15 Thoughts Fought the Law and the Law Didn’t Win

Overcoming “officiating,” self-inflicted mistakes on the road vs. the “#1” team is hard. We won anyway.

I could write 115 Thoughts and not cover everything that happened last night. What a crazy, frustrating, exhilarating, gutsy, awesome victory. Kirby’s 100th.

Welcome to the SEC, Texas. Welcome to inconsistent and, at times, truly horrible officiating. Welcome to grown-ass-man-football. Welcome to seeing an opposing fan base show up in your house and be loud ‘n proud.

ESPN’s original X post didn’t include Kirby calling out The Worldwide Leader’s “nobody gave us a chance, your whole network doubted us” sound byte. Notice how they turned off the stadium lights mid-interview. Bush league.

Kirby don’t hold back. That’s my coach. Angry Kirby is the best Kirby.

1. If you haven’t read Macondawg’s MVD post, please do so. I couldn’t agree more with his selections. Jalon Walker made himself a ton of bank last night. Jalon Walker was phenomenal. Mykel Williams seems to be about 80 or 90% back and is getting better at the right time. The middle of our defense dominated the vaunted Texas offensive line.

Georgia is the most tested football team in America. Could’ve won in Tuscaloosa. Could’ve lost in Austin. I’ll take where we are right now.

2. I don’t know what’s wrong with Carson Beck, but at this very moment I’m more proud of how he responded when he had to than anything. I think a lot of his issues has to do with receivers dropping passes early which doesn’t exactly instill confidence in a game in that type of environment develops. The first interception was bad. The 2nd one in the red zone was a very catchable ball that Lawson Luckie has to make. The last pick…well, that one is on the SEC officiating. Horrible decision and throw? No doubt. But I’ve never seen a non-reviewable call get reviewed and reversed. This will be a talking point for the rest of the season and beyond.

Texas is Tennessee, but with better teeth. Tennessee threw mustard bottles a few years ago. Texas threw water bottles and wasted some perfectly good beers. That’s unforgivable. UTk > UTa

3. Back to Beck for a moment: He had a bad night and if it weren’t for his defense, he’s the losing QB today. But if he has any self-doubt, he should just re-watch this X clip over and over and over again. This is his potential. And in my mind, he totally redeemed himself when we marched 89 yards to take a 30-15 lead we would never relinquish. When we had to have it, Beck delivered.

How does this scoring drive rank in Georgia’s history? What an answer.

4. Trevor Etienne had to score at touchdown twice to extend our lead. The fix was in during this game. Change my mind. You’ll never convince me that Kirby’s criticism of the officiating wasn’t necessarily directed at the overturned pass interference call. His justified tantrum on the sideline immediately after the call and post-game interview is the culmination of Georgia getting screwed in big games on the biggest stages. It happened in the 2018 Natty, last year’s SECCG against Bama and again last night. He’s had enough. The sweetest part is we beat Texas, the officiating, a bunch of petulant fans and history.

Oh, and Tyler Simmons was onsides.

5. Why we didn’t commit to the run more is beyond me. Our offensive line played their best game of the season. They were creating holes, our tight ends were sealing edges and Carson Beck had a ton of time. His only sack of the game should not have happened as he could’ve chunked the ball into the bench to avoid the loss. Still, we ran the ball when we had to, and at times when we shouldn’t have (4th and a foot with 2:13 left to go). But the progress these guys made will serve them well and getting Tate Ratledge back – probably in 2 weeks – will be a huge boost. Run the Damn Ball.

6. Did Texas have any offensive holding calls during the game? How was this not flagged? I believe that’s Christen Miller’s jersey getting stretched a few extra sizes. If this game is truly called fairly, Quinn Ewers doesn’t complete a 40 yard pass to get Texas out of a hole because we get a safety.

7. Let’s talk targeting for a moment here, while the theme of inept officiating is still a fresh thought. The flag on Dan Jackson was probably warranted, although Dan’s intent was to make a tackle. Texas’ receiver was also lowering his head, but the metric for whatever targeting is doesn’t seem to account for this. The flag on Joenel Aguero – who played his best game as a Dawg – was straight up Longhorn shit.

And the hack ABC officiating expert seemed to revel in his expertise during the telecast. What is targeting? No one knows. It’s kinda’ like the elusive definition of “what is pornography?” College officials have absolutely no clue what targeting is, but when in doubt, throw a flag. We overcame so much crap last night and still won by 15. HBTFD!

They tried to rob us with calls in this place. – Kirby Smart

8. Back to the defense: This is the level of play that we all come to expect every season. I believe we still have to figure some things out in the defensive secondary and saw some poor tackling at times on the back-end. Having said that, the defensive front looks as complete as we’ve seen all season and having a bye week is huge. Warren Brinson played very well. We are a different team with #13 in there. Our inside linebackers are figuring some things out as well. It’ll be interesting to see how Glenn Schumann repositions some guys for the first half against Florida since Dan Jackson and Joenel Aguero will miss some time.

9. I’m still in a bit of disbelief on how we not only dominated Texas when our guys were dropping passes all over the yard. Defense truly wins championships. If this team begins to gel on both sides of the ball, they could go very far. Everything is still on the table.

10. Arian Smith was clutch. His stats weren’t exactly eye-popping, but he held onto the ball when it mattered the most.

11…

There are lies, damned lies and statistics the final score. – Mark Shania Twain, probably.

What a weird, wonderful sport. Georgia totaled 285 yards of total offense and turned the ball over 3 times. We had 7 penalties for 78 yards. And won this game by 2+ scores. We lost, right? Really?

On the other hand, Texas only amassed 259 total yards. That’ll leave a mark on their season averages. Go Dawgs!

12. Daylen Everette didn’t play a perfect game, but he played a great game. The corner blitz and perfect form tackle which led to our first touchdown (and the first TD Texas has given up in the first quarter all year) was perfect. His interception of Quinn Ewers was textbook, as he came off his man by reading Ewers’ eyes and stepped in front of the intended receiver. Georgia dropped at least 3 interceptions in this game; several late that could’ve locked things up earlier than it did.

Two huge plays from #6:

And the pick…

13. Yeah, the coaches got away from the run and the decision to squib the 2nd half kickoff was the most head scratching decision of the game. I understand the intent, and if successful then we get a short field. But Texas to that point showed no ability to move the ball. Why not make them drive a long field? We somehow survived gifting Texas field position and a momentum shift that lasted the entire 3rd quarter.

14. Aside from the botched squib kick, which almost worked had the Texas up-man not had soft hands, special teams were brilliant. Peyton Woodring was perfect on his 3 for 3 field goals (long of 48 yards) and extra points, Brett Thorson nearly perfect and his hang-time and distance on most of his 4 punts (54 yard average) kept Texas pinned. Anthony Evans III did his job and had a nice return of 19 yards early.

15. This team is on the verge of breaking through at perhaps the right time. It reminds me a little bit of the 2007 team. Georgia stumbled through the 1st half of the season, lost an early game on the road at Tennessee, struggled at Vanderbilt but caught fire in Jacksonville and was probably the best team in America at the end of the season, rolling through the back end of the schedule and destroying Hawai’i in the Sugar Bowl. The 2024 Bulldogs, for all their warts, have a championship pedigree and if we can get better QB play and consistency from a receiving corps they could go a long, long way. There are no perfect teams in college football at the moment. Miami is really good and have a Heisman worthy QB. But there isn’t a dominant team out there, so why not us? I think we’re close to putting it all together. We are the champions of overcoming adversity, for sure. We nearly completed the ultimate comeback in Tuscaloosa and overcame a plethora of things last night in Austin.

Keep chopping wood.

BONUS THOUGHTS:

• Tennessee’s takedown of Alabama yesterday was the most meteoric of meteor games I have ever witnessed. I honestly could not care less who won that game. Tennessee’s crowd was probably the difference.
• Alabama is the most undisciplined team in America. Coaching matters. I think Bama has another loss on their schedule.

“Well, college football needs to do something about this. The fake injury thing is an epidemic…” GeT WeLL SOoN, bAmMeR.

• I think Lincoln Riley is toast in Los Angeles. How in the world did LSU lose to these guys? Anyway, epic celebration by Maryland.

• Same can be said for Brent Venables. South Carolina beat the crap out of OU in Norman. ‘Sakerlina’s defense is nasty.
• Vandy just keeps winning. Texas plays in Nashville on Saturday at 4:15. Who you got? This might be must see TV.

• Is Billy Napier saving his job? Florida blows out Kentucky behind D.J. Lagway.
• Why yes. Yes you do, Mr. Acho.

• Did anyone notice that Hugh Freeze choked away another 4th quarter game? Auburn is a hot mess and I’m here for it.
• Indiana a playoff team? Iowa State? Heck, why not Army?
• Illinois beat Michigan on the field. Their throwback leather helmets was about the coolest thing ever.

That’s all I’ve got.

As Always GO DAWGS!