Ok I'm going to take the positive approach here and I don't come about this position easily (none of my friends have ever confused me for a sunshine and flowers kind of guy).

The Bulldogs are still a top five team.

And I say this after watching 92,000 suffer the heart attack that the Volunteers caused in the Dawgs 51-44 win Saturday night.

I know the defense was, well, not great.

I know Georgia did not record a sack (that might be because Tyler Bray would rather throw a pick than take a sack, but whatever).

I know Malcolm Mitchell's days returning punts might be over.

I know the Dawgs didn't score in the fourth quarter.

I know Georgia could not put this game away.

I know about the three sloppy turnovers.

I know Georgia gave up more points in the third quarter of this game than they did in all of the other second halves combined this season.

I know South Carolina has to be licking its chops thinking the SEC is there for the taking.

(I know this list is getting long)

But I also know this, Georgia won.

I know a top five team wouldn't have blown this.

Like last year. The South Carolina game.

It was wild and crazy too. Gamecocks 45, UGA 42.

Georgia had three turnovers ( just like today).  Georgia blew several leads (tonight the Dawgs never trailed, but it felt like it). Georgia couldn't stop the Gamecocks at times. There were 60 points scored in one half (just like tonight). And the Dawgs lost.

The 2012 team is better.

" It's nice to have a gut check and come out on top," Coach Mark Richt told Chuck Dowdle on the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network. "I think we learned we have a little ways to go."

Very few of those things are on the offensive side of the ball.

That's a big reason why this team is better. No one has stopped these guys. They scored more points against Tennessee than another UGA team has.

Last year's group couldn't run the ball.

This group. OMG.

Keith Marshall 10 carries for 164 yards (wow). Two, yes, two carries over 70 yards

Todd Gurley 24 carries for 130 yards. His fourth 100 yard rushing game this season.

Think about the motley crew that was handing the duties last year (Isaiah Crowell, Carlton Thomas, Brandon Harton, Ken Malcome, Richard Samuel). They won't be honoring any of those guys on the field years down the road.

But with these two freshman, anything seems possible.

"They are really fantastic players," said Richt. "There are some things that we've got to clean up with those guys. But I wouldn't trade them for anything."

Then, there is the QB. He is in a zone.

During Aaron Murray's first two seasons, many in Bulldog nation didn't feel like he would be the one to carry the team on his back (see the fumble that ended the South Carolina game). You knew he was good, but not as good as he should be.

Now Murray is as reliable as David Greene (which by the way, Murray is about to break his record for career touchdowns).

Yeah the defense needs some work. But all of the horses are back. Bacarri Rambo and Alec Ogletree were instant contributors. Ogletree led with 14 tackles and three pass break ups. Rambo had nine stops.

On the defense: "There are a lot of things that deflated us," said Richt. "But I thought we rose to the occasion when we needed to."

And that's the difference in this game and that South Carolina game.  They made the plays when they had to. The last three series of a seven point game ended interception, fumble, interception.

They gave up 37 points in the first three quarters and only seven in the last one.

I know it wasn't the blow out everyone (including me) thought it was going to be. But don't worry. The Dawgs are still just fine.