits and parents/coaches at today's game, and judging by all the folks on the sideline, that was probably a conservative estimate.

-- Saw Thomas Davis down on the field. He was rocking a Rennie Curran jersey. Seems appropriate.

-- Richard Samuel is slated to start at tailback yet again. That's two weeks in a row I've been wrong.

-- Watching Trindon Holliday stand next to Terrance Toliver was hilarious.

-- A few pregame predictions: Three catches today for Wootendaballcarriah; Caleb gets his first TD of the season; Fewer than three turnovers for Georgia; More than eight penalties for Georgia; A.J. doesn't crack 100 yards, but Mike Moore has a big day; A sack for Cornwallis Washington; Blair Walsh stays perfect on field goals; An interception for Reshad Jones.

OK, we'll be back with more throughout the first quarter...

FIRST QUARTER, 8:23 REMAINING

-- Congrats to Greg Paulus today. Five interceptions. That's almost two hat tricks.

-- Meant to mention this earlier, saw Ricardo Crawford on the field pregame with a cast on his arm. Not sure when that happened, but he wasn't seeing much playing time anyway. Oddly, Damon Evans also had a brace on his wrist. I'm going to assume the two were arm wrestling and that's how they got hurt.

-- Georgia gets the ball first, and LSU boots it deep into the end zone. Dawgs start off at their own 20.

-- Joe Cox's pass on third-and-three was intended for A.J. and was way off target. That was a better break on the ball by the corner away from being his third pick-six of the season. Butler on to punt.

-- Oh, so get this -- I got stung by a bee before the game. I felt something on my shoulder and swatted it away and it stung me. I bet it's been 15 years since I've been stung by a bee. Who gets stung by bees anymore? Bees!

-- Russell Shepard in the game on a keeper and picks up three to take the ball into Georgia territory.

-- Jefferson hits LaFell who is WIDE OPEN at the 15 yard line. Seriously, how does LaFell get left alone? Come on, Willie. This ain't helping your cause any.

-- Two keepers by Jefferson picks up a third-and-four. Jefferson's pass into the end zone is picked off by Brandon Boykin, who brings the ball out of the end zone to the 2. The latter half of the play, not so great, but that was a HUGE play by Boykin. I really wanted to predict Boykin getting the pick rather than Reshad, but I changed my mind at the last second. I'm so dumb.

-- A flag was thrown following Boykin's pick. It was on LSU, but I think everyone in the stadium failed to really celebrate the INT because they were all nervous it was going against Georgia. That's what happens after so many big plays were overturned last year --- you just start expecting it.

-- Caleb King into the game at tailback now. Samuel had runs of minus-1 and 8 on the first drive.

-- Cox had A.J. open down the middle of the field on third-and-seven but overthrew him. This is going to set up good field position for LSU, but a bright note: the O line blocked extremely well on that play. Sign of things to come?

UPDATE, FIRST QUARTER 3:51 REMAINING

-- Third-and-inches for LSU at the Georgia 33 and Charles Scott has no problem picking up the first down.

-- I don't know what Mississippi State did last week to stop Scott, but he is running over people today. Another first down for the Tigers at the Georgia 20.

-- Toliver grabs a pass at the 9 where he looked out of bounds but it was ruled a catch to set up a first-and-goal.

-- Nice tackle by Rennie Curran who brings Scott down for a loss after Justin Houston pressured Jefferson into a quick dump-off. Third-and-goal.

-- Jefferson sails a pass out of the back of the end zone intended for Toliver. The field goal unit trots on to the field, but no A.J. Green for Georgia. The result is a 23-yard field goal. LSU 3, Georgia 0 with 3:51 remaining. (10-37-10:32)

-- So far Georgia has had two three-and-outs. LSU has run 16 plays and all but three have come in Georgia territory.

UPDATE END OF FIRST QUARTER

-- King in at tailback for the second straight drive. Georgia throws on first down to Chapas for a 3-yard gain.

-- Third-and-seven and Cox hits Green for a 27-yard gain to the 50. Green gave the DB a little nudge then spun around and hauled in the pass. I may end up being way off on my A.J. prediction, too.

-- Wooooooooooooot!

-- Cox had A.J. wide open but didn't see him, instead rolling out and tossing the ball away. Brings up a third-and-eight.

-- Cox hits Orson Charles behind the line of scrimmage, and Charles is up-ended after a short gain. Butler on to punt yet again, and this one goes into the end zone.

-- Duke hung with Va Tech today, which puts me off to another awful start on my weekly picks. Love to see Michigan State beating Michigan. Another fraud exposed. I think there might only be like six good teams in the country. Everyone else is a fraud.

-- Shepard in again on a carry, and Dowtin brings him down after 2. Shepard appears to be LSU's Logan Gray so far. That'll do it for the quarter.

UPDATE SECOND QUARTER, 9:11 REMAINING

-- OK, I take back what I said about Shepard. He picks up 18 yards on second down, then runs for six on the next play.

-- Jefferson hits LaFell for a 17-yard gain to the Georgia 30. LSU has lived in Dawgs' territory today.

-- The Tigers have already more than doubled their rushing total of a week ago. Scott has 35 yards on seven carries, Shepard is 4 for 29.

-- Huge tackle by Reshad Jones of Charles Scott for a three-yard loss on third down. Jasper comes in for his second field-goal try.

-- Football would be so much better without TV timeouts.

-- Jasper's kick is good with 10:55 left in the half. LSU 6, Georgia 0. (10-56-3:44)

-- You know, there's been a lot of talk this week about Houston, TCU or Boise State getting a shot at the BCS title. I don't see how that happens. But you know who very well could go undefeated and have a decent case for a title shot? Cincinnati. They're a BCS conference team (albeit barely), they haven't played an awful schedule, and they're probably going to be favored in every game they have remaining.

-- Time of possession so far: LSU 12:37, Georgia 6:28.

-- Nice job by A.J. of keeping Cox from being picked off by Patrick Peterson. And yet another third-and-long looms for Georgia. This has been an ugly offensive performance thus far.

-- They give to Samuel, who runs around end and is stood up at first contact for a gain of a yard. That was a.) an awful effort by Samuel, and b.) an absurd play call by Bobo. And for the third time in four possessions, it's a three-and-out for the Dawgs.

UPDATE, SECOND QUARTER, 4:01 REMAINING

-- I'd been meaning to say this for a while, but having heard it three times already today, I wanted to point out that "That's Not My Name" has got to be the worst song ever written. In fact, I just Googled "That's Not My Name" and "Worst Song Ever" and it came back with 33,700,000 results.

-- Take away the catch by A.J. and Georgia is averaging 1.4 yards per play so far.

-- Jefferson hits Toliver for a big gain to the UGA 30. Toliver ended up matched up with a linebacker, and Jefferson was able to avoid pressure just long enough to get the throw off.

-- Jefferson connects with Richard Dickson on third-and-5 to pick up a first down at the UGA 18. You have to get the feeling that if LSU punches it in here, that might be enough to win the game the way Georgia's offense is playing.

-- LSU has run 20 of its 32 offensive plays in Georgia territory so far. It's amazing this game is only 6-0.

-- Reshad Jones with a big hit on Shepard forces a fumble that bounces around near the sideline. The replay seemed to show that Shepard was down. In either case, it remains LSU's ball.

-- Third-and-10 and Jefferson darts straight up the middle on a keeper and comes up just inches short of the first down. LSU goes for it and doesn't get much. Prince Miller either thinks Jefferson was short or just wanted to do some arm exercises. The sticks come out and Prince was right. LSU turns the ball over on downs. Honestly, I think both of these teams might be terrible.

UPDATE, END OF SECOND QUARTER

-- You'll be shocked by this, but it's another third-and-long for Georgia. And you'll be even more shocked by this: It's another three-and-out. The boos come from the stands, and for good reason. Georgia has run 18 plays. One went for 27 yards. The other 17 have combined for 22.

-- This is the lowest scoring blowout I've ever seen.

-- On third-and-13, Jefferson hits Toliver for 14 to pick up a first down to midfield. Total yards so far: LSU 222, Georgia 49.

-- Nice tackle by Baccari Rambo after Brandon Boykin couldn't wrap up his man. Brings up a third-and-1 for LSU with under a minute to go in the half.

-- Once again, LSU can't pick up the short yardage, with Dowtin stopping Scott's run. Dowtin's got a bunch of tackles already -- of course everyone on D has plenty of tackles. They've been on the field the whole game.

-- We head to the half with LSU leading 6-0. That's 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

HALFTIME NOTES

-- Georgia is 16-16 all-time under Richt when trailing at the half.

-- Take away the completion to A.J. Green for 27 yards and Cox is averaging half-a-yard per attempt.

-- Time of possession so far: LSU 20:42, Georgia 9:18. And LSU gets the ball to start the second half.

-- Georgia went the entire half without a penalty.

-- Total offense for Georgia: 18 plays, 49 yards, 1 first down.

UPDATE, THIRD QUARTER, 8:43 REMAINING

-- Didn't see this coming: Three straight sacks for Georgia setting up a fourth-and-28. LSU punts and Georgia will begin its first drive of the second half at LSU's 44.

-- And the Dawgs begin by going backwards. Wooten takes a handoff and is tackled for a 10-yard loss. That's 18 plays for 12 yards outside of the completion to Green.

-- Cox hits Aron White to get back near the original line of scrimmage. That sets up a third-and-11, the sixth time Georgia's been in third-and-long.

-- Free play, and Cox hits Green who hauls in a one-handed grab at the 13. Where would this team be without A.J.?

-- And we're back to third-and-6. Georgia can get NOTHING on the ground. A false start on Ben Jones moves it back to a third-and-11. That's the first flag of the day for the Dawgs.

-- Cox looks for White in the end zone, but Perry Riley breaks it up. Blair Walsh comes on and shanks a 32-yard field goal. Could this get any uglier?

UPDATE, END OF THE THIRD QUARTER

-- It's time to find out what box of french fried Uga VII is hiding behind.... and it's No. 3!!! Now, where is Georgia's offense hiding?

-- Uh-oh, LSU's band is playing Journey. I have to assume this will energize the Tigers' offense.

-- Georgia has 8 yards on 11 carries on the ground so far today.

-- Great tackle by Branden Smith, bringing down LaFell short of the first down. And LSU sends out its punt team. This game has been the football equivalent of the "That's Not My Name" song.

-- And Logan Gray calls for the fair catch. Never saw that coming. Say what you want, folks, but if there's a guy in this league better at waving his arms as a punt goes up in the air, I haven't seen him.

-- There's always random guys riding the exercise bikes on the sideline during games. There's no real rhyme or reason as to who it is. Cornelius Washington is on one now. I wonder how they decide on who gets bike duty? This is what I'm thinking about now because this game is so awful.

-- Washaun Ealey won't be redshirting, folks. He gets his first carry and it picks up 8 -- the longest rush of the day. Wonder when that decision was made. My guess is about five minutes ago.

-- Back to Ealey, who picks up six more. The kid has breathed new life into things.

-- Caleb King back in the game on third-and-3, and Cox hits Green for a first down. Wow, two first downs on the same drive.

-- Cox threw behind King and Peterson just missed the interception. He'd have had a lot of room to run, too. Third-and-10... again.

-- Cox hits Orson Charles down the middle to the 13 but a flag flies in following the play. They call Orson for unsportsmanlike conduct for circling his finger in the air. Absolutely unbeliveable. The quality of officiating this year has been absolutely brutal.

-- Wait, wait... another flag on Georgia. Too many men in the huddle. And we're now back to where we started, but with a fresh set of downs.

-- Ealey just pushes a pile of LSU defenders for a 6-yard gain. Guess it just took a No. 24 to get the running game going again.

-- Note to Joe Cox: The little dump offs to Chapas aren't accomplishing much. Might wanna look elsewhere.... oh, hey, a third-and-long!

-- Cox hits TK for a 13-yard gain and a first down. Sure looked like a facemask on that, too, but no flag.

-- Cox looks for A.J. in the end zone, but it's incomplete. And guess what... a third-and-long! We should play some sort of third-and-long drinking game.

-- King has a nudge block then turns around to take the dump off from Cox and runs down to the 1-yard line. As aggressive as LSU has been, I'm not sure why they hadn't run that earlier.

And that'll do it for the third quarter, LSU 6, Georgia 0, but knocking on the door.

UPDATE, FOURTH QUARTER, 9:48 REMAINING

-- Cox bobbles the snap, recovers and then looks to Green in the end zone. No flag, but Peterson was all over him. Sets up third-and-goal.

-- Cox hits Moore who gets to the two inch line. Fourth-and-goal and Georgia's going for it. Boy you'd like to have seen something -- anything -- from the running game prior to this.

-- Didn't need it. Cox hits Chapas who falls backwards into the end zone for the touchdown. Sanford is going nuts. Walsh boots the extra point. Georgia 7, LSU 6 with 14:15 left. I feel really weird typing that score. (18-60-7:52)

-- Cox giveth, Fabris taketh away. Trindon Holliday returns the kick to the Georgia 46. A flag comes in following the play, however, with a personal foul on LSU, backing the Tigers up to their own 39.

-- Another big stop by the defense, but LSU's punt is downed inside the 5. Dawgs need Ealey to keep running the football here.

-- Another third-and-long. Take a drink!

-- Cox was about to go down for a safety and chucked the ball sidearmed out of bounds. That was a huge play that will only show up in the box score as an incompletion. Either way, LSU is about to get some good field position yet again.

-- CBS picked up Alabama-Ole Miss for next week's 3:30 game. That means the Dawgs will likely be playing an early one at either noon or 12:20.

-- Another sack for the Dawgs. If I'm not mistaken, that's five for Georgia today. They have dominated the line of scrimmage.

-- And the Dawgs get to Jefferson again on third-and-seven. Dobbs and Houston on the sack. A flag comes in for holding, but the Dawgs decline, and LSU will punt again. Man, I thought LSU's O line was supposed to be solid, but it's been a disaster, and Georgia's front four has dominated. I seem to remember someone calling that the key to the game in his preview of the matchup today. Oh right, that was me.

-- Dawgs get the ball back at their own 14 with 9:48 to play. It'll be interesting to see if they can run the ball enough to run down some clock.

-- If you have Logan Gray in your fair-catch fantasy league, you're having an awfully good week.

UPDATE, FOURTH QUARTER

-- I'll probably have to abandon the blog in a few minutes in order to head down to the field. Just an FYI.

-- Georgia has six sacks today. That's one more than they had all season.

-- Cox hits A.J. up to the 34 for a first down. Washaun follows that up with an 8-yard run. Get ready for a slew of Washaun Ealey stories this week.

-- Holding on Clint Boling brings up a second-and-12.

-- The writer from the weekly paper in Washaun's hometown came to the game last week to do a story on him when he didn't play. Bad timing.

-- And we've got a third-and-13. Take a drink! (I really hope you don't need to drive anywhere later.)

-- Screen pass to King picks up about six, but Butler is back in to punt... and it's a beauty. Holliday calls for the fair catch at the 12, a 50-yard punt. Might Butler be the second most important player for the Bulldogs so far this season?

-- Probably should be noted that, while Caleb has continued to get some action since Washaun emerged, we haven't see Richard Samuel since the first half.

-- After barely seeing the field in the first half, Georgia has a current ToP edge this half of 13:23 to 7:50.

-- Branden Smith just missed an interception after Brandon LaFell couldn't hang on to a pass from Jefferson. That would have just about iced this game.

-- Third-and-10, and it is as loud as it's been all season inside Sanford. Boykin came on a corner blitz but was a split second too late. Jefferson hits Randle for a first down.

-- LSU is marching now. Jefferson hits Scott underneath and takes it for another first down into Georgia territory.

-- Another completion to Toliver who gets down to the Georgia 30 for another first down, but an illegal shift flag negates the gain and moves LSU back to its own 49.

-- Jefferson is getting hit on almost every throw. One of these is going to be off line sooner or later.

-- Justin Houston had Jefferson by his heels, but the QB escaped and darts down the sideline to the 13. Not good.

-- Facemask call on Abry Jones gives LSU a first down at the 4 with 3:06 to play.

-- I was talking to David Ching before the game, and we were saying there's not really many possible outcomes for this game that would surprise us. The one exception, Ching said, would be a 3-2 type of game. Ironic, eh?

-- Richard Samuel is on the exercise bike now. See, I told you. No rhyme or reason.

-- Charles Scott plows into the end zone on second-and-goal to regain the lead for LSU. The Tigers try for two, but Rennie Curran drops Jefferson in the backfield. LSU 12, Georgia 7. I'm heading down to the field for the last drive.