People, it's just one game
True, true it was a loss to Florida and losing to Florida is about as pleasant as a Treat Williams movie marathon. But let's keep the big picture here - still up by one game in the SEC East with two home games against an Auburn team which has been overmatched in its games with ranked opponents and a woeful Kentucky squad. There's a week off to rest and heal up, and the team's most pivotal player - D.J. Shockley - will be back for the final run of the season.
It is painful to lose to Florida - again - but let's think about this. Mark Richt is 49-11 in his five years at Georgia (48-7 versus teams not named 'Florida'). He's 4-1 in bowl games, led Georgia to two SEC Championship Games and the 2002 SEC Championship. The Bulldogs have been ranked in the Top Eight every year since 2002.
And his teams are not ill-prepared. Since the 'rocky' start in 2001 (8-4), I can only think of only two games where Georgia was clearly the better team and lost - Florida in 2003 and Florida in 2005. And, yes, I'm saying Florida was the better team in 2002 that particular week because of widespread injuries to the Bulldogs. Had Georgia had a healthy Damien Gary and Fred Gibson, it hammers Florida and plays for the national title. The Bulldogs didn't, and Florida matched up man-for-man much better than them that given Saturday.
But both LSU losses in 2003 revealed that LSU was leaps and bounds better (they did win the national title after all), while Tennessee and Auburn (especially Auburn) were better in my book in 2004. So ... four years, and only two games where Georgia didn't play up to its potential and it cost them? All in all, that's not bad and shows how well-coached the Bulldogs are.
There was some truly awful playcalling in the Florida game - QB sneaks on third-and-longs, opting to try a 52-yard field goal rather than punting and pinning the Gators deep in their own territory, play-action pass on the final offensive play of the game, etc. - but Georgia, with an inexperienced back-up quarterback at the helm, outplayed Florida for all but five minutes of the entire game.
And if we're going to throw blame around, let's place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the person it belongs - me.
I opted to not wear my traditional red (well, now, kinda faded red sort of pinkish) Polo shirt for the start of the game due to cooler weather outside. I remedied that situation at halftime and Georgia promptly shut down Florida's offense and scored a touchdown. Had I only worn the shirt the whole game, who knows ...
Truly, I did not respect the shirt.
Losing to Florida, I will say, does bring out some unusual behavior and coping mechanisms in people. We had some folks over to watch the game yesterday, and it would have been comical to observe them if I myself wasn't trying to cope in the best way I knew how.
- Trey cursing and shouting that he hated Mark Richt throughout the fourth quarter. About half an hour passes after the end of the game, and he goes to apologize to my wife. He comes outside to the patio where I'm grilling, and we have the following exchange:
Me: So, how do you like your steak?
Trey: It's beef, so however.
(pause)
Trey: You know ... I don't hate Mark Richt.
Me: I know Trey.
Trey: You know ... he really is the best thing to happen to Georgia football since Herschel Walker.
Me: I know Trey ... it's OK.
- Caroline sadly whimpering 'but Florida sucks.'
- Matt talking up Ed and I outside - 'listen, we weren't going to play for the national title ... we would have either been left out and ticked off ... or Texas would have played us and rolled us ... this is actually for the best.'
- The wife deciding the moment the game was over she absolutely had to make twice-baked potatoes 'right now.'
- Jason refusing to watch the fourth down play, opting to finally use the restroom at that point.
- Me developing the 'shirt's still lucky' rationale based on Georgia's performance after I put the shirt on.
- Matt and Ed determining the best way to get over the loss was to bring over Matt's fire pit.
- Amy taking out her frustrations on a helpless piece of cheesecake.
- Ed changing the 'victory' cigars he had bought at halftime to 'let's just enjoy this nice, cool, crisp, starry night' cigars.
See folks ... it's a long season full of ups and downs, and Georgia just had a down moment. It's come ... and now it's gone. No biggie. Still had good food and good times with good friends. Life's perfectly fine.
And Shockley can play in two weeks.
It is painful to lose to Florida - again - but let's think about this. Mark Richt is 49-11 in his five years at Georgia (48-7 versus teams not named 'Florida'). He's 4-1 in bowl games, led Georgia to two SEC Championship Games and the 2002 SEC Championship. The Bulldogs have been ranked in the Top Eight every year since 2002.
And his teams are not ill-prepared. Since the 'rocky' start in 2001 (8-4), I can only think of only two games where Georgia was clearly the better team and lost - Florida in 2003 and Florida in 2005. And, yes, I'm saying Florida was the better team in 2002 that particular week because of widespread injuries to the Bulldogs. Had Georgia had a healthy Damien Gary and Fred Gibson, it hammers Florida and plays for the national title. The Bulldogs didn't, and Florida matched up man-for-man much better than them that given Saturday.
But both LSU losses in 2003 revealed that LSU was leaps and bounds better (they did win the national title after all), while Tennessee and Auburn (especially Auburn) were better in my book in 2004. So ... four years, and only two games where Georgia didn't play up to its potential and it cost them? All in all, that's not bad and shows how well-coached the Bulldogs are.
There was some truly awful playcalling in the Florida game - QB sneaks on third-and-longs, opting to try a 52-yard field goal rather than punting and pinning the Gators deep in their own territory, play-action pass on the final offensive play of the game, etc. - but Georgia, with an inexperienced back-up quarterback at the helm, outplayed Florida for all but five minutes of the entire game.
And if we're going to throw blame around, let's place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the person it belongs - me.
I opted to not wear my traditional red (well, now, kinda faded red sort of pinkish) Polo shirt for the start of the game due to cooler weather outside. I remedied that situation at halftime and Georgia promptly shut down Florida's offense and scored a touchdown. Had I only worn the shirt the whole game, who knows ...
Truly, I did not respect the shirt.
Losing to Florida, I will say, does bring out some unusual behavior and coping mechanisms in people. We had some folks over to watch the game yesterday, and it would have been comical to observe them if I myself wasn't trying to cope in the best way I knew how.
- Trey cursing and shouting that he hated Mark Richt throughout the fourth quarter. About half an hour passes after the end of the game, and he goes to apologize to my wife. He comes outside to the patio where I'm grilling, and we have the following exchange:
Me: So, how do you like your steak?
Trey: It's beef, so however.
(pause)
Trey: You know ... I don't hate Mark Richt.
Me: I know Trey.
Trey: You know ... he really is the best thing to happen to Georgia football since Herschel Walker.
Me: I know Trey ... it's OK.
- Caroline sadly whimpering 'but Florida sucks.'
- Matt talking up Ed and I outside - 'listen, we weren't going to play for the national title ... we would have either been left out and ticked off ... or Texas would have played us and rolled us ... this is actually for the best.'
- The wife deciding the moment the game was over she absolutely had to make twice-baked potatoes 'right now.'
- Jason refusing to watch the fourth down play, opting to finally use the restroom at that point.
- Me developing the 'shirt's still lucky' rationale based on Georgia's performance after I put the shirt on.
- Matt and Ed determining the best way to get over the loss was to bring over Matt's fire pit.
- Amy taking out her frustrations on a helpless piece of cheesecake.
- Ed changing the 'victory' cigars he had bought at halftime to 'let's just enjoy this nice, cool, crisp, starry night' cigars.
See folks ... it's a long season full of ups and downs, and Georgia just had a down moment. It's come ... and now it's gone. No biggie. Still had good food and good times with good friends. Life's perfectly fine.
And Shockley can play in two weeks.
posted by Jmac at 8:52 AM
7 Comments:
I had my lucky shirt on the entire game. You better wear that polo shirt during the entire Auburn game.
The Dawgs gave it a good try without Shockley.
Joe T did just fine, I thought. Thanks for the perspective, too. Besides, we all know that there's a fundamental lack of respect for UGA on the national level, and that was evident (as just one example) in the commentators' coverage of the game on CBS yesterday.
I agree with everything you say, JMAc. Including the part about the shirt. Fool.
Except one thing. UT was most definitely, positively, worse than us last season. We played like crap on a stick. UT's squad last year was the luckiest non-talent to ever win the SEC East. But they put it together in that one game, and we happened to play like crap.
The shirt will definitely be worn for the remainder of the season, so no worries there.
Joe T did play a solid game. I can think of two drops which were huge - the first series to Milner and a third down conversion try to McClendon - and he executed an offense which was geared to a mobile quarterback. Sure, he had some bad throws but so do other folks.
Tough call on Tennessee last year Xon. They were a weak SEC East champion last year, but I don't think Georgia was all it was cracked up to be last year. Save a complete performance against LSU, the Bulldogs never hit on all cylinders.
I'd say it was a toss-up, because Erik Ainge was a different quarterback the first half of last season than he is now. Those folks were saying he was the next Peyton Manning.
Truth be told - and David Pollack's presence aside - I'd say this Georgia team is more impressive than last year's.
I'd agree that it's possible Georgia's performing more strongly defensively this year. And there is offensive talent in the WR corps. It's just not quite firing on all cylinders yet.
It would've been interesting to see the game in person to get some perspective on why certain plays went as they did (e.g., who was covered). I guess I'd call it slightly depressing, but not a big shocker. I had to explain the outcome to two people at the convenience store.
Pretty funny insights on the psychology of losing Johnathan.
It was a surreal atmosphere outside Alltel as we all left. I remember in 2002 people were coming out in tears saying "if we just got one break" or "if only Terrence didn't drop that pass"... This year, not the case. The Georgia fans were leaving completely dumbfounded at some of the play calls. Looking back on it now maybe there was a slight, if misguided, method to the madness. But on Saturday night to those of us walking out of those rickety temporary bleachers...it just seemed like madness. It was almost as if we were calling plays just to be cute, "Sure I know we should pass on third and 10 on our last chance of the game, but how great would it be if Joe T. runs for it...people will talk about it for years! YIPPEE!" We called more designed runs for Joe T than we do for Shockley!
Ahh, but that's the rub of devoting some of your passion to sports. You slog through the misery of games like these to experience the joy of games like 2002 GA-Auburn. Hopefully we'll all be jumping up down carrying Johnathan and his faded red polo down Sanford come November 12th.
I can't be too mad at Richt, despite some of those odd play calls. To tell you the truth, the field goal try over the punt bugged me the most.
But he's made plenty of good calls in his time here, and Georgia will bounce back.
How was the mood in Jacksonville? Gators celebrating in jean shorts?
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