15 Thoughts Did Not Hunker

What happened yesterday was inevitable.

I’ll cut to the chase. I don’t want to write it, you don’t want to read it but thanks for being here anyway.

1. No excuses. We lost. Yes, Georgia has had an ungodly road schedule this season. Playing at Bama was tough enough. Why are we always playing in their building? But what really caught my eye many months ago was going to Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin has utilized NIL money to great effect. They’re the anti-FSU in that regard. I don’t think the Conference did us any favors at all this season. Anyone else getting tired of having a shitty home schedule? We have one marquee game in our building and that’s next week. It’s getting old.

2. This game started out well enough, but after Jaxson Dart left with an ankle injury only minutes into the contest, they inserted a wet-behind-the-ears QB who promptly sliced and diced our defense and we looked lost most of the day. I was feeling “3rd and Graham” vibes all over again. The final score does not reflect how utterly dominated we were in this game. That was about the worst defensive performance I’ve seen during the Kirby Smart era. I think we’ve got some position coaches that need to be re-evaluated.

2a. Someone explain how a QB wearing a tire wheel lock around his ankle can run freely like he did yesterday?

3. Turnovers on the road will kill you. Nate Frazier has got to protect the ball as we were finally getting some good rhythm on back-to-back drives in the 3rd quarter. But I’m never going to question that kid’s heart and effort and credit Ole Miss for taking the ball away, especially on the 2nd fumble. There is a lot of Carson Beck hating today, but his killer interception was a tipped ball to a guy who was breaking open. That wasn’t Carson’s fault. The weather conditions aren’t his fault either, nor having half of Ole Miss’ defense in your lap on just about every snap. Carson was held in check by their defense, but also by our own vices.

4. When I go back and re-watch our offensive possessions (after I smoke a big fat doobie, drink a fifth and inject bleach – just kidding. Say no to drugs, kids), I’ll see all the dropped passes in key moments. I’ll see how Carson didn’t have anything to do with how poorly we protected him especially in obvious passing down. I’ll see how often we are in 2nd and 3rd and long. We have some good receivers, but we don’t have any elite receivers. Losing Rara Thomas and Colbie Young has hurt this team.

Ole Miss has their equivalent of Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter on their defensive line in J.J. Pegues and Walter Nolen. These guys are dudes, and we couldn’t block them for love nor money.

Multiple whiffs on a single play…

5. Yeah, I saw that graphic, too. Some of this is coaching to be sure. This unit has to help out their quarterback.

6. The offensive line had better find some religion. Earnest Greene III was a statue for much of the game and got whipped at left tackle. The Dawgs got bullied and couldn’t handle anything the best defensive line in the Conference threw at them. Tate Ratledge obviously is not anywhere close to being the type of player he is when healthy and was removed. We are rotating guys at different positions to see if something will stick. Nothing stuck and out of necessity we can’t change. This unit has disappointed the most I think. I don’t even want to talk about our rushing totals.

7. Georgia has the talent, but it’s not working. Everything Macondawg stated is really all you need to know. I’m just preaching to the choir at this point.

8. I’m hard pressed to find anything good that came out of this game. I will say Cash Jones might’ve made the hustle play of the year when he picked up a fumble after Beck got sacked and did his very best to make chicken salad out of chicken poop. Ole Miss grabbed his face mask and kept a doomed drive alive.

9. As bad as this game was, we still had a puncher’s chance until we didn’t.

10. How does this team respond? How much self-doubt has crept into that locker room? Tennessee is up next and that’s a very good team, too. But I believe we just faced the nation’s best defense.

11. I’m running out of thoughts? Feel free to chime in.

12. Playing on the road in the rain against an inspired team that has their backs against the playoff wall is not ideal. We’d better find some resolve next week. We have certainly come to expect this from a Kirby Smart team. Our coaches have their work cut out for them.

13. It’s our “win or go home” game on Saturday night. I expect Sanford Stadium to be raucous and absolutely alive. But if we get down early, that place could become a mausoleum. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, but if history is a guide Kirby’s guys will play better. Yet, all the issues we just witnessed are real.

14. Losses are always hard to take and I guess perhaps we have gotten super spoiled. But it’s hard to quibble about the downward trend after nine games. I think we are who we are. I don’t know if there is even a “light” that will suddenly turn on. Maybe I’m making too much out of a road trip to a hostile environment in less-than-ideal weather conditions against a damn good team.

Oh, and I found a highlight…

15. According to ESPN have a 72% chance of making the playoffs with 2 losses. At this moment, I really don’t care. What I do care about is seeing how this team responds down the stretch. I certainly liked how we responded coming out of the half. We executed a long drive, but could only kick a field goal. We were in this game longer than we should have. Perhaps there’s a positive in there somewhere.

BONUS THOUGHTS

• I don’t know about you dear readers, but when we lose a game I’m really not interested in watching too much football after the fact. I “sampled” some other games into the evening, but actually fell asleep pretty early.
• Bama-LSU was a non-event and Brian Kelly’s seat is pretty hot right now. That poor tiger they stuck in a tiny cage was about the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. LSU deserves whatever blow-back is coming, and it’s coming.

• Ouch.

• I really feel for Kirk Herbstreit after losing his beloved dog “Ben” earlier in the week. Any pet lover out there knows. I cannot bring myself to watch the on-set attempt to throw to his pre-produced package about his beloved good boy. Anyway, all the feels.
• As bad as it was, and it was bad, at least we are not Florida. Or Florida State. Or any school in the hurricane Sunshine State for that matter. And it’s always great to be a Georgia Bulldog.

As Always,

GO DAWGS!