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Notre Dame provided Dawgs’ first real challenge, and Georgia passed the test
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Notre Dame provided Dawgs’ first real challenge, and Georgia passed the test
It might not have been the flashiest game of the week, but Georgia’s prime-time showdown with Notre Dame was college football at its best.
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It was plenty flashy from where I sat last night. Maybe more so when I watched it again today.
Two tough teams battled it out in a big time game worthy of its hype. Lots of big plays. Unlike some teams both Georgia and the opponent play defense. Notre Dame adds a defensive wrinkle otherwise known as fake injuries. Still, the good guys won and everyone had a good time including, apparently, those from South Bend.
Go, Dawgs!
Excellent analysis Bill. You brought up several things that I had forgotten about while watching last night. Hope the coaches check out your analysis!
We should get better as the season progresses. The next 3 games will be against easier SEC opponents, but I bet we will struggle to win at least one of them just due to competitiveness in the SEC. What worries me is that final stretch with Florida, Auburn, and Texas A&M. All those teams are getting better, and I would be truly amazed if we made it through those 3 games without a loss.
LSU could seriously challenge Bama this year for the SEC West title. I'm not sure which team I'd rather play right now.
Players that need extra practice or more talent: Jake Camarda: Is it possible he is worse than last year? Tyrique McGee: Let's just say there is a reason he is a back-up. I hate to say it...JR Reed: If not for his late interception (great play on the ball) he would have received a D grade. When he didn't miss a tackle, his tackling was bad at best. Justin Shaffer: If he continues to play due to injuries, this O-Line will not win any awards at year's end.
Fromm, Thomas, Davis and Swift were stellar in this game. Smith and Ojularis pressure on the final play for the Irish should be applauded.
Last thoughts: It is official Kirby has not learned his lesson and I question whether or not Chaney was simply following orders the firs three seasons. DON"T TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE GAS! Once again, we wasted a sizeable lead by trying to run out the clock too flippin' early. We were up by 13 points with 3:13 seconds left in the game. ND could have won that game because Kirby is too head strong to trust his offense to play more aggressive. Honestly, this has to change! I reluctantly late this at the feet of my beloved CKS.
I didn't see a TA&M team that was getting better. They seemed to make Auburn on a par with Clemson.
Good points Bill, especially the officiating.
Good points, Bill. But I'm a little tired of Kirby's tried and true post-game mantra of "we're not perfect. There are a lot of areas we need to improve." Duh. I mean four games in and we STILL don't have a reliable punter (a kid on scholarship from Day 1, I might add); we apparently can't count on our senior return man to cleanly field punts; we STILL have offensive linemen committing ****, drive-killing penalties (and speaking of the offensive line, when are they going to start dominating people and live up to all the preseason hype)?; let's be clear, Notre Dame's success in the passing game was not because of injuries in the secondary -- they just had a great offensive game plan and they executed it. Yes, we have a lot of areas where we need to improve -- but we've been saying that since the Vanderbilt game. When is that improvement going to start?
I didn't buy the many sports pundits foreseeing a skip through the park for the Dawgs against ND. The first half scared me. It was a tough fought game, with little help from our mistakes.
And where was the guy with the hair on fire? I felt Book and company were left undisturbed much too long.
Here's to getting even better and resulting in even better days.
We just watched a playoff game. if Notre Dame wins next week they will run the table. We are going to run the table and the test awaits in Atlanta. Keep choppin, these young pups are going to start getting better and better. We can win the close ones in the clutch. this use to be a loss for us.....
I thought officials in non-conference games were supposed to be from a conference that is not associated with either team. I believe that ND has an "affiliation" with the ACC, so why did we have ACC officials? ND was better against the run than I expected ( good game plan/scheme to try to stop the run ), but I did not expect what the pundits were predicting. I was happy with a win, but very disappointed in the errors ( muffed punt, poor punting, failure to field a punt, penalties, etc. ) The fans who caused the need for ND to use timeouts may have been big in stopping them from scoring and winning with their last drive. Would it have been different if they still had those timeouts?
In non-conference, non-bowl, non-playoff games, it is typical for the visiting team to bring the officials. In South Bend, it was SEC officials. And while ND is a member of the ACC in all sports except football, they have an "agreement" whereby they play (I believe) five ACC teams per year, though they are non-conference games and ND is not eligible for the ACC conference championship. As for the game, I'm becoming more and more impressed with the defense. In the first half, they gave up only the FG at the end of the half. (The 8-yd TD drive is on the special teams. Even then, it took a 4th down pass, as they could not run the ball.) ND was held scoreless in the 3rd quarter. Allowing only 46 rushing yards should show that this front seven is starting to mature and become a real strength. Great write-up, Bill! Go Dawgs!
Life is too short to not appreciate the W against another historic program under the night sky in Athens. Kirby does need to find a killer instinct in his offensive approach the way he instills killer effort from his team day in and day out, but maybe just maybe he will do that as he reads the constructive criticism. He seems to be a coach that is confident in his ways but not stubborn.
I was surprised that Fromm played an A game but the UGA offense didn't click more, but I think that was a bit more related to coaching decisions than the players. We got tested and survived. Now we can exhale and charge up for a run.
Nice writeup, Bill. But one thing that you have said -- along with many others -- saddens me a great deal.
I can understand why it looked to a lot of fans like our two kids were faking injuries. I can understand why Fromm was frustrated because it was interfering with his drive. And it looked to me like he thought that our guys were diving like European soccer players. I can even understand why one of the CBS announcers read it that way (up to a point). But were our boys really faking?
Maybe on the first one, Owusu-Koramoah was staggering around and a medical person on the sidelines signaled a captain to put him on the ground so he could come out and evaluate him. Maybe on the second one, Bilal really did take an elbow in the eye, and the medics were putting eye drops in his eye because that was what was indicated for the condition presented. Maybe he was cramping up as well, as Brian Kelly said he was.
We as a people say we believe in the idea of being innocent until proven guilty. Do we really, or have we Americans regressed to the point where it's fine to just pay lip service to our ideals? I hope not.
Maybe these kids cheated. Maybe one of the coaches told one of the captains to pull a kid down on the ground in front of all the cameras just to slow the game down. I don't think so (they could have done a better job of it if that's what they were trying to do; couldn't anyone?), but what we think isn't really the point, is it? When it's a matter of honor, it's what we can prove. If we can't prove it, we have to give the benefit of the doubt, just as we would ask anyone else to do for ourselves.
This sort of thing gets out of hand very quickly. Perhaps you'll forgive an old man a story.
About 30 years ago a family lived next door to my parents. The woman was a beautiful lady, inside and out, late 20s. She was a few months pregnant with their second child. One evening, she went to walk their dog about 11 pm and didn't return. Her husband went to look for her, and found the dog cowering under a car. He called the police; they told him he had to wait 24 hours. He called her family, and her father and brothers immediately drove down from northern Michigan and were there the next morning. Tragically, her father found her body that afternoon in some woods.
That case was never solved, probably was a serial murderer. But it was solved in the eyes of the public. The husband did it, of course. Everyone said so. The husband could be standing in his front yard and someone would roll down the window and say something like "how does it feel to be a baby murderer?" and drive off in a hurry. This sort of thing was happening all the time. He wound up having to move out of town with his boy.
Now that we have the internet, we can be that person in that car with a whole lot less effort than 30 years ago. How big a step is it from what everyone is saying about the Notre Dame players to "calling out" that husband as a murderer? It's the same principle, just on a smaller scale. Slippery slope and all that.
Where does it all stop, Bill?
Anyone who has read this far, thanks for "listening." And thanks to all the fans for their graciousness during and around the game. It was a great game. I didn't expect that we would win, but I'm proud of the way that our boys played. Hopefully, we'll both win out from here, and perhaps we'll get a rematch. Best of luck for the rest of the season.