In truth I hope that one day I look back on this and wish I had deleted it. Again, prove the numbers wrong. But nevertheless, here is where I am.
It's one game, you're right.
One game a season does not make. What happened Saturday night could still end up being just a blip. Perhaps. That certainly wasn't the same team we saw the first five games. So 60 minutes shouldn't warrant throwing everything away and going back to square one.
But the Georgia Bulldogs don't get their teeth kicked in like that by South Carolina. Steve Spurrier only needed 10 (TEN!) passes to beat us by four touchdowns. Let that sink in for a moment. For those like me that have been following this thing called Georgia football for quite sometime realize the bitter humor in that fact.
Can the Bulldogs still win the East? Yes, there's a chance. Should I be this distraught over one game? It's debatable, but I would answer yes. Someone told me yesterday that whether you lose by one point or 30 it just feels bad. I guess part of that is true. However, sometimes it's not just the loss but how you look when you're losing.
I made the comment the other day that this was the worst loss since Tennessee 2009. My reasoning for that is that we never were in it and we never really looked like we wanted to be. At least against Bama in '08 we showed some spunk. We tried.
Saturday was a poor effort. I'm not one to blame players because they are doing something I could never do. And I certainly don't like blaming coaches because you get your hand slapped for having never walked in their shoes. But hey, this is me...standing outside the arena...saying I never saw any adjustments to what Carolina was bringing to the table. You've heard of teams thinking they can just lay their jersey on the field and that's enough to beat an opponent? Well, we were a deer caught in the headlights. And instead of leading the team in a different direction, the coaches laid the G down and the Gamecocks stomped that sucker flat.
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| via ABH |
Speaking of flat...
Coach Richt, the world is not flat.
Stubbornness can be admirable in certain situations. But there are times when a man needs to accept the facts before him and admit failure. Coach Richt...son, your team was flat. The bus that brought them had flat tires. The air in the pre-game practice balls were flat. Your headset, flat! The carbonation in my Coke Zero, flat!
A team that isn't flat doesn't trail 21-0 by the time the band finishes getting seated. They make the plays necessary to get the game into its natural, non-opening kickoff rhythm. The Gamecocks sustained their opening energy level for the entire first quarter.
Don't mind me. I'm just here again, yelling outside the arena. But it was apparent from listening to the coordinators that it's not just Richt that won't admit fault, it's his staff. And no, that's not surprising. But, that doesn't make it any less frustrating. South Carolina is not 28 points better than Georgia. And while it's the players that make the plays or don't, it's the coaches that need to own up to the current trends...we're not shining when we need to the most.
Coach Grantham, if it was "explosive plays" that hurt us, then these are the games when something needs to be drawn up that detonates in the other direction. Coach Bobo, if it was momentum that never shifted our way, then it is up to you to have the plays necessary to turn on the fans.
And Coach Richt, you can't tell me you see the same guy in the mirror that once ate road wins like potato chips; the guy that once convinced his team they were man enough, gave Haynes the hobnail for his boot, or let Michael Johnson loose on the Plains. We keep waiting for that guy to come back. All the while you keep showing us that history won't repeat itself.
Speaking of mirrors, I'm now putting this one in the rearview. Thanks for bearing with me. Let's get after the rest of the season.
4 comments:
Could not have said it any better myself ! Thanks Bernie !!
Agreed Bernie!!!
Better learn to be content with 8-10 win seasons and a New Years Day bowl... Ain't nothing gonna change until leadership changes. Sadly....
They do not admit fault and give us the "there is a lot of football to be played" line, which we seem to pull out at least once a year around this time. I need someone to give me a Tim Tebow moment and promise that it will never happen again as long as they are at this school. Is that too much to ask?
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