ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

Few quarterbacks in the country are playing any better or more efficiently right now than Matthew Stafford.

The Georgia coaches call him "The Truth," and the truth is that the Bulldogs' passing game is clicking better than it ever has since the big Texan stepped foot on campus three years ago as one of the most highly recruited quarterback prospects in the country.

The reasons why range from Stafford being in better physical condition, to his simply maturing as a quarterback, to Knowshon Moreno forcing defenses to crowd the line of scrimmage, to the competition in the Bulldogs' first two games simply not being that good.

Stafford has his own theory: This receiving corps is the best and most disciplined that he's thrown to since coming to Georgia.

"Our receivers are playing as good a football now as they have since I've been here," said Stafford, who's passed for 488 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, while completing 63.3 percent of his passes.

"They're running good routes and running them correctly every time. They're creating space and getting open and making the tough catches, which is making us that much better as an offense."

The No. 2-ranked Bulldogs, who travel to South Carolina on Saturday, are already potent enough with Moreno hurdling over and slicing through defenses.

But clearly, he's not the only dynamic playmaker on this team.

"We're talented at receiver, but we're also deep and experienced," Stafford said. "We've been together for a while now. Mohamed [Massaquoi] and I have been with each other for three years. It's the same way with Kris Durham, Demiko Goodman, Michael Moore and Kenneth Harris.

"We kind of understand each other, what our strengths and weaknesses are and what we're looking for on certain routes and against certain coverages."

Georgia's top five receivers are all averaging at least 16 yards per catch through two games, and that includes Moreno. Massaquoi leads the way with eight catches for 134 yards and two touchdowns. Moore has seven catches for 112 yards.

Then there's the guy all Bulldogs fans are clamoring to see more of and potentially the most explosive receiver of the bunch -- A.J. Green. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound freshman has caught five passes for 80 yards, including a touchdown. You get the feeling that his best is yet to come.

"We've kind of got a guy who specializes at something different at just about every spot, and that helps keep the defense off balance," Massaquoi said. "We're playing for each other and learning from each other, and our depth makes it a little bit easier."

The knock on the Georgia receivers the last few years has been their inconsistency. They'd make a great play and then come up with inexplicable drops in key situations.

Georgia coach Mark Richt said a seasoned Stafford is going to make any group of receivers look good, but that this group has taken it upon themselves to elevate their play in a number of different areas.

"You've got a quarterback who's more comfortable in this system," Richt said. "He understands the timing of our routes better and doesn't necessarily always throw fastballs like he was doing as a freshman. But the bottom line is that your receivers have got to catch the ball to make the passing game go, and they've got to run good routes.

"I think their routes are better. They're more crisp. They're getting open better than they have and they're definitely catching the ball better. And to add to that, they're blocking their tails off."

Massaquoi, who was one of those can't-miss prospects when he came out of Charlotte, N.C., four years ago, has never really seen his career take off like most expected. He caught 38 passes as a true freshman and hasn't caught that many since.

He's had his moments, but he's never really put it together for an entire season.

One of the senior leaders on this team, Massaquoi said the Bulldogs' problems at receiver the last few years have been simple.

"I wouldn't say it's been consistency. I'd say it's that we're finally playing up to our potential," Massaquoi said. "Now I don't think we've peaked out by any means, but we've kind of shortchanged ourselves in previous years. So I guess it does come back to consistency.

"The bottom line is that we have to perform throughout the year and can't just have good games here and there, not against the schedule we play if we want to get to where we plan on being at the end of the year."

And don't think anybody connected with the Bulldogs' passing game doesn't appreciate Moreno and the effect he's had on defenses. He makes the play-action pass seem almost unfair.

"We have the ability and the talent to be one of the most balanced teams in the country," Stafford said. "We don't have to go out there and throw it 50 times, and we're not going to run it 50 times. We're going to be balanced, and that helps everybody."