"Johnson! Navin! R! I'm somebody now!"
For those not in the know,
Never seen them together at a party, have you?
Fucking Vandy. Not even last year's Vandy, with NFL draft pick Jay Cutler at QB, the one that beat Tennessee and arguably should have beat Florida (by the way, where is the utter and extreme ineptitude of the SEC Officials to prevent an embarrassing home loss to Vandy when you need it? Unfortunately they were working this game instead). This year's Vandy - no Cutler, lost to Ole Miss, only wins were at home against Tennessee State and Temple. But Vandy nonetheless. 0-53 in their last 53 games against ranked teams Vandy. I was there in 1994 when we lost to Vandy on homecoming, and I'm just glad that I didn't "come home" to Sanford Stadium today.
You can't even say it was a fluke. If it wasn't for Vandy suddenly remembering that they were Vandy and gifting us that pick six as well as a 5 yard punt from their own end of the field (that we did nothing with, unless running that inside draw play on 3rd & 11 and then missing a field goal qualifies as "something"), the game would have been over well before the last :02.
"Hey! Guess what? You are
the first ranked team to lose to us in 53 games! You won a free oven mitt!"
At least we have an
There's not much to say - we're just not good. People will bitch about Lumpkin's fumble, conservative plays, settling for short FGs, inside draws on 3rd and 11, and not having a good play to run on a key 2 point conversion - all valid. But make no mistake - our defense lost this game, not our offense. Everyone knew all year that our offense was shaky and was not what would win games for us. Our D was supposed to be stellar, our bread and butter that we could rely on to get us through as the offense slowly came along and cobbled enough together to get results. But the D has been exposed as a total joke. Absolutely no pressure on the QB despite two supposedly great ends (is this because the DTs are that terrible?), poor tackling, and a complete inability to prevent receivers from being flat out wide open, or at least having a DB turn their head towards the ball to knock it down. Again. I have not seen defense this bad since the 94-95 Goff years. We couldn't stop Vandy over and over again when our supposedly great D needed to, it's as simple as that. At this point perhaps the most remarkable thing about our team this year has nothing to do with the UT or Vandy games; it is that we played so well and shut out South Carolina in their house.
I guess the only silver lining is that thanks to Adrian Peterson's freak injury, the Gators implosion, Iowa coming from 21-7 up to lose outright to Indiana, and the melee in Miami, our stinging loss was suppressed down to about the 5th or 6th "story" of the day.
Actually , the real silver lining is that going into today we all realized that we just weren't very good, so as disappoinitng and embarrassing as this is, it is not the unexpected, soul-crushing kick in the nuts that say the 4th-and-10 concession and last minute loss to Auburn was last year, when we were really good with the expectations to match.
At this point it is hard to see any way that we beat Florida or Auburn, and Tech is maybe 50/50. Hopefully we can get past Miss. State and Kentucky, but with this O and this D, you can't even take those as a given at this point. 7-5 looks like a distinct possibility, and it is not unconceiveable that we don't even do that well.
As frustrating as this is, Georgia is my team for better or for worse, and I will support them when they are great and when they are shit. Having said that, I do think that it was pretty shitbird of the Georgia fans today who booed 18-21 year old kids. Not very classy. For some reason this seems very different to me than booing an NFL team of extremely well paid professional players. Even if you were booing the coaching decisions and not the kids, it's a shitty message to send to the kids that you will turn on them as soon as things are not going well at all.
Anyhow, hopefully we can get our heads out of our asses before next week's game, which thankfully will not be on TV.
So conrats to you Navin R. Johnson and your fighting 'Dores, I can't really say that you didn't deserve to win.
11 comments:
A couple of points about this whole... situation. In my opinion, the SEC is having a down year as none of the "elite" teams really look that elite. Let's face it, UGA was only gonna be good this year on the contention that Tereshiski works out, and he hasn't, leaving UGA looking absolutely miserable for 4 straight games and should drop out of the Top 25 save for maybe some SEC love from pollsters. The good news for you guys is that UF and Auburn have both been overrated as well and should make for some cracking matchups later on. Granted, put any of the "elite" SEC teams in the Big East and they'd be looking better than WVU right now, but still, the excellence at the top of the SEC is not what it has been in the previous years.
Also, how about them Miami thugs eh? Put my Tigers' brawl a couple of years back to shame.
1. Don't sell this Vandy team short with "lost to Ole Miss." They out-gained Ole Miss by about 300 yards, playing half the game with their back-up QB. They played Bama even in Tuscaloosa and were a gust of wind from beating Arkansas. Just as Georgia was due to blow one to an inferior team, Vandy was due to win an SEC game.
2. I'll vote for "worst defense since Kevin Ramsey."
I was thinking the Swamp Fox Marion Campbell, or maybe Joke Hines (Joe Kines).
You've been around long enough (I think)...to know that "our" CFB teams run in cycles. Your Dawgs have been at the top of their game for several consecutive years now. A "toilet season" is not necessarilly a bad thing, considering the shit (pun intended) that Vol fans (such as myself) had to sadomasochistically watch throughout '05 and the UF fans of '03-'04. The highs are much more of an enjoyable high after a humbling season.
Just do me a favor...If you can pull out just 1 more game this year, PLEASE let it be against those damned Gators!
Holy shit, I'm groveling to a dawg. I'm done. Cut-off.
Go Vols (and Dawgs, too)!!
Anon - yes, I have. Hell I went to school during the Goff era, and I personally attended 7 of our 9 consectuive losses to your Vols in the 90s, so I'm well aware of that fact.
As far as The Gators are concerned, I'm afraid we won't be able to help you. You see, we are Charlie Brown and they are Lucy, and that's just how it is. You might want to look to Ol' J.R. Ewing and his South Carolina Gamecocks for help.
Gamecocks? Gamecocks?
As a Dawg, you should know just as well as anyone that the only thing you can count on the Gamecocks for is futility.
It's more of a Spurrier returning to the Swamp thing.
Don't forget, as futile as they are they beat the Gators for Ol' J.R. last year which allowed Georgia to still get to the SEC Title game despite losing to Auburn the same day (after their annual loss to the Gators of course).
I think alot of people in the SEC over-estimate the ol' ball coach much like how the ACC used to over-estimate Bowden. As great as he might be, talent tells in the end. Remember, they only looked good last year against a rebuiding UF team and the worst UT squad I can remember. Just saying.
Completely agree re: Spurrier.
The main point I was trying to convey is that we will not beat Florida because that is simply not what we do, and this year we are bad.
Forget the 90s, when they were better than us on paper every year - we have been equal to or better than them every year from 2002-2005 and still went 1-3. They are Lucy to our Charlie Brown.
Let me stop rambling and drive home my point: Ron Zook went 2-1 against Georgia (with inferior teams, by which I mean Georgia was favored in all 3 gamnes) in his 3 years of guiding the Gators from powerhouse to mediocracy.
So I threw out S. Kackalack to give Anon some hope instead of telling him to simply give up.
Although...
...Florida does still have to play away to mighty Vandy.
Ah yes, but Urban Meier is, oh wait, hmm...
Well uh... if trend holds up, the worse team should be winning it. So ya got that going for ya. And don't forget, this time, its the Gators with the flakiness at QB while the Dawgs just have plain suck.
You are right they look quite alike. I can tell them apart and you are right they aren't in the same place at the same moment.
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