"Yes We Can": Delivering Hope to Bulldog Nation

Here's a comment from Greg, who writes: David- you apparently LOVE analyzing numbers.

Can we get some analysis that gives us some sort of hope or optimism this afternoon?

I know there isn't much to go around-- We have a running game that averages fewer yards per carry this season than Joe Cox would be if he just took the snap and snuck into the pile instead (yes, that is after I remove the 80 and the 61-- and you know exactly what I'm talking about).

Can you maybe find some evidence to tell us how Aaron Murray is going to take the reigns next year, and teamed with a superior WR/TE corps and, if we're lucky, a running back and an O-Line with Trinton Sturdivant, lead us to the promised land?

We need something positive to talk about going into this weekend.

David: First off, I know the blog has been a bit numbers heavy this week so far. While I do like doing a few posts on the stats each week, this time it's not entirely my fault. With last week's furlough, I had very little actual reporting to work from so far because the first interviews I had done in 10 days were yesterday afternoon. So the numbers are about all I had to work with. It'll get better as the week goes on, I promise.

Second, for those of you looking for some good news -- It's not that I'm not looking. In fact, while it certainly wasn't a ringing endorsement, I did blog yesterday about Florida's struggles in the passing game and on Monday about the idea that moving Clint Boling to the left side of the line might be a good step in the right direction.

But how about something to actually feel good about? How about the perfect scenario for a Georgia win this week?

In truth, that's probably what needs to happen. Georgia needs to play its best game of the season in all three phases and probably have a few breaks go their way to come out on top -- but I don't think that's so far fetched.

For one, the Dawgs are coming off a bye week, so there's no excuse for each unit not to be better prepared for this game than they have been for any since the opener. And if you'll recall, the D actually looked pretty good in the opener, and while the offense struggled, that was at least in part due to a ton of first-time starters and a QB with the flu.

Secondly, it may have only been against Vandy, but Georgia's last win was a much needed boost of confidence. Hearing Mike Bobo talk about why he went to the sidelines, noting how little confidence some of the younger players seemed to have, I think that shows just how important a small taste of success might be. To steal the old cliche, whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right. (I think a great man named Stewie Griffin said that.)

And third, the SEC has reached its tipping point with the referees. Yes, Florida has gotten all the calls this season. Yes, Georgia got screwed out of a victory because of a bad call. But at this point, the officiating blunders are so obvious that the league simply can't afford another one. That can only benefit Georgia. And truth be told, the Dawgs are probably due for a few breaks in other areas, too.

It's hard to predict a Georgia win, but it's not so tough to envision a scenario in which it could happen. A Brandon Boykin touchdown on special teams gives UGA seven points it didn't have to get against the Gators' stout defense. A Tim Tebow pick sets up another easy seven. Florida's D might be good, but A.J. Green is better, and eventually, he'll break a long one for another seven. Throw in a lucky break here or there and a couple of field goals from Blair Walsh -- avenging his worst outing of his career a year ago -- and all of a sudden Georgia's got 34 points, which is more than enough to beat the struggling Gators' offense, right?

It's a lot of 'ifs' but none of them seem unreasonable.

Oh, and here's one other worthwhile bit of info:

Year	UGA Total Yards	Fla Total Yards
2002	294	381
2003	390	324
2004	405	458
2005	286	261
2006	215	319
2007	413	343
2008	398	373

Since 2002, Georgia's record against Florida is just 2-5, but last year's was the only game the Bulldogs lost by more than seven points, and Georgia has actually had more total yards than the Gators four times in seven games, including last year's "blowout."

On average, UGA has tallied 343 yards per game of offense, while Florida has tallied 351 yards per game. What that tells me is, if you take away the final score, these two teams have been essentially even for the past seven years. Moreover, Georgia's two least productive games were when Joe Tereshinski made his first career start filling in for an injured D.J. Shockley and when Matthew Stafford was starting just the fourth game of his career as a true freshman. Give the Dawgs a couple more bye weeks and a bit more experience at QB, and there's no reason to think they wouldn't be well out ahead.

Oh, and before you say, "Well, that doesn't account for our crappy defense," there's this:

Year	Fla. Avg. Yards	vs. UGA	Diff.
2002	406 ypg	381	<-25>
2003	391 ypg	324	<-67>
2004	427 ypg	458	+31
2005	373 ypg	261	<-112>
2006	396 ypg	319	<-77>
2007	457 ypg	343	<-114>
2008	445 ypg	373	<-72>
TOTAL	414 ypg	351	<-63>

Georgia's defense has held high-flying Florida to below its season average (by a pretty wide margin, I might add) in six of the past seven games. The only time they didn't hold the Gators in check, actually, was 2004 when the Bulldogs won.

It's probably also worth noting that the four best performances by the D in terms of holding Florida below their average yardage all came under Willie Martinez. He may have his faults as a coordinator, but he seems to have the Gators' number. (And let's not forget, Florida won two national titles during that stretch and had Ron Zook coaching them while Brian Van Gorder helmed the Dawgs' D.)

So how's all of that for optimistic info?

Now, let's get to our next comment, which was posted anonymously: NO Greg he cannot.

David was breast fed in the northern journalism tradition of "bitch, bitch bitch,tear them down". Its a part of his DNA. How he ended up in Macon, Ga is a great mystery.

His snyde inclusion of CWM's throwaway comment "I don't know if we can slow him down." is exhibit A. Oh David, that was rich journalism.

But you know what David says, "If you don't like my analysis go to georgiadogs.com."

David: Oh, right. I forgot. Skip all that stuff I just wrote. Please go to Georgiadogs.com instead.

P.S. Accurately quoting a source is actually pretty commonplace journalism, rather than "rich" and you spelled snyde wrong.

P.P.S. -- If you have a question or comment, don't forget we'll be chatting live at noon tomorrow at Macon.com/UGAChat. You can go there now and post your questions, and I'll spend an hour providing the answers (or close approximations of answers) tomorrow at noon.