Welp, first one in the books. In the end, no one will care that the game was far more competitive than the final score will indicate. Georgia made more explosive plays and executed better throughout with fewer mistakes. As RMN followers are well aware, explosive plays are disproportionately important. Anyhoo... onto the thoughts.
1. It takes offensive lines time to gel. Given all the shuffling, we'll need to be patient but it should be good.
In truth, at the point of attack I thought we did a good job of putting a body on a body. We didn't look outclassed, at least not to my untrained eye and gave Franklin a decent looking pocket all night. Franklin's created many of his own problems when he bailed on the pocket and started to drift. Having said that, everything starts with the snap from center. The consistently poor snaps caused a lot of our 2nd quarter offensive malaise against SE La, and carried over this week to both centers. Morse was high and hard all night while McNulty was low and weak.
Fisher's injury is such a bad break for a good player and good dude. He may be able to return from an MCL. Let's hope. Mizzou went into camp with a lot of depth. Not anymore. Still, I feel confident we can shuffle and be okay.
2. I like Steck's stunting and shifting defense.
We'll give up some plays that way. The big screen at the end of the first half was a prime example of getting caught moving, as was Gurley's big run in the second half when UGa was backed up. Still, this defense made big plays all night and forced more than enough punts for our offense to do something. Long-term, this defense should be pretty damned good. Aaron Murray is one of a small handful of SEC QBs capable of hitting some of the throws he put into tight windows in the zone, and even he doesn't throw the ball that well every week.
Bonus Thought: Can Mizzou fans at least drop the "old man football" meme for cryin' out loud? It had no impact of any kind on this game, and Shelden played a fine game. Hell, UGa really only moved the ball when they went to shotgun, spread out our defense, and sped up the pace. Drop it already. Jeez.