Maybe Herrera was so consumed with grief over Marshall’s season-ending injury that he just lost his head on what may the dumbest penalty of the season.
Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket.
- Bloviation for the Dawgnation
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“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
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Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
Man, if we had Florida’s defense, we would have one every game by at least 3 touchdowns, and today by 2.
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It’s my fault. I never wear team garb on game day, and I’ve carried a tv to the screen porch every victory for three years. I broke both traditions today. Stupid. You’re supposed to make changes like that against cupcakes. Sry.
That, and a galactically stupid seconday and defense that gave up 14 points TO A FRIGGING NERVOUS BACKUP QUARTERBACK.
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Don’t blame the secondary for your jinxy behavoir, Hogbody – I knew somebody did something, I was just waiting for you to ‘fess up.
Wait a minute…I just noticed my lucky penny’s not in my loafers…did I use that to buy gum…?
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Right neighborly of ya Cosmic. BTW you ever been to Jack’s Cosmic Dog just north of Charleston SC? I’m sure they named it after you, and it’s famous region wide. Even made the Food Channel. Give it a try.
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I think your “negative” energy was probably more than compensated for by Scorpio’s dastardly doings over his kettle. But like you, I broke a longstanding rule about not wearing team hat / shirt at the same time.
This D though, they are the ultimate jinx kickers.
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I failed to realize that my newest lucky shirt (it’s about number 11 in a long line of “lucky shirts”, I inherited it in a bag of hand-me-downs from my cousin’s ex husband, and even cut the sleeves off to give it some new life) was at the bottom of the laundry pile from last weekend. It was too rank to wear, but dammit I should have done it anyway.
What have we done with our superstitious apparel? My grave apologies, Dawg fans. It won’t happen again.
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Ive never had less faith in the D to force a turnover. Excluding the Vols unforced fumble, hard to recall any this season.
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I looked it up and apparently we do have one INT on the season. I don’t remember when it happened though, and I’m assuming it wasn’t an actual member of the secondary that got the pick.
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Tray Mathews against North Texas
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On a play where the receiver broke off the route and Matthews, out of position to make a play (of course), happened to be where the ball was.
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As I mentioned on these hallowed pages a few weeks ago, I’m at a very zen-like place with Georgia football. If CMR can annually deliver an 8-12 win team comprised of reasonably respectable young citizen-students, a team good enough to compete in every game on our schedule, go to the SECCG and win it every once in a while, etc – that’s really all I want from the program.
I think the Senator’s post about the state of Georgia football after last year’s SC game is exactly where I’m at. Win some, lose some, but show up for all of ’em and fight for four quarters and I’m a happy Dawg. They’re going to lose some football games, people…though I’m not sure today had to be one of ’em.
I will be encouraged if we get rid of CTG, but not “happy” at his expense…it’s no bueno getting fired. Here’s hoping he surprises us and the defense improves so much we all want to keep him at the end of the year.
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I’m with you, Cosmic.
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+1. Beat Florida forever and always. Auburn too. Make Tech a given.
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Well said CD.
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Agreed. Thanks for your post.
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Well said.
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Add me to the list. I just enjoy watching competitive football, and I get lots of entertainment by watching the Dawgs go out and do their thing. Most we win, some we lose, but such is life. We have a coach that I will stand by for not only his abilities on the field, but his character off the field as well. I haven’t called for Bobo’s head on a pike in quite a few seasons, and I don’t even loathe Grantham yet. UGA football is not a perpetual motion machine, but it’s a damn sight better than the vast majority of other programs. I’m not a season ticket holder, nor do I bet on games, so the only thing I have invested is a few hours each week for a few months of the year. Just my $0.02, I’m sure there are many others who may disagree. I’m still proud to be a Dawg fan, and it will take some drastic changes in Athens to make me feel any differently.
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The saddest part is, if you had to give any player on defense a pass for a dumb play, it would be Herrera for all he has done. But not that play at that time.
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Are you kidding me?? The dude misses tackles and over runs plays consistently. Him and Ramik both are terrible…need to get Carter in there and see if he can tackle someone.
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He makes a lot of mistakes, yes.
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Obviously you haven’t been watching!!?? Those two have the most tackles not only on our team but are right up there in the SEC. When I was 21, weighed 222, and could run, I couldn’t cover everything..just the A gap!
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Tell that to Ogletree….they’re inside linebackers and that’s their duty…but whiffing and being slow aren’t good attributes.
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Stupid and unnecessary but not the play that cost us the game. Just one of many on both sides of the ball. Yet we put the chance to tie in Murray’s hands with plenty of time and failed. (And that is NOT a criticism of Murray…you can’t count on him like that every time and not expect a breakdown. My God it seems like he’s our Tony Romo). Not an excuse for such horrible play by some key players, but the cumulative weight of all those injuries brought it to that point.
Mizzou was smart. Attack Murray and dare someone to step up. Green came closest and Douglass showed heart but the OL and receiving corp just couldn’t make a difference. When they HAD to finally stop Mizzou, the D showed some sense of purpose…too little too late.
Everyone could see how totally overmatched our D backfield was, but this was a total team fail. That said, an interview with Lakatos seems warranted….his troops are regressing. Badly. I’d like to know why.
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Sad thing is, going into the season I thought Swann was going to be our best player in the secondary. He seems to have regressed immensely.
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++++100 on the Lakatos sit-down…he owes us something…just don’t spin like CTG!
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I blame all defensive woes on offensive injuries: 1) missed tackles, 2) misalignments, 3) third down conversions, 4) penalties, 5) 41 points, you name it. I think Vandy just scored against us…
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They’ll have their chance soon!
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The timeout on 3rd and 9 in the 4th when they were backed up, the crowd was in the game, and we had momentum was pathetic. They promptly used it to come up with a good play and converted. I still can’t believe we called it.
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COULD NOT AGREE MORE
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It was maddening.
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I was at the game. The defense sucked. Then I looked at the stat sheet. It’s like this defense is so talented, does everything it’s supposed to do, except get off the field.
We all knew this was coming. You can’t expect an offense to carry you forever. “If we score, we may win. If they do not score, we cannot lose.”
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-4 in turnover margin will get you every time especially when your defense creates zero field position
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Or turnovers
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I think the play of the game was the 3rd and 6 after Franklin left with the injury. Everyone in the stadium knew Mauck would keep that ball, and he still got the first down. That was shortly followed by the touchdown.
Regardless, we knew this team would have to outscore folks this year. The coaches can’t say it, and the players can’t say it, but I can: healthy, we score, sustain drives, and win that game by two touchdowns. The fact is, not a single team in the country could survive the loss of their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th best skill position players.
I’m certainly not satisfied with the defense, but I hold out hope it will get better, and I still like the resilience of the team.
(also, as an aside, if Herrerra’s was roughing, so was the Mizzou hit on Murray after the interception…two steps and bam)
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I’m pretty sure Herrara blew a tackle on that too.
The guy is great at times but I think he is not smart enough to qb the D. And at this point that is a Grantham problem. He needs to know what to expect out if his players.
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Herrera cut inside of an attempted block and the QB went outside of it. Which meant that, because Herrera forced him outside, there was more of a chance he would get the first down. If Herrera had used a better angle on that play and made sure the QB stayed inside, he likely would have been tackled by someone else before getting the first down.
Frankly, it is typical of the kind of poor decision our defense makes on almost every play.
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Hell, Grantham isn’t smart enough to QB the defense…why expect more of Herrera? (Just being a wiseass, CTG…it’s never easy is it?)
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The 3rd and 6 pop warner QB off tackle play that everybody saw coming reminded me of the Crompton bootleg that was ultimately the nail in the coffin for Willie Two Thumbs.
Our defense is awful.
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I actually didn’t see the roughing the passer. I was watching us make a great play on the receiver. I will say this, that took a lot of wind out of our sails. It seemed like when we did finally make a play, something happened and they still got a first down. How many tackles did we miss, a hundred??? And don’t even get me started on that WR pass for a td. Anyways, we are 6 games in and I don’t know how good Mizzou really is, but I also don’t know how good we are either…Aaron cannot shoulder the burden to win every game.
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hard to believe the sec is that young, but in 2011 only 1 DB recruited. Thats haunts CMR now. Thanks R. Gardner. 3rd conversions are an issue because they have had so many that are long. But where are the LBs this year. Turnovers. Young & inexperienced & not fully confident…played some very good Os.
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Turnovers not there due to youth and experience. They are not playing with speed, that is due to youth and experience. They are close but it looks on so long. Am returned to form today due to injuries and Mizzou D LBs could drop back more into the zone, making it tight. plus their D line pressure.
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So, here’s my biggest question after this debacle. How does Missouri consistently get turnovers? Is there something they’re doing that causes them? I didn’t get (thankfully?) to see the game, and it sounded like the interceptions were poorly thrown balls, but what about the fumbles? If there’s a method for getting them why aren’t we?
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It’s called a nasty pass rush.
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Lack of outside run game and deep threat kept LB with more cushion in coverage re zone. Plus Mizzou D is solid. Like to see OC put a FB off the O line or put a man in motion to move the LBs due to WR and TB injuries. Mizzou put the H or FB out and it caused our LBs to suffer. Think we have LB issyues re speed and strength.
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Speed kills. And on D they seem a tad slow on some plays due to lack of game experience. Plus there in no leader or play maker on D at present. Need some guy to do that. Be good to get Norman and Matthews back.Do not think anybody on
d leave early for NFL.
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I’m assuming we have to be close to last in the country in turnovers forced and having third and longs converted against us. How is it possible that we have only one INT this year? You’d think a ball would have stuck in a defender’s facemask for one by now.
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Stuck in the facemask! I like the imagery and nominate Swain for the honor.
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Missouri will lose to the Gators, Cocks, and Aggies, guaranteed. We need to get Gurley back, Mitchell and Mathews, and we can still win an SEC championship. That would make it worthwhile for Murray.
But to do that, Grantham has got to distill whatever we were doing in the third quarter. It seems he abandoned the “bend don’t break” philosophy and played shut down smash mouth junkyard D. Problem is, he only plays with guts and fire like that when they absolutely have to, and by then, it’s typically too late. Does it take Lady Luck decimating your offense to motivate you?
This is a fundamental problem we’ve seen under Richt’s teams on both sides of the ball, coming out flat, playing down to opponents. Is he just too nice a guy to just beat the fucking hell out of everybody? You’ve got to expect perfection if you ever want to achieve it. You’ve got to treat every snap like the national title depends on it, not just the ones where it’s obviously slipping away.
I think this is the first Richt offense that has played up to expectations, and that’s what’s most heart breaking. Damn they were almost unstoppable, pundits declared them the best in the country. A dream season, but it wasn’t meant to be. Ole Lady Luck looked down on Rocky Top, shook her head side to side, and walked away.
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Missouri is in 1st place in the East. We have to pin our division hopes on us winning out and them losing twice. Not at all a good position to be in. It’s not impossible for us to make it back to the ATL. Just nearly impossible.
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Actually, if you look at the projected pointspreads, all Georgia needs is for the favorite to win every game, and Georgia will win the East. That is not likely to happen, to be honest, but it is certainly better than needing to count on an upset to get to where you need to get.
That assumes this performance will not drop us to being an underdog against Florida. Coming into this week we were projected to be 3′ favorites.
Speaking of Mizzou, specifically, they are likely to be underdogs in 4 of their 5 remaining SEC games (home to UF, USC, A&M, and away to Ole Miss). I still see South Carolina and Florida as considerably more likely than Mizzou to win the East.
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^^Word. Particularly now that Mizzou has lost Franklin for the season.
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Wouldn’t it be a three way tie between us, Mizzou, and the Chickens? Not sure how that works out. We’d have the tiebreaker over the chickens and Mizzou over us…
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Mizzou lost Franklin. SC and FL can play defense. That’s two. Even if Franklin’s back for A&M, Johnny Football will run circles around them.
Much more worried about Gurley and beating Vandy, FL, and Auburn, than MO losing two.
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Is this SERIOUSLY what it has come to?
In a year where we have a QB setting almost every SEC passing record, we have to hope for MISSOURI to lose a bunch of games to help us out?
Disgusting.
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+1 … I’m on board with rejecting the outside help; yet we must accept now just the same.
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I get that the D is young, but you know what? Fla, Bama, SC, LSU…all have 1 thing in common, their D stays constant from year to year. I mean damn, 28 pts in the first half was why we lost. Apparently the D thought they could play for 1 full quarter and get a win. Also Murray’s pick was bad, but I know it was simply because the OL could not handle the pass rush.
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Our D is young. WHY? Apparently Grantham couldn’t recruit the first three years. Thats a coaching problem. This is his D. Young is not an excuse.
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That was sarcastic about the INT, yes?
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Gamecock fan here, our d has been awful this year, and the main reason we have almost dropped every game except yesterday.
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“Young” is the fault of the coaches. So that’s no excuse.
This is what. 8 or 9 years in a row of defense ranging from meh to absolute horror show?
When Murray feels like he has to win it all you can always count on him to force some picks. That’s his nature. I still love him.
We have a non-existent S&C program.
Our coaching program is not a meritocracy. You have your job for life. Its like the federal government.
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+1000
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Young is a legitimate problem, everybody deals with it, not all are equally effected by it of course, the real indictment of Grantham is what he did last year with all that NFL talent, we should have been completely dominant on defense last year and we were far from it. Again the youth is a legit issue, but in this case it’s not an excuse, this is game 6, and our defense is still worst case scenario, that, like last year, is coaching.
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I was one of those who thought that it couldn’t really be worse than last year’s mediocrity. Sadly, I was vewy, vewy wong.
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I read a post, maybe another site, that a former college trainer said that frequent non-contact ACL tears are indicative of bad training/tightness/muscle development in certain spots. Everyone else seems to think its bad luck. Bennett last year. 26 and JSW this year. Any chance our “old school” guy will even consider the possibility? Yea…
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Despite the gushing of Brian Griese and his buddy in the booth, we lost to a mediocre football team today. Yeah, I get that they have some decent WRs, but it’s not like our secondary hasn’t made virtually every WR we’ve played look like AJ Green combined with Calvin Johnson. The only WR they had that we even would have recruited was Green-Beckham and he went to Mizzou b/c they were lucky enough for him to be from the state. Their QB was horrible last year and we of course make him look like a Heisman candidate, and then proceed to do the same for his backup.
Yeah, I get that stupid f-ing turnovers put the D in bad positions, but regardless, when is this team going to actually make a stop on 3rd down when it counts. Oh wait they did have one but Herrera decided to take a dumb penalty. How can this defense not LUCK into more than a single pick all year? How can any level QB complete a third and long pass against it like it’s nothing?
I couldn’t even name Mizzou’s DC but I can tell you he did a better job than Grantham today. Hell, as someone said above North Texas’ DC did a better job and even Willie and Jancek gave him a run for his money last week. I actually was worried every time they made a decent play on second down to hold Mizzou to third and long because I figured we’d give it up. Hell, everyone in the stadium knew the backup QB was gonna run and we couldn’t stop him.
This crap is just pathetic and who has the over/under on how many more years Richt gives Grantham based on how long it took him to get rid of Willie? I’m now willing to eat my words from the past on Bobo. If Grantham was half as competent as Bobo we’d have won today. Are we ever going to win the SEC again when mediocre teams like Mizzou pass us by? Let alone a national championship. I guess Greg and Mark and co. are happy as long as the money keeps pouring in.
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I’m sure we’ll win just enough games to get invited to a non BCS Florida bowl to play another boring Big 10 team that none of our fans or really any fans care about watching. And that will be held up as a success and proof that we should stay the course.
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Scottdavid329 is right on the money. I’m sick of it.
Honestly, I’d rather suffer through a few losing seasons if it meant we’d right the ship.
This death of a thousand cuts crap is painful.
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Watching Damian Swann should be proof enough. He is entering Reggie Ball-sequel regression at this point.
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*Reggie Ball-esque.
My bad
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Sad thing is I thought he played decently last year and would be one of the bright spots in the young secondary. Boy was I wrong. Regression might not even be strong enough, maybe implosion?
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Lots of small things contributed to the loss, which is true in any game. The macro trends are unchanged: The defense is bad (let’s stop with “not good” and call it what it is…), the special teams are a liability and the offense can only make up for all of that when it’s at full strength.
This is our reality for the rest of the year. I hope we can get healthy enough to win some more games with our offense. If not, it could be a rough fall.
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Agree. But I’d argue that the D didn’t impact this game more than any other. Had we been healthy and not thrown to guys who run wrong routes and drop balls, no one mentions the D in a 10 point win. If our O is full strength, we crush them going away. We hadn’t needed the defense so far, and this game was no different. Going in we knew we had to score 40+, but the injuries kept it from happening.
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Did anyone else notice how Mizzous safeties were literally daring AM to throw deep over the middle? I swear they were 8-10 yds off the ball on most if not all plays. Injuries at WR absolutely KILLED us today bc the plays were there.
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If there’s one bright spot tonight it’s watching the genius take his last breaths in Provo.
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But with this defense, the Genius might just save his job this Thanksgiving.
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We absolutely lost because we did not have our 5 offensive stars today. That’s it. Period.
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I agree. If we’d had Gurley, Marshall, Scott-Wesley, etc., we would have won. We actually did a lot on offense with a guy who was probably never supposed to be more than a change of pace back-up and a last minute flip from Tech at tailback,along with Conley, Wooten, and some some walk-ons at receiver.
Yes, we should definitely expect more from the defense, and they hurt us throughout the game, but to imply that we didn’t win because of the defense and not because of the injuries on offense seems a bit “either-or”, Because I think you might then have to say that we also won our prior games because of our defense, and not because of Gurley, Marshall, and Murray with his bevy of receivers. And that is just not accurate.
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I agree too. But the bottom line is that one unit was carrying very poor play by the other two units. The offense played well enough to win the game today too–454 yards. 26 points isn’t the greatest, but considering the personnel on the field? Put it this way: we played scout-teamers and fourth-stringers and got 454 yards and 26 points.
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Definitely. We needed the defense to step up – and they didn’t … repeatedly.
But, for all the yardage we had, we needed to put the ball in the end-zone on our red-zone possessions. Maybe Gurley or Marshall would also have fumbled where Douglas did – but having an experienced, SEC-tested, and much-more talented tailback puts you in a better position to make those scores and not make a mistake. And having more talented, tested options at receiver would have given us a better chance to score the TD in the 3rd quarter – but instead we had to settle for the field goal.
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Yes. That’s why we didn’t win, largely, despite the crappy defense. The defense played lawfully, as they always do, but the offense could only be decent, not amazing.
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“awfully”
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Missing the offensive players sucked, don’t get me wrong. But as I said above, these are Grantham’s guys, running his system. If they are all young that’s on him for not recruiting better. And Swann is one of the worst and he’s not young. Every DC we have been up against this year including the North Texas one and even Willie and Jancek have basically pantsed Grantham. The O couldn’t bail him out this time and we see what happened.
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I just remember thinking last year with all that talent and the completely average output…we couldn’t possibly be worse this year. Goddamn I was way off the mark with that thought.
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