I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Over at And The Valley Shook, you’ll find a review of the SEC’s options to open up a playing date for the Florida-LSU game, which was postponed (should I put that in air quotes?) this past weekend.  There’s one problem with all of them:  none can be chosen without the help of outside parties.

October 29, for example.

The bye week before the Bama game hasn’t helped LSU at all. Florida basically had a bye this week and Georgia would end up getting their bye a week later. But this involves more than just LSU and Florida — Georgia would have to agree to the move as well. Plus, the Jacksonville Jaguars are at home on October 23, which would mean there’d be two games at EverBank Field in two days. People have also made reservations for hotels and all that for the weekend of 10/29 in Jacksonville. How that would work out if the game is moved up is anyone’s guess.

And again, Georgia has to be accommodating in helping one of their biggest rivals solve a problem that has nothing to do with the Bulldogs.

All I can say is that if Greg McGarity gets it in his head to do one last favor for his old boss before Jeremy Foley steps to the side by agreeing to move the Cocktail Party after the fan base has laid in its plans for the last week of the month and keeps his job, there is little point in having an emotional connection to the Georgia program.  At least not for me.

And, yes, I have no idea how seriously this proposition is being pushed by Commissioner Sankey, if at all, but if nobody at Butts-Mehre will give it the preemptive public dismissal it deserves, I guess I’ll do my own preempting.

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UPDATE:  Groo seconds the motion.

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UPDATE #2:  Somebody sounds like he’s keeping his options open.

UGA AD Greg McGarity says moving the Georgia/Florida game off of October 29th to make room for LSU/UF is "impractical". pic.twitter.com/KWyIyYHY2G

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) October 10, 2016

What happened to “no”?

You might be a dick if…

… you call a two-point conversion play after your team’s fourth touchdown when the other team has accounted for minus-16 yards of offense.

Name that caption, football is a rough game edition

You didn’t think I could leave this alone, did you?

Bonus pic:

I’m thinking “Muschamp’s Band-Aid” has some serious meme potential.  If nothing else, he can rip it off during a game when he gets angry about something, since he doesn’t have a visor to throw.

“This is a difficult play for the umpire to get,” Shaw said.

It shouldn’t be this difficult.

It's official. OL downfield isn't getting called. Send em on go routes…..right tackle is past intended WR. pic.twitter.com/emdoBi7ABZ

— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 10, 2016

Pathetic effort, Mr. Shaw.  Gonna do some more talking, right?

Observations from the arm chair, Georgia-South Carolina edition

If you’d have told me before the game that Jacob Eason would sport a 51.39 passer rating — for comparison’s sake, consider that Georgia’s passer rating in last season’s Cocktail Party debacle was 58.63 — and that the Dawgs would again fail to convert a majority of the turnovers they forced into points, I would have predicted an ugly outcome.

Instead, Georgia won relatively comfortably, and really should have won the game handily.  So the circumstances leading to a Sunday regular season game wound up not being the weirdest part of the day.

And now, the bullet points.

• The reason the team was able to overcome Eason’s bad day was because the offensive line showed up and played what was easily its best game of the season.  South Carolina didn’t load the box as often as I expected, especially in the first half, but even when the ‘Cocks did, the line was surprisingly successful at times opening holes for Chubb, Herrien and Michel to run through.  Pass blocking, while not perfect (especially against the blitz), wasn’t bad, either.  If you want to feel some optimism about the rest of the season, this is a good place to start.
• Chubb’s very first run of the day told you that things were different.  There was blocking, sure, but more encouraging was the confidence he showed, along with the burst and power we’re used to seeing from a healthy Nick Chubb.
• Michel looked just as good, to be honest.  Chaney needs to call more plays with both of them on the field together; it’s a brutal look for defenses.
• Every week, Brian Herrien looks more and more like the biggest steal in this year’s recruiting class.
• As good as things were with the running game, they were that bad when Georgia chose to throw.  Was the wind an issue?  At times, perhaps.  Eason looked like he was steering the ball on his longer passes and had several sail on him.  It also appeared he wasn’t used to having the luxury of more time to throw; his mechanics looked awkward and inconsistent.  But he didn’t get much help at times from his receivers; even when he managed good throws, he was plagued with several drops, most notably from McKenzie in the end zone.  (Although McKenzie did come back with a fine catch for his score.)  Eason is also missing quite a few reads where he had wide open targets he failed to see.  The completion to Chubb was almost funny in that regard, as you could see Nick make a real effort to catch Eason’s eye as a safety valve.
• Defensively, the team alternated between dominating one of the SEC’s worst offenses and not being able to get out of its own way.  Carolina’s two scoring drives were lengthy and were abetted by some poor tackling on key plays.  On the other hand, the defense did produce five sacks and forced three turnovers.  They were very good on third down conversions, but not so good on fourth down conversions.  A green group trying to find its way, in other words.
• Speaking of green, this week was Tyler Clark’s time to step up and he showed some nice flashes.  Between him, Marshall and Rochester, you have to have some hope about Georgia’s defensive line taking a big step up next season.
• Helluva sack from Trent Thompson, wasn’t it?
• Malkom Parrish bounced back from a poor game against Tennessee quite nicely, with some good plays defending passes and an athletic interception which was the product of doing a great job reading the play.
• All of the linebackers had their moments.  The outside guys produced several tackles for loss and most of the sacks.  Roquan Smith was all over the place and my impression that he led the team in tackles turned out to be correct.
• Special teams didn’t cost Georgia a game this week, and I suppose that’s as much as we can ask.  Unfortunately, there’s nothing I saw to give me hope that’s an outcome that will be avoided in future games.  Long is an inconsistent punter who was bailed out by a couple of fortuitous bounces.  Nobody can block for McKenzie on punt returns.  The void at kicking field goals continues to have a clear impact on the play calling and decision making when the offense is on the opponent’s side of the field.  At least Blankenship managed to put a couple of his kickoffs in the end zone.
• As far as the coaching goes, Chaney’s run/pass mix recognized what was working and what wasn’t, although there were a couple of occasions when he might have chosen to run the ball a little bit more.  Still, part of what is on his plate as the coordinator is to develop a true freshman quarterback, so I can’t be too critical of his day.  Tucker and Smart are in a similar boat with the defense, as they change the scheme and develop talent.  The most troubling area in that regard is that defensive tackling is still too mechanically inconsistent.  Speaking of mechanics, though, Pittman deserves a shout out, as that was the soundest fundamentally the offensive line has looked all season.
• The mishandling of the clock at the end of the first half means this was not one of Kirby’s best days.  I also didn’t get the failure to challenge what appeared to me to be an interception by Mauger that was wrestled away after he was down.  Overall, though, the game was fairly well managed, in that Smart played things conservatively, given how poorly South Carolina’s defense handled Georgia’s running attack.
• Weird game from the officials, who actually called holding penalties on both offenses, let both secondaries play pretty freely, but appeared to whiff on that Mauger pick.  Also, while the overruling of the targeting penalty appeared to be correct, did anyone think the biggest factor behind that was Eason’s height?
• It’s time for Brent Musberger to be put out to pasture.

It’s a conference road win and I’m never going to downplay one of those.  While the main goal for the rest of the year is to win games and build confidence, it’s just as big a deal to develop talent for the future, even if that means short term growing pains.  The softness of the remaining schedule is certainly a benefit in that regard, but there are enough concerns, particularly with special teams being a black hole with no end in sight, to make me think there are going to be a few more close calls coming, if not worse, this season.

We run that state, too.

Detecting a theme here…

“It felt good to know we are,” Michel said. “Georgia football, we’re going to run the football.”

Chubb , who had just one carry the past two games with a left-ankle sprain, was on his game from the start. He scampered 18 yards on his first carry and ended the sequence with 15-yard TD run.

Chubb added a 1-yard touchdown as the Bulldogs moved in front 14-0. The Gamecocks (2-4, 1-4) could not keep up in losing their third straight game.

“I don’t know why you’re all so surprised,” Chubb said. “We run the ball.”

A healthy Nick Chubb sure makes a difference.

“I just saw green grass.”

So, you tell me:  is Kirby Smart going to make Terry Godwin run stadium steps for Georgia’s best special teams play of the season?  After all, “… there is a valuable lesson to learn from that.”

SEC Power Poll, Week 6

An unexpected bye week for some teams, but overall, it’s hard to see where perceptions changed a whole bunch over the weekend, with maybe an exception or two.

1. Alabama.  Nick Saban’s defense has scored seven touchdowns in six games.  Overall, South Carolina has scored nine touchdowns in six games.
2. Texas A&M.  +4 in turnover margin, your opponent has players dropping like flies and you’re still pushed to double overtime at home?  Hmmm.
3. Ole Miss.  I’m beginning to wonder if I should flip the Aggies and the Rebels here.
4. Tennessee.  The Vols showed me more in their loss than they have in their five wins.
5. LSU.  You get the feeling the Tigers are going to milk the postponement by Florida for everything they can get.
6. Auburn.  Don’t look now, but this is the SEC’s most improved team over the last three weeks.
7. Florida.  I still haven’t figured out Jeremy Foley’s angle, but, boy, if the Gators finish 6-1 in conference play…
8. Arkansas.  Exposed.  I haven’t seen a more meaningless 400 passing yards in a conference game since the 1985 Georgia-Florida game.
9. Georgia.  This is a young, talented team trying to figure out how to play.  With the East being the way it is, that may still be good enough for a nine-win regular season.
10. Mississippi State.  If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought MSU played in the SEC East.
11. Missouri.  Bet they weren’t expecting Florida to have a bye week, too.
12. Kentucky.  Back on bowl eligibility track, albeit shakily.  Pretty much need to win the next two, though.
13. South Carolina.  The ‘Cocks have yet to score three touchdowns in a game this season.
14. Vanderbilt.  With one non-conference game left on the slate, 2016 is looking like another long slog.

Fabris Pool results, Week 6

Just because there was one less game in the pick ’em doesn’t mean we can’t have a tiebreaker.

STANDINGS for WEEK 6

Rank	Selection Name	Standings Adjustment	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker Game 38-45
1	siskey	Adj	8-1	8	38-37**
1	Mr. White	Adj	8-1	8	28-31
1	tlstep	Adj	8-1	8	31-28

Congrats to siskey for pulling it out.

On to the stats for the season:

SEASON STANDINGS through Week 6

Rank	You	Selection Name	W-L	Pts
1		wilcodawg	38-21	38
2		CoastToCoast	36-23	36
3		Boomshakalaka	35-24	35
4		MeatDawg	34-25	34
4		Downtown Leroy Brown	34-25	34

Still tight.