Shakin the Southland, on Clemson-Georgia:
… If Clemson gets past Georgia with a “W,” the wind is clearly in their sails for a huge season. A loss isn’t the end of the world as a win over FSU essentially secures the Atlantic but it will take some glimmer off of a season and schedule that set up nicely for a huge run.
As for the Georgia game, you never really know what you’ve got until the players get out there and open it up. Once the live bullets start flying, you learn what you’ve got and where improvement is necessary. Based upon last season, attrition from both teams, and reports from preseason practices, this football game may be one of the highest scoring openers in either school’s history. Obviously, we’ll be interested in evaluating the secondary. This will be the weak point for the Clemson defense as we all expect marked improvement year over year from the defensive line and the linebackers. Offensively, we cannot afford an injury at the wide receiver position-particularly with our qualms at the tight end spot.
Likewise, Georgia’s questions arise on the defensive side of the football where they are replacing a ton of players (12 I believe who started a game for the Bulldogs) from last season’s defense. Like Clemson, UGa will not know what they have on defense until it goes live Saturday night. Georgia assuredly will get better on defense as the season progresses so Clemson is fortunate to get them early. The combination of Clemson’s secondary issues and Georgia’s attrition year over year makes one believe that many, many points scored by both squad is unavoidable. We’ll have a much better idea of what kind of team we’ll have this time next week.
In terms of season expectations, the stakes are very similar for both schools. Win, you’re immediately a major factor in the national title conversation, lose, and you’ve still got a bunch of goals to play for (including the possibility of climbing back into that national title conversation).
Saturday night, we’re all gonna be watching those secondaries closely, aren’t we?
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UPDATE: Over/under – sucker bet?
Get The Picture 
Can. Not. Wait.
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I think the key will be Todd and Keith with the help of the offensive line. If we can break their spirits by keeping the ball on long 5-6 minute drives on the ground—this bad boy is in the bag. Of course a quick crossing route to Chris Conley right before halftime for about 60 yards is going to be sweet also in breaking their spirits. I fully believe that this defense is going to shine after a quick adjustment to to the speed. I can’t wait to watch them GATA Saturday.
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Me either! My father is in his older years and his short-term memory is shot. Every day I go to visit him and he asks me the same question … Are the Dawgs playing today? I say, tomorrow Dad, tomorrow. He can’t wait either!
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My Son ask me when he was little,”Mom can we go to the zoo today? No, son we will go tomorrow.” The next day he would say is it tomorrow yet? I would respond,”No it is not tomorrow yet.” Tomorrow is just 5 days away. Then it will be SEC TAKES OUT ACC in the highest scoring opening game in history. I had a vision.
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Amen, brother! I’ll be watching it with my Dad … if he can stay awake that long 🙂
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Bless his heart. Hope you’re gonna watch with him.
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Am I the only person on the planet who isn’t absolutely convinced there will be 90+ points scored in this game?
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Nope. Everyone is overlooking their shaky running game.
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Yes
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Same here. I was tired of the shoot out /track meet narrative a week ago. I’m sick to death of it now and partially because I’m not as convinced that its chiseled in stone as so many seem to be. To me this is a classic case of lazy analysis. The track meet theme is just low hanging fruit. It would make me laugh so hard if we ended up blowing them out.
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The author doesn’t say it but there’s been a narrative that CU shut down LSU in the bowl game so they’ll slow us down … Here are the 2012 offense final team standings:
UGA – #22 @ 469 yards/game
LSU – #87 @ 374 yards/game
One of these is not like the other …
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As long as we’re talking stats: Total D-LSU #8 @ 307
Total O-CU #9 @ 512 maybe it was the the Clemson O that carried the day not their D.
UC total yards 445 with 346 yards passing. On the other hand LSU had 1 yard of O in the 4th quarter and watched from the sidelines while Clemson scored 12 points.
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2 ways of looking at it.
1- Clemson played 3 SEC teams in 2012. They scored: 26 on Auburn (a really bad defense) 17 on South Carolina (a really good defense)
25 on LSU (a really good defense). I don’t see UGA defense 2013 being worse than Auburn’s 2012 defense. Clemson really shouldn’t score more than 27.
BUT….here’s the thing…..
2) UGA isn’t known for holding good offenses to low scores too often.
Tenn put 44 on UGA, SC scored 35, Alabama scored 32, Nebraska scored 31. Could be easily said UGA will give up at least 31 points in this game.
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We could give up 33 and still win it. West Virginia did.
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We averaged 38 / game last year
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Clemson averaged 41 a game.
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Georgia allowed 20 per game.
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Boston College, GTECH and NC State scored 31 to 48 points on Clemson last year, so can’t imagine the UGA offense scoring less than 31.
UGA scored 28 or more on everybody in 2012 except South Carolina and Florida, two top twenty defenses.
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And FSU put up 49 on Clemson. Barring a rash of turnovers, I honesty think we’ll score 56 or so. I’m expecting a 56-35 or 45-28 kind of game with the good guys on top.
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Same point spread as when I bet it last week, thought it would move more in UGA’s direction but betting is usually later in the week. I see scoring by both offenses but am sticking to my analysis of something more in the 38-24 area. If there are a lot of TOs or big plays it could reach 72+ but I would not bet the over. Dawgs are a better bet than figuring the “how manys”. I will take any margin of win, and zero injuries as we head into Ground Zero week.
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