Say what you will…

Martinez had the defense ready to play today.

I don’t care how much anyone wants to argue that the MSU offense isn’t the greatest unit out there, that was an impressive performance by the Dawg D in the first half.  Those kids could have easily folded after the barrage of turnovers and special teams screw ups – hey, it’s happened before – but they sucked it up and kept the Spartans out of the end zone.

Kudos in particular to Byrd and Ellerbe, who turned in their best performances of the season, and to the interior defensive line.  Six sacks and Javon Ringer kept under control is pretty much how the coaching staff drew it up.

It’s something to build on for next year, I hope.

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The price of our support

Loran Smith, of all people, breaks down the costs of going playoff.

Mom, apple pie and…

I was thinking something similar after watching Vandy’s postgame celebration last night, but Jerry Hinnen says it far more eloquently than I can:

Bowls are awesome. It’s not just that watching a game that clearly means so much more to the players and coaches involved than it should always makes for great viewing–apparently, Jason Whitlock got a big lump of coal in his Christmas stocking–but the chance to watch Air Force’s option, Oregon’s Masoli, Nevada’s pistol, Boise’s Ian Johnson (one last time), Louisiana freaking Tech and freaking Rice go nuts in front of their home crowds, basically every single thing that happened in that UNC-West Virginia game … I mean, if you don’t like these things, you don’t like college football, and you’re probably a Communist.

The best part is he posted that before sitting down to watch the Music City Bowl last night.  Amen, brother.

Nice rings you got there.

“Maybe we celebrated that Georgia win too long.”

With its famous Offense That Can’t Be Stopped running on all cylinders operating like a 1973 Ford Pinto with water in the gas tank, Georgia Tech enjoyed one of those imploding quarters that we Dawg fans have come to know and love.  So, congrats to the Jackets for managing to suck all of the oxygen out of their season with the loss.

Seriously, there are two things we can take out of that game.  First, bowl practice can be useful in getting a defense playing below its talent level back on track.  Second, Georgia has something tangible to play for today – a win insures that Georgia will finish the season ranked higher than Tech.  That may not eliminate the sting of losing to an inferior team completely, but at least it would put the loss back in perspective.

GATA, Dawgs.

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UPDATE: Ordinarily, I’m not big on living vicariously through another team’s accomplishments, but LD makes such a nice point that I’ll except to my rule.  Les Miles, we salute you.