College Playoffs - Dawgs Seed #3

No way can we throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak but to beat 'Bama and/or win the NC, he's going to have to accept you can't win the same way teams won in 1995.

He's also going to have to stop falling in love with the little train that could. The difference between us and them was a Heisman caliber QB and big fast 5 star receivers.

We may can still find a way, but it's a weak odds bet and we will have to play almost perfect in all 3 phases to do it. We just don't have a player on offense that can take over a game. The rules for defenses make it tough for that side of the ball, and 'bama exposed several things in our D. We suck at zone without a great rush and if you can keep us from rotating our linemen we suck with a lack of stamina.

Wart… agree we can’t keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole…

That being said … don’t look to have Bama tested against Cincy…
Or having to overthink a game plan

We on the other hand need to regain our identity…

Michigan needs to be the focus….Go Dawgs

I went silent after the Bama game because I'm also numb to losing the big games. I haven't smoked the hopium since the 2012 SECCG. That pretty much took the hopium out of my pipe. (Which is a good thing, since Bama did it again, twice in recent years.)

Let me wear my tinfoil hat for a moment though. . .

SB IV may not have lost the game for us, but he sure didn't win it either. I could go on about that. BUT . . .

What happened to our defense? Are we really not that good? Is Alabama that great? I can't believe either of those are "yes".

Prior to the game, I predicted (elsewhere) that the SEC Commissioner, Sankey, wanted TWO teams in the CFP, not ONE. It DOUBLES the odds of the SEC having another Natty in it's possession. I predicted that he would want Bama to win, knowing that UGA would be in anyway. I predicted that UGA players and coaches would not really feel like killing themselves to win what would really amount to a totally meaningless game - win and you get to play Cincy, sure, but you also get to play the winner of Michigan/Bama anyway. Lose and you play Michigan, but you also play Bama again. Who cares? Why kill yourself over a meaningless conference championship game that doesn't help you at all if you win, and doesn't really hurt you if you lose? So I predicted Sankey would make a call to Kirby and wink and nod and we would lose that game. I'm not REALLY serious that that's what happened, but you know what? It may as well have been.

Our D didn't seem very aggressive AT ALL. Four man rushes against a Heisman QB seemed pretty lame, and the result shows it.

Anyway, thanks for allowing me my moment of insane conspiracy. Now for at least a sign of support from the gambling world. I don't EVER gamble. BUT . . . I am fascinated by the wild success of gamblers at predicting game outcomes and spreads. Here is an article that at least shows we haven't lost all respect in the game of college football:

www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/32800960/n...eorgia-michigan-line

Now back to my dark, depressing room, where I can ponder the weird habit we have of abandoning what works at QB and across the defense . . .

I understand your conspiracy to a degree, but I would note that the D primarily got steam-rolled in the second qtr when they went up-tempo, all pass, and our offense was on the field a grand total of about 53 seconds.

That is scenario our D never faced this season, and they didn't have the stamina to hold up, and Kirby Richt did them no favors by not even bothering to call a timeout.

I also get the "maybe Stetson didn't lose it" to some degree, but I think there are things that didn't happen that are hard to measure. Those quick 3 and outs in the 2nd qtr where he made terrible passes absolutely killed the D.

So in reality I am sure the commish with a wink a nod was hoping for 2 teams in the CFP, but it needs to be noted that Kirby and the rest of our team were very compliant in allowing those wishes to come to fruition. Compliant through their ineptitude.

JT Daniels is ranked 9th for the Heisman in 2022.


Yet still not good enough to beat out Stetson Bennett as the Georgia starter..

#kirbyrichtclownworld

Thriller...

You're not crazy. When I was watching the game with Pop, he even said the same thing you did. He looked at me and said "wouldn't surprise me if they want two SEC teams in the CFP and Kirby dutifully obeyed." While I don't think this is the case, would it surprise me? No. It wouldn't.

What happened to the defense? Is Bama that great? No. What happened to our defense is that a scheme was run to exploit our greatest weakness: the secondary. I pointed this out numerous times during the week leading up to the SECCG. Bama knew that they weren't going to win that game by running on us, and they weren't going to let us run on them. They also knew the UGA game plan would be to get pressure on BY, so what did they do? They negated it by running up tempo, quick snapping, and quick releasing the ball. Do that enough times against a defense you know is soft in secondary and hasn't been really tested all year and guess what? The explosive plays are going to be there, and there they were. They murdered us on 3rd downs. Georgia couldn't get off the field on 3rd and whatevers. The defense wasn't used to being stretched that long and got exhausted. That's when Bama put the pedal to the floor and the defense was broken. You could see it as clear as day. The infamous Jordan Davis "gassed" play was about the time when the defense was totally cracked and shut down. Then they could have their way with us, and they did.

It was just a surgical dismantling of the defense by exploiting its biggest weakness. Georgia hasn't been a great man defense this season - they've been an otherworldly trap defense. They have been a swarming trap defense and move the defense rapidly to the ball carrier. In a trap, you create chaos, force the quarterback to panic and then capitalize by taking away a quick option underneath in a scheme that allows the defense to limit the deep ball. That's why we haven't been burned this season for many explosive plays, until Bama. But when the defense is tired, this falls apart. Well, any defensive scheme falls apart if the defense is gassed, but you get my point.

As far as SBIV and JT go...I'm just out of words at this point. I'm the equivalent of defensively gassed with this subject. I knew the bullsh-t was being spread on thick when Kirby said before the Charleston Southern game "we evaluate each QB in every practice and determine who gives us the best chance to win." Against Charleston Southern?! Yeah Kirby, go sell this lunacy to someone else.