Friday, October 2, 2015

Two keys beating Bama

I'm getting this out of the way early so I can concentrate on making sure everything is packed and ready to go for the morning trek. And also to get at least a little rest while my bones are dry.

There are so many important keys to games like these. You have two evenly matched teams that are very similar in mindset and what they want to do to win the game. You have coaches that are very familiar with each other's programs. A lot of elite talent on both sides of the ball.

And of course much has been made about the psyche of each team - Bama with their backs to the wall, and Georgia out to prove this is a new era and upswing.

But...in the end, with the game on the line, it still comes down to those big bodies in the trenches. So...
  1. Who wins the battles at the line of scrimmage? If Georgia is to exert their will running the football, the offensive line must be up to their greatest challenge yet. And Pruitt's front seven have to pin their ears back and cause chaos in Bama's running game to force Coker into attempting to win this game.
  2. Protect the football. It's gonna be a slopknocker of a game. Messy? Woo, Lords yes. The pigskin will be at a premium and the team that shows the greatest aptitude for holding onto the football will have a decided advantage. Everything from not having balls slip through receivers' hands, fielding punts cleanly, good exchanges in the backfield...(realizes he's preaching to the choir, takes a deep breath...)
To be perfectly clear, both Alabama and Georgia will need to bring their A game. But I think we'll see the Dawgs come out looser in their stance and more ready to "get a little action in" than their adversaries tomorrow afternoon. So the first five minutes of the game could be nearly as critical (maybe even more so...) as the last five.

Friday Misery - it's time to RING THE BELL AND RUN TELL DAT!

Dear Lord Jesus, please. 
Just, please.
Please join us in the Jazz Hands!
Amen.


The danger of revisiting historical references is our innate ability as humans Georgia Bulldogs to repeat past failures. What I mean by that is this: the 2015 Georgia Bulldogs never were part of the 2008 Blackout. Some of them were barely in middle school at the time. And most of this year's roster weren’t in the Dome when the confetti rained crimson instead of red. (Those that were there however know that this game can be won or lost on just a handful of plays.)


Together, you and I, let’s take a step forward and turn our backs on the past. Billy Bennett was “Man Enough”, but that was over a decade ago. “One and Done” was spectacular, but now Stafford gets paid millions to make those throws. The Bicentennial Beatdown was before the forward pass was even legal.


I think.


I want to make a statement about THIS football team, not their predecessors. I know the heartbreak that can come from losing a game of this magnitude. You do too. There’s no need to remind ourselves. Let’s focus on 2015. Let’s make tomorrow special. For although we cannot control the past, we can grasp the future.


On this episode of wOrD PLaY!!...
If you rearrange the letters in “Alabama Crimson Tide Football” you get “Yes, Jonathan Taylor was once here”.


If you go to Thesaurus.com (aka Blogger’s Paradise City), and enter “Nick Saban”, the third entry down on the second column is Dwarfmongerer. So then you click on Dictionary.com (aka “Help I don’t know WTF this means”) and enter “Dwarfmongerer” and find out it’s a noun that means a greedy, narcissistic dictator that also uses a step stool to address his minions.


Ask bonafide Crimson Tidal graduates what the word “Chubb” means and the male will look down at his private organ and chuckle, while the female one will sigh deeply. Then pick her nose.


It is untrue that Alabama ranks at the bottom of the nation in college entrance exam scores. Now that you can no longer take the SAT barefooted they’ve pulled ahead of Tennessee on the math section by exactly 10 points.


From the Alabama wikis -
Scholars believe the word comes from the Choctaw alba (meaning "plants" or "weeds") and amo (meaning "to cut", "to trim", or "to gather"). The meaning may have been "clearers of the thicket or "herb gatherers", referring to clearing land for cultivation or collecting medicinal plants.
If only it meant “clearers of the nose and back hair” instead, am I right ladies?

From the police blotter - 
Krystalling - /verb/ to rub one’s privates on any drunken, unsuspecting poor bastard.


And in the words of noted Alabammian Culturalist Antoine Dodson - “Run tell dat!


Your voice is not enough
Every ounce of energy must be left at your seat tomorrow night. If you walk out of the Sanford gates with anything in the tank you have failed the team you came to cheer for. Win or lose, it must all be spent. Do you want to wake up Sunday morning and realize you had more to give and instead of offering it to the team, the atmosphere, the cool night air that will hang over us like a gridiron shroud, you decided to hold onto it?


For what? Why hold onto something that has the sole purpose of being used in support of the Red and Black? Why keep within you what has been born with the sole purpose of coming out?


We are Georgia. We stretch the leash to the very end. We use every muscle and every ounce of intestinal fortitude to latch onto what we feel is rightfully ours, whether it’s Robert Baker’s ass or a clearer path to championship destiny. We pound the G, because to lightly tap it is to tell Billy Bennett he doesn’t have enough leg, or to tell Mikey Henderson he’s too small, or to accept UGA admin’s advice and just stay the hell home.


In the words of Mrs. Bernie, “Aw hell no!”


We POUND the G! because our heart must be in it to win it. We STAND UP because to sit is to endorse complacence. We FINISH THE DRILL because there are those that are expecting nothing less. We GET AFTER THAT ASS because, simply put, crimson and white looks better with grass stains.


We POUND the G!! because our voice is not nearly enough. We enter together and we leave together, for better or worse, with one game to lose and everything to gain.


via
They are alabama. They live in opulence, practice indoors, and are above any and all criticism mere mortals clumsily propel their way. They have no need to pander for they are the ones who are pandered to. They eat extra salty pork rinds drizzled in chocolate syrup, past due date cream cheese, and peanut butter covered fatback just to prove they can still shit out five stars. They twitch and ESPN squirms. They invent new historic trophies just to indulge their sense of entitlement. If/When they lose, it’s because the game balanced itself as an outlier; a whimsical happenstance for the ages rather than an honest toe to toe tussle of might and strength.


We are GEORGIA. We’ve been rained on all week. We fight for every morsel of attention cast our way and earn every ounce of respect given. We watch our weight and, regardless of false rating systems, appreciate every young man who signs on to wear the G. We reminisce without reinvention. We take what’s been earned and give back when necessary. While we admit to taking indoor plumbing for granted, we’re not one to brag about blessings. When we win, it’s because of the work, the effort, the blood, the sweat, and the tears that got us there.


Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting. SO LET'S GET THIS THING ON AND RING THE GODDAMN BELL!

"This will get your blood pumping!!"

As a matter of fact it did Coach. It absolutely did!


Thursday, October 1, 2015

STICK TO THE PLAN!!

DO NOT DEVIATE, regardless of what Joaquin says.

The talking is all about the weather. I saw ticket prices dropping this morning.

Are the two related? I think so.

Should they be related? I don't think so. (btw, go read this by CorbinDawg. You're welcome.)

Remember. This is important...
...and you don't want to get to January when football goes back behind the curtain and doesn't want to play with you for months on end and sure you can go to Athens and can even take bourbon with you but the atmosphere is different and the band doesn't play.

IT'S RAIN. STORES SELL COATS MADE JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF TAILGATING IN IT!

Besides, if you sell your tickets just to prove that Random Bama Fan cares more about winning than you do and then sit your made of sugar ass at home, then the sun shines on one of the greatest sporting events in Sanford Stadium's history, the only question left to answer will be..

Why?

Winning with morals. Is it getting easier?

Dan Wolken's "Georgia takes the higher road" article is making the rounds. Lengthy read that is at times uncomfortable and at others quite cozy.

Essentially I come down to this...
“Do I like losing? Hell no, I want to win every one,” said Dink NeSmith, president of Athens-based Community Newspapers, Inc., and a former Board of Regents chairman. “But I’m not willing to sell my soul to the devil just to say we won. There’s a certain pride, without being condescending, where we try to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
 ...and this concluding thought - "Can't we have both a higher standard and all the success we desire?"

It's a question I've been asking since well before I started blogging. And now that some of the monetary handicaps from the earlier years of the Mark Richt Era are gone, I think we're much, much closer to an answer.

Bama week - a battle of the minds and the muscle

Most of the commentary I've seen and heard this week gives Georgia the edge in having multiple game changers. Personally, it's probably closer to even except for one guy - Sony Michel. I agree that the Dawgs may have better talent at receiver, but it's largely untested in the scope of a game of this magnitude.

Still, the Tide lost one of their best receivers in Robert Foster a couple weeks ago. To fill some of that void, Saban hinted that they may use Cyrus Jones in a receiving role Saturday against the Dawgs. Jones is a senior defensive back and one of Alabama's more explosive players. He's their leading punt returner and is a guy that can find space quickly.
Saban said using cornerback Cyrus Jones some at wide receiver is "something that we've discussed and certainly, probably have to consider in the future." Starting wide receiver Robert Foster suffered a season-ending injury against Ole Miss Sept. 19. Tide wide receivers had six dropped passes last week.
Still, OJ Howard remains the big target that Pruitt's defense must focus on stopping. Or at least minimizing his impact.
Howard leads the team in receiving yards despite not catching a touchdown this season. At 6-foot-6 242 pounds with wide receiver skills, the Alabama native creates matchup problems for every team The Crimson Tide faces. He’s quick and athletic enough to gain clean releases at the line of scrimmage. He’s too big and physical for defensive backs to cover him but too athletic for linebackers. It’ll take a strong game plan and proper execution to throw him off his game.
And Ty Flournoy-Smith has a couple catches on the season too. Remember him?

I said early in the week that this is one of those games that will be won in the trenches, and I still believe that. Both teams have been in games like this before, even against each other. In the fourth quarter, when the game is in the balance and there is a critical third down, someone is either going to win or lose right there at the line of scrimmage.

That being said, the offense that does the better job stretching the defense from sideline to sideline as well as down the field will have a tremendous edge in winning the line of scrimmage. Kiffin will want to get Drake, Henry, Stewart, and Ridley into space with the ball, just as Schottenheimer will try to with Chubb, Michel, Mitchell, Blazevich, and McKenzie.

I think both teams will want to do that without getting cute. Imposing one's will on the other will be the order of the day for at least the first half. Who pulls out the reverse pass or other trickerations out of the playbook first?

This game is why Richt went out in January and got Brian Schottenheimer. This game is why we got an offensive line coach with a hard edge in Rob Sale. This game is what makes Tracy Rocker so pissed off at the entire world.

In short, tighten those chin straps boys. Rammer Jammer Yeller Hammer. Hunker it down one more time!

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Hey Human Joystick! Welcome to Moe's!!

Much ado about nothing...

Bama week - Bama boots > Bama bangs

Let's take a break from the heavy lifting this morning, shall we?

Remember this lady from that game when Big Game Bob pulled Saban's pants down? 

Her name is Lindee Lou Sue Hickey and she's from the outskirts of Tuscaloosa where she lives with her common law husband Steve and their three parakeets - Bear, Bear 2, and Joe Willie. Her ex-husband has custody of their two girls, so she has to work part time at Dreamland.

No, not Dreamland the restaurant chain. Dreamland Boutique and Tanning Salon.

Steve loves him some Lindee Lou Sue. And Lindee Lou Sue loves her some Red Bull and Tito's. On just a regular Friday night back in Cottondale it's a match made in Heaven. But after a three day trip to New Orleans (one in which she's already spent a minute in the paddy wagon for earning some beads too enthusiastically) and a day long tailgate, even Steve will admit that it can get ugly.

Especially if her muscle memory isn't impaired enough to perform the Top Rope Flyin' Rabid Squirrel of Death Lunge.


Lindee Lou Sue's blood-alcohol level is a modest .26, but her faculties are keen to Oklahoma Mob's cultural insults. Steve remembers all the crushed cans in the parking lot outside and recognizes that gleam in her eye. It's the one she had just before she knocked her half sister's two front teeth out for suggesting Lindee Lou Sue pay her rent before going down to "Eddie's Cheep Liqur Mart [sic]".

Still, Lindee Lou Sue seems willing to go back to her seat and send Steve for another gin and tonic and soft pretzel to help her get through the rest of this menagerie's bullshit with a football game on the side. But Sooner Brat has to get in one more insult.

And Lindee Lou Sue wore her boots.


Sorry, those aren't boots. Lindee Lou Sue wore her "Shit Kickers". Talk about her family all you want. Tell her husband that she wears the pants in the relationship while giving them the double-fingered salute? Fine. You can even suggest that AJ McCarron isn't the best at his trade after that second interception.

But yell something about the size of her coach's genitalia...oh, it's on bitch boy!

Humpday Hilarity - Crimson Tide laundry day


Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Richt not biting on Vegas

But I'm all in on the "no reaction" answer.