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Todd McShay 2023 NFL Mock Draft sees 3 Bulldogs going in first round
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Todd McShay 2023 NFL Mock Draft sees 3 Bulldogs going in first round
A handful of college football stars have seen their seasons end, and a few more have already made the decision to opt out and enter the 2023 NFL Draft.
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Since we have to seek out certain articles to comment under, I'll post this about Henderson here.
I was hoping we could get through this post-season without people reveling in making excuses for a blueblood program that Georgia beat. JSN was out all season, so I didn't think that would get much traction. But now that he and Henderson are out, I just don't see it not becoming the narrative again. Ohhhh they're such a good offense when they're at full strength. Blah blah blah. The one hope is that it's just the semi-final game, so as long as Michigan stays healthy we might only have to hear it for a week and a half this time.
@E_Roc
Good grief. Recap here.
Sorry, but people aren't going to deny what they saw with their own eyes just to make UGA fans feel better. The only thing UGA can do is just win the whole thing this year. Then UGA will be heroes: the only team to repeat in the original playoff format. 2023 will be the last year under this format and in 2024 the new format starts. But if the Ohio State game is an SECCG repeat, then folks will rightfully come to the conclusion that future NFL QB/NFL WR combos are kryptonite to this UGA team because you will have Ohio State, Alabama SECCG, LSU's shredding UGA in 2019, Jalen Hurts in 2018, Tua in 2017 and yes even Oklahoma in 2017 (flu or no flu, UGA only won that game due to putting up 54 points).
I'm sure you had a good time typing all of this up, but I started reading at #4 in your list, and skimmed everything after it. That one example was all I was referring to, which I thought was obvious enough that it didn't need to be spelled out. Your other points are generally irrelevant, so I won't bother explaining why they're generally questionable.
We've heard ad nauseum that an injury to an Alabama receiver is why Georgia won that game. Ok, call it two receivers. Still not a decent argument. Georgia dealt with plenty of attrition throughout that season. Virtually no one outside of the Georgia reporters and fan base said a word about it because you'd never know by watching the team play. Georgia was never built to have their fate depend utterly on having a small handful of relatively delicate players stay healthy all year, which is what made them the better team - something else I didn't think needed to be explained at this point. Bama gambled and lost. Georgia built a team from top to bottom and won. Good grief, indeed.
Oh, and Williams had, what, a 12 yard or so reception for a first down outside of his one big play that came on an easy toss that he took half the field due to a busted coverage. Any of Alabama receivers should have been able to make that play. So at about a third of the way through the game, when he got injured, they weren't doing anything with him that they couldn't have done without him. (Metchie? Looked like a blowout? I think you're getting your games confused.) And even after he went out, they still made some big plays in the passing game. Ringo chasing down their tight end inside the 5 yard line comes to mind as an obvious example. So it wasn't this fundamental change to the entire game that everyone makes it out to be, anyway. But if you want to argue that it was, just see my point below.
The SECCG was a different game, played more than a month earlier. Georgia had looked like the better team all year. Alabama got the better of us that day - upsets do happen in this sport from time to time - then we returned the favor, with three different Georgia freshman scoring on them in January. Maybe if Bama's freshmen were as ready to step up, Williams' injury would have been a moot point. But here we are.
Look, the main point I'm trying to make is that I would have wanted Ohio State to be at least close to full strength. I don't want to hear how we didn't get them at their best and all that. You complain about shoddy narratives. That one was rampant for a while after our win against Bama, and I'm not looking forward to hearing it again. That's all.
Ohio State has been playing without JSN all year and Henderson for several games, including the Michigan game that "was close midway through the fourth" for revisionists that didn't WATCH the game beyond the box score. So they have no excuse regardless. Their backups have been tested and performed well enough to get (back into) the playoffs at this point. If they are truly championship worthy, they will play well against us...if not, it won't be because of injuries or any other nonsense. This is an entirely different situation than Alabama being played a bad hand in the middle of back to back games with their top two receivers.
As far as the Alabama excuses, if Tua doesn't come in, we win in 2017, and if he doesn't get hurt in 2018, Hurts never comes in and we win then as well...so Alabama's backups giveth and taketh away. Georgia is not responsible for Saban's staff not having his backup WR prepared like Tua and Hurts were. Football is a game of preparation, and Alabama ultimately was lacking last year, and it continued over to this season as well.
We seem to be in general agreement about Bama. As for Ohio State, I'm not saying it's the same thing as Bama's situation last year (I acknowledged JSN being out all year in my original post). I'm saying for the second year in a row, we've got a playoff game where it's making headlines that our opponent is missing a couple skill players. Bad hand or not, it still shouldn't have been the primary takeaway after last year's title game, yet for many it was. So I can't help but think, here we go again.
Maybe this year it won't be the focus. I hope not. Like you say, it really shouldn't be.