It's hard to be too upset about the performance against the Terriers. We won, which is more than we've been able to say in most of the past weeks.
That said, I expected this to be a statement game, a convincing win that proves that we've turned the corner and are ready to stampede into SEC play in two weeks. Once again, though, our offense put in a poor performance, and that against a team that it should have shredded.
The offensive line made plenty of protection mistakes and in general failed to deliver after a promising performance against UGA. This is especially dismaying because our guys are across the board bigger and faster than Wofford's, so we should have been putting their defensive front on their butts every play.
And Chris Smelley looked awful. We had guys open all night and Chris failed to get them ball. He also threw two interceptions. There's talk about seeing Stephen Garcia next week against UAB, and while I'm not entirely convinced he's ready, it may be time to pull the plug on Chris. He's simply too inconsistent.
We did see some good things last night. We ran the ball effectively for once, although running the ball against Wofford doesn't prove that we can do it against SEC competition. And at least we know we can count on Ryan Succop when we get bogged down in the red zone.
It's also worth noting that we typically moved the ball fairly well. We had 376 total yards and controlled time of possession, which is a step in the right direction. However, this team seems to have a lot of trouble when it gets into scoring position. Chris especially tends to make his worst decisions when we're deep in enemy territory. When we take on Ole Miss in a couple of weeks, we're going to have to convert when we get into these situations.
The defense played lights out, as usual. Other than the one big run in the second quarter, our guys played a disciplined game and didn't let Wofford trick us with their wingbone. I'm completely sold on Ellis Johnson at this point; the difference between this group and the one Tyrone Nix commanded last year is very evident. It's just a shame that we can't at least field an offense that doesn't turn the ball over three or four times a game. As an UGA fan told me recently, we would've killed the Bulldogs if we had anything resembling an effective offense. Our defense is that good. But we're going to have to put more points on the board if we're going to win seven or eight games this year.