When the conventional wisdom about a game is so consistent across the board (Steele has it Georgia by one), the contrarian in me wants so badly to predict something different, but honesty compels me to agree with Bill Connelly.
This is the most exciting matchup of week 1. Both teams are athletic on defense and ridiculous on offense, and both teams’ weaknesses will be exploited by opponent strengths. The projections and spread each favor Georgia slightly, but this one’s close enough that counting turnovers and big plays will probably tell you who won.
I feel slightly more confident in Georgia this year, but I’ll feel more confident in the Dawgs once that secondary gels. But give me Georgia by 1, I guess. For now.
Both teams are going to move the ball. But I see Georgia, behind that running game, getting in the end zone one more time than Clemson does, which will be just enough to offset the Tigers having more total scoring drives on the night. My call: Georgia 35, Clemson 34.
Use this as today’s game day comment thread and have at it.
Get The Picture 
Don’t think my blood pressure can take a 1 point game; I see us winning by at least 17
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We almost have to have Clemson do better than that in order to avoid getting dawg-graded on a big win.
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Well, you got your wish. Sadly.
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Assuming The Senator’s prediction holds true, please predict the resulting spin by talking heads:
A) Georgia’s defense is as bad as we thought: Young and inexperienced, they had to rely on the Offense to save their bacon.
B) Clemson’s offense is good, but not as good as we thought. They were stopped by a mediocre SEC Defense when it mattered most.
C) Georgia is still overrated because Clemson Clemson’d.
D) JOHNNY F’ING FOOTBALL!!1
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We are favored in an away game against a top 10 team and are playing in prime time in front of a nationwide broadcast television audience — can we please drop the whiny ‘we never get the respect we deserve from the national media’ mess?
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No whining here; A little fun at the expense the national media cannot be helped. Frankly, I would prefer the talking heads count us out from now until January. If we win every game, how does it matter? Also, I thought it was obvious that D is the (tongue-in-cheek) expected result.
Look, Georgia is getting respect. How much of it is deserved depends on getting the win first, and second, making it convincing. After that, people will say whatever they say. Meh.
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I have accepted that our secondary will get torched. The front 7 has to win this one for us.
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I suspect it won’t get the attention it deserves (too much other fun stuff to talk about), but I thought our front 7 looked pretty bad last night. Maybe Clemson just has an outstanding OL, I don’t know. But aside from a few successful blitz schemes, I thought we really got pushed around.
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Dawgs 42 Climpson 30.
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This is my guesstimate too.
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I just hope that stupid idiot doesn’t desecrate Uga by putting some likeness of him on his ugly shoulders….please, Corso, pleeease choose Clemson and then go away…far, far away.
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Corso picked the dawgs.
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I gotta go see a man about a buick.
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If we win today, it’s not because some old dude has a magical ability when putting on a puppet head decides a game…you too are probably wearing your lucky shirt…
Just stop it.
Go Dawgs!
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Go dawgs Roll Rockets
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They’re ACC y’all. Have trust in Grantham. Dawgs win via ball control and bend but don’t break defense 35 – 16.
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I’m with you Aus. UGA under Richt is 15-1 against the ACC, including wins over conference champions FSU in 2002 and GT in 2009. SEC > ACC.
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41-35 Dawgs. We miss an extra point and hold the kittycats in the shadow of our own goalposts to pull out the game late in the 4th quarter. On Monday, a large segment of UGA fans re-up their high blood pressure medication.
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Anyone just hear Chris Fowler on Manziel? I took it as a joint shot at the WWL and the school for exploiting the kid – that topic is worth a lot more than the 30 seconds it just got….
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If there was ever a kid who could take getting “exploited” and exploit right on back, it’s this guy. Maybe he’ll be such a flaming ball of mess the NCAA will have to change its ways.
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No doubt – when you realize others are exploiting you, eventually you want “your piece” too… I just thought it was noteworthy someone from the WWL could (1) actually recognize it and (2) had the balls to say something about it on air…
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I was really tickled by the new nicknames people are rolling out, like “Johnny Cash” and “Money Badger.” Comedy Gold.
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because i expect high scoring:
Dawgs – 27
Clem tech – 23
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So Andrea and Heather say Clemson wins , because “Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins and a veteran offensive line have the upper hand over a defense that only returns three starters, including just one up front.”
…We’ll just see about that.
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Might not be a shoot out. 1) if Georgia can and does lean on its running game, it’ll shorten the game and lower the score. 2 ) even good offenses frequently don’t come out of the gate clicking on all cylinders. 3) it’s a big nationally televised game and gameday showed up. I am legitimately worried about Murray being way to amped up and commiting a couple costly turnovers. Throw in the concerns about the defense and yes I’m plenty worried.
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You are always worried. Our defense could be the ’85 Bears and you would still find something to complain about.
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Anyone getting a mizzou vibe from this game? Granted I think Clemson is better than mizzou and we don’t have Jarvis, but the hype just feels so similar. Hopefully we get the same result. Go Dawgs!
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Yes it does have that feel…but we do have a Jordan Jenkins and emerging “freak” of our own in Floyd.
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35-17 Dawgs. The defense will be a pleasant surprise.
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From your lips to God’s ears.
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Holy Shikey’s! William and Mary is leading W Virginia 17-10 near the end of the third quarter.
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Also feel our D be tougher than most folks think, but we still give up about 28. Dawgs win with 43.
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I think this is about right. As I said the other day, 42-28 with our running game being the difference maker.
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CU will be up at half something like 20-16; Dawgs will pull it out 44-34. Look for a long clock-eating-Vince Dooley-would-love-it scoring drive by Dawgs in 4th Q.
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7-6 UGA wins. Helluva defensive game
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Go dogs, and go DAWGS.
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Jenkins, Floyd… that is all
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Dawgs win, but are you guys watching freaking ‘Bama? Defense holds VaTech to no yards in three downs, then the punt is returned for a touchdown. If Saban ever had a soul, he definitely has sold it to the Devil at the crossroads.
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They are not that impressive…yet.
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95 yds & one td on offense in the 1st half?
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18 point lead
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It’s a Tide scrimmage
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Pingback: Game Day. | Grumpy Dog Grumps
I think it’ll be Dawgs, 35-30. And the contrarian in me says that the secondary will exceed expectations but the D-Line will surprisingly struggle with Clemson’s run game, leaving run defense as our main worry heading into week 2.
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Dawgs 41 – Clemson 24
Dawgs show great balance on offense with 350 yards passing and 220 yards rushing.
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Orange and feline…hard to go much lower than that. GO DAWGS!!!
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Mussburgerrr!!
Crap.
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+1
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Finally. We’re running fullback dives.
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That 97-yard drive was sweet. Love that big guy from Blackshear. The early injuries, not so much.
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What was story with Hurley? I couldn’t hear the TV for these damn kids
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*Gurley
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thigh bruise
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Wtf on the flashing scoreboard in Murray’s face? Anyone else notice that on the fumble with about five minutes left in the first half?
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I was too busy watching the offensive tackles whiff on their blocks. Better make some adjustments on that front; Murray is starting to take a beating.
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How about we run it up the middle one more time… WTF?
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OLine should be a strength. What’s going on with that? Clemson’s D had us befuddled for the last 10-12 minutes of the half.
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Marshall’s knee is shredded. Watch the second to last play of the half. We’re down to JJ Green, Quayvon and Merritt to win this thing.
Need to find Lynch and Rome all night long.
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It looked like he got hurt, but the damn network put up a graphic that covered the screen, so I couldn’t see the aftermath.
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Injuries are killing us….it’s clear what happens after one play with Gurley….plus our top receiver out….lovely.
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Murray has to take control now. He’s a fifth-year senior.
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Would be nice to at least make Boyd have to throw the ball or hand it off on the goal line to score. Sigh. Muffed punt giveith, Murray takeith away. Not that his o-line is doing him any favors. And someone tell Marshall that breakaway speed is great in the open field but unless he hits the damn hole instead of dancing he’s not gonna get to show off that speed. Of course it would help if he wasn’t running it up the middle every time.
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Langley and Matthews look good, as does Floyd.
D is pleasant surprise: one bad tackle, one long drive, damn near held them to 3 when they only had a 15 yard field.
Herrera needs to catch, keep his feet and put that ball in the other end zone. Boyd is not as good as Murray throwing the ball, need to stop their run.
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Well, it makes the second half more than interesting. Aaron Murray, have a good night. You deserve it.
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Somebody help me.
First run on the edge = 75 yd td. EVERY run since up the middle?
Marshall’s a fucking track star. For the love of football, give him some space.
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How about, block somebody up front. They’re blitzing, so there have to be holes somewhere.
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Mitchell in street clothes.
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JFC! This is pathetic. Put all the walkon and backup o-lineman in and tell the starters to walk back to Athens.
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Bobo was just seen outside the stadium playing in a sandbox. Last seen telling Murray to throw the ball to Gandolf.
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Marshall is back, so maybe he wasn’t hurt. But the Oline is still MIA. Clemson can’t be THAT much stronger up front. Some of our guys aren’t even touching their assignments. Very bad start to the second half. Quick slants or outs, please. Now.
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I am done with people telling me our OL will be a strength.
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No more runs up the middle. Just forfeit a down.
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Stay with Bennett.
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How is it that we NEVER have a strong OLine?
How do we start the half with 2 penalties?
Can we please acknowledge that the O-coordinator is responsible for the entire offense?
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In Gurley I trust.
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Gurley and Hicks. Major cojones.
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Now if we could realize that Gurley is the guy that can go up the middle and Marshall is better to the outside instead of using them interchangeably….
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+1
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Why can we not pass the ball to Marshall in the flat when they blitz? Why did it take 6 frigging horrible series to run that play? Facepalm
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For an upperclassman Swann sure seems to be whiffing on a lot of tackles tonight.
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Clemson’s feasting on the right side and rookie #11.
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Rookie #11?
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Phew. FG there is a victory.
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Go you Todd Gurley …. Murray’s got to settle down. He’s got to.
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1st and goal from the five. wasted.
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I believe you mean “1st and goal from the five. Bobo’d.”
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That first play from the five, Marshall up the middle. Why not just try a pass to the back corner? Still can’t get over the offensive line. I never see our team till they start playing games on TV. I had been believing the preseason talk about our strong O-line. Dammit, Clemson is an ACC power, not an SEC power.
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And right there’s your ballgame.
Well, looks like another frustrating as hell season of shitty O line play and a video game offense that will put up gaudy stats when it doesn’t matter, and fail when it needs to.
Oh, and our defense is pretty meh as well.
Will it be 4 in a row for SC now? Ugh. 😦
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I’d say our defense is 50 shades of shit worse than “meh”
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Don’t forget special teams.
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Have we even attempted a pass into the end zone tonight? Supposedly Clemsons weakness was their secondary yet they haven’t even been tested.
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No, we’ve been too busy testing their D-line with Keith “Richard Samuel” Marshall. 15 carries, 37 yards, long of 6.
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Murray’s thrown it low all night. Fifth year senior?
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Eerily reminiscent of two years ago vs. Boise State. We just never seem ready to play in a tough opener.
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Well. Looks like an 0-2 start. I can hear MR after SC stomps us talking about how there’s still lots to play for. Watched Tunsil starting as a freshman for Ole Miss the other night and he looked better than any o-lineman on our team. That worked out well.
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Takes the blush off the rose really, really early.
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LSU will probably stomp us too. So probably 1-3.
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It’s looking more and more like that. Between the SEC office and our idiot AD……..
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first pass to Lynch with 2:15 left
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What happened to qb standing up and tossing to the wr outside?
Clemson killed us with it tonight.
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1) Georgia needs to go to tackling school. 2) Bobo’s going to get his “balance”. It’s 2nd and goal to go and it’s 3rd and goal to go and Bobo still calls plays to make a statement rather than calling plays to score. 3) Offensive line?
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A miracle we were one blown field goal from not losing.
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Good thing there weren’t any recruits there watching the game.
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Were there any UGA tickets sold? I was seeing all orange on TV.
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What I want is to find out how they coach ‘Bama’s offensive line and do exactly the same thing to all of our touted recruits.
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We don’t have the level of talent that Bama does. Years of bad o-line evaluation. Like putting all our eggs in one basket with the Tunsil kid this year only to have him go to Ole Miss and we have no plan B. Pretty much stuck with this soft bunch at this point. When you get steamrolled all night by a Clemson just imagine the Clowneys and the guys LSU seems to always have. Just ugh.
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Scheduling does seem sort of strange. Meanwhile, Spurrier opens with a breather and gets 10 days to get ready for us.
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I will withhold all comments until tomorrow Kool-Aid drinkers.
1) Murray falters again
2) weak d-line
Review my comments two weeks ago re: Murray.
AHD – I know your mama.
No delusional thinking here.
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Who’s ready for the obligatory mark Richt “we still have lots of goals to play for” speech next Sunday? Aaron Murray. You’re a good guy and its been real and it’s been fun, but it hasn’t been real fun. Not that your OC or OL helped you much tonight but that pick after the muffed punt was classic AM. I’m ready for a new era.
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Music City Bowl here we come on the way to a 6-7 season.
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how does a fifth year senior not find the play clock on the first play of consecutive drives?
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Maybe he does need the contacts. But he’s a DGD.
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I don’tt argue with his work ethic but his situational awareness is only matched by the FIU coach.
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Just beat Spurrier, Florida and Tech. That’s about all I can ask for now, and, yes, I am asking too much. But hopeful yet.
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Literally ever fear was realized tonight.
Murray living up (down?) to his reputation in big games? Check.
Brain-dead play-calling, apparently for the sake of balance? Check.
Young defense looking absolutely lost? You betcha.
Veteran OL sucking nonetheless? Of course.
Injury bug biting only our most important players? Seriously, wtf.
Clemson getting away with everything? Mm-hmm.
Clowney may actually kill Aaron Murray next week. Either way, it’ll be ugly.
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+1,000
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You left out: Suspension to a key player for disciplinary reasons and the substitute gets torched all night long. Check.
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Yet again: Monster offensive stats that the Bobo lovers will compile at the end of the year to argue Bobo is awesome.
Sick of laying an egg to start the season.
Sick of mediocre to terrible O-lines.
Sick of a mediocre OCoordinator.
Sick of average defense.
Sick of monster pre-season hype.
Sick of being a national joke.
Sick of 34 years since our last title.
Sick of wasting time and energy continuing to be a fan. The last 30 years have been brutal.
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I am sick of our AD scheduling these stupid games to open the season. You win national titles by breathing cupcakes and winning the SEC. This isn’t 1983 – under the current system, there is nothing to be gained and everything to lose by playing these games.
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+1,000,000. When was the last time you saw Florida open the season on another team’s field? And a top 10 team to boot? There’s a reason why Florida was so successful in football for the last 20+ years and proper scheduling had a lot to do with it.
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Really, If the last 30 years have been brutal for you, it’s a good thing you’re not a fan of a different team, because you likely would have killed yourself.
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Yet, my friend, no doubt we will be back next year ready to have our hearts broken again.
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Aaron Murray has become a master of two things: the crucial turnover leading to a score and the too-little, too-late TD.
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Piss poor offensive playcalling and OL sucked. WTF were sec coaches thinking ranking AM ahead of McCarron & Manziel? – Guess it was a big inside joke after all
I don’t blame the D – the kids played harder than I expected. Our O was supposed to carry us, not be liability. D got some lousy calls from lousy refs that kept clepson drives alive.
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D gave up 500 yards….you might want to raise expectations just a tad there. Yes, they are young, and yes they may be great by the end of the year, but the big game was tonight, and they did not come ready.
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They gave up 500 yards on the road to the number 8 team who’s been watching UGA film since this game was scheduled and then had the entire offseason to prepare for this game and this game only. We play the same amount of top ten teams in September as Clemson does all season.
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I never thought I’d see the day when the state of SC would own Georgia? WTF?
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Wouldn’t say we’re Music City Bowl bound just yet.
That game game down to a 17 play stretch that began with 10:38 to go in the 2nd Quarter and ended with our first possession of the second half. 17 plays, -9 yards.
Bobo’s gonna Bobo.
I’m sure Blutarsky will tell us all about how it wasn’t on Bobo, but given the hands that Bennett, Scott-Wesley, Conley, Hicks and Lynch showed in limited use tonight, we should have been throwing the ball to open up the run when we saw that Marshall/Gurley were both hurt. It’s not like we haven’t played without Mitchell before.
20-29 passing, 41 rushes. Of those 41, Marshall had 16 for 43 yards – that’s a stat line that belongs out in Stillwater circa 2009.
Murray isn’t the reason we lost that game. That came down to coordinators – Venables gambled and they got a pick out of it. Bobo put all his chips on Marshall up the middle, but the wheel kept turning up Red 19.
Rain man he isn’t…
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Murray may not be solely responsible, but his fumble deep in their territory was a killer as was his interception after the fumble recovery. Without those, we win that game.
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Can’t really blame Murray for his blindside protector playing the role of a turnstile on the sack fumble. Though he does seem to drop the ball on a blindside hit more than any QB I can remember. The INT after the muffed punt was classic AM though.
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Actually – he had pulled it down on the fumble, so it is on him….he did get KILLED and hung onto it though.
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Really??
Fumble inside the 30 – fall on the F’ing ball.
Pick inside the 30 – run the F’ing ball or conservatively throw the ball away.
Quit making excuses – the guy can’t win BIG!!!
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White Quincy Carter!
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Mett – 250 yds – one TD
NO TURNOVERS!!
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No, no, no, nooooo. Murray doesn’t snort up the sidelines.
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Hey now. It’s not Bobo’s fault. It was “lack of execution”. Just like in a few weeks Mark Richt will be telling us that this team still has “plenty of goals to play for”. Same shit, different year.
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well in all seriousness, we put up 35 points…and yes, Clemson’s D sucks, so that’s not a ton, but Bobo wasn’t blocking tonight. That said, it would be so nice if O-line were ever and actual strength at Georgia. Yes, the game could have been called better, but I think more blame lies elsewhere tonight.
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Bobo wasn’t tackling tonight either.
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Neither was our D.
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I loved seeing that Clemson defensive coordinator work. Have to say, they whipped our butts.
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As a UGA fan, I feel like I’ve been in the movie Groundhog Day since 2008. It’s the same thing over and over and over. Bad penalties, poor qb play, special teams letting us down at crucial times ( other than the fake punt), coaching always a step behind the other guys, etc.
Any Mark Richt team is going to have to prove me wrong before I buy into the hype again. My wife is an Ohio State alum and asked me what’s wrong with UGA. The only way I can explain it to her is that Richt is the re-in carnated/ zombie John Cooper. In other words, good for 8-10 wins per year but will never, ever get us to the big game. 2002 and 2007 were our high water marks…
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A few thoughts: 1) Harvey-Clemons was the player we missed most out there. Norman tried his best but was a liability. Entirely possible that he would have been the difference in the game. 2) Marshall is very good at some things and not at others, and I’m not sure our staff knows the difference. His and Gurley’s are not interchangeable skill sets. 3) How the O-line pulled that disappearing act is an utter mystery, given their strong start and finish. 4) Two plays that really changed the game: Matthews’ inability to make that open-field tackle on 4th down and the botched FG snap. 5) Clemson’s #1 dropped everything that came to him the whole night, except for that Sunday hop bounce on the onside kick. 6) How Marshall and Conley didn’t tear knee ligaments on those awkward tackles is beyond me. Maybe the benefit of being young. 7) Speaking of knees, I’m worried about Mitchell’s. 8) How about Bennett’s one-handed catch in the 1st half? An incredible play. 9) Todd Gurley showed a lot of toughness tonight. I’m even more impressed with him than before. 10) I think the defense is exactly what we thought it would be, with plenty of potential to improve. We didn’t win tonight because of bad OL play and the cumulative effect of too many costly mistakes.
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11) We went to the well one too many times on the FB hand-off in short yardage. 12) Has anyone seen whether CU’s WR had possession on the catch that was never reviewed?
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Agree with you completely on Marshall and Gurley. They are NOT interchangeable. Marshall has speed and skills but only in the open field. He doesn’t seem to hit the hole hard and doesn’t break tackles. Maybe behind a good o-line he might be able to run up the middle but Gurley has the ability to make plays on his own. Another point I’d add to your list is how did we not attempt a single pass into the end zone all night when Clemson’s weakness was supposed to be their weakness?
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Agree entirely with you WF. Only thing I’d add is seeming to always call a run on 1st and 25 (which came up far too often). Getting 8-10 on a quick slant would be a boatload better than Marshall getting 3 on a draw.
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I’m not sure we’ve got the athletes on the OL to compete at the top, no matter how many stars they had as recruits. Maybe it’s a lack of coaching, or coaches not adjusting, but they seemed to be manhandled for large stretches of time. Of course, Boise State did the same thing to us two years ago, and I’d wager we had better athletes than they did.
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this isn’t an athlete or recruiting thing….this is a coaching and strength/conditioning thing….
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We will beat USCe next week. Mark my word.
To all you sad sacks saying our O Line sucks, just remember, when they know what’s coming (as in calling the same thing ,5 fucking series in a row) it’s hard to block for. This loss is not on Murry, the O line, or the RBs or the Dee, This is all on play calling, and the coaching staff.
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You think a date with Clowney is going to help this o-line? I wish I had your optimism…
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I can only imagine what Clowney is going to do to the O-line Georgia fielded tonight. Actually, very quietly USCe has developed another DE that is just about as good as Clowney. They’ll both have a field day next week.
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good – but not “just as good as Clowney”….sorry, but there’s no such thing. That’s like saying “just as good as Pollock” or…#34…doesn’t exist.
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So what makes you think we’ll beat USC? Aren’t the same guys calling the plays next week? Anybody need two tickets? Jk; I’ll be there to cheer them on even if there’s not a lot of confidence behind it.
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my friend, go watch our left tackles at the end of the 2nd quarter again. Whether pass or run, they were getting abused. I like your optimism, but the one thing I don’t see is a good matchup with the Cocks right now. They have the best D-line we will face and our O-line was the worst unit on the field tonight – and yes, that includes a unit with a walk-on safety getting repeatedly torched.
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I sure hope you’re right, Rampdawg, but I wouldn’t bet $5 on us beating the ‘Cocks. Spurrier knows how to get a team ready to play, especially against UGA. He’s a great game coach as well. Of course, I can’t stand the guy, but he’s got our number.
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Pretty brutal over here….I’ll simply say that this game is symptomatic of Richt’s teams. They don’t quite make the hustle plays like recovering the botched Clemson punt in the end zone (a few guys standing around). 5th year QBs getting many delay of games. It’s always a few little things and mistakes that kill us (botches snap this time, but you can count them throughout the years). We just never quite do enough outside of Jarvis Jones vs. Florida to win the big ones.
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JJ played beyond Mark Right and Grantham. Maybe he learned enough basics at Southern Cal that kept him from getting screwed up by the Georgia coaching staff.
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Clemson’s a good offensive football team. The hapless, unable to tackle UGA D made Clemson look like a GREAT offensive football team. Even with the warts Georgia’s O played well enough to win tonight. It was the D that let everybody down. I’ve completely changed my mind on Grantham. If he is an improvement over Willie he is only a slight improvement. Last season he managed to take a defense that had 7 players drafted by the NFL and turn it into an average defense. The current D doesn’t do the basics–like wrap up when tackling. The boo birds will be out in force tomorrow and many of them will blame Murray but it wasn’t Murray’s fault. He didn’t play a perfect game but the O scored enough points to win the game. Hell, Gurley must have had almost 200 yards rushing. In the final analysis it was the D (and special teams) that lost this game. That said, I’m saving my worst ire for the real culprit here–Money-Grubber McGarity. I’ll post more on him tomorrow after the dust settles.
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Just curious if people have been serious about all the Tray Matthews pre-season/spring hype? I realize that he is just a freshman, but had one of the most abysmal games I have ever seen a safety play. I cannot imagine what Spurrier’s play-calling will do to our DB’s.
Langley is the absolute superstar of those DB’s. That kid is legit. He went toe-to-toe with Watkins all night and more than held his own. He looks like the best CB at UGA since Champ.
They will get better, but man, to lose the last two games with a wtf moment on the 5 yard line and a botched 10 yard field goal, it is incredibly difficult to be a UGA fan. At least we are not Oregon St. Or Kansas St.
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Whaddaya mean we’re not Oregon State or Kansas State? The are both 0-1 just like UGA.
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vs. a top 15-20 team, on the road, our best defensive player suspended, starting 3-4 true freshman and a 5’9″ walk-on on defense, losing our 3 best offensive weapons in the first quarter and being a botched 10 yard kick and a blown non-review by the refs from winning…..or….watching a 1-AA team go down the field in the last minutes to beat you on your home field…pretty sure I would prefer the former.
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Funny, but that doesn’t make this uga fan really feel any better. I feel like we got whipped. We didn’t deserve to win. And Clemson ain’t that good.
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We came in (obviously erroneously) ranked No. 5 in the country. Obviously, we were oversold and overhyped.
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Mismanaged is more like it.
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Something else to think about was if Harvey-Clemons had been playing instead of Connor Norman. Norman bit on the play fake on the long Sammy Watkins TD. He also got beat on the wheel route that made it 38-28. Whole game might have been different if Josh had been playing.
Game also would have been different if Gurley and Mitchell hadn’t gotten hurt.
We only tried two screen passes.
We had a number of penalties negate first downs by the offense.
Why in the world did we keep trying to run it up the middle with Marshall for 6 drives in a row?
Murray definitely lived up to the plays poorly in big games label.
AND despite all of that, we were one high snap from having a tie game
Slightly pissed off to say the least
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Gurley had a man game. I’d have given him the ball four straight times from the five.
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Sad thing is that Gurley is gonna go pro after this year and we’ll have another AJ Green situation: an amazing talent that we squandered.
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Gurley cant go pro after this year, he is only a sophomore
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Fortunately you are wrong. He’s not eligible.
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If he stays healthy, Gurley’s going to have a huge year. Running behind that line and gaining the yardage he did was incredible.
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Murray also blew both screen attempts, both of which would have gone for 30-40 yard gains, if not TD’s.
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I know Gurley had a GREAT game still, that dude is a beast. But don’t you think he would have gotten more carries if he hadn’t hurt his leg? And he would have done better than Marshall?
You’re making my point on the screens. both of them, if executed properly would have been HUGE gains. so why not try another screen?
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Think of Herschel Walker with an O-line that won’t or can’t block and a defense that won’t or can’t tackle. That’s the situation that Gurley is in. He played his guts out.
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By the end of the game, I was wishing Gurley would play quarterback and linebacker.
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I am not taking anything away from Gurley at all, he had an excellent game. I just wish he had been on the field more instead of Marshall. Marshall had four more carries than Gurley. You would think the only reason would be they kept Gurley off because of his leg injury. If Gurley had been out there more instead of Marshall, maybe the game goes differently
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Marshall is just not being used correctly. They need to get him outside the tackles more. They guy clearly has talent but is not built for running up the middle…could we maybe even see he and Gurley on the field together, for chrissakes?
Last night was a terribly vanilla game plan. I hope Bobo was trying to save the good stuff for Spurrier against a much tougher defense.
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Murray has never had any touch on the short screen or swing passes.
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So Murray’s fumble leads to an easy touchdown and then he throws the pick after the muffed punt to give the ball right back to Clemson. And to think all this time I’ve defended Murray against the big game criticism but it happens every time. How many times do I have to see this rerun before I start expecting it? Well I’ll just go ahead and call it; Murray with at least two turnovers next week, at least one of which will lead directly to a USC score. Don’t even try to tell me you can’t see it happening because I know all the times it’s happened in the past are running through your head right now.
Anxious to see if whoever the next guy is ends up being less turnover prone than Murray.
And after all that ranting, I can’t ignore the fact that we were only one botched FG away from it being a tie game. And we were only five yards (and some painfully obvious play calling) away from taking the lead. Penalties, turnovers, questionable play calling; I’m not sure if the fact that we did a lot of things wrong (instead of just one or two) makes it hurt more or less.
And what all this really boils down to is that I’m just really freaking sick and really freaking tired of being disappointed big game after big game.
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SPECIIAL TEAMS COACH???
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How many times has someone posted that on this blog? We haven’t had “special” special teams since, well, never.
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1st and goal on the five
zero points
lose to Clemson on the road
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Same old, same old . . . .
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I am with the Mayor. I think this one is on Grantham. Our offense scored 35 points. Let me type that again – our offense scored 35 points. If you think our offense ought to be responsible for scoring more than 35 points a game, you’re crazy. Bobo was making a lot of head scratching calls with Marshall up the middle, and it was not an awesome game by AM – I was yelling at the TV with the rest of you, but at the end of the day, our offense scored 35 points, period. Ought to be enough.
I also don’t give a dang about the fact that our poor ol’ DC had to start a lot of freshman. This is what, his 4th year? Is he not responsible for recruiting and running new players through the program every year in a methodical manner so that we don’t have to rely on a bunch of freshmen and other kids without a lot of game experience?
Grantham gets a pass because people like their DC to be “fiery” – they think his obnoxious attitude makes him tough – but not only does he act like kind of a smug punk, his defenses let other teams score a lot of points. Stopping other teams offenses is his ONLY job, and he’s not very damn good at it. I don’t care about the suspensions last year – other teams have injuries, suspensions, whatever – they suck it up and do their job.
Tell me you hang this game on AM or Bobo, and that you’re cool with 38 points, and I’ll suggest you are judging personalities and not performance.
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ps – It was not an awesome game by AM, but it wasn’t horrible, either.
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+1,000,000. I wonder if we can hire Ellis Johnson away from Auburn. Grantham, please go back to the NFL—please!!!
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This one just stings
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Yes. Hurts bad. We made Clemson look like a top-five team. And I don’t think they are.
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How bout we stop scheduling non-cupcake openers?
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^^This. The beginning of wisdom.
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I’d prefer we stop being afraid of competition and get our team ready to play anybody, anywhere, anytime.
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You do that by building them up one step at a time CD rather than just throwing them into the deep end. Ideally, start with a cupcake game at home. Then play a team that is a little better on the road. Then play a first class team at home. Then a first class team on the road. McGarity didn’t do the Dawgs any favors by starting the season playing Clemson on the road, particularly when he set that game everybody in the world knew in advance that we are going to have to play South Carolina early in the season. The SEC office dropping LSU on us in the 4th week is just icing on a sh!t cake. If you want to really bake your noodle, think about what would have happened in 2011 if the Dawgs had opened with a cupcake instead of losing to Boise. They would have had 1 loss and been playing the SECCG for a spot in the BCSNCG like last year, that’s what. Maybe they would have been rated so high in the polls that the SEC refs would call an honest game. Maybe the Dawgs beat LSU and play Bama in the BCSNCG that year. Go back and look at the schedules back when VD was HC. You rarely find any of this kind of BS. They scheduled to maximize our chances of winning.
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What is Clemson’s excuse for beating the #5 team in the country in their impossibly difficult opening game that should have been a cupcake game to get them ready for real competition?
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There were only 2 teams playing and somebody had to win. Plus Clemson was playing at home. Cardinal sin, opening the season at somebody else’s place. Clemson’s pretty good historically. They have been playing football for over 100 years. How many times when Clemson opened their season at home have they lost? I’m betting pretty damn few.
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CD, just to make it easy for you I looked it up going back 35 years. Almost every year (except for a couple away games and a couple of neutral site games) Clemson opened at home. They lost 3 of those games. Interestingly, one of those was to UGA, in 2002. I don’t have time now but maybe tomorrow I’ll look all of their home openers up. I’ll bet they lost less than 10 for the whole time.
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Mayor ^?
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Mayor, I appreciate what you’re saying. But it doesn’t seem to matter how well-seasoned our players are – playing in big games is not the issue. We had plenty of starts under our belt last year, had played in some big games, etc, and our D still underperformed. Even this year – 50% – 60% of this team probably got some snaps in the SECCG, Florida, the bowl game, etc.
Shrinking from competition is a defeatist answer. I’d rather lose a close one to Clemson than beat Buffalo any day of the week. It’s our coaches’ job to make sure we have the players and the plan in place to execute on the first game of the season. There’s always going to be a first game, so don’t duck it, just figure it out and win the damned thing.
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You miss my point. I’m fine with playing Clemson, just do it in the 4th or 5th week of the season like we did when VD was HC and we had an AD who wasn’t a f#cking retard! (Excuse me. Sorry for the rant. By comparing McGarity to a retard I have insulted retards everywhere.)
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Hard to say Murray choked based on these stats.
20 of 29 for 322 yds 69.0% complete 155.3 QB rtg.
So why does it feel like he choked?
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I think it feels like he choked because he spilled the ball on the UGa 15yl and tossed away a chance at points just when the Dawgs needed them at the end of the 1st half. It was hardly the performance to be expected from a 5th year Sr.
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You guys have placed an impossible burden on Murray IMHO. The QB touches the ball on every play. He’s not perfect, so there will be occasional screw-ups (fumbles, bad exchanges between the QB and the center or between the QB and the RB, interceptions, etc.). You have to look at the totality of the QB’s play. The O had 500 yards total offense and 322 of it was passing. He was 22 of 29. Sure it’s easy to look at one play in isolation and say “if Murray had just” done this or that we would have won the game. Murray DID do enough to win the game. The O scored 35 points and ran up over 500 yards against the #8 ranked team in the nation. The UGA D gave up 38 points. Hello!! Who lost this game? The D, that’s who.
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The thing is, I think this team is going to be really good. But this loss will keep us from being ” good enough”
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Mark Richt keeps us from being “good enough”.
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Greg McGarity keeps us from being “good enough.”
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If our discipline policy is what it is, then just cupcakes from now on to open the season. Seems like a reasonable policy to me.
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You have to admit, havingJHC in this one might have been difference maker.
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Would have been an entirely different ballgame, I reckon.
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It may be true after all, Murray is too short.
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Know what? If you’re on here crying about how bad the Dawgs are, screw yourself. You sound like the team lost just to piss you off. I didn’t see any of our players quit out there tonight. They played their asses off and got beat by a better team. Simple as that.
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Well….I agree they damn sure never quit, but we made enough mistakes to get beat by three good teams….noise, inexperience, whatever it was, we mangled ourselves and Clemson managed to hold on to win by three points.
Any time the droolers who do that kind of thing for a living PREDICT Georgia to win a national championship I figure we are over rated.
When Georgia wins national championships its a surprise. Forever.
Hopefully all the bad things that happened cleared our minds so we can get ready for a much better team than Clemson.
South Carolina beat a better Clemson team last year by 10.
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“When Georgia wins national championships its a surprise. Forever.”
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We’re up all night to get lucky. 1.
1. 1980
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Will a Todd Grantham defense ever step up to the plate?
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This guy Grantham blows,I’m sorry.We have faced 8 ranked teams in the last 4 seasons and his defense has yielded over 30 pts in 7 of those games.That is the problem here…has there ever been a SEC champion that gave up 38 pts without it being an overtime game?You guys can run that Bobo/Murray mess all you want,but damn… 38 pts is somehow overlooked?
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PlatoDawg gets it. +1.
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Yes. Have to agree. Tajh Boyd is good but he is defensible. And they ran the ball for a ton of yards. This defense sucks.
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Overall, I don’t disagree. But the short field fom Murray’s fumble as well as those inept 6 drives in the middle of the game that didn’t give the defense any rest didn’t help. So while Grantham is a train wreck, some of this lies on the O. In addition to the typical Murray brain farts, throw in the same dumb penalties, underwhelming OL, crappy special teams, and missed tackles, and it seems to be Groundhog Day yet again.
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You have to take the short fields with the long fields, and our D cannot defend either. Georgia won the TOP battle by about 4 1/2 minutes. The job of the offense is not to cater to the defense or “protect” the defense by slowing down its game plan, etc. The D should be sufficiently conditioned to play four quarters of football. As it is, they were not even prepared to play a good half.
A suspended member of our secondary and a couple of injuries back there are not the reason we lost this game. I am understanding with some of that. But we need to have guys 2 and 3 deep who can step up and play some realistic approximation of Georgia football. Last night was not that.
I’m not angry or a lunatic fan, it’s just a football game. But I would just like to see us lose for better reasons than being confused, not wrapping up, and not planning ahead (e.g. 2010/2011: hey, we’re going to need some DB’s and safeties when all these dudes gradulate or go pro, maybe we oughtta recruit a couple NOW.)
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I have been defending our offense, but in addition to joining the rest of you in being frustrated with running Marshall into the backs of our lethargic, speed-challenged OL, I have another gripe about the coaching.
By the end of the first quarter, we realized what kind of game this was going to be. Score a ton of points. Score them by the buckets.
And then we immediately went into what I’d call “prevent” offense. They get big props for faking the punt, it was that kind of game and required that kind of mentality. But the two biggest decisions that stood out to me:
> Tried to kick a field goal on 4th and goal from the 2 yard line instead of going for the TD. Worst case scenario? Tigers on their own 1 yard line. No, they could not have predicted the ridiculous FG issue, but you have to ask yourself – in a game like this, will we get another, better chance to score 7 points than we have with 4th and 2 right now? Or is it more likely we’ll be trying to march 75 yards in 2 minutes against much heavier odds than we face right now, basically standing in Clemson’s end zone?
> Punting on 4th and 15 with six minutes left and down by two scores – (decision: do you have a better chance of AM completing a 15 yard pass or recovering an onside kick?).
I feel like our coaches don’t realize that sometimes the odds against you really suck, but that the alternative – putting off going for it – only means you’re going to face even worse odds later, and half the time we get beat by the clock.
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Cosmic, I’m with you on the second scenario, even if not on the first. And your last paragraph sums up exactly what I went to bed thinking last night.
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We win next week by 2 TDs. Mark my word,
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I hope you are right Rampdawg but the Georgia D I saw last night won’t stop South Carolina any better than they did against Clemson and the South Carolina D is better than the Clemson D. That means a likely loss to South Carolina (for a 4th year in a row) and also a likely loss to LSU in week 4. This UGA team will probably be 1-3 after 4 games. Get used to disappointment.
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