Fortunately, Seth Emerson watched the replay so I don’t have to. I guess that’s the downside to doing this for a living.
I don’t think anything he writes comes as a particular surprise, but it’s worth highlighting his conclusion.
It’s important for people not to overreact to this and forget how dominant Georgia was in the first nine games. But it’s also important not to under-react. Georgia was not beaten by a series of fluke plays and bad breaks that went the wrong direction. It was outgained (480-230), outschemed and outclassed.
This was too much like last year. The offensive line and play calling concerns were back. There were critical special teams errors. The passing game hasn’t stepped up as a consistent force. The defense took a step back.
That doesn’t mean this can’t all just be a one-off. Georgia’s hopes and main goal are still out there. The Bulldogs will have a chance in less than three weeks to avenge this on a neutral site or to beat an Alabama team that looks beatable. But this performance gives you pause on whether Georgia could actually pull it off.
The one upshot for the Bulldogs: Maybe the role of the hunted didn’t suit them. Now they can definitely go back to being the hunters.
As I posted yesterday, it’s too soon to start drawing conclusions from a very disappointing outcome. We do know for certain that the Dawgs played like crap against Auburn. We don’t know yet whether that means the nine wins before last weekend were a mirage. That’s what the next three games are for.
Get The Picture 
I was thrilled after the first drive. I was thinking, “YES! This is exactly what they have to do.”
It was awesome how they let Fromm throw and then threw in the trickery on the last play for the Chubb TD.
What happened after that? Were we scared? Or what?
Bleah.
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The right side of the line had a very awful day. That’s a large part of what happened.
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The Senator said it and I think it’s spot, but after 71 was abused so badly I think it spooked the coaches and we were screwed at that moment.
Having said that… how about we run some damn screen passes? That would be nice.
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Also, Auburn was jacked to the tits at home. It was very much a reversal of the 2011 or 2014 games in Athens.
Beat Kentucky. Best Tech. Do those 2 things, and to me the season is an unquestioned success. But I don’t expect either of those to be easy at all.
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AUB is totally different at home. They’re beastly at home. And I’ve been saying it all year, but look at Fromm’s home/road splits. They’re night and day different.
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LSU is the loaders stadium I’ve ever been to, but Auburn is the most miserable when things get rolling. They do a great job of keeping the energy up the whole time. It just never backs off when they get cranking.
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Auburn and LSU are both laud when they get rolling. LSU in my opinion can be the quickest to go from normal to 11.
Agreed with Bluto that we don’t know what this means nor will we know until more games unfold.
Yes they were abusing the right side of the UGA line. I question the staff’s play calling. Screens, moving the pocket, quick passes seemed to be options that weren’t explored. UGA did have some passes that the WRs should have caught and were catching in previous games. A couple of catches and remove turnover or essentially turnovers from penalties and this game is much less of a dumpster fire.
The D held respectably given the absences of help from the offense to give them a breather. Thankfully specially teams did give some field position help.
I am not sure UGA would win in the SECCG but I have some faith that it would be a better ballgame. No disrespect to Auburn they and their fans showed up ready to give #1 all they could handle and they did.
On a side not this is Auburn UGA, Last year I was saying to my friends this is the kind of game in this series the underdog wins. The roles were flipped this past Saturday. It also reminded me of ’06 in reverse.
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Georgia has won more at Auburn than Auburn has in the series. Home field had nothing to do with it imo. Both teams are always jacked for the series, the Dawgs just got their asses handed to them. The stars were not aligned, the staff did not adjust, some of the team lost fight. A team loss….thinks the coaching staff was tighter than the players. I hope it was all an anomaly, we adjust and learn. This team is much better than what they showed this past Saturday. This coming Saturday can’t get here soon enough for me….just a guess, but I think the Dawgs feel the same….still hope we get those bastids again.
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This AUB team is totally different at home. I don’t think AUB teams from the last few years or beyond have any impact on this one.
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Yep….and so was ours (away). Just saying that the home and home has not made a difference in the series historically. It more than likely would not have made a difference in Athens…we were just simply not ready.
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Oh I think the game is totally different in Athens. Just look at AUB against similarly talented teams on the road vs at home this year.
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The home crowd did not get us beat.
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I never said it did. It just made it easier to AUB and harder for UGA.
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“easier to AUB”….sure it does, to the tune of maybe 3 points….not 23.
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I didn’t say it did, though. It made it easier. It helped AUB. It hurt UGA. To what degree we’ll never know, but home field is a real thing. Just look at how well Fromm does at home. Players tend to play better at home and worse on the road. Not sure we’re breaking news here. Hell, look at MissSt. They were boat raced by both AUB and UGA and just took Alabama to the wire.
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And, let’s not forget, this game SHOULD have been a home game for us, as it was in odd years until we agreed to play them there twice in a row.
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UGA has won now 7 of the past 11 in Auburn if I remember the stat the WWL discussed on Gameday. It wasn’t long ago if it isn’t still the case that Auburn had a winning record in Athens.
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The coaches can’t get spooked & have the offense curl up into a ball in the middle of the field. You have to call plays to slow down the opposition DL, have a plan B & plan C. Coaches are paid to put their players in a position to be successful & our’s didn’t Saturday. They actually called plays that made our players look worse.
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Right. Which is why it looked like last year. Chaney appears to have no plan b, ever.
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Chaney runs what Kirby wants. It’s been mentioned in several places that Kirby has head phones so he can hear the play calls & voice an objection, but he doesn’t.
When you come from programs that routinely manhandled the opposition you don’t know you can’t have a plan A only. Once again we have OJT for our head coach.
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When Kirby is saying “what the hell was that?” on a playcall near the end of the half…nah, I don’t think he has full control (I think he’s mainly managing, to be honest with you).
Sure seemed like it wasn’t his decision there.
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He admitted on nat’l tv they were playing for the FG, so that would imply he had given some type of instruction to keep the ball at least where it was spotted. Maybe his reaction was to the actual execution of the play.
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Exactly…..and probably would not be any different with ….let’s say a Bobo. Unless there was an agreement beforehand. Smart strikes me as too autocratic for that (empower), I hope I am wrong.
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Last week was as much a coaching failure as it was anything else, specifically on offense. I’m less concerned with that moving forward because I think you can easily correct playcalling. What concerns me is the defense was beaten down and I don’t know how you fix your DL getting its ass kicked.
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Pardon my language, Parrish, but you keep your fucking offense on the field for longer than 3 plays.
Apologies, this one stings. I hate Auburn.
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That explains the second half. But it doesn’t explain the first half. Auburn ran the ball successfully from their first possession.
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Yes, the DL got its ass kicked but the OL got its ass kicked just as badly. That and calling the same plays on O repeatedly that had already failed time and again wasn’t exactly conducive to making first downs.
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Exactly. Run,run, 3rd and 8, pass. How many times did that happen after the first drive? Even if there was a first down, it didn’t change what I would call a “Cadence” because it is as predictable as left right left.
I have to say, I was warming up to Cheney but this one looked a lot like last year.
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We ran one jet sweep for eight yards… never tried it again. We still have not run a bootleg the entire year and any reverse is just not imaginable. Misdirection plays seem to be taboo. The toss sweep is our trick play… but we don’t run it.
Kirby claims that we have to be able to run the ball or we will become one dimensional. Looking at the stats we have run the ball appx 450 times and thrown appx 200 times this year. Not exactly balance there.
Meanwhile just south of Mar-a logo cmr sits at #2 with a run pass ratio of 1:1 and evil Richt is getting ready to play for a natty. Yeah we are 9-1 but we have played nobody except the team that held us to under 50 yards rushing. Why in the world anyone would want a rematch in Atlanta with the same guy up in the box calling the plays is beyond me.
I keep thinking back to Kirby’s quote after the Vanderbilt game when he was asked why we didn’t throw the ball more. His response was that he had “too much respect for the opposing coaches”. I also think back to the Florida game when Gary Danielson remarked on a third and long play in the second half asking… “does Kirby run it or take this opportunity to work on his passing game because at some point this year Georgia is going to need to throw it……. well that answers that”.
Yeah it’s great to be a Georgia Bulldawg and Auburn is a cess pool… but really…… I think we just ran it up the middle again.
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IMO, Fromm could have stepped up and avoided that sack…..at least that’s how the coaches could sell it to Andrew Thomas.
I think we play Auburn again. And I think we need an entire game plan around neutralizing what will be over-aggressiveness on their part. We need to run trap blocks and draw plays. Let those DEs curl around Thomas like they did last night and then put it in Chubb’s belly.
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The return of the sprint draw!!
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I was hoping to see some commentary on this. I want to preface this comment by stating that I was well into the bourbon by the 2nd half and my memory could certainly be clouded; but it was the constant attempt to run out of the shotgun/RPO set that I found baffling. Perhaps there was more power-I that I’m able to recall, but it seemed that if we were really going to give up on the pass, we should have done more under-center, and have the RB’s closer to the hole, and hitting them with more power.
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I just hope they got it all out of their system for the rest of the season.
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Where was the swagger on Saturday? Was a team playing this well too humble, waiting on its comeuppance? It sure acted like it.
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Crazy as it sounds, Bama is a better matchup for us. AUB is humming with a loaded OL and DL and I don’t think Bama has either. I expect to see AUB in three weeks, though.
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And as much as I think we’d get a bigger bounce in the playoff picture from beating Bama, I’d love to not have to wait til next season for redemption for the AU game. I’d like to think this group of seniors would feel the same way.
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I think AUB matches up very well with us. And I’m not sure emotion will make up for that gap, though AUB is a much different team at home for sure.
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True. But wouldn’t it nice to see how this team stacks up when the coaches coach and the players play the way they did the first 9 games?
I can take a loss if we look competitive. But that was a bed shitting that is an insult to bed shittings.
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Bama’s DL is pretty good, but they have an issue at the moment and it’s all of their starting linebackers are out. That can be taken advantage of, especially by using the RBs in the pass, but would Chaney even do it? Their deep coverage is also not all that great, similar to 2012 Alabama.
I’m not sure it’s even them, to be honest now at this point. That LB corps thing is going to get them eventually, and against a good running and misdirection team, it seems like they’d be ripe to get picked off then.
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Yup. I would be legitimately surprised if Bama beat AUB.
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Well I hope Bama beats Auburn because I think Georgia has a better chance of beating Bama in the SECCG than the Barners.
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I agree, as crazy as that sounds. AUB does things offensively that Bama can’t do.
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I don’t know about a mirage, but we are way ahead of schedule in rebuilding and recruiting for the future. Did anyone really think this was a championship season in August? Anyone see two weeks of #1 in the CFP rankings? If you did, you were delusional. 10-2 was probably the mean if you polled us here with 11-1 or 9-3 as likely. I have no explanation for 9-0 or the Auburn fiasco and I will judge my satisfaction on the growth of the team at years end. Kirby nor this team are ready for prime time.
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I don’t think most of us felt this was a championship team in August or even October. But we did think this was a disciplined team capable of competing at a high level. We also thought we had a legitimate defense that could match up well with pretty much anybody. Not to mention we believed our coaching staff was finally hitting their stride. We were rudely disabused of all those thoughts this past weekend.
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Agree.
And now for the cliches: Some folks need to step back from that ledge. Still a lot of football to be played. Let’s hope adversity builds character. It’s rare for a team to dominate for an entire season.
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Those may be cliches but they are true statements.
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I didn’t expect a #1 ranking. But I did expect the team to remember to get off the bus in a rivalry game. Winning the East is great. But it helps that both UT and FU have fired their coaches mid-season. The question of whether Kirby could compete in the East has been partially answered by the dumpster fires of the historical powers. The question of whether he can compete in the West remains unanswered.
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” The passing game hasn’t stepped up as a consistent force.”
Wul ya know, like maybe, try some passes..? That give up call on 2nd & 17 then 3rd & 15 – two runs up the gut – early in the game was extremely frustrating.
Still want to see us beat everyone in the East for the first time with Kentucky ( I think that’s correct..?) and beat tech so you go 3-1 against the main 4. Just be competitive against bammer or whoever in the SECCG. And then go on to play Miami (a very Georgia scenario) in a bowl game and it’s still a successful if not very successful season for me.
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Not if Miami kicks ours collective asses.
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Now wouldn’t that be something. I was thinking the same thing. Evil Richt shows up to put the stones to his ex-boss?
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28 points…to Missouri.
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are you saying our defense stinks?
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I’m saying rat poison has some interesting side effects.
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You are correct. This team was not expected by most to compete for the SEC championship or playoffs. Go back to July and August comments in GTP and I bet 9 out of 10 wanted 10 wins and an SEC East title. After Saturday that will be done. Personally Tech has to be one of the 10 so we still have to take care that. Let’s see what happens on December 2. I bet the Dawgs show up. After the past few seasons, I’m enjoying the hell out of this one.
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Supposed to be posted under “sniffer” above at 8:29. My bad.
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that goes back to the heart vs head post by senator. Looking at this team pre-season, there was no reason to expect anything other than 11-1, with an outside shot to win the SEC outright.
The biggest frustration I had saturday was watching a team that performed on par with 2016. We did none of the things that I’ve seen other teams do to slow down the rush. Other than the flea flicker, we seemed to go straight vanilla all night.
My fear all season has been that we would have no answer should a team have the talent and effort to stop our run game. That no answer included coaching and Fromm.
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No doubt Saturday night was ugly and a step back. Still IF Fromm and Ridley connect, IF Blankenship makes the field goal, IF we don’t have the leaping penalty, IF we don’t don’t tip off the flea flicker…it’s a much closer game. Lots of IFs I know, but we had no business being the number 1 team and we are not as bad a team as we showed Saturday night. I hope we get Auburn again December 2 and I bet the players and coaches do too.
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never as good nor as bad as we look on any given day, certainly.
That said, our talent says we are an 11 win team this year, at worst.
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Just wait to see what happens. If things go to shit, then Smart has to think what or whom is causing the collapse and rectify the situation….the mark of a good coach. Don’t and he won’t get the soft glove treatment Coach Mediocrity got the last four seasons. Smart better live up to his name or he will end up like sharkhumper and Booch.
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The same coach Mediocrity who had his team prepared for the biggest game of their season, beat the snot out of Notre Dame and currently sits at number two in the nation? That coach Mediocrity? Smart is our guy now and that’s great. We’re all in. That doesn’t mean everybody else is crap.
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Coach Mediocrity will fold before it’s all over. Even if he does make it into the playoffs, he’ll be out in the first round, just like U-Dub last year. If he doesn’t, McGarity can hire him in two years. Satisfied, Fan Clubber?
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I didn’t realize making the playoffs was small beer now.
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Depends on how far one goes. Does anyone remember who finished second 4 years ago?
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If you are talking about the first year of the 4 team playoff, 2014, it was Oregon. If you mean the last year of the BCS, 2013, it was Auburn (which is actually 4 years ago). I think a lot of people remember both.
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Seriously, man, I get that you don’t like Richt, but this is trying too hard.
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Meh, if Coach Mediocrity managed to win the playoffs, I’m sure it would be by some weakass score.
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He’ll have backed into the Championship, weak competition and all.
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In order to get into the playoff as a practical matter Miami will have to beat Clemson in the ACCCG and be ACC Champion. I didn’t realize that was small beer either.
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We’re now preemptively dawgrading Miami.
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Whatever makes you guys happy. If Richt makes it to the playoffs fine; if he doesn’t fine. I don’t give a damn what he accomplishes at Miami. It’s what he did not do at UGA while being paid 4 mil a year that chaps my ass. If Saban had been in the league in 2000, Richt would never have won 2 SECCGames. You guys know it.
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Methinks thou doth protest too much, No Axe To Grind.
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My recollection is that Saban was HC for LSU when CMR and the Dawgs beat them in the SECCG once. Am I wrong?
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Nope. Miles was.
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I’m sure as hell glad we don’t play Miami this weekend.
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… Saban was in the league at LSU from 2000-2004.
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How many years did he get paid $4 mil? He was underpaid for years and only got a raise because the media made fun of the AA. Another thing that I was embarrassed about as an alum.
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@NATG, Looks to me like CMR can do just fine if his AD supports him. My comments fucking around with Derek prior to the game Saturday aside, I was one of those who thought CMR needed to go. Unless I choose not to believe my lying eyes, the UGA AD/AA is likely the reason CMR had no more success here than he did. If they pulled the strings then hung him out to dry, they deserve whatever they get if he brings his team to town. It’s scary thinking that Karma may be on here way to a bowl game to stick a size 14 boondocker heel deep in Greg McGarity’s ass.
Hoo boy. Fun times.
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Her. On her way.
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I think it was a two-way street. Richt hung on to Martinez too long. Richt undersigned at a time when the most successful programs were oversigning. The 2013 class was a black swan that I don’t really blame Richt for, but it was made worse by his earlier roster management mistakes.
On the other hand, I can’t get behind the movement to blame Richt for failing to publicly shame B-M to support the football program like other SEC schools. The job of McGarity and everybody else at B-M is to support athletics. The notion that they should only do as much as a head coach is willing to pitch a public hissy fit to get is foolish. Whatever McGarity was willing to grant Kirby, he should have been willing to grant Richt.
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Home field advantage is a thing, even moreso when the visiting team has freshmen playing critical positions (Thomas, Fromm, Walker). Add to that a coaching staff with no answers and several upper-class leaders losing composure (Michel, Zo, Davis), and the Dawgs got rocked.
This was, and will be, UGA’s only game played in a hostile environment. That alone gives me hope.
On the other hand, the pressure of the SECCG (and playoffs, should we make it) will be sky-high with or without a hostile crowd. Even Hurts at Bama went into the tank, and it ultimately cost them. And we don’t have the supporting cast, coaching, or other benefits of being Bama.
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Playing in a weak SEC east hurts Georgia. There is 1 and only 1 team worth a damn in the east and that is Georgia. South Carolina has turned out to be the bridesmaid. Maybe they will break into the top 25 with a win over the Wofford Terriers this coming weekend. Kicking SEC east teams asses does not prepare the Dawgs for games against teams with equal talent. Georgia ran into a “perfect storm” at Auburn this past weekend, a damn buzz-saw running at full throttle. The last time Jordan Hare Stadium had that kind of intensity was 2013 vs Alabama. Now that the Bulldogs have experienced it, things could very well turn out differently in Atlanta if Auburn is the team form the west. I would not doubt it one bit. This was my 46th Georgia-Auburn game, my first was a 10 year old at the 1971 game. I missed only the 2004 game when my son was born the day before. Saturday was an anomaly. This game is, for the most part, pretty damn close and competitive. I expect it will be again if my Auburn Tigers make it back to Atlanta.
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I hope the Iron Bowl has multiple overtime periods and the winner is emotionally and physically spent. I also hope the winner is ranked ahead of Georgia. If Auburn wins all the better. It will be very easy for the coaches and players to focus and we won’t be subjected to all the Smart vs Saban crap. Good luck against Bama.
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Let me throw this out there. College football is an emotional game played by kids 18-22 years old. How many times have we seen a team come out and beat the pants off of another team (usually a conference rival or state rival. A team they are familiar with) and then completely shit the bed the next week? Case in point: UGA vs LSU ‘04. LSU had beaten us twice the year before (once in Baton Rouge ina great defensive game) and then beat us down pretty badly in the SECCG so it was a “revenge game” for sure. LSU ran into a buzz saw that day in Sanford and not unlike our kids on Saturday committed a lot of stupid penalties and unforced errors. It was 24-0 at the end of the first quarter. They never had a chance. The next week that same team goes out and loses to an unranked UT at home that was starting a freshman at QB. That loss prevented us from playing in the SECCG for a third straight year.
That was as good as Auburn can play and that was about as bad as we have looked all year. I would love to get another shot at those assholes in the Benz. We may not beat them but I guarantee they will walk out of that building knowing they played somebody.
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I like it.
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Agree 100%
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This. Both Auburn and Miami were playing at home against a bitter rival who had the upper hand in the series. Prior to Sat, Miami had lost 4 of 5 to ND only one game being close. Both home teams (& crowds) were jacked, the visitors not so much.
We were already East champs, No 1 ranking etc. I think both UGA & ND were drinking too much koolaid, couldn’t match the energy of the opponent. Throw in bad play calling and mistakes and this is what you get.
This kind of thing happens in the NFL too. I’m in an NFL pick em pool and for the life of me can’t understand how often good teams screw up against a clearly inferior opponent.
That said I’ll put my money where my mouth is: Bama will take care of Auburn in the Iron Bowl; Clemson does the same to an undefeated Miami in the ACC championship game.
FWIW, I love CMR and thoroughly enjoyed watching the beat down they put on ND.
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Gosh, you mean its not all about stats and numbers and shit…that emotion actually plays a part in the game, even from the stands…heresy. That means the team that wants it worst might win…double heresy.
(The Kharmic Bitchez snicker among theyselfs.)
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You bet your ass that is a major factor in CFB, and it is the passion that makes it so much more exciting than the NFL. Your examples were UGA based, but head-bangers happen every Saturday to a few shocked fan bases. And why getting all worked up and beating up on your players, or coaches, for those “any given Saturday” results is just out of line. If they haven’t happened to you yet, your time is coming. Think that was the same Auburn team that struggled with Mercer, or the same Bama team that trounced everyone was the same that had to score late to beat Miss State? Hundreds, thousands of examples. Safe to say we trotted out our C, or D, game against Auburn’s A game. Not to say they aren’t good, or possible better than us day in, and day out. But I didn’t recognize those guys in Red and Black Saturday, and don’t expect to see them in Atlanta on December 2.
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Noon or 8 for GT game..won’t know until Saturday…
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Yoogly….Is this pronounced how Derrick Zoolander says eulogy?
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