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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 26
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Better their pain than ours
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As my daughter and I were walking across the bridge after the game Saturday, I heard a Jackets fan behind us lament, “What a [expletive] end to a great season.”
UGA fans could flip that around.
With wins over two nationally ranked teams (and two of our biggest rivals) coming on the heels of losing to Vandy and Kentucky, Georgia at least in part redeemed its season. Sure, we could fret about the mystery of how the same team that beat Auburn and the Jackets could look so bad against lesser teams, but that would just spoil the feel-good buzz of retaining the Governor’s Cup for a sixth straight year, so let’s not go there right now.
Back in August, when we were hazarding a guess of what Georgia’s won-loss record would be this season (we both said 9-3), my son thought we had a pretty good chance of beating Auburn but felt this year was the Jackets’ best chance to beat the Dawgs. I wasn’t so confident about Auburn, but at that time (before those losses to Vandy and UK), I wasn’t worried about the Tech game. “After all,” I said, “they’re still playing Reggieball.”
Considering the way Ball had played previously against Georgia, it didn’t take a football genius to figure he’d probably play a large role in the Dawgs winning again. As we got closer to the game, I thought Georgia still stood a decent chance against what, on paper, was a better team, if only they could rattle Reggie early. Turned out that wasn’t even necessary; the Dawgs appeared to be in his head from the opening whistle.
I heard quite a few Georgia fans after the game saying they hope the Jackets win the ACC so we can say we beat that conference’s champion. Not me. I hate ’em 365 days a year, and I’d like nothing better than to see that [expletive] end to what was supposed to be a great season extend on through the ACC game and their bowl. Just think, if the Dawgs can win their bowl and the Jackets lose their next two, we’d be 9-4 and they’d be 9-5.
Woof woof.
MORE GOOD, SOME BAD: I thought after he showed up big late last season that Paul Oliver would be something special this year. Along with too many others on the team, he didn’t really assert himself the way I’d expected for much of this season, but Oliver had a career day Saturday. Let’s face it, he owns Calvin Johnson. … Both Kregg Lumpkin and Danny Ware looked good in spurts Satuday, though we never really did get our running game established until that last drive (nice timing). Dawgs receivers still dropped a couple of passes, but Mohamed Massaquoi couldn’t have picked a better time to return to his last-season form (making all those who booed him earlier this season or accused him of deliberately dropping balls look pretty foolish). Looks like the Stafford-to-MoMass connection is going to be a special one for Georgia in the future. … It didn’t end up biting us in the tail, but I’m not sure that strategy of not using our most reliable player, Brannan Southerland, was a wise one. No matter what kind of defense you’re facing, I’d think you’d want a proven playmaker on the field. … What a heads-up play by Tony Taylor on that fumble recovery for a touchdown. The Jackets can moan all they want about the officials not blowing a whistle during the extended scrum before Taylor grabbed the ball and ran, but the call held up in video review. And considering other notorious fumble calls or no-calls in this series that went the other way, I figure we’re still owed one. … Another celebration penalty for needless showboating resulted in a long kickoff return that gave the opponent great field position, leading to a TD. Coach Richt said after the game that Tra Battle set a bad example in the Auburn game, but the real fault was Richt defending Battle’s unnecessary leap into the endzone. That sent the wrong kind of message. Let’s hope now he’ll make it clear to his players that such hotdogging can cost you points. As the old sports cliché goes, act like you’ve been there before. … Willie Martinez’s defense played its second very good game in a row (can’t say great because we’re still inconsistent in stopping the run). And the offense finally put a great drive together after sputtering most of the day (it’s hard enough to overcome an aggressive defense like the Jackets’ without having to also overcome stupid drive-killing penalties by a senior offensive lineman like Daniel Inman). But with the exception of Asher Allen’s 32-yard kickoff return to set up Georgia’s scoring drive, our special teams mostly played poorly and almost cost us the game. Again. Of course, there’s not much that could be done about the kicking game, where the stress of trying to handle placekicking as well as handling punts — combined with everybody sending the house after those blocked punts earlier this season — has obviously hurt Gordon Ely-Kelso’s punting. (If Georgia needs a field goal in the bowl game, maybe Richt should just toss a coin in deciding which kicker to send out there. Better yet would be not to need a field goal.) But, really, can’t we find some guys who know how to stick a tackle for the kickoff coverage team? The tackling on that long return by the Jackets was ridiculously bad. … Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that LSU gets into the BCS. If they do, we’re looking good for the Peach-fil-A Bowl. If they don’t, we still might wind up in the Music City or Liberty. … Another classic Munson call: “Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown! My God, a touchdown! Touchdown!”
BULLDOG BITES: If you’d like to vote for the Stafford-to-MoMass TD pass as the Pontiac Game-Changing Performance of the week, go to ESPN.com. … I caught the basketball Dawgs in action against Alabama A&M Friday night. Georgia looked really good at times, particularly shooting three-pointers and with some aggressive defense, but got awfully sloppy at other times, turning the ball over way too many times. And our play under the basket needs a lot of work. One promising note: Junior college transfer Takais Brown scored 16 points in 17 minutes when inserted in the second half.
BUM NOTES: If you look up nerd in the dictionary, it has a picture of that caffeine-crazed idiot announcer for the Trade School band. I always get a laugh, too, out of that band’s tradition of playing the Budweiser theme at the end of the third quarter. Makes me feel like I’m back in 1972. How quaint. And what security genius devised the plan to block off a major student-section exit point after the game and keep thousands waiting to get out while the Jackets’ band made their escape. Very. Slowly.
