In Which I Try To Put My Georgia/Georgia Tech Thoughts On Paper

One point that you may or may not have mentioned about “us beating us” is that all three fumbles led to the mutts scoring. Imagine that game minus three (we maybe blow them out?), minus two (game is well “in hand” after the third), or minus just one (we have a late lead).

That – to me – was the difference between this effort and the 2008 effort. Same offense, same stats, same PJ adjustments, just too many lost fumbles.

Also, I think PJ did a great job. It’s not like he’s out there as the pitch man dropping the ball. He put the guys in the position to win, there was just poor execution on a handful of plays.

For me, my emotions went from pre-game depression thinking we were going to get blown out, to hope, to sheer excitement, and then to a slight disappointment as the game progressed. It was still a tight game, right?

Well said, Winfield. I’m tired of people whiny about CPJ, who called a masterful game, or blaming Scott Blair for the loss. This loss was a team effort, and it was indeed disappointing. However, I’m really excited for the next couple of seasons. We can reload at B-Back again. Tevin shows promise and will have competition at the QB position. The O-Line is learning to block and should be even better next year.

I’ll just comment quickly on the sacrificial TD at the end of the game. I had already tweeted assuming the game was over, and then the TD was scored. I thought that it was a dick move by Richt, ensuring that CPJ will whoop georgie next year. Then, with some help from Wes and Rick on the radio call, I realized that it was actually a brilliant coaching move to get the ball back. People need to stop saying that CPJ doesn’t get this rivalry. It’s not about “getting it”. This man hates to lose more than any other human being, I think. He wants to win every game so strongly, that he can’t imagine wanting to win the georgie game more than other games. It’s our own fault that we don’t want to win the other 11 games as badly as we want to beat georgie.

The extra practice the team gets now is crucial, and I hope we can finally win a bowl game. GO JACKETS!!!

…at how easily Tech was able to run the ball. The ESPN guys noted that the Georgia DE were attacking the perimeter and with the ILB positioned well back of the LOS, so it was easy to see why – Georgia essentially conceded the dive early on. I think Georgia made some adjustments later in the game, but it wasn’t enough as GT just kept running like the energizer bunny.

I really expected Georgia to play better defense against the run and am surprised at how poorly they played. It’s almost like Grantham didn’t watch any tape. I still think the proper defense against the 2010 GT team is to load the box eight or nine defenders and force Tech to prove that they can consistently throw and catch the ball. Hill has had a couple of nice catches in the past two games and I think Smith has had one or two as well, but it takes more than a couple catches to prove you have a passing attack that can take advantage of a team heavily focused on run defense.

I was pleased that the GT defense committed to stopping the run and was able to do so. I think they surrendered some yards on the ground late in the game, but for the first part of the game they kept the Georgia running game wrapped up.

At the end of the day, the game turned into another shootout and Tech had the weapons and ammuntion to play along. They just need to learn to point the gun at the opponent instead of at their own feet. I think CPJ said on his radio show a while back, in response to a question about going for it on 4th down so often, is that every game he’s played at Tech has been a blowout and you hate to miss your turn [to score on offense]. If Tech gets that 4th down conversion early in the game, Blair’s missed PAT probably means a 6 point lead in stead of a 7 point lead. If they had kicked a field goal – which I had somewhat hoped they would – the lead is 2 instead of 3. While he was perhaps exaggerating with the comment about always being in blowouts, with the way the 2010 team has fumbled the ball, they uneccessarily surrender a lot of possessions so each TD opportunity almost has to be pursued with unmatched zeal.

Going into the game you had to figure that the defense would yield a goodly number of yards and points (the defense met expectations). You also had to figure that there was a good chance the Georgia defense would dominate the LOS and thereby limit the offense. So, to me, seeing the offense roll up 500+ yards and to know that you were in the game at the end despite missing a PAT and having another bout of fumbleitis lessens the disappointment at losing.

One final thought, if memory serves me correctly, Tech has ended the game three times this year by throwing an interception, including twice in the end zone. Not too surprising in retrospect. At the begining of the year, the Orange Bowl ended on an interception as well.

One final final thought, I was really worried about losing Nesbitt. I hadn’t been too impressed with Washington and hadn’t seen enough of anyone else to form an opinion. Now I’m comfortable with the idea of Washington being the QB next year. So my worries now shift to Center and B-back. It took Allen several games to really get comfortable back there and we’re going to have to break in a new one next year and I don’t think any of the replacements have played very much at all this year. At least Allen had spent a year at A-back so he had a lot of game experience.

Tech played well. While we wanted another shot at Nesbitt, Washington is the real deal, as is AA.

I don’t buy all of the “UGA got lucky” talk – I think we had some breaks go against us, too. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I thought we were done when Tech scored its final touchdown. The change from the previous regimes to the current one is drastic.

Re 2008 and 2010: the difference in both games is the defensive touchdown. You got your pick 6 in 08 and we got our fumble for six this year.

Good luck in your bowl.