Quarterback If you were going to judge Aaron Murray by his first quarter performance, his grade wouldn't be pretty. Fortunately for the Georgia faithful, Murray had three quarters left and was spectacular. The junior signal caller finished the game with 427 yards through the air and five touchdowns, but had a sixth touchdown dropped in the final minutes. He did a better job of extending the play than he has all season, and was on the money in the second half. Murray consistently got the Bulldogs out of bad plays at the line of scrimmage, and did an excellent job of putting the football where only his guys could make the catch. With a chance to run out the clock in the fourth quarter, he completed two key third down passes, and without his accuracy and leadership, Georgia had a chance to come up on the short end against Nebraska. Grade: A- Running back Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall continued to show why there is not another freshman duo in the country that is in their league. Gurley rushed for 125 yards on 23 carries and had a big 24-yard touchdown run in the first half. Marshall had an acrobatic 24-yard touchdown catch and run, and also had a couple of punished blocks in blitz pick up. In total, Marshall touched the ball 9 times for 75 yards, over eight yards per touch, and showed why we all heard so much about him in bowl practices. Gurley continues to grow as a runner and had a first down run in the third quarter that was one of the biggest of the game. The future is certainly bright in Athens at the running back position. Grade: A+ Receivers Drops didn't plague Georgia's receivers, but they had a few. Justin Scott-Wesley had a pass go through his hands in the first quarter, and Tavarres King dropped a touchdown late. Neither of those came back to haunt the Bulldogs as Scott-Wesley had a career day with 3 catches for 67 yards, and King finished with three catches for 104 yards and a score. Chris Conley had the best day of his young career with only two catches for 136 yards, but both plays went for a score. Rhett McGowan proved to be a reliable weapon in the middle of the field, and Arthur Lynch continued his good work by adding another touchdown catch from his tight end position. Overall, this group could have tightened it up a little, but they were still very good. Grade: A- Offensive line The evaluation of Georgia's offensive line on Tuesday is similar to what we saw several times this season. The Bulldog front five started slowly, but settled in and played much better as the game went along. The offensive tackle combination of Kenarious Gates, Mark Beard, and John Theus had some trouble forming the pocket early, but settled in and allowed Murray plenty of time in the final three quarters. The guards, Dallas Lee and Chris Burnette really started to get movement on the interior in the second half, and center David Andrews turned in yet another solid performance. When the offensive line played well, Georgia moved the ball,. When they missed assignments and lost individual battles, the offense struggled. In the end, the offensive line won more than they lost. Grade: B+ Defensive line Georgia's defensive line has received a lot of criticism since the SEC championship game, and they had their struggles in this one. Kwame Geathers had some struggles up front but had some brilliant flashes. At one point, the mammoth junior was getting triple teamed on a second down run and gave up no ground as a linebacker flew downhill to make the tackle for a loss. Cornelius Washington had a solid game despite being held a number of times on the edge. Mike Thornton saw some early reps and showed some excellent quickness, and Ray Drew was solid when asked to rush the passer. The Cornhuskers have one of the best ground attacks in the country, but Georgia was able to hold them under their season average in yards per carry (4.6 yards per carry today to 5.23 on the season) and yards per game (239 yards today and 271 yards per game this season). A portion of that yardage also came late in the game when Georgia was giving Taylor Martinez the quarterback run while being up two scores. It wasn't pretty and the first half was especially tough, but the defensive line made the plays when they had to and took control of the line of scrimmage in the latter half of the third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. Grade: C+ Outside linebackers Jarvis Jones and Jordan Jenkins turned in yet another strong performance from their outside linebacker position. Both Jones and Jenkins had times where they lost outside leverage and allowed Martinez or the Nebraska running backs to get to the edge, but both were also very energetic and physical on the edge. Jones' spent a great deal of time in Nebraska's backfield, and even had a chance to make some plays in coverage. Jenkins added a sack and had one of his more physically impressive games when it comes to taking on blocks and winning at the point of attack. Grade: A- Inside linebackers The play of the inside linebackers was very similar to the play of the defensive line in a lot of ways. Early on, the linebackers looked to be struggling with taking the correct angle and bringing the ball carrier down at the point of contact. As the game wore on, however, Georgia's inside linebackers started making more plays. In the second half, Alec Ogletree looked as good as he has all year in regards to attacking downhill and defeating blocks. Amarlo Herrera took some perfect angles to make plays at the line of scrimmage as well. Mike Gilliard got into the action with some solid run fits and by flowing outside to make plays on the edge, and Christian Robinson was solid in coverage and when asked to spy Martinez. The first half, again, wasn't pretty, but the end result was much better. Grade: B- Defensive backs Lets get the bad out of the way early. Georgia allowed two touchdown passes from Martinez. While that is never what any defensive backs coach wants to see, both plays were well designed and executed to perfection. The rest of the game for Georgia's defensive backs was very solid. Sanders Commings continued to impress with his play at cornerback and was excellent in coming up to support the run and the perimeter screen game. Damian Swann was also solid against the run, and added two huge interceptions. Brandon Smith got in the mix with a couple of solid form tackles on the perimeter, and was excellent in coverage on the outside. Bacarri Rambo narrowly missed a fourth quarter interception, and was flying around in the second half as well as he has all season. Shawn Williams had a solid game in coverage but was very physical in run support and had a couple of physical hits on Martinez in the fourth quarter. Overall, this group seems to have steadily improved as the year progressed. Grade: B+ Special Teams Continuing with the theme of getting the bad out of the way early. Marshall Morgan had a bad missed field goal and Colin Barber had a 22-yard punt and both came in the second quarter. Georgia struggled to get anything going in the kickoff return game as well, and both the kickoff and punt coverage units gave up some returns that they hadn't been giving up in the regular season. The Bulldogs did, however, block a punt that ended up going for a safety, and Rhett McGowan has a couple of positive punt returns that gave the Bulldogs some hidden yardage. Barber rebounded to average over 47 yards on his next two punts, and Morgan seems to have shaken his early season PAT jitters and connected on all five tries. Overall the special teams did some good things, and had its struggles. Grade: C
 ...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now for a FREE Trial |
