I won’t say I got my knickers in a twist over the widespread upset meme that barreled its way through the week before the Georgia-South Carolina game — more puzzled than anything about it, given the apparent talent disparity that seemed obvious to me — but I will say that if you’re a pundit who grabbed on to that and can’t make the effort to acknowledge that you whiffed spectacularly…
The Bulldogs (2-0, 1-0 in the SEC) rocket into the bracket and up to the top spot after the most impressive win thus far this season — total domination on the road at South Carolina, a team many believe was poised to challenge Georgia in the SEC East. The Bulldogs led 14-0 after three minutes, then pushed the lead to 31 points in the third quarter. It was a definitive statement about the pecking order in the SEC East.
… then I don’t have much time for your opinion about Georgia going forward.
Here’s how you do it.
Get The Picture 
Man, you have to have respect for Peter Burns. His thought process was off, but admits it and sees the Dawgs for the contender that they are! You’re cool with me, Peter Burns!
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Admitting when you are wrong is one of the healthiest character traits you can have. People respect it. Pride is the deadliest sin for a reason. This time at least, I was right. I didn’t buy the upset BS for a second.
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Have seen the lack of that trait become the downfall of more than a few folks in my field. It’s healthy and makes a good teammate great.
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Man, I should have healthy character then. I’m always having to admit I’m wrong, Crow has become a steady diet for me. 😦
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Must be happily married!!
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I don’t think you will see many more “guarantees” against the dawgs anytime soon. These UGA teams aren’t the UGA teams of old that would win the games that didn’t matter but lose the games that did.
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I’m significantly more at ease with the evidence we now have after a conference game on the road. I’m confident that throughout the rest of the season if our dawgs get beat they won’t have beaten themselves. I believe the crux of that whole upset narrative goes back to the prior 5+ years where it was common for our team to drop a game they should’ve won or been competitive. Remember when we (most, not all) would say “the most Georgia thing ever”? I think I’m over it now but the pain of some of those losses, like when Tn came to Athens and spanked our team or when we showed up in Columbia and never got off the bus, was agonizing.
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I agree. I admit, even in the face of all the talent we have on the field and the mindset our coaches instill into the players practice after practice, I was also worried we would drop this game.
I think I am over it now. I don’t believe Kirby will ever bring a team to the gridiron that isn’t ready to play to their 100% potential. If (when) we get beat, the other team will have to be just a better overall team in every phase of the game.
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“they won’t have beaten themselves.”
If they don’t beat themselves, then they won’t get beat in the regular season. No one is better when playing against the Dawgs ‘A’ game.
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I was preparing for my trek to CoMo on the 22d by watching hilites of previous UGA v Mizzou games. I watched a post game interview of Kirby along with Roquan and Sony. Kirby was asked after the victory how does his team approach the remainder of the season and he quickly answered “with humility” and Sony and Roquan both nodded agreement. I thought to myself these players have bought in. Now I believe this entire team has bought into Kirby’s philosophy. No more face plants.
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Pundits, radio TV and otherwise, need to f*(king put some effort in and stop mailing it in. The old stand by, conventional wisdom, lazy thinking just doesn’t cut it. It’s not Mark Richt’s team anymore. Listening to sports talk this morning and they are saying ‘watch out for Florida, or UT! or even Tech!” Because why? Because history?
The correct lens is to look at the line of scrimmage. Look at the depth. Expect UGA to be well coached and prepared. Then adjust your frickin’ analysis. With that lens, I think LSU and Auburn are going to be a tough out. Other than that, you are wasting your breath (but you gotta play every game. I get it. Anything can happen etc etc)
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Store brand Gurley was pretty gracious as well, especially after guaranteeing (twice) that Sackerlina would beat us.
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I didn’t see Forde’s take before the game, but he couldn’t have been more complimentary after the game. I like a guy that has 3 SEC teams in his 4 team playoff.
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Yes, he’s pandering but he’s pandering to my team so it’s okay.
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I am very confident we will be undefeated going into Atlanta. But sometimes it just isn’t your day. We could lose to LSU or AU because of old fashioned bad luck. A receiver slips and it results in a pick six. Something like the prayer at the Hare, or whatever it’s called. Shit happens. The thing about this team is, one loss is the absolute max we will have. We still go to Atlanta.
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I guess a lot of the drive-by national sportswriter types were deafened by that cannon shot from Columbia over the summer.
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He spun right round baby. Right round like a record baby right round round round.
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They love to let you know when they’re right but turtle up when they’re wrong.
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I wasn’t fooled by SC threat, and never backed off a double digit win, barring some weirdness. But….I am not totally sold on our defense yet. Not saying they cannot get there by year’s end, but we will have to get better, or risk getting knocked off once, maybe twice. Offense is capable of saving us of course, just gets risky when that has to happen.
I am particularly concerned about the power runs up the middle, we look soft and rarely make contact until the runner gets past the LOS. Feel our young DBs will improve enough to help us against good passing attacks but we could use some help with improved pressure on the QB.
Not being an alarmist here, you do realize a very average SC had more yards than us at halftime? Our offense only put up seven points in that half, got 7 via the pick and scoop and a shanked punt. If we start that slow against Mizzou, LSU, Kentucky, Auburn, or in the SECCG game we could drop one or two. Just saying, patting ourselves on the back this early isn’t like us. Last year’s team was great, and I never lacked confidence going into a single game, this year feels different to me…at this point.
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Great post. I’m in full agreement.
The “dawgs are unstoppable” meme is just as silly as the trendy upset nonsense.
We missed a lot of tackles. A lot. I think we will get it cleaned up, and believe some of those missed tackles can be attributed to the heavy rotation at ILB, but the defense has some growing up to do.
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Sorry if I’m missing something, but Forde picked the Dawgs by 16 in last week’s column, 37-21.
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I wasn’t citing Forde because he bought into the meme, but because he wrote “…a team many believe was poised to challenge Georgia in the SEC East”.
I cited Burns as evidence of someone who did.
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10-4. Nothing to see here. Move along.
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Yeah, I also got the impression Senator was picking on Forde for not admitting a mistake.
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