Strange-but-true fact of the day...
Did you know Joe Cox needs just three touchdown passes against Texas A&M to match the all-time record for TD throws in a season at Georgia?
Cox's 22 TD passes already ties David Greene for fifth on the single-season list, and it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility for him to set a new mark. The Aggies were dead last in pass defense in the Big 12 and ranked 111th nationally this year. Overall, they allowed 20 touchdown passes against them, including five to Oklahoma's Landry Jones and four apiece to Texas' Colt McCoy and Arkansas' Ryan Mallett.
In fact, while Cox's INTs have been a problem this year, he has had plenty of highlights, too. He needs just 14 passing yards to pass Mike Bobo's 1996 effort for 10th most in a season in Georgia history, and a 343-yard effort would move him all the way up to sixth on that list. He needs just five completions for the 10th-best season in that regard, and he's not out of reach of matching Matthew Stafford's 2007 effort of 194 completions for eighth all time. And Cox's 2,426 yards passing already ranks fifth in school history for a single season by a senior. Three-hundred-twenty-five more yards would move him up to second on that list.
"It'd be pretty cool, but really the only thing we were worried about was how our team finished up," Cox said. "We know we didn't have the season we wanted to. We still have a chance to play one more time and finish up strong, and that's really what I'm worried about. But it is crazy that I'm that close. It goes to show you that we had a lot of big plays this year, we had a lot of games where we did some really good things, we just had some games where we had too many mistakes that outweighed our good things we did."
Of course, the other thing it shows, in my humble opinion, is that a bit too much of the responsibility for the offense fell onto Cox's shoulders this season. His 303 passing attempts rank 12th already in Georgia history, and he's just seven behind the number D.J. Shockley had to throw in 2005. If Monday's game turns into the shootout many are expecting, Cox could theoretically pass Stafford's 348 attempts in 2007, too.
Say what you will about Cox's performance, but I don't think anyone was expecting to see him chuck the ball around the field quite that often this season, and it certainly wasn't the offensive formula that best highlighted his strengths.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
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4 comments:
I've always been a Joe Cox fan, still am, and would love to see him hit the TD record. But if he throws 45 passes Monday evening, we're gonna lose, I don't care what the tempo is. I think you're absolutely right he threw too much this year, and if we'd established any kind of running game earlier on, I think the season goes much differently.
I also like Joe Cox, he is a DGD. We never expected him to have to put UGA on his back this season. The OL was miserable until the Vandy game when we shuffled the positions around and allowed the running game to do its share. Once that began working the offense was pretty decent. Too many folks blasted Cox when defenses were easily able to shut our run down and sit on the pass. Joe doesn't have the arm to zip the passes in when the defense can play the receivers that tight. The team could easily have been 9-3 without the ridiculous LSU stolen victory, and the four turnovers in the 2nd half against Kentucky. Joe made his share of mistakes, but too much of the blame is put on him when we came very cloe to exceeding expectations.
Totally agree, if Cox had been allowed to be more of a game manager the feel of how good he is would be totally different. Him having to carry us through the first half of the season was just a bit much to ask especially with the youth around him. He has stated he wants to one day coach and I personally think he will be very good at it.
Cox is a class act with all the heart you could want in a dawg. We expect so much from student/athletes these days, the man often gets lost behind the player.
He is indeed a DGD for life; I resolve to remember most his passion and will to win. He didn't take us to the promise land, but he shouldn't lose any sleep over that. Our root problems had very little to do with the quality of our QB this year....
Kick some TAM butt on Monday and then on with your bright future, JC!
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