AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > December > 02
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Petrino’s wrath felt at halftime
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
St. Louis — They looked like they did four years ago — beleaguered backups and emotionally comatose starters, playing as if they had other career options on the back burner. They looked as if they had quit on their season, and their coach.
In 2003, the Falcons’ 36-0 belly-flop in St. Louis on national television was considered such an embarrassment that owner Arthur Blank was moved to take out a newspaper ad to apologize to fans, and he wrote a letter of apology to ABC. His players merely cashed their checks.
At least those Falcons were flattened by a good Rams team. On Sunday, they trailed a 2-9 doormat, 14-0, after 11 minutes. Suddenly there was hope for Liechtenstein as a global power.
What do you do if you’re Bobby Petrino? Exactly what he did.
“He ripped us a new one [at halftime],” Alge Crumpler said. “We deserved it.”
“We played with more emotion in the second half, but emotion shouldn’t have to come from a coach screaming at you,” Warrick Dunn said.
So suddenly that’s what it takes? The Falcons don’t need brilliant X’s and O’s. They need a blowtorch.
The Falcons lost to the Rams 28-16. The tangible impact: The teams are now tied for second in the draft order.
The bigger obvious picture: Petrino’s words and actions reaffirmed he is building his offseason hit list, assuming he returns for more of this fun.
He benched guard Kynan Forney, a starter for most of his seven seasons.
He benched defensive back Jimmy Williams, a top pick two drafts ago, who has been a bust in the secondary and has only one special teams tackle in 11 games.
He blew through the locker room like Hurricane Bobby at halftime, when the Falcons trailed 21-0 and created hope for the Rams’ future, which is more than they’ve done in Atlanta.
“We’re looking for guys who want to hang in there, be professional, work hard, compete hard, stay together and keep a positive attitude,” Petrino said.
“What I was telling the coaches and myself was, ‘Let’s make sure we know who’s with us and who’s not.’ And that’s what I was happy about in the second half — the way we competed and the attitude that we played with.”
Yes, it got better. Here’s the problem: It’s not good when Chris Redman is the highlight.
Nothing against Red-man. He’s a nice story. He hadn’t played in the NFL in three years before this season. He was selling life insurance this time a year ago. He was signed by Petrino, his former Louisville coach, as a potential No. 3. Then … well, you know all of the “then.”
But when it takes Chris Redman to wake up your offense, it’s a bad sign.
He replaced Joey Harrington in the fourth quarter. He threw touchdown passes on his first two possessions. It was the first time all year the Falcons scored touchdowns on consecutive drives. Redman hadn’t thrown a TD pass since 2002. He brought the Falcons back to 21-16 before the rally fizzled (a drive died at the Rams’ 9-yard line after a fourth-down incompletion with two minutes left).
But is it just coincidence that the Falcon who looked the best Sunday was the only Falcon who probably feels indebted to Petrino?
When the players returned from their Thanksgiving break last Monday, Petrino told them the rest of this season was about playing with emotion and saving jobs. But for too long Sunday, they looked like they didn’t care.
“He wanted us to come out and show some emotion,” Roddy White said. “He told us we were kind of flat in the first half. I totally agree with him. Nobody picked it up.”
“We did the right things all week, and then we came out here and we spotted them 21 points,” Crumpler said. “We can’t afford to spot anybody 21 points.”
And then: “We’re all playing for our future.”
They are 3-9. If and when they wake up, it would be a good time to write a letter.
Permalink | Comments (125) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Coaches, polls got it right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
One by one, the news kept trickling into public view Sunday. The coaches got it right. Then came the pollsters with Associated Press.
They got it right.
Ultimately, when the decision was finalized on the two teams that should meet next month in New Orleans for the crown of college football, the Bowl Championship Series got it right. We’re talking about Ohio State, the winner of the Big Ten, vs. LSU, the winner of the SEC.
That’s opposed to Georgia, the winner of not even its own division, vs. nobody in the Big Game.
Yeah, they all got it right, but this isn’t to say that Georgia’s season isn’t a nice little story. You’ve had a thrilling middle and finish against the likes of Gators and Yellow Jackets after a shaky beginning against the likes of Gamecocks and Volunteers. Not only that, nobody is hotter than the Bulldogs. Their story also features the fancy legs of Knowshon Moreno, along with Matthew Stafford’s rise at quarterback and a maturing defense.
It’s just that Georgia’s epilogue deserves to be the Sugar Bowl, where the Bulldogs will play on New Year’s Day, and where Tennessee would have gone with a victory on Saturday against LSU. Instead, the Tigers did what a possible national champion should do. That is, LSU won, and LSU captured its conference championship.
Georgia didn’t. The same went for 2001 Nebraska and 2004 Oklahoma, but they still were selected for national title games. Since there isn’t a BCS rule against non-conference winners playing for it all, those Nebraska and Oklahoma teams were allowed to get smashed by Miami and Southern Cal, respectively. That’s not the point, though. Just because the pollsters and computers that compose the BCS blew it then by selecting non-conference winners, that doesn’t mean the BCS should repeat that mistake.
Which the BCS didn’t do when it came to Georgia. In addition to that conference championship thing, Ohio State has one loss to Georgia’s two, and LSU has 11 victories to Georgia’s 10. Plus, while LSU dropped both of its games this season in triple overtime, Georgia lost at home to a mediocre South Carolina team and was drilled by Tennessee.
That said, since this is the USA, you’re allowed to bark your disapproval around the Bulldog Nation over Georgia’s status. But those wishing to join the knee-jerk masses by claiming the BCS is a mess despite a wonderfully crazy regular season should put a muzzle on it.
If nothing else, everybody can agree with what I just typed, and that is, this was a wonderfully crazy regular season. You had Appalachian State shocking Michigan as a prelude to lowly Stanford doing the same to Southern Cal. While Hawaii couldn’t lose, Notre Dame couldn’t win. Every week, somebody ranked No. 1 or No. 2 got whacked, usually by an inferior foe, and Georgia even beat Florida.
Now here’s where many of us will part ways, but only because folks wish to ignore the truth: Playoffs. Playoffs! Given the current BCS setup, college football already has a playoff system at the top level. It’s called the regular season, which ends with a conference championship game for most. If you lose certain games at certain times during the season — and definitely if you drop your conference championship game — you’re out of this unofficial playoffs, or at least you should be.
That’s fair. So is this: No hint of a Georgia invite to the Big Game.
Yes, the Bulldogs used their six-game winning streak down the stretch to begin the weekend at No. 4 in the BCS standings behind No. 3 Ohio State. And, yes, Oklahoma did what many expected by embarrassing Missouri, a fraudulent bunch at No. 1. And, yes, No. 2 West Virginia did what many didn’t expect by choking against Pittsburgh. And, yes, if you go by simple math, No. 3 and No. 4 in this case should replace No. 1 and No. 2.
What’s simpler is that Georgia isn’t better than LSU. For proof, the Tigers were celebrating forever on Saturday in the Georgia Dome. Not the Bulldogs, who weren’t even there.
Permalink | Comments (454) | Categories: Terence Moore
BCS a shipwreck of a system
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
So much for that claim about how every week in college football constitutes a one-game playoff. If you’re LSU, you’re allowed to play a triple-elimination tournament. If you’re LSU, you’re allowed to flub two auditions as No. 1 and still have people say, “That team deserves another chance.”
We’ve known for years that the BCS is a sham of an arrangement. (To call it a “system” confers far too much dignity.) What we didn’t grasp until Sunday was that the BCS is devoid of rules, devoid of reason, devoid even of common courtesy.
Georgia got jumped without losing a game or even playing one. LSU was hoisted above the Bulldogs on the dubious strength of a seven-point victory in a game it was favored to win by 7 1/2 points. Georgia was No. 4 in the BCS standings last week — LSU was No. 7 — and two of the top three teams lost. Simple math should have put the Bulldogs in the title game. Turns out the BCS flunked math as well as logic.
What happened over the course of a week to make enough voters devalue the Bulldogs? Lobbyin’ Les Miles and ESPN happened. The LSU coach opined that a team shouldn’t play for a national title if it hadn’t won its conference — even though the BCS has repeatedly resisted making a league title a requirement — and a slew of cable-ready gasbags bought his line. It was known nine days ago that the Bulldogs wouldn’t be playing for the SEC title, but eight days ago the voters didn’t seem to mind. Came the only BCS poll that matters, they minded.
All night Saturday and into Sunday we were treated to ESPN’s nattering nabobs insisting Georgia couldn’t be considered for the BCS title game because it didn’t win its conference. (Said Mark Richt: “We were unofficially disqualified.”) Some of those same voices also claimed the Bulldogs didn’t win their division. Let the record show that Georgia was co-champion of the SEC East.
Alas, too many people — BCS voters obviously among them — believe only what they hear on television. Even Mike Slive, the BCS coordinator and SEC commissioner, admitted Sunday night that the BCS might need to educate its electorate. “That’s a good question, and it’s one I will take to the table in April,” he said. “We might need to say, ‘These are fundamental principles and concepts we expect our voters to think about.’ “
Georgia could and should have been considered. Georgia could and should be playing Ohio State. Instead it’s LSU, which has had more reprieves than Liz Taylor has had husbands. Instead it’s the team that managed one offensive touchdown against Tennessee and needed a late interception return to find the winning points.
The criteria for entrance to the BCS title game shift with the winds and the seasons. There was a time when the idea was to pair the best teams. At this moment, Georgia is the nation’s best team. And if you’re saying, “Georgia lacks LSU’s body of work,” are we to believe 10-2 is appreciably different from 11-2? Each beat Florida, Auburn and Alabama. Georgia beat Kentucky, which beat LSU. LSU beat Tennessee and South Carolina, which beat Georgia.
Here’s the difference: Since losing at Tennessee on Oct. 6, Georgia has moved ever upward, while LSU has wobbled all over creation. LSU has lost twice since Georgia lost last, and both of the Tigers’ losses came when they were ranked No. 1. The Bulldogs haven’t been, and won’t be, granted the chance to prove they’re No. 1 or even No. 2, but the fierce belief here is that they would beat anybody — LSU, Ohio State, Southern Cal, Oklahoma — on a neutral field.
What happened to the Bulldogs is worse than what befell Auburn in 2004. Those Tigers went unbeaten but were barred from the BCS championship game because Southern Cal and Oklahoma started the season Nos. 1 and 2 and didn’t lose. At least there was numeric consistency to that snub. Four years later Georgia climbed to No. 4 but somehow fell to No. 5 in final BCS standings while No. 7 bounded all the way to No. 2.
Yes, it’s amazing — an amazing disgrace.
Permalink | Comments (1008) | Categories: Mark Bradley
Dogs deserve title shot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Georgia should play for the national championship.
Georgia, which didn’t win its conference title.
Georgia, which lost at home to South Carolina.
Georgia, which lost by 21 points in Knoxville.
Georgia should play for the national championship.
Georgia, not LSU.
A regular season that has beggared belief went crazy in its final throes Saturday. Missouri lost to Oklahoma, which was semi-expected. West Virginia lost at home to Pittsburgh, giving Appalachian State a bookend for most improbable upsets of an astonishing year. Pitt was a 28-point underdog and won. And now Georgia should get its chance to play for the national title.
Georgia, with its two losses.
Georgia, not LSU.
I know, I know. The Tigers are SEC champs. I sat at the Dome and watched them beat Tennessee and heard Les Miles’ loving descriptions of his team. “Anybody who saw this game would certainly understand this team [is] arguably the finest team in the country,” he said, and I would agree in theory but not in actuality.
LSU is the most talented team, but it hasn’t played to its abundant gifts. Even in dispatching Tennessee the Tigers nearly undid themselves: They trailed after each of the first three quarters; they outgained Tennessee by 121 yards but canceled out much of that with nine penalties (to the Vols’ none) and needed two inexplicable Erik Ainge interceptions to take and keep the lead.
Were football a beauty contest, LSU would be Miss World. But the Tigers haven’t overwhelmed a decent opponent since beating Virginia Tech on Sept. 8, and — here’s the key part — have already been afforded every chance to stamp themselves as great. They’ve been ranked No. 1 on two occasions and couldn’t hold it either time. They lost at Kentucky and at home to Arkansas, both times in triple overtime, but both times without ever throwing a hammerlock on an eminently winnable game. Miles can whine all he wants about how overtime losses aren’t necessarily a fair gauge, but what else, barring the defunct tie, do we have?
Miles: “I don’t exactly know how the votes will go, but we’re the champions of the finest conference in America. We played Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida. I challenge any other team in America to go through this conference and come out unscathed.”
Georgia isn’t unscathed, but it did beat three of the four teams Miles referenced. And it did beat Kentucky. And LSU has lost twice since Georgia lost last. And does anyone doubt that Georgia would have put up a better fight than the Vols and very possibly have won Saturday? Didn’t think so.
We can argue forever over the incongruity of a non-conference champ playing for the national title, but the arcane system continues to allow for such an occurrence. As Mark Richt said earlier in the week, “The people who run the BCS have had the opportunity to say that you must be a conference champion to play for the national title, and for whatever reason they haven’t said that.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that a non-champion has graced the BCS title game. And if you’re saying, “Wait a second — Georgia has two losses.” So does LSU. Someone’s going to become the first two-loss team to play for the title. Better to get the right two-loss team.
The greater injustice would be for LSU to lose its final regular-season game and then be allowed, on the strength of a seven-point victory in the conference title game, to pass a team that has won its past six. The greater injustice would be for the Tigers to get a third shot to prove it’s No. 1 when Georgia hasn’t yet had one. The greater injustice would be to penalize the Bulldogs just because they weren’t on TV Saturday.
Georgia should play for the national championship.
Georgia, not LSU.
Georgia.
Permalink | Comments (570) | Categories: Mark Bradley
