Georgia Tech 30, Georgia 24: Shock. Rage. Repeat.

Let's get this out of the way right from the beginning. The Georgia Bulldogs had no business whatsoever winning this football game. None. It was a poor effort on offense, defense, and special teams. "But MaconDawg" you say, "it's a rivalry game and anything can happen in a rivalry game!"

Rivalry game my butt. Georgia got manhandled up front on both offense and defense in the second half, looked inexcusably perplexed by even simple triple option plays, and just didn't look like a team that really wanted to win for the second, third, and most of the fourth quarters. The most telling moment to me came when David Andrews was shown exhorting his teammates on on the sideline then came on the field and whiffed completely on a block, giving up a sack. Talk is cheap. And Tech fans now have every reason to talk for 364 days. They won. We lost, and we have no one to blame for it but the Red and Black coaches and players who were clearly outmatched today.

The numbers don't lie. The Tech offense churned out 32 first downs to Georgia's 21. They held a nearly 13 minute advantage in time of possession. Zack Laskey out gained Nick Chubb on the ground, and the Tech offense churned out 463 yards of goal offense, 399 of them on the ground, 5.7 yards per carry on 70 rushing attempts. I've struggled to come up with a word for what was done to the Georgia defense. The best I've come up with was "emasculated." Though "bludgeoned" and "pathetic-ized" work well, too.

But perhaps more importantly, Tech made the plays they had to in order to win and we made the plays you have to make in order to lose. When you fumble the ball at the one yard line twice, you deserve to lose. When you get the ball 1st and goal at the 3 with a chance to put it away and settle for a field goal you deserve to lose. When you follow a big special teams play in overtime* as a redshirt senior QB by throwing a freshman level interception, you deserve to lose.

Now the Bulldog coaches and players deserve some hard questions about how they once again tasted a thin whisp of adversity and proceeded to fold like a cheap suit. I still believe that Mark Richt is the best guy to be coaching at the University of Georgia, but I also believe that this needs to be one of those offseasons in which Mark Richt and Dark Richt yield the chair to Uncomfortable Richt, the guy who comes to work every day fearing for his job security and making sure everyone around him is likewise uncomfortable. Because this Bulldog team has looked a little too comfortable on a couple of occasions this year, and it's been pretty upsetting.

A Word About The Comments

We value your comments here at Dawg Sports. And I'm sure many of you have a lot to say about this one. But keep the following in mind:

• Our usual ban on hard profanity is still in effect. My mother reads the site, and I'd like for yours to be able to as well.
• Feel free to express your disbelief, rage, grief and any other emotions about this team, coaching staff, and life in general. It's healthy for you to get it out. But do not, under any circumstances turn on each other. If you have no social awareness and don't know what that means, it's okay, I'll explain. Referring to your fellow commenters as "stupid", "delusional", "probably a Florida fan anyway", or using any forms of profanity will lead to warnings or worse. We're not creating a place the subhuman refuse on certain Tech message boards can giggle over while they wait for Mom to finish warming up the pizza rolls.
• Speaking of which, if any of our moderators gets the impression that you're a Georgia Tech, Florida, Auburn, Wyoming, or Le Cordon Bleu fan, you probably shouldn't be posting in this thread. There's simply too much room for anything you say to be misconstrued. If you do, there's not much beyond "Sorry guys, it happens to everyone from time to time" that you will be able to say without drawing some scrutiny. There's a time and place for everything. This isn't the time or place for you to crack jokes about the Outback Bowl, Uga, or much of anything else.
• If you note that one of your fellow commenters is being totally irrational you're probably right. That doesn't mean he or she doesn't have the right to be totally irrational. The once every decade loss to Georgia Tech brings out the irrational in all of us.

With that said, have at it. We'll be back with an evening open thread in which you should feel totally free to pretend that this debacle didn't happen. Totally acceptable coping mechanism for coming to terms with the fact that Mark Richt is only 12-2 against Georgia Tech. Until later . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

*God Bless Ray Drew, by the way. His 9 tackles and 2 blocks made him appear to be one of the only Bulldogs really ready for the physical game the Yellow Jackets brought to Sanford Stadium.