How do you know when your team has experienced a satisfying win? When the losers start playing “the better team lost” card.
“I don’t care if it’s ‘Bama, I don’t care if it’s Notre Dame. Georgia was nothing special. We came out, we had ’em tied. We just didn’t finish. I feel like we’re a better ballclub than those guys. You saw that early. We just didn’t finish. …
“We knew they were gonna come out lively and talking. But if you hit ’em in the mouth a couple good times, they were gonna lay down. And that’s what we did. We just didn’t finish.”
And if you don’t count the shutout Georgia’s defense laid on Nebraska after Abdullah’s fumble, Taylor Martinez has a point.
Taylor Martinez says he thought Nebraska’s talent was on-par with Georgia’s.
Same goes for his feelings about the Big Ten’s talent-level compared to the SEC’s. In fact, he thinks the Big Ten is better in that regard. He made his feelings clear before the game and was sticking to his guns afterward.
“I think the Big Ten, talent-wise, is a lot better, and the defenses in the Big Ten are better than SEC defenses,” he said. “This was supposed to be one of the top defenses in the SEC, and we pretty much did anything we wanted against them.”
I guess Nebraska got tired of scoring, then. Snark aside, there may be more to this hump thing than Abdullah wants to admit. Look at what Grantham said about how his guys reacted to adversity:
“That game wasn’t going great right there (against Nebraska), but we found a way to win it, and we showed more mental and physical toughness in the second half to win the game. And that’s why you win 12 games in a year. That’s what we’ve got to work with the guys coming up is to develop that mental and physical toughness to win ballgames.”
Compare that to what Nebraska’s offensive coordinator said about how the Huskers reacted after Abdullah’s critical fumble.
Said Beck: “When we fumbled that play on third-and-1 and they scored, we didn’t overcome that play to be able to get back in the game and go, ‘OK guys, even though that happened, we’re back.’
“It ate at us. It sat in our craw. We weren’t able to get past it.”
It could be there is something afoot in Athens. As lousy as things went in Columbia, this was a Georgia team that showed an ability to bounce back and shake things off mentally. It’s too early to make any final calls, of course, but let’s hope the last two games of this past season turn out to be an indication that the program has put itself in a better place for the longer haul. Let somebody else deal with that hump crap for a change.
Get The Picture 
They came in averaging 5 TDs a game and we held them to 3 TDs and a FG. (The other TD was a pick 6). Yes, they were able to move the ball on us, but we pitched a shut-out in the most important quarter. Not to mentioned we looked like men on defense in the 4th Q while their O just looked sluggish and tired.
So in the words of Jeffrey Lebowksi, “What on God’s green earth are you blathering about?!”
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“Maybe you’re not privvy to all the new sh*t, Pellini.”
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I don’t know what’s more fun. Listening to Tech fans obsess over Georgia, or listening to Big Ten players obsess over the SEC.
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+1. After reading this, I thought these were Tech players, coaches, and fans talking after another Georgia beatdown. What a bunch of crybabies. I wouldn’t think Peleni would be the type of coach to put up with this.
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Martinez conjured up memories of Casey Clausen, neither of whom had one hand tied behind their backs.
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But listen to some of Pellini’s remarks post-game: he made a crack or two questioning how “the game was called”. He didn’t exactly come off as gracious.
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If you win yards per play, you can start daydreaming about what-ifs and bemoaning bad bounces. They were +0.3 running the ball and a whopping -5.3 passing. All told, Nebraska was getting 5.6 ypp to georgia’s 8.3. That’s a proper butt kicking, and only doesn’t feel like it because we didn’t really lay the wood until the second half.
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You know what would be even better than winning yards per play? Winning ‘more points scored’.
They say a team takes on the persona of its coaches? Pelini seems like a guy that, despite not winning the B1G Ten championship or a bowl game either of the past two years, will not let reality get in the way of how he feels and talks about himself.
Get Better, Nebraska.
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“Pelini seems like a guy that…will not let reality get in the way of how he feels and talks about himself. ”
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bo Pelini and James Franklin in the same room at the same time. 🙂
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“Points scored’ is obviously a more desirable goal, but it’s a painfully flawed metric for actually evaluating the quality of the offense, since it is heavily influenced by the quality of special teams and defensive play, as well as the various ways luck can influence turnovers. It’s easy to score a lot of points when those units give you a short field (or score the points outright), or you just happen to recover more than your share of the footballs that hit the ground.
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it’s a great way to gauge wins and losses, however. This is a delicate issue that seems lost on Big Interger fans, and Tech fans, for the most part. “Well, we were ahead after 3 quarters” or “we were right there with them most of the way” rings sort of hollow when you realize UGA was a T King fingertip away from hanging half a hundred on them. The game lasts 60 minutes. The end result is what counts.
We played Alabama “close.” That’s great, but Alabama’s playing for a BCS title and we get a mediocre Big Interger crew in Orlando. I dont say this as a criticism of our program or our players; on the contrary, I think our guys all realize that we arent playing games to “stay close” or “be right there” or to “dominate them for a couple of quarters.” Heck, we dominated LSU for a half in the SECC last year. Too bad we dont use the Big Integer system. Clearly, then, we were just as good as LSU.
sheesh.
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Yes, defense got gassed in the third quarter; coaches got caught flat-footed for a while, too, trying to defense Nebraska’s hurry-up offense. But there was never an instance of Georgia “laying down.” In fact, it was Nebraska that had the air sucked out of its team in the fourth quarter. The game was up for grabs for three quarters, but Georgia ultimately won that one going away.
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“You know what happened next.
Georgia touchdown. Nebraska fumble. Georgia touchdown. Nebraska punt. Georgia touchdown. Nebraska curling in the fetal position.”
Wait, what? You mean that once they got ahead at a crucial point in the game, the other team suddenly got all the calls and all the lucky bounces?
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“It could be there is something afoot in Athens. As lousy as things went in Columbia, this was a Georgia team that showed an ability to bounce back and shake things off mentally. It’s too early to make any final calls, of course, but let’s hope the last two games of this past season turn out to be an indication that the program has put itself in a better place for the longer haul.”
Lord, I hope so, but I worry that a lot of the folks that I tend to credit for our attitude improvement are leaving. Jarvis has been a great player, but everything I have heard indicates he is also a great leader. Shawn Williams also figures in there. On offense, if AM could be 3-4 inches taller, he’d be too perfect to be true. Will he stay? Tavarres King has been huge. Even Artie Lynch has been wicked good in key spots and set a great example. I hope that this started with the coaches and isn’t just a reflection of players who will be leaving. The second half of this year has been fun, no two ways about it.
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We certainly lacked focus in the first half. According to their own writer in the same article you quoted “We know this much. Through 2½ quarters, it looked like the Bulldogs might lay down and call it a season. They got past it. Over the final 24 minutes, the ‘Dawgs outscored NU 22-0.” I think that about sums it up. Once we decided to play it really wasn’t much of a contest. Don’t forget, Tavarras dropped a TD pass that could have made that 29-0. From our standpoint, we still need to overcome our tendency to play down to our opponents.
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it wasnt that different from the Missouri game, was it? Struggle for a while, gather ourselves and lay the wood on their asses in the 4th quarter, win going away.
Grown man football. You’d think a bunch of corn fed Nebraskans would appreciate it.
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Martinez is being a bitch. Nebraska was game, no doubt, but they were never more physical than Georgia. Our defense got caught flat footed quite a bit, but Nebraska’s offense is a pretty sophisticated one, and Martinez kept the derps to a minimum.
As for conference defenses, how many SEC defenses had 70 points scored against them? Kentucky didn’t even give up that many, did they?
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The Big Ten is awesome. They were 2-5 in bowl games, but that flips to 5-2 or better when you count moral victories…and that’s what the Big Ten is all about. They will talk about how close they were to doing this and that. Never mind the fact that they should have lost 1 of the 2 they won(TCU’s gift to MIch State). I’ll give them the NW win over Miss State, but it’s not like NW was impressive. MSU was still within a TD late despite an imploding QB(four int’s). MSU was reeling coming into the game, having lost 4 of their last 5, so they weren’t favored to win.
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And they have much, much finer academic institutions, too. Don’t forget that…their sh*t doesn’t stink, and their cheaters don’t cheat. They have Integrity!
Come to think of it, they do sound a lot like Techies.
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Sounds like a whining cry baby. Grow up Martinez.
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“what separates a program like Georgia from a program like Nebraska”
I, for one, am just glad those sorts questions are being asked with Georgia on the aspirational side of the comparison for a change.
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+1
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I can tell you what separates a program like UGA from one like Nebraska: Points and wins, baby.
you can send me a check for the analysis later, Big Interger fans.
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The irony here is Nebraska could well have upset UGA except for the major weakness I saw: Martinez. He just wasn’t QB enough to pass the ball well enough to stop us from cheating up with our DBs for run support. As a runner, we faced several QBs that were more dangerous than Martinez. Not saying he isn’t a running threat but that seemed to work better for him in games against Big Whatever defenses.
I will be the first to admit I am genuinely concerned about our defense if we don’t find some ILBs that can plug the holes we have between the tackles of CTG’s defense, but when it came to crunch time UGA manned up enough to shut them down. And that was without 2 of our 3 starting down linemen from the beginning of the season and the DL coach missing in action. That happened a few times this season as CTG made 2nd half adjustments after getting steamrolled in the first half of games. Seriously, take the microphones away from people no smarter than this pretend QB seems to be. In a game where Nebraska has all the motivational advantages, UGA was the team that woke up and stole their fantasy ending. You don’t criticize a team that just drilled you Cornbread Boy. This from a guy was the only passer we faced all season that was worse than Florida’s who, by the way, was also a bigger running threat than Martinez. (I don’t count the GT or GSU quarterbacks as QBs this comparison as they at least know they aren’t real QBs either.) We at least had to play pass defense against Florida because they had receivers that could burn you.
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I don’t remember them hitting us in the mouth at all. I do, however, remember Shawn Williams laying the wood to Martinez. Enjoy your moral victory Huskers. Our actual one feels much better.
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That John Riggins lookin’ RB was bringing the ruckus on some runs. Not saying we were skerred, but he could play.
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Yep and putting Martinez under the bench was the best D play in those series-it shut him up. He kept poking the bear until….
By the way, has anyone seen credit given to Uga (Russ)? He has done his part seeing us through the swamps and onto the Streets of Pamplona. There is a mysterious force connected to that Dawg and we better recognize it before he goes the way of his litter mate, Uga VII. DGD, and he may be the winningest. He needs a blog bone really bad.
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Martinez jawing at Shawn Williams earlier in the game wasn’t a good idea on his part. He paid for it several time through out the game.
I know injuries are a part of the game. However, not having Abry Jones and John Jenkins on the line I feel made this game more competitive…. At least until we made the adjustment and had Ogletree start to shawdow the loud mouth.
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You poke that bear long enough and eventually he perks up and tapdances on yer brain. Sic ‘Em, You Hairy Bear-Dawgs!
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Wonder why people keep score?. The better team, at least on a particular day, always wins. We judge that by points scored. Any other thinking is for crybaby pussies. No respect for that.
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Crybaby pussies, aka Leaders and Legends.
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Yeah, it cost us in last year’s games with LSU and MSU. It looked a sight better in the 4th qtr, but it was deju va (Fr., lexdysic) to the MSU game until then. Neb cranked out 115yds rushing in the 3rd qtr and that came to nearly half their total rushing yards. It approximated the 2nd and 3rd qtrs(separately) in the Bama game.
Did anyone else see the concern from Richt as he visited the D timeout session by Grantham? It seemed to me that he was ready to give Todd some in-game advice for the confusion going on, but Grantham got it straightened out-JIT.
Over-the-hump? I’ll reserve judgement until next year. Not enough stats to prove this isn’t an outlier. The confusion certainly is on Grantham’s back and not the players. Grantham was losing the “Last-man-not-substituting-is-a-rotten-egg” game and seemed too stubborn to stop the late subs and the changed play call with those players. It’s a problem and it has shown up before. It made our players look like they were dawdling and they weren’t.
Like me, the jury is still out on Grantham. My patience has been tried with the “players are tired” meme. Grantham is the greater part of that problem.
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If Georgia is nothing special, why didn’t you beat them? Maybe you’re nothing special, either.
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I’m not surprised Nebraska ground out rushing yards on us; their offensive line is manned by the biggest farm boys in the Midwest. They’ve run the ball well for 40 years for that same reason.
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Have to say, despite UGA’s obvious defensive talent, this unit hasn’t been able to stop the run — with or without John Jenkins.
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Hey! If you adjust the final scores for AAU membership, oversigning, average SAT score, and cable penetration, then… Georgia beats Nebraska even worse.
Huskers can’t even trot out the usual B1G whining points. Sweet.
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During the game yesterday I kept thinking, “They are a scrappy team and the running backs look good but this Taylor Martinez guy must be an idiot.” Now I know I was right.
Really Taylor? Nebraska was better and more physical? Sure didn’t look that way. Especially the way you got roughed up there at the end.
Palmer and Pollak were talking about how tough Martinez was when he was shoving with Shawn Williams. I thought he looked like a punk throwing a hissy fit because he wasn’t be allowed to do whatever he wanted.
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He looked like a foolish QB trying to out physical an actual defensive specimen. Murray ever tries to do that, he should go for analysis.
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Martinez’s comments almost echo the same ones that Colt Brennan had for the media following their ass-whipping back in the ’07 Sugar Bowl. Sore losers.
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The fact that Colt was able to talk after the beating he took during that game is remarkable. Only time I ever felt sorry for an opposing player.
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how long after the game was it before Colt was conscious and alert enough to make those dumb ass statements?
I bet if you just showed him a picture of Marcus Howard today, Colt would wet his pants in terror.
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Just for a moment I thought we wouldn’t hear from the “Its Bobo’s fault” gang for a day or two. But up jumps the “Its Grantham’s fault” gang to let us know that he should not try to substitute between plays despite the fact he was able to, and needed to, all season. Did he know in advance that the Big 12 refs wouldn’t slow down the game like its done in the SEC? No, did you? Should he have tried anyway? Yes, because it improved our defense. Give it a rest for a few days. Please!
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Martinez made a decision to play for the Huskers. He has to live with that decision, the play of his team, and the coaching. If he thinks getting shelled for 70 points by Wisconsin and then 45 by the Dawgs is a difference in Big 10 and SEC, well, he is not honest with himself. In fact he is lying.
Here is the deal Marinez. You lost, and we won. We did not rant and rave about it either way. Your team came in ranked as a top pass defense. Murray torched your ass for 5 TDs, even though he spotted you 14 points. He can you a gift pick 6. Then he underthrew on a another sure TD pass which was intercepted. But that is part of the game.
Look Marty, we have some corn in southwest Georgia, not like out in Iowa and Nebraska. But I know a corn head, corn combine, and a corn cob look like. Let me give you a picture. Your team went through the corn head and combine, got shelled, and came out on the field like a shelled corn cob. If you think not, then take a peek at your last play when Ogletree laid you cob on the ground sport!
In the end the game was not close. Not like Bama and SECCG. Think back to your CCG. Get the picture, Marty!
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Guess they dont realize they were literally 1-2 inches from being beaten by 21 points. instead of 14. But hey they could have beat us.
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add 5 points for the mishandled punt block that should have been 7 instead of 2, if you’re toting up “gifts to Nebraska.”
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I guess if we’re playing the “adjust for all the bad luck” game, you could subtract 7 from Nebraska’s score for the pick 6. So, if you add 12 to UGA’s score (7 on the TK drop and 5 on the punt block) and subtract 7 from Nebraska on the pick 6 (I love AM, but damn, son. Bad throw) and the final score could easily have been: 57-24 for the Bulldogs.
that sounds like an ass whuppin’ to me, but so does 45-31, reailly.
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+1. And really, if we get to adjust for bad luck, then we never see the Cornhuskers, and are still prepping for a date with the Irish.
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Aww … you didn’t have to go and mention that. I’ve been in Willful Denial Mode.
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I just want to know what sweet nothing Williams whispered in Martin-ez’s (for you Augusta folks) ear.
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ISWYDT, but I may be alone.
I think he said, “Thas for puttin’ your hands on me, son.”
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Living in Martin-ez for 15 years I got that but he can stay Marteenez.
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Even though “Cool Hand Luke” is one of my favorite all time flicks, I’ve never been one for “moral victories.” For example, I’m proud that the Dawgs played with intensity and heart against Alabama, but I’d never say Georgia was the better team, ’cause we lost. In other words, I concede that Bama is the better team because they won. Pretty simple really.
It’s like a high school buddy once said. “What do you mean fighting never proves anything? If I kick a guy’s ass, it proves I can kick his ass. And if I don’t, it doesn’t.” He wasn’t the smartest guy in the world, but he had a point there.
TOP, yardage edge, all that stuff is crap–interesting crap, maybe, but crap all the same–if you don’t win.
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We started with Buffalo and ended with Nebraska. I’m not sure which team was better…
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Interesting viewpoint, considering the Bulls didn’t have the benefit of much film re: Gurshall. I’d have to choose Nebraska by a snowflake though.
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I want to know about his jabberin during the game. Sometimes it look good-natured but sometimes it looked like he was woofin.
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Martinez is the kind of guy who gets his ass kicked over and over again because his “macho psyche” requires that he never faces that he really lost fair and square and that, given another chance he’ll win. He can never admit to the superiority of another athelete or team. Nebraska is a pretty good team, pressing against, but not able to break into the catatgory of “excellent” or “great”. Georgia is a step ahead of them, having earned the “excellent” adjective and now pressing against “great”.
If Martinez really believes the Big Ten is equal to the SEC in play, atheletes, intensity, etc. then he’s in a very, very small minority in denial of the very, very obvious. He needs to watch more football.
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“It could be there is something afoot in Athens…”
Your lips ~~~~~> God’s ears
My thinking is something IS afoot.
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