The only question I had before reading Bill Connelly’s list of the top ten games from last season was in what order Georgia’s last two games would fall at the top two spots. (IMO, Bill got the order right.)
The ride was great, even if the ultimate destination was never reached.
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 
Read this earlier and thought the same thing. It was an imperfect team of course, but one I have been waiting for for more years than I will remember.
I am grateful.
LikeLike
Eh, it was a great season to me, and one I’ll remember for a looooong time. Winning at Notre Dame to start the season and then winning the Rose Bowl in such amazing fashion guarantees this season a place at the top of my memories. And I was on the field in Nawlins when we beat ND for our last NC.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I enjoyed that (didn’t pay much attention to #2) but I enjoyed that.
LikeLike
I thought it was odd that #2 was not listed.
LikeLike
It wasn’t the non-gamble that hurt Oklahoma. It was having their field goal blocked and allowing a TD that hurt them. They did exactly what you should do in the first overtime unless you think you aren’t as good as the other team. You don’t put the outcome on a single play. Just ask Kentucky.
LikeLike
This also assumes you trust your kicker, which Oklahoma certainly did from within 40 yards.
LikeLike
I’m not sure I remember where they were exactly in that first OT, but is was NOT close to the goal line at all right ? So, yeah, I completely agree that their line of thinking in this analysis is bunk…….I don’t think you take the gamble of immediate defeat just to keep the possibility of a TD scoring drive alive.
As I understand it, even teams that feel like they’re lucky to just be hanging around and need to take a shot usually only do so when it’s from apx the 2 yard line or closer (basically your best 2pt play). It’s fine to take a game will end here gamble (us or you) but I don’t think you should ever gamble on a play where the only one who truly risks losing on the outcome is your team (and a medium range TD pass from 4th and 1 outside like the 7 yard line is not a play where the odds are in your favor. There’s only so many Tua’s).
LikeLike
Didn’t need a TD, just one yard for a first down. I’d say it was 50/50 if they’d run Anderson there. Still, I think they made the correct call.
LikeLike
I just watched the Coaches’ Film Room broadcast of the Rose Bowl, and they all noted that Anderson just wasn’t the same after that play where he was injured. I think that may have loomed large in the decision.
LikeLike
I understand. But they started their possession with 3 to tie, 6 to win and losing with no score. When you’re down to your last play, I think it’s stupid to pass on the tie (assuming a made FG) to merely CONVERT a first down…….as opposed to the team that is 100% slinging it in to the endzone believing they have a shot to win it. The only time I risk giving up the game on a single play is when I’m totally screwed and out of FG range or think I am in a very good position for a TD scoring play.
Does this make sense ?
LikeLike
Not to me. But most people would agree with you. I would avoid overtime at all costs..and go for two on the tying TD if I had the opportunity. Sooner or later it comes down to having to make that one play. What better chance than going for two in regulation? At the very least you line up and try to draw the defense off sides…if you get a 5 yarder against you for movement, delay of game, etc., you go ahead and kick the point and go to OT.
I would also go for two on every score (in regulation..not OT) in a shoot out. You only have to make half of them to break even and if you make two out of three you’re a point up. Also in a shoot out, I wouldn’t punt or kick a FG on fourth and short…the closer in you are the more “short” can be. Again, if you go on to get the TD half the time, you’re points ahead. Plus you’re wearing down that defense.
This is why I’m not a coach, BTW.
LikeLike
“I wouldn’t punt or kick a FG on fourth and short…the closer in you are the more “short” can be”
The stats guys are with you on this one. Often a total head scratcher to me…do you prefer your chances on 4th and 1 now or trying to move the ball 60 yards in 2 minutes later?
How many times do we see teams down by one or two scores late in the 4th vs how the number of times we see them go for it on 4th down?
LikeLike
I said it in another thread, but 2017 was the best season of my Georgia fandom. I wasn’t old enough to really understand Nebraska’s run in the 1990s (I moved South in 1996) so this was the first time I got to see a national title run and understand how big it is.
It sucks so hard to see us come THAT close and not win, but I try very hard to make sure I don’t harp on the end result and not enjoy the journey that led to that end.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And part of our bucket list was actually being in “The Show.” When we were longing to just be in the convo while all of our rivals around us were the talk of the town, I don’t think anybody was dismissing 2013 Auburn’s ultimate title game defeat as something we were not envious of. At least that was my line of thinking—to our chagrin, we resided in Tampa/Orlando in January while a team we always seemed to whip now had a SECOND appearance in The Show.
LikeLike
2017 was a damn good season. After winning the SEC, anything else was just gravy. I know some people said we didn’t make it to the destination. I disagree … the national championship would have been nice, but I love that SEC championship trophy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
^^This. The Georgia Bulldogs won the SEC Championship! That to me is the definition of a successful season. I hope we never get to the point where if the team doesn’t win a nattie we think that year is a failure–like Bama fans.
LikeLike
Bingo! Dead on, Mayor.
LikeLike
Amen. That last game really hurt because we had a strong grasp on it and made a serious mistake in putting it back into play. We never trailed until the final play was over, and just let it slip away. But it will not not spoil the thrill of such a magnificent season. Those are rare opportunities so we will have to live with what could have been. I take solace that our warriors did nothing to diminish themselves and have nothing to be ashamed of. And they have set the table for the players coming back, many of them will get another shot. Now let’s take sole possession of 2nd place in SEC titles with our 14th!
LikeLike
“But it will not spoil the thrill of such a magnificent season.”
I feel the same Mac. It’s funny that so many of our enemy fans are talking like we are all crushed, like our hearts are ripped out. Friends keep trying to console me. I hated losing to Bama, but it doesn’t take away from an awesome season. I’m happy 🙂
LikeLike
I have to say that I will never forget the Rose Bowl. By far the best Georgia game I’ve ever witnessed in my 43 years on this earth and the pure joy and happiness we all had in my house after that Michel touchdown was beyond description. It was the most pure moment of joy I’ve ever experienced aside from the birth of my three daughters. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt…I was so happy I could’ve made love to a Tech fan.
The next week, though…so it goes. It was a great game, still, but I have to say that, nearly two weeks later, it still hurts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amen. I’ll never forget the absolute joy in the Rose Bowl stands when Sony scored. And that’s why we still make the effort to go to games. Damn good season.
LikeLike
What a season it was. I’m pretty sure UGA played more football than any college football team in history. 15 games plus 3 OT’s in the playoff. Excellent t for one play, I wouldn’t change anything.
LikeLike
Gee, that’s almost as cool as when I slammed my hand in a car door, a metal, steel door.
LikeLike
This Georgia team had more grit than any I have seen in my lifetime except perhaps 1980 and should have won it all but for the incompetent Refs( cough, cough) in the Championship game.
LikeLike
… and a blown coverage and not running the ball three straight plays to kick the FG/ Fromm not forcing the ball right after we get the INT on Tua.
LikeLike
Agree, Sanford222view. The refs were awful. Just atrocious. And our boys fought through it and hung tough. But we couldn’t overcome one huge mistake at the worst possible time.
So in the end, it wasn’t the refs that beat us, imo. But having said that, the thing that really eats at me about the refs is this:
When we played Auburn at their place, we lost our composure several times and it led to our unraveling. Late hits, hits out of bounds, false starts, etc., and these were all correctly diagnosed by the SEC crew. They hurt us and we didn’t recover as we all know.
So Alabama lost their composure more than once, and…it didn’t fucking matter. The Big 10 crew just looked the other way and let Bama keep playing the way they wanted to play.
I think this had SOME impact on the game, just as the correct calls had SOME impact on the Dawgs in Auburn.
But we didn’t overcome that aforementioned blown coverage. And it sucks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
From Matt Hayes: Still can’t get over this: Alabama last night:
Benched starting QB
Played freshman QB
Missed 2 FG
Had player collapse on sidelines
Had player fight coach on sidelines
Down 13 twice
Had a 2nd and 26 in OT
And still won another national title.
Hayes does not mention the loss of a starting offensive lineman and a starting linebacker.
Its like Dan Devine said…if you are bitching about the officiating or looking at stats, you lost.
Bama knows how to win this kind of a game….hell they lost one last year…we did not then…maybe we do now.
If I can still walk, Next Year in Jerusalem, Bitchez.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That about sums it up.
And, hell, even if the refs had called it a little more even, there’s a decent chance Bama would have still won. In other words, I’m gonna go ahead and keep on bitching, lol.
LikeLike
One call. If they get one call right, we win. The offsides on the blocked punt!
LikeLike
I guess I like hurting myself but i had to hear the the calls for #2 again. I don’t know what is better the Deportes call or the hilarity of the Russian call. That is something out of a Simpson’s episode.
Also of note, the irony in the Coaches’ Film Room call where someone says right before the play,” this could end be the end of the National Championship right here.” I think he was referring to the end of Bama’s chances then low and behold the unthinkable happens and he is correct but for the opposite side.
LikeLike
You’re right. Right before the last play, at least one of the coaches suggested that a turnover was very likely in this situation (inexperienced QB, looking to force the ball downfield against a good defense, after taking a damaging sack). I have to admit allowing the same thing cross my mind while watching from the stands between the two last plays. Vivid, and still painful memory. Began to have a bad feeling when I could see we weren’t going to send pressure on 2nd and 26.
LikeLike
DVR broke and I lost the SECCG, Rose Bowl and NC recordings. Probably can find all online, but upon reflection, I think I’d only want the SECCG as a keepsake. Rose Bowl was awesome, special, unique, etc., but so was South Bend. Not sure I ever want to watch the NC replay.
The SECCG gets a banner, a ring for the players, and is probably the t-shirt and hat I’ll go with as mementos of the 2017 season.
LikeLike
I’ve only been a Dawg since 1984, my first game was the Bulter 60 yarder against Clemson. I went to the 84 Rose Bowl when Illinois did all kinds of “firsts” in the Big 10 including beating all 9 other teams in the conference. As I sat through the first half I thought, damn, it’s happening again. UCLA just whipped our asses and I wasn’t keen on it happening to my team again. To see the determination of the Georgia team in the second half and OT was truly the highlight of my 68 years. I don’t know if that “This is as good as it gets for Georgia Fans” article it true or not, maybe not quite getting there makes it less likely but I’m so happy to be a Dawg and no amount of worrying and grumbling abut the future will take that away! Go Dawgs!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m 42, born and raised Dawg. The ’82 Memphis State game was my first trip to Sanford, so, yeah, I saw Herschel. The jubilation in my house after Lastinger scored the go-ahead touchdown against Texas in the ’84 Cotton literally brought down a chandelier in the dining room.
There is nothing in my history as a Georgia fan that will ever top being in South Bend and watching Terry Godwin one-hand a TD and then seeing Lorenzo and Bellamy shut the lights out with a minute to go, only to follow that up with being 10 rows up from the goal line in the Rose Bowl as Sony Michel raced across to beat the Sooners.
And in between those two games? Historic demolitions of Florida and Tennessee AND an SEC Championship? Are you kidding me?
To hell with that NC. I can die right now.
LikeLike
Damn. It still hurts. When does it go away? 2012 sucked, but this feels like death. I still refuse to watch replays of the last game. Been a Dawg fan my entire life, but never had a gut punch like that TD pass in OT. But damn….what a ride it was!!!!
LikeLike
I went to the 2012 SECCG and never watched the last drive on replay until this year. It took getting to the Playoff final — and for everyone on that field for UGA being gone — for me to be okay watching it. So, perhaps in 2022 or 2023 (God willing I still am on this planet), I’ll watch the final game from this year.
LikeLike
I guess I’m old-school, hopelessly so, but I can’t understand yet how a player from Alabama gets flagged for punching a Georgia player, goes after a coach on the sideline, then gets back in the game and is lionized for a clothesline tackle that should also have been flagged. Then Saban acts like he just didn’t notice the player’s meltdown.
LikeLike
When I think of 2012 SEC game now, it’s with fondness of Aaron Murray, Todd Gurley, Alec Ogletree and Chris Conley. They were DGDs.
And now this group. The pain of the NC loss is surpassed by my fondness of this seasons team. Won and lost with class. Couldn’t be prouder.
LikeLike