South Carolina’s Pyrrhic victory

Marcus Lattimore out for the year.

— GamecocksP&C (@GamecocksPandC) October 16, 2011

Good kid, so I’m sorry to hear the news for him.

But that sure makes Spurrier’s life much tougher.

Okay, it isn’t pretty. But…

Say it again.

Two-team race in the East: It’s Georgia and South Carolina in the Eastern Division, and neither would be classified as a great football team right now. The Bulldogs just barely survived at Vanderbilt in a 33-28 win despite a glut of personal foul penalties, not being able to finish drives on offense and a total meltdown on special teams. The Gamecocks held on to win 14-12 at Mississippi State, and while their defense is playing its best football, there are real issues on offense. Star running back Marcus Lattimore suffered a sprained knee in the game, and the Gamecocks will know more about the severity of his injury on Monday. If he’s out for a few weeks, this is a very beatable football team. Both teams have their warts, but they’re also two games ahead of everybody else in the East. Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt all have three SEC losses.

Anybody who says they wouldn’t have taken that immediately after the South Carolina loss is a damned liar.

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Yesterday’s sickest move

What happens at the 0:15 mark is definitely a wow moment.

To borrow a Mark Jones quote after a Darren McFadden TD run, that ain’t right.

Silver lining time

If you look at last night’s game as some sort of bizarre controlled experiment – “A win is a win,” Bulldogs defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “They tested our discipline. When their quarterback started running, it became a new element to their offense.” – it begins to make some sort of perverse sense.

Maybe the coaches wanted to see how the defense would perform if it didn’t prepare for the run this week.

Maybe the coaches wanted to see what would happen if the players lost it a little bit on the road.

… The game was chippy in general. Georgia safety Shawn Williams got two personal foul penalties, and in the third quarter Georgia nose tackle Kwame Geathers threw a punch at a Commodore, who also drew a penalty, for offsetting penalties on the play.

“Early on in the game there was a lot of talking going on,” Jones said. “Vanderbilt liked to cut (block). On the play with Kwame they got him from behind, so there was no call and Kwame got a little upset. Which he shouldn’t have. It got a little heated. But it was a physical game all-around.”

“I know all throughout the game emotions were running high, there was a little pushing and shoving here and there,” linebacker Ray Drew said. “I don’t know if that carried over into the end of the game. But we need to take care of that. We can’t lose our composure in a situation like that.”

Maybe the coaches wanted the players to experience the effect from provoking an opponent.

“I don’t want to talk bad about other players,” Vanderbilt receiver Chris Boyd said. “But it was definitely grown-folks conversation out there. It wasn’t anything you want your children to hear.”

Vanderbilt Coach James Franklin was on the field several times pulling his players away from potential fights. At the end, though, things nearly turned ugly.

“We want them to respect us and I don’t really think they did at the end,” Vanderbilt defensive back Andre Hal said. “They came off the sideline. … You know how it is. It’s the SEC, you know?”

I don’t know.  But here’s what I do know.  Despite playing their worst in several areas, despite limiting Isaiah Crowell’s time, despite treating special teams like an adventure in a way we haven’t seen since Jon Fabris, Georgia still won.  And if you don’t think that matters, let me remind you about last year’s loss to Colorado.

Yeah, it was crap.  But Georgia is still in a better place this morning than Florida (when’s the last time the two rode into Jax with the Dawgs having more at stake than the Gators?).  And the bye week couldn’t come at a better time.  Georgia’s getting several key players back, which is more than you can say for South Carolina right now.

Besides, admit it – you’ve always wondered if Georgia could bring its “D” game on the road against an SEC opponent and win, haven’t you?  Well, now you know.

Let’s just not repeat the experiment, fellas.

The soft bigotry of low expectations

At one point during last night’s broadcast, one of the announcers actually uttered the phrase “Vanderbilt’s found itself a quarterback.”

Jordan Rodgers’ line from the game:  4-19, 47 yards, 1 INT, O TD.  That translates into a 31.3 passer rating.

Admittedly, that is a step up from Larry Smith’s 30.2 rating on the night.

The best of Todd Grantham, part two

Georgia fans, you wanted a coach with some fire, you got one.

Between Grantham and Muschamp, Uncle Verne’s likely to pee his pants anticipating one of ’em spontaneously combusting on the sideline at the Cocktail Party.

The best of Todd Grantham, part one

Sadly, he’s got a point here.

… Said Grantham, whose unit gave up 349 yards to Vandy: “The bottom line is we stopped them three times in the fourth quarter when they had a chance to win the game.”

Sadly.