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November 2008
Georgia overrated from beginning
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Jacksonville — There must be something about annihilation that shocks the system. There must be something about getting hammered in a team’s two biggest games of the season that causes amnesia and makes everybody forget what this year was supposed to be all about.
An SEC title. A national championship. Maybe a little more ammunition for getting cut out of the title game a year ago. What happened to all of that?
Getting drilled at home by Alabama. Getting humiliated by Spurrier-esque proportions by Florida. Does it do things to the mind, other than severely dent the ego?
“I think with the expectations the media put on us this season, anything short of a national championship was going to be disappointing,” Georgia tight end Tripp Chandler said.
So now it was somebody else’s expectations. Perfect.
If Alabama and Florida are seeking a bonding moment SEC title week, they can share memories from what each did to Georgia this season. One handed the Dogs their first loss. The other affirmed that game wasn’t an aberration and exposed them for what they really are: a talented but deeply flawed team and prone to self-immolation.
Overrated or underachieving — it doesn’t really matter. The Dogs never belonged. Faster than you can say Outback Bowl, Georgia watched Florida score five consecutive touchdowns in the second half, lose 49-10, end up six feet under in the BCS and certainly restored any sense of superiority in Gainesville that might’ve eroded a year ago.
What were we thinking? Georgia allowed 90 points in its two biggest games of the year. It never competed. There can be no louder or clearer defining statement about this team.
There were no exaggerated end zone celebrations this time, just more end zone meltdowns.
Florida coach Urban Meyer managed to restrain his players but not himself. He called two timeouts in the final minute to prolong Georgia’s agony.
If he hoped to rub it into the faces of Dogs’ fans, the joke was on him. They had already left.
Meyer wouldn’t concede the timeouts were payback for the Dogs’ bench-emptying hug-a-thon last season. He didn’t have to.
Asked if the opposing coach was sending a message, Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran said: “No question. They played hard. They capitalized on their opportunities. They earned the opportunity to send that message. Anybody in their right mind would know they were trying to prove a point.”
They proved several. They proved it so many times that the scoreboard operator lost control of his faculties. Florida led, 49-3, when the Dogs scored a meaningless touchdown with three minutes left. The scoreboard official, presumably out of habit, pushed the same button he had been most of the day and initially changed the score to 56-3.
The correction was minor window dressing. Georgia fans hoped last year’s win had altered the landscape of this series. Instead, it made everybody recall the worst. The 39-point deficit was second only to a 47-7 loss in 1996.
There wasn’t anything the Dogs didn’t do wrong. They had three red zone possessions in the first half — when it was still a game. But the result was three field goal attempts — two bad, one good. Matthew Stafford missed a wide open Tripp Chandler in the end zone. Then he had a would-be touchdown pass bounce off Knowshon Moreno’s face mask.
At times, it wasn’t the limbs that failed to function, just the brain. Prince Miller had an interception nullified by teammate Jarius Wynn’s personal foul, leading to the Gators’ first touchdown. A nonsensical onsides kick early in the second quarter backfired, giving Florida a short field and leading to another TD.
The second-half? The World’s Largest Outdoor Grease Fire. The first five Georgia possessions went interception-punt-fumble-interception-interception. Three of those turnovers led to touchdowns.
The strangest thing about all of this? Georgia players would have you believe it wasn’t that bad.
“The game was closer than what the scoreboard said,” Moreno said.
“The score didn’t at all reflect how the game was played,” Mohamed Massaquoi said.
“I thought we were better team this game — just a few turnovers held us back,” Curran said.
The better team?
“Definitely.”
Some would say they’re in shock. Or deluded. Or in denial.
Regardless, this much is clear: They never belonged.
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