Everything's Not Lost

Greetings OTR readers, I have a special treat for you today. Our good friend "Dollar" Bill Kitson is joining us for a guest column about the events that transpired in Sanford Tomb, er, Stadium.

Bill's take is the optimistic ying to my apocolpytic yang. So sit back and enjoy, because I have a feeling we'll be seeing Bill on OTR a lot more often...

Like a lot of you, I was witness to one of the most heartbreaking thrashings I’ve even been privy too Saturday night. And like the rest of you, I came home with a hoarse voice and a desire to punch things. After all the dust has settled and the polls have come out, however, I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect, and losing the game is certainly not reason to abandon all hope.

Without looking at the game tapes at all, I can say that a lot of people are instinctively calling this loss a season-breaker for all of the preseason hopes, when in reality nothing could be further from the truth. Looking from a sheer BCS standpoint, a few things jump out at me. Alabama is in the SEC West. Not only does this give Georgia an advantage in case of a SEC-CG tiebreaker over anybody other than Florida, but also that if they take care of business, will have every chance to avenge this loss in December.

Nobody but those most afflicted by homerism truly expected the Dawgs to make it out of their schedule undefeated. Everyone I’ve heard from expected it to be one of the LSU/Florida/Auburn stretch. However, quite frankly, losing to Florida this season would be a loss impossible to recover from, because it would give them the edge in a tiebreaker. As for Auburn or LSU, time has proven that the BCS penalizes late losses much more than early ones. Last year was an aberration for LSU, as at least five teams had equally valid claims to the title.

However, ask Missouri fans about the nature of the BCS, having only been beaten by the #3 ranked team yet excluded from a BCS bowl due to their loss in the final week.The last three SEC teams to make it to the BCS Championship did not go undefeated. LSU lost to #18 Kentucky in Lexington and unranked Arkansas in Baton Rouge, both of which look worse on paper than a loss to then #8 Alabama. The 2006 Gators lost to a fairly overrated Auburn team at Auburn (who if you’ll recall, got mud-stomped by an unranked Georgia team also at Auburn a few week later), and the 2004 LSU team lost to an unranked Florida team who had the disadvantage of being coached by Ron Zook and playing in Baton Rouge. All of those losses were ugly blotches on their résumé (especially in LSU’s case), but in the end, the voters correctly picked the best team to go to the championship.

Of the 10 teams currently ahead of Georgia in the AP poll, 6 of them (Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, Texas Tech, Texas, and LSU) have at least one game against the other. Worst-case scenario, four of them have to lose at some point. Leaving the two teams that didn’t, along with USC, a plucky Penn State team, a relatively unknown South Florida team, and the Brigham Young Stormin’ Mormons. Not only do I not foresee these teams finishing their schedule undefeated, I have serious doubt in at least two cases whether they would be favored over a one-loss SEC team, Georgia or otherwise.

Of course, all of this blind justification is for naught if Georgia can’t play with the big boys. And for the first half of Saturday night, they certainly couldn’t. But again, it’s very easy to find bright spots if you’re not throwing the mud at them yourself. First off, the offensive line. For all the complaining that has been done about them this year, they are improving. They allowed half the amount of sacks to a superior Alabama front line than they did to Carolina’s, and the only line that I can confidently claim as better than Alabama is LSU. Not to say they were perfect, but for all the penetration that Alabama seemingly got, the line managed to get Matthew Stafford just enough time to get the ball out of his hand. For those of you berating it as a thrashing, I have to question your memory. A thrashing is Colt Brennan getting knocked down nearly every single play, not a better line overpowering a group of freshmen for a lot of hurries and two sacks. (Anecdotally, according to ESPN, 85% of Georgians thought that we had a better offense than Alabama pregame. 92% of Hawai’ians thought the same. Think we left a message?)

Furthermore, you may recall that the O-Line was just as much of a problem last year against South Carolina and Tennessee. How many of you lamenting the loss of Trinton Sturdivant actually knew who he was at this time last year? Because he had to adjust to the level of competition too. A month ago, the stiffest competition Ben Jones had continuously faced was very likely more concerned with getting turned down to Prom than sacking a quarterback, and was often concerned with whether he wanted to go to Sonic or Checkers after the game was over. That’s a slight difference from the monster that was Terrance Cody, who himself was impressed enough with Jones’s play to congratulate him at then end of the game.

The other beacon of the two-headed criticism monster, Blair Walsh, looked significantly better yesterday. He had little issue with his 43-yard field goal, and his kickoffs were, for once, not the reason for the opponent’s excellent field position. He’s another true freshman that has shown significant improvement.

Also underrated was the play of Matthew Stafford. Seemingly contradictory to the previous point, he seemed to be scrambling on almost every play, and never had the time to really get a feel in the pocket, he still had a 2:1 TD/Interception ratio, a completion percentage that compares to his career numbers, and a total yardage that would have been a career high before this season started. While his decision making seemed suspect at time, throwing into double coverage, he also made his share of remarkable throws on quick decisions, and can think of at least three passes (the holding call on 4th and 18, AJ Green’s lateral to Dont’a Hightower, and an almost spectacular grab by Michael Moore, who lost the ball as he fell to the ground) that would have allowed him to set his career high, despite the complete lack of a semblance of a running game.

Finally, the heart of the team. I’ve referenced it before, but those of you who followed the Dawgs in the Jim Donnan era would have completely given up at halftime. Yet the Dawgs came back energized, and did everything they can to rally. And even when players were dropping (Ellerbe, Lomax, Chandler, Durham, and even Moreno), the team continued to play hard. As Adam referenced, Rennie Curran waved off a substitution late in the second half after getting banged up, because he wasn’t ready to quit yet, even when it seemed half the fans in the stadium already had. Factoring in the slew of injuries to the inability of Battle and Sutherland to play yet (and I know I’m missing one more person who’s expected back soon), it seems like there was a good portion of Georgia’s second string in the game rallying against Bama’s first, and if you think that Saban was taking it easy on the Dawgs up by two touchdowns with a quarter left to go, you might as well stop reading right now, because my optimism is not powerful enough to overpower that despair.

The only things about the game that truly worry me are the onslaught of injuries that plagued Georgia and the continuous stream of penalties that seemingly have no purpose. I don’t know how you can teach a young player not to get personal fouls, but there are 117 coaches in the NCAA who have done it better than Georgia this year, and there are not 117 coaches in the NCAA better that Mark Richt. Willie Martinez, maybe, but I digress.

The injuries could prove to be a problem as well, but the bye week was fortuitously in our favor, and a comeback week against Jonathan “Reggie Ball” Crompton and the hapless Vols could be just what the Dawgs need to be revitalized.

Don’t get me wrong; Saturday night was not a fluke. Georgia deserved to get beaten, and there are plenty of things that need to be addressed in the next two weeks. Brian Mimbs’ determination to counteract his 77 yard boot with a handful of 15 yard ones, Willie Martinez’s all-encompassing terror of the deep threat, causing a soft coverage that makes Georgia susceptible to 7 to 10 yard screen plays and Rennie Curran getting no assistance chasing a quarterback from 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage to 8 yards in front of (ugh), and the complete lack of a Marcus Howard/David Pollack type player to pressure the quarterback for the first time in ages. However, I’m sure that Coach Richt is quite aware of these things, as well as what appears to be every single blogger and ESPN member on the internet, so I’ll leave the pessimism to them.

I’ll let this go with one more anecdote. As I dragged my feet away from Sanford Stadium, I was furious to hear a band at Boar’s Head playing the Stones’s “You Can’t Always Get what you Want.” I hate this downtown band now, and curse them to a lifetime of opening shows for Nickelback cover bands. However, Jagger’s words of wisdom hold true, because while an undefeated season might have been what every Bulldawg fan wanted, the kick in the ass and bye week given to us appear to be just exactly what we need