Monday ‘Dawg Bites Is Pumping The Brakes On VolMania

It is the Georgia Bulldogs’ annual bye week, and you’ve probably got things to get done that you’ve been putting off while fretting about a series of opponents over the last few weeks. We’ll let you get down to business in a moment, but first let’s take a look at what’s making news in Bulldawg Nation.

The big news from this weekend in college football was obviously Tennessee’s 52-49 upset of Alabama. I think some in college football are perhaps making a bit too much of the game, as astute observers knew coming into 2022 that the Vols were likely to be a good football team this year. A good SEC football team playing at home in a charged atmosphere is a match for basically anyone on any given fall Saturday. And had Tennessee missed its late field goal and gone on to lose in overtime the headline would be “Saban’s Tide escape, once again show why they’re the measuring stick in college football.” The narrative is almost always wildly skewed that way in the short term.

But one of the more interesting post mortems I’ve seen is from our sister site Roll Bama Roll, which noted that a few big pass plays and a heaping handful of penalties was really the difference in this one. I would quibble with one assumption of the article, that the result of not calling pass interference on most of those Tennessee pass plays would have been incompletions. Indeed on a couple of the less controversial ones the result likely would have been six points for the Vols, as Bama defenders grabbed the receiver to keep from giving up big plays.

Still, Alabama’s 17 total penalties in this game was a school record. Some of that is the result of playing in a raucous environment in Knoxville. That’s not something Tennessee will be able to count on when they visit Athens. And while Georgia’s committed some mental errors this season, the Bulldogs are the SEC’s least penalized team, called for 28 total flags this season (South Carolina is second with 34).

It’s also worth noting that Rocky Top still gave up 49 points to an Alabama team that scored 24 against Texas A&M and 20 against Texas. So there’s every reason to believe that a healthy, humming UGA offense could put up a big number against the Big Orange. All of which is to say, the Bulldogs’ matchup with Tennessee now looms significantly larger than in the preseason. It’s definitely a game Geirgia can lose if it’s young secondary struggles or the offense sputters. But there are some solid reasons to think the ‘Dawgs will be fine.

We’ll be back later with an additional look back at the Vandy win, some recruiting talk, and more general bye week tomfoolery. Until then….

Go ‘Dawgs!!!