Roller Coaster Recap

Rebecca and I traveled back to Athens-town last Saturday night for the home opener of the 2009 UGA season. Our opponent was the fowl to our East, the South Carolina Gamecocks (or as Zachary was coached, “The Chickens”). I had no reason to doubt it would be another close, nail-biting battle, since that’s how this series usually rolls. Nobody I know has a rational reason why since we have better players at just about every position.

One of my favorite annual rights of passage is first glimpse of the hedges inside Sanford Stadium and soaking it all in. Always gets me fired up! The game itself was the longest regular length game I can remember in a long time (maybe forever). And it did not disappoint on the drama front. SCAR bolted out to an early lead after yet another costly turnover deep in our part of the field. Then #2 Brandon Boykin electrified the crowd by running over a defender on his way to 100 yard kickoff return touchdown. Back and forth we went, and our plans for an early escape to the car to avoid traffic would not come to pass.

As we’re reminded many times over, it’s the little things in life that makes the difference. Like DeAngelo Tyson’s HUGE block of the SCAR extra point just as they appeared poised to tie the game. The UGA defense held tough late and Rennie Curran made a great deflection on 4th down with 22 seconds left to preserve the win.

Starting 0-2 would not have made the Cahill house a happy place, so we’re thankful for the win. I must admit that I didn’t realize how loud the stadium was until I watched the TV playback the next day. Either the microphones were very well placed, or there were may hoarse Bulldogs come Sunday and Monday.

I’m going to cheat, but there’s really no Ugly this week, except Spurrier, which is a given. Humility, thy name is South Carolina Football. Just ask Lou Holtz.

The bad is our penalties, stupid turnovers, and lack of sticking with the running game just as it gets rolling.

Lots of good though:

• The aforementioned kick return
• Braden Smith making amends for a fumble by hitting turbo boost on an great reverse TD run
• Joe Cox bouncing back with a pretty good game
• The whole defense, despite the 37 points allowed. They’re only on the hook for 28 of those, and they played stout in the red zone despite being on the field WAY to long.

I have no clue how we’ll fare the rest of the way, but I could easily see this taking a similar turn to 2007 in which at some point the light bulb is going to go on for a relatively young team, and then watch out.

Sunday brought the start of the NFL season and another big Eagles win. Carolina got de-pantsed just like they did in the playoffs last year, and our defense played lights out. I know things will be tough in the NFC East, as usual, but I have a feeling the Eagles and the Falcons are on a collision course this year for top dog in the NFC. Which should make things quite interesting in Casa de Cahill.