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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > September > 28
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Lessons for Dogs: Play by rules, toughen up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In college football, perspective is the first casualty of defeat. The temptation is to overstate any loss, and certainly it’s difficult to overstate just how badly Georgia was beaten by Alabama Saturday. Still, this needs to be said: It was only one game.
With the difficulty inherent in the Bulldogs’ schedule, it was almost a given that they’d lose once. Now they have. Doomsayers will suggest the level of this home thrashing dashes any hopes of a BCS title, but it manifestly does not. Last season LSU lost to an unranked team in Baton Rouge the day after Thanksgiving and still finished No. 1.
“Anything is possible at this point,” said Rennie Curran, the splendid linebacker. “There’s a whole lot of football to be played. We haven’t really lost anything with this loss. We’re hoping we get another shot at Alabama in the SEC championship game.”
Said Mark Richt, placid as ever: “Last year we had two [early] losses, two Eastern Division losses. The best news today is that we still have a chance to control what happens. … Our guys have not lost hope at all. We do have a bright future if we take care of business.”
Alabama and LSU are ranked ahead of Georgia today, but the Bulldogs must play the latter and, provided they win the rest of their games, could again meet the former. Four Big 12 teams are above them in the polls, but only one of those can finish unbeaten. Southern Cal and Ohio State and Wisconsin have already lost. Losing to Alabama leaves Georgia with no margin for error, but that’s not the same as being left with no chance.
At issue isn’t whether there’s still a path to Miami but whether the Bulldogs are resourceful enough to negotiate it. They were outfought by Alabama, which shouldn’t have happened but did. It cannot happen again. As Tide coach Nick Saban noted, Georgia’s late flurry was an indication of how skilled the Bulldogs truly are. Open to question is how strong they can be along the line of scrimmage.
Also open to question is how strong-minded they are — or aren’t. It’s probably too easy to link the raft of summer arrests to the raging pandemic of penalties, but Georgia does bear the look of an undisciplined team. Curran again: “We really just gave it to them in the first half. We made a few mistakes and we were down 20, 30 points. Coach Richt kept telling us penalties were going to come back to bite us, and they caught up to us fast.”
Some of the flags at Arizona State seemed iffy; none of the early fouls against Alabama were. The Bulldogs handed the Tide four first downs on its first two possessions, and just like that the game was gone. Florida ranked next-to-last nationally in penalties in 2006, the year it won the BCS title, and LSU was third from the bottom last season, but that’s a perilous way to live. Put simply, Georgia has to decide if it’s man enough to play football according to the rules.
It has time now to make such a decision. It’s off this week, and then come two more home games before the trip to Baton Rouge. No matter how dark it seemed Saturday night, one Saturday doesn’t scuttle a season. As Saban said, speaking of the possibility of his team being ranked No. 1: “It doesn’t matter where you are until the end.”
He should know. His LSU Tigers lost at home to Ron Zook’s Florida on Oct. 11, 2003, and weren’t ranked above No. 3 until they beat Georgia for the SEC title. They wound up BCS champions.
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