Don't Bet On It!: National Game of Disinterest (Week 12)

Outside of an embarrassing loss to Youngstown State in Stegeman on Monday, it’s been a pretty good week in the Bulldog nation. As a result of his impressive performance in Saturday’s dominating, SEC-East clinching performance on the Plains, center David Andrews was named the SEC offensive lineman of the week. We held strong at number 5 in the BCS standings, well within striking distance of a national title. We even picked up a new running back recruit to add to a 2013 class swelling with talent. Here on the blog front, hailtogeorgia has broken down a big play by one of our enablers, RedCrake has posted this week’s TV schedule, and I have picked this week’s conference and national games of interest against the spread. So now it’s time to pick this week’s National Game of Disinterest. This week, that game is…

every game that is not Georgia Southern at UGA

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re two weeks away from a trip to the Georgia Dome to play in our second SEC Championship game in as many years. The winner of the SEC has played in the national championship game in each of the last six years. However, due to the fact that there are currently three unbeaten teams ahead of us in the BCS standings, even if we manage to beat Alabama in the Dome in December, it’s possible that we might be playing for a Sugar Bowl instead of a Mythical National Championship. We need at least one of those teams to lose, and we need a bump in the polls.

We cannot control what happens to any of the other teams who are currently in the BCS hunt (other than beating the hell out of Bama in a few weeks, of course). But we can give ourselves a bump in the polls by finishing out the season strong. If we can hold Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech to 10 points or fewer, we will address the perceived underperformance on that side of the ball by closing out the regular season with five straight weeks of keeping opposing offenses in check. If Aaron Murray performs even half as well as he has in the last two weeks, he will remain the most efficient passer in the nation’s premier conference. If we beat Alabama in the Dome and Florida wins out, we will have beaten two teams who will likely be ranked in the top 10 of the final BCS standings, a feat which no other team in the title hunt will have accomplished.

But all of that starts with this week. The Eagles are a good team (as I’m sure Kyle will tell us in great detail tomorrow). If we don’t come out focused on stopping their triple option attack, they will put some points on the board, and, if we don’t come out swinging, this game could stay close until the final stanza. While the computers may be prohibited from considering margin of victory, the human pollsters are not, and another dominating performance this weekend could start swaying some people in our favor. So, I don’t care what happens anywhere else this weekend; I’m 100% focused on this week’s opponent, and I hope the team is too.

Go Dawgs!