Fool me once.

I’ve grown weary of hearing this:

“Didn’t do a good job of getting us ready to play. Didn’t do a good job of executing and that falls on me as a coach,” Bobo said. “Moved the fall well but didn’t finish. And you can’t finish, you can’t win in this league. And that’s about how we’ve been in three games in this league, basically.”

Georgia’s offense had the ball inside the Mississippi State 20 on three occasions in the first half, but only got six points out of it.

“I didn’t think they slowed us down in the first half at all,” Bobo said. “And to only get six points was disappointing. You can’t have turnovers and you can’t have penalties, and that’s coaching. That’s our fault.”

Save the pity party for somebody who’s dumb enough to believe that you’ve learned something from tonight.

The truly sad thing is the waste of Aaron Murray’s playmaking talent.

Advertisement

A New Low

Tonight’s loss was worse than last year in Knoxville.

Andrea Adelson, all is forgiven.

Mr. Pessimist ponders Georgia-MSU.

There’s no reason to think that Georgia can’t win comfortably tonight.  The men in red and black have an edge in overall talent, and an offense that’s played better.  And if Aaron Murray wasn’t rattled in Columbia, I don’t think a few thousand clanging cowbells are going to bother him much in Starkville either.

So why can’t I escape this nagging suspicion that we’re about to endure one of those ugly 13-10 games that, win or lose, isn’t going to lessen our frustration with this team’s performance one bit?

Hoping for the best, but (sort of) expecting the worse, here are three things that worry me which I don’t want to see tonight:

1. The Ealey/King “tell”. I don’t care what the coaches said publicly this week, you can bet they’re concerned about Ealey’s shortcomings in pass protection.  And happy to see King return.  As Georgia’s rarely shy about telegraphing tendencies on offense, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see Bobo’s run/pass ratio heavily reflect who’s in at tailback.  There’s probably a drinking game in there somewhere.  Unfortunately, I’d expect that whatever Georgia’s offense gains with better protection will be nullified to some extent by what it loses in being predictable.
2. Triton Sturdivant vs. Pernell McPhee. Sturdivant got more work last week, which is encouraging.  But he’s still shaking off rust, understandably.  He gave up one disastrous sack against Arkansas when he simply couldn’t handle an outside speed rush.  McPhee is MSU’s best defensive lineman.  He hasn’t gotten off to a splashy start, but this matchup concerns me greatly.
3. The short yardage power running game. Where touchdown drives get turned into field goals, where scoring drives go to die, Georgia hasn’t been particularly effective running up the middle when it needs to convert those third-and-two deals.  I can very easily see just enough points being left on the field to cost the game.

Dawg’s guide to SEC viewing

Here’s today’s conference slate:

• Alabama-Birmingham @ Tennessee, 12:00
• 1 Alabama @ 11 Arkansas, 3:30
• Kentucky @ 8 Florida, 7:00
• Georgia @ Mississippi State, 7:00
• Fresno State @ Mississippi, 7:30
• 15 South Carolina @ 14 Auburn, 7:45
• 21 West Virginia @ 12 Louisiana State, 9:15

First of all, who stacked up the times like that?  Five overlapping games in the 7-10 PM time range?  My satellite box is going to commit suicide – DVR only goes so far.

As for the non-conference games, I usually root for the SEC more than the specific team.  I don’t expect Tennessee or LSU to disappoint, but that Ole Miss match up has me feeling a little queasy about the outcome.

I’ll be hoping for an Arkansas win simply because it will make last Saturday’s loss in Athens easier to swallow, but in reality I don’t see how the Hogs stay in this game.  If Aaron Murray managed to scorch the Arkansas secondary despite six sacks and no A.J. Green, how are they going to stop a much more consistent Alabama passing attack?

A Gator loss is always an enjoyable event.  I just don’t think it’s a likely one today.  From a tactical standpoint, it probably doesn’t matter much to Georgia which school wins, since the Dawgs still have to play both.  If Florida is destined to win, let’s just hope it’s ugly.

Georgia needs an Auburn win tonight, which is why I expect the Tigers will lose.  Seriously, South Carolina matches up very well with Auburn, and Spurrier isn’t going to make the same dumb mistake the Clemson coaching staff did by giving 10+ carries to a back not named Lattimore.  I think for Auburn to win, the Tigers are going to have to throw the ball successfully.  I’m still skeptical that Newton is ready to carry his team in that fashion, although, again, I hope I’m wrong.

“One is too many.”

For those of you who think that it’s Georgia which has borne the brunt of unpleasant national publicity about player (and administrator) brushes with the law, there are probably a number of Florida fans who would disagree.

And catch this subtle dig:

… Meyer and his staff, Foley said, “are working constantly at modifying behavior and, at the end of the day, the majority of the players who come through this program will make us all proud and not just because they are good football players.”

The statement closely mirrors one Foley released when the player-arrest issue flared 15 months ago.