This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > November > 03
Monday, November 3, 2008
Timid Georgia fails to embrace potential
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The schedule didn’t undo Georgia. Actually, the schedule turned out kindly. Arizona State hasn’t won since Sept. 6, and Tennessee is so bad Phillip Fulmer just announced his resignation. The Bulldogs didn’t fail because of an ambitious itinerary. They failed because they didn’t give their ambition a fighting chance.
Even when Georgia was No. 1 in preseason, being No. 1 was treated as much as a nuisance as an honor. “It’s just a big bull’s eye,” Mark Richt said on Media Day, and you could almost sense the relief when, after only one game, his Bulldogs were No. 1 no more.
This time a year ago, a band of LSU seniors were on a crusade — not just to finish first in the SEC West but in the U.S. of A. True, those Tigers were lucky to lose twice and be afforded a chance to play for the BCS title, but they carried themselves the way a champion-to-be should. They played big in big games, and when they did lose they lost at the last gasp. Maybe it’s because Georgia doesn’t have as many seniors, but these Bulldogs lacked the same audacity of purpose.
They wanted to win it all, sure. Who doesn’t? But they were fairly timid in stating their intention, and they were unaccountably timid in their play. They were splendid in Baton Rouge and good at Tempe, but the other victories were more the work of great talent than a great team. And their two losses were simply shocking.
Alabama led Georgia by 31 points after 30 minutes. When you see such a score involving two brand-name schools, you figure the team on top must have returned a kick or a pick (if not both) for a touchdown. The Tide did not. It lined up and drove to five consecutive scores.
Before the Arizona State game, receiver Mohamed Massaquoi had said of his team, “We’ve got playmakers on both sides of the ball.” This was only technically true. Georgia’s defense includes one big-timer — linebacker Rennie Curran. The secondary hasn’t covered, and the front four hasn’t pressured. Georgia has but 16 sacks in nine games, and three of those are Curran’s.
On his Sunday teleconference, Richt again bemoaned the youth of his offensive line — “We’re playing a bunch of puppies,” he told reporters — but the offense has held up its end. The Bulldogs lead the SEC in total yardage. Alas, Georgia is ninth in total defense, 10th in scoring defense and 11th in pass defense.
Did injuries hurt Georgia? Sure. Trinton Sturdivant and Jeff Owens were huge losses along the two lines, but Georgia hurt Georgia even more. Penalties fueled Alabama’s first two drives, and a hands-to-the-face flag overrode a Tim Tebow interception on Saturday. I know some Bulldog backers feel the SEC has been out to get Georgia since last year’s celebration, but all five of those calls were legit.
I’ve defended coordinator Willie Martinez before, but I can see no reason why a team of Georgia’s pedigree should ever have a pedestrian defense. There’s no greater insult among SEC teams than being called soft on D — indeed, Florida’s Charlie Strong told reporters he’d used that label to goad his men — but that’s what the Bulldogs have become. And what, under Brian VanGorder, they never were.
Nor has this been Richt’s finest hour. He seemed wrung out after the LSU game, and that was the season’s apex. For whatever reason, this team hasn’t played with the focused fury of the 2002 Bulldogs, whose stated mission was to Knock The Lid Off. And now a grand opportunity has come and gone, and the shame of it is that Georgia seldom seemed to be knocking very hard.
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Bradley’s Buzz: OK, I was wrong
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A compendium of my own greatest misses
Because I’m a jolly good fellow and a great sport, I’ve changed the Buzz format a bit. Today I’m going to start by linking to myself — and all the times I was wrong about Georgia and/or Florida. If you’re a Gator backer, this will make for entertaining reading. If you’re a Georgia supporter, you won’t care one way or another because you’re still hiding under the mattress. Either way, here goes:
In May I predicted Georgia would win the national championship. In July I gave 10 reasons it would win the same national championship. A few days later I offered an 11th reason. (Getting to be a stuck record, wasn’t I?)
In September I rated Georgia the SEC’s best team. Earlier that month I’d said Georgia would be 5-0 and beyond worrying about style points. (Reality check: Alabama stacked 41 real points on the Bulldogs to drop them to 4-1.) After the LSU game I got really excited and again averred that Georgia was the class of the SEC and would beat Florida.
You’re aware that Georgia fell a mere 40 points shy of beating Florida over the weekend, and if you’re asking me was I surprised — well, what do you think? I wouldn’t have spent the previous six months proclaiming the Bulldogs’ worth if I believed they were going to lose the biggest game of the year 49-10.
Nor would I have called Matthew Stafford a better quarterback than Tim Tebow had I known Stafford was going to throw the ball to the Gators nearly as often as Tebow did. But I still would have tweaked Urban Meyer, who’s a fine coach but something of a pill.
And I won’t recant my belief that Florida fans are the SEC’s most obnoxious. The past 48 hours clinched that title in perpetuity. (Not that I’m bitter or anything.)
But enough of my writings and ramblings …
Here are some links to some writers who were actually in Jacksonville. (I wasn’t. I covered the Hawks’ home opener.) Matt Hayes of Sporting News Today leads with a taunt from Mrs. Urban Meyer. Esteemed former colleague Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com leads with Mr. Urban Meyer’s use of timeouts.
Writing for CBSsports.com, Dennis Dodd claims no team is playing better than Florida. If that sounds like a familiar Dodd theme, there’s a reason: He wrote essentially the same thing about Alabama after it beat Georgia. So there’s the formula: Beat the Bulldogs, impress Dennis Dodd.
Here, from the Gainesville Sun, is Pat Dooley writing about Florida’s defense, which Mr. Meyer branded “soft” after last season’s loss to Georgia. And Gene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union writes about Gator defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, who has made a career of thwarting Georgia.
Tech to Miami! Georgia to somewhere else!
In their weekly bowl projections for ESPN.com, Schlabach and Bruce Feldman both have Georgia Tech heading to the Orange Bowl as the ACC champ. Schlabach tickets Georgia for the Capital One Bowl, Feldman for the Cotton. And who, before the season began, would have figured Tech would be part of a BCS game and Georgia wouldn’t? (Not me. See above.)
Peter King on many Georgians
Tucked inside the dense verbiage of his Monday Morning Quarterback feature, Peter King of SI.com names Matt Ryan and John Abraham the offensive and defensive players of the week. He also quotes St. Louis safety Corey Chavous as calling Stafford “Jeff George with a team-first attitude.” And Peter, who sometimes writes as if he’s determined to fill up every last megabyte of cyberspace, also quotes, via NFL Films, Mike Smith’s slightly edited diatribe against the officials after the Adam Jennings non-muff in Philadelphia.
Disease of the week — J-Smoove
Tucked in the dense verbiage of his NBA preview, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com labels Josh Smith the league’s “biggest cancer.” Now it’s not like I’m never wrong about anything — see above — but has Bill Simmons ever met Josh Smith? Because I have, and what I see is a young man striding purposefully toward maturity.
FYI, here are the Cancer Man’s stats through two games: He’s averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks, and he has made 54.5 percent of his shots. And his team, it must be noted, is 2-0.
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