A tale of two halfs!

Well, as I sat and watched the Dawgs totally control the 1st half of the game on Saturday, I was confident that the winning streak would go to 8! Besides one bad mistake or miscommunication by Stafford and/or the receiver that resulted in a pick 6 for the yellow jackets, our offense was mounting great scoring drives. The defense was also doing a great job playing their assignments and stopping the quirky triple option offense of Tech. At halftime, I went out to see my kids and wife playing in the warm Florida sun and swimming in the pool. When I came back before the kickoff of the second half, I was expecting to see more of the same maybe even better defense since we had a whole half to see how they were running their offense. Boy was I wrong!

I don’t know if Tech made adjustments or if the Dawgs just forgot who they were playing. After the kickoff and on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Tech busts a 60-yard run around the corner. It looked like we were playing a man short on that play because the corner was nowhere to be found. He bit on the first option and once the ball was pitched, Dwyer was off to the races for TD. Tech went on to gain over 200 yards in the third quarter and score 26 unanswered points. Even with that horrible quarter, the Dawgs were still in the game, but the lack of tackling was what finally killed us. If we can make a couple of tackles and force them to punt once in the third quarter, we win the game. Then the worse attempt at a tackle or stop came in the fourth when Tech’s Roddy Jones is running down the sidelines and Georgia’s Reshad Jones tried to push him out of bounds instead of wrapping him up and taking him down. Roddy Jones ended up with a 49 yard TD. In the second half, our defense looked like they had never seen the option. Our offense did their best to keep us in the game, they scored 42 points, but that was not enough to close out the Techies and keep the streak alive. It was a tough loss, but all streaks have to come to an end. I hate that this one had to end at 7 and that it had to end at home, but now we can start a new one next year on their field!

I want to thank all of the seniors for their years of dedication and effort to the program. Especially, Mohamed Massaquoi, who had a career day! The senior had a monster game in his last time he would play in Sanford Stadium. He tied a school record with three touchdown receptions and finished with a career-best 11 catches for 180 yards. He didn’t drop anything, hauling in passes that were high low and behind him, the one ball he did drop looked like a catch to me. I hope the pro scouts were watching that game and his entire season; he will be a great addition to any NFL roster. If it weren’t for the first half of the Alabama game, the second half of the Florida game and the third quarter of the Tech game, these seniors would be playing for a SEC title and probably a National Title. But we did have those horrible quarters and now we will most likely be headed to the Capital One Bowl. Needless to say, I am very disappointed in the game and the season. I know that we still have 9 wins and will have a chance to make it 10, but with aspirations of a SEC and National Title, losing 3 games is hard to swallow. Now we have to wait and see if Stafford, Moreno, Owens and Allen decide to enter the draft early. I would love to see these guys back in the red and black next year so we can make another run at a title!

Go Dawgs!