Dawg Sports: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Around SBN: Baby Boilers no more: Michigan State-Purdue Preview

5 Things Revisited: Night of the Living Dead Edition.

Well that sucked. I'll go into more detail further down, but let's just get a few things out of the way right off the top. I'm not even going over the five things one by one this week. No need to. I thought we had an answer for Florida, and I was wrong. Any other discussion of what I thought going into this game is now totally superflous. That said, here's what I know, in handy "voice of the people" crowdspeak:

  • Penn Wagers hates us, poor spotting of the ball, missed holding calls, yada, yada, yada. Sure Penn Wagers and his crew missed some big calls at big times. But they didn't miss any field goals. They didn't forget to defend the option on the goal line even though Florida runs that look inside the 20 roughly 25% of the time. They didn't drop a single touchdown pass, nor call a single play action pass that everyone in Duval County, including the little old ladies in the Shady Oaks Senior Center, knew was coming. Only once in my entire fanhood have I ever blamed a loss on officiating, and I'm not about to repeat that. They beat us. We didn't beat them. That's it. That's the list.
  • Gator fans, poor winners, blah, blah, blah. Orson Swindle has every right to gloat. His team handed mine it's collective rump on a silver platter. If we'd won 49-10, I would be at least as annoying as 75% of Gator fans. I'd probably be downright insufferable, at least from a saurian perspective.The fact of the matter is that this is the new status quo. Last year's win put some fire back in this rivalry. Next year we'll have something to slowly burn over for 364 days. Good rivalries are like that. That fire in your gut this morning? That's the new normal. This thing has some hate back in it, because we no longer expect to lose to Florida. Urban Meyer simply gave us our motivation for next season. Speaking of which . . .
  • Urban Meyer, asshat, run up the score, etc., etc. etc. Yeah, he ran up the score. He was throwing bombs up by 6 touchdowns with 7:30 remaining. But he also kicked a field goal against Miami while up by 20 with 25 seconds left earlier this season. He also piled on 14 points in the last five minutes against Arkansas to make that one look respectable to the poll voters. So, since when was it Urban Meyer's job to cover Deonte Thompson? Answer? It's not. It looked a whole lot like our defense started feeling sorry for themselves after Asher Allen gave up the touchdown to Louis Murphy. I'm not going to blame the bully for hitting us in the mouth since we never really lifted a fist to hit him back after that point. That's something we've got to work on. They punched. We didn't counterpunch. Period.
  • Willie Martinez is a loser, fire Mike Bobo, wah, wah, wahhhhh!!!!! The difference in this game was the four turnovers we had and the one we gave away early on a stupid penalty. Lack of execution. Period. Florida had 373 total yards, well below their season average. Our offense actually outgained them by 25 yards. Mike Bobo may have been incredibly predictable some times, especially when calling play action passes over and over again. But it was generally working until Stafford got generous with the ball. Turnovers were the difference between a close win and a blowout loss. Florida deserves credit for scoring off the easy chances we gave them. We deserve derision for having multiple opportunities to score and simply refusing to.
  • Blair Walsh sucks, I thought Andy Bailey graduated, wimper, wimper, sigh. Lay off the kid. We knew going into this season that we'd be relying on a freshman kicker away from home to win some games. That's not a news flash. He'll get better. Nobody seems to remember Billy Bennett's 2003 performance at LSU these days. Kickers learn early on that they're only as good as their  last kick. Heck, I kicked at the high school level and can tell you that even that is maddening after you miss one. I promise you that for the guy from Ft. Lauderdale, losing to Florida stings. He won't forget. He's a good one, and he'll make up for it.
  • Onside kick, stupid, stupid, stupid, rabble, rabble, rabble. Coach Richt said in the postgame presser that it wasn't executed well. I don't think it should have been executed at all. I understand what he was trying to do, though. He knew that no one was expecting it and that a recovery would have been a huge momentum swing and jumpstarted things. I get that. Florida got a short field, but Brandon James gives them a short field on conventional kickoffs with frightening regularity anyway. I wouldn't have made the same call given the risks and rewards, but I understand. If that's the worst coaching decision Mark Richt makes in any given year I'm fine with that. I'd still rather he screw up trying like heck to win rather than fidgeting with his headset and trying not to lose.
  • 16 of 19, angst, angst, hate!!!!! I've said many times that thisgame is the one which annually means the most to me. There's no way I can explain the euphoria I felt last year. Conversely, the fact that we haven't beaten Florida back-to-back in almost 20 years simply defies explanation to me. The fact is that Mark Richt is 2-6 against Florida is unacceptable to me. I'm sure it's unacceptable to him, too. But there's not some other guy out there who I think is going to do any better. But I feel a very real sense of dread now that I didn't feel 24 hours ago. If the SEC East were a race, it would include: a) a Tennessee squad driving in reverse, b) Kentucky and South Carolina programs perpetually stuck in neutral, and c) Vanderbilt, driving a Saab loaded down with two cases of chardonnay and The Collected Works of Michel Foucault. Urban Meyer is driving a Ferrari, and I'm just not sure we can keep up with him over the next couple of years. Check back with me in a couple of months and maybe I'll feel better. This morning, I got nothing.
  • Bandwagons, sore losers, this, that and the other. I'm sure a lot of us said some things yesterday in person and on the interwebs that we'll want to take back eventually. But that's ok. Yesterday was that rare occasion upon which, as Mark Twain once famously remarked, "profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." As a national championship winning coach I know once said "Go ahead and yell at me. Don't be surprised if I yell back. We both care too much about this thing not to." All of you probably have hurt feelings or hurt pride. Rub some dirt on it and get back out there. I'll see you on Tuesday. Until then . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

0 recs  |  Comment 6 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

I have always had a great deal of respect...

… for this blog. Also, for T. Kyle King and MaconDawg both. It’s so much better than mine, by a landslide. You’re objective, you’re honest, you tell it like it is with no frills and the writing is always catchy.

When you look at the stats and see the Georgia actually picked up close to 400 yards in this game — more than Florida by about 30 yards — it’s hard to believe y’all were held to only 10 points. Some of that is due to Matthew Stafford’s decision-making, certainly, but some of it also has to be the Florida secondary, who have been leading in scoring defense all year long and somehow have held 6 of their 8 opponents to 10 or fewer points this season. They’re just flat out good.

As usual in football, it’s never as good OR as bad as it seems. We all know Georgia’s better than the whipping they took. The Dawgs will be back and now your players have something to keep that fire burning in their bellies for the next 365 days, just like ours did.

Orange and Blue Hue: The World through GATOR-colored Glasses -- http://www.orangeandbluehue.com

by Gatorpilot on Nov 2, 2008 12:46 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Poor execution indeed!

Give Tebow the ball at your own 2 and at your own 10 AND get inside UF’s 20 3 times (including 2 inside the 10) and come away with 3___any team will get beat. It was no “beat down” as predicted by those two Bulldog lovers__Mark May and Dr. Lou, but was an offensive “melt down” by the Dawgs. As I pointed out to my friends before the game, (1) play for field goals against UF and you lose, period. (2) don’t score 40 against UF and you lose, period! It was clear to me that UF staff feared NO ONE except Knowshon and A.J.they forced other Dawgs to beat them and we couldn’t do it! Also, it was clear that UF played much better D when Knowshon was not in the gameat least twice Knowshon broke off a couple of good runs in succession, then took himself out, and the drive faltered. UF staff prepared for our two playmakers, nullified them, and we self destructed.

by Jujdog on Nov 2, 2008 2:15 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Good stuff, MaconDawg.

Yesterday was miserable. I was furious about the overturned challenge early in the game, and I was bothered by the personal foul call. As the day wore on, though, I realized that the Dawgs weren’t doing anything about that. Great teams overcome crappy calls. None of them will go our way all of the time, and yesterday was an example.

My mind, though, goes back to our first offensive possession of the second half. We were moving the ball well and with ease, and then there was what might have been the most ill-timed interception in recent memory. That was a backbreaker like I’m not sure I’ve ever seen. And while the playcalling seemed predictable, it worked.

Losing to Florida sucks. Losing in the manner we did yesterday sucks. A friend said to me, “I have never seen a staff, a team, or a program approach a rivalry game so apologetically as we did this game.” Yesterday was the day to make it all change. And just like that, it’s all gone.

On a somewhat related note, can we back up a truckful of money to Charlie Strong’s house and ask his price to never coach again? Or at least get him out of the SEC?

by Father Dawg on Nov 2, 2008 3:01 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Send his resume to Clemson

Or at least Martinez’ resume.

by fotodog on Nov 2, 2008 5:33 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I've never gotten why Charlie Strong hasn't been hired

He left Columbia, S.C., for Gainesville precisely because being a Florida coordinator was a high-profile job intended to lead to a head coaching position. (Ron Zook and Bob Stoops previously had held the position.)

I get why guys like Jon Tenuta didn’t get head coaching jobs, but nothing I have seen from Coach Strong leads me to believe he wouldn’t interview well, wouldn’t handle media relations effectively, or otherwise wouldn’t be capable of handling the aspects of being a head coach beyond X’s and O’s. Moreover, given the emphasis placed, both by the N.C.A.A. and by the news media, on interviewing minority candidates, you’d think Coach Strong would get a look just about every year and would have been hired before now.

I’m genuinely baffled. Does anyone have any insight into why Charlie Strong hasn’t been hired as a head coach somewhere by now?

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Nov 2, 2008 8:44 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

No

Send Ty Willingham’s CV to Clemson.

--Robert

by a gamecock fan on Nov 2, 2008 10:05 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to the SB Nation community devoted to the Georgia Bulldogs.
Start posting about the Bulldogs »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

Uga_small
A National Signing Day Post Mortem
Uga_small
I've got a fever! And the only prescription is more Grantham : Supplementary 2010 College Signing Day Coverage
Beard_47_series_wins_and_42_points_in_2007_small
For All My Talk of Doom and Gloom . . .
Uga_small
Its the end of the world as we know it...
Small
Props to Herschel Walker
Images_small
Lets talk Jeff Owens and Geno Atkins
434477_small
How college football can learn a thing or two from soccer.
Uga_small
Warning....Warning... College Signing Day Coverage Imminent
434477_small
The only Florida blog I regularly read joins SBNation
Small
You got it right!

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >


Managers

Beard_47_series_wins_and_42_points_in_2007_small T Kyle King

Official Partner of CBS Sports