"Why? " I asked. "Did you think they didn't play well yesterday?" I'm always a little puzzled by Sunday morning critics of a team's winning game. To me, if the team won, they played well. At least they played well enough. But Stephen looks at the game differently.
"If you look at how Alabama played against Michigan," he explained, "and then at how Georgia played against Buffalo, you'll see a big difference. Had Georgia played against Alabama yesterday, Alabama would have won."
Well, yeah. And I see what he's saying. 'Bama's an SEC team. Georgia won't play them this year, but the Dawgs should be prepared to beat them as well as any other SEC team that good.
But I didn't watch Michigan play Alabama last night. Neither did I watch Notre Dame play Navy yesterday morning (And can someone please explain to me why Notre Dame played Navy in Dublin, Ireland? Why do the Irish want to watch Americans play American football? If an Irish rugby team called the Americans came to Savannah to play, I would not be interested). It's all I can do to watch the St. Peter the Apostle Rams each Thursday and Georgia each Saturday. Must I really watch all that football to really understand the game? Or can I be a legitimate Georgia fan by watching the Bulldogs play? Please weigh in. There's a poll on the right.
Meanwhile, I'll offer my assessment of what happened between the hedges Labor Day weekend:
Overwhelming:
- Todd Gurley: Do you think he wants to be Herschel Walker, Jr.? If so, this freshman's off to a good start. A hundred-yard run to a TD sure wins a player a lot of friends, and you can rest assured no one's going to tease him about having a "girly" name. If he keeps up that momentum, Bulldog fans might just start calling him The Blur.
I did find it interesting that only one other Georgia player has made a 100 yard run for a touchdown, and that was Brandon Boykin in 2010. I guess Gurley and Boykin have both been eating their Wheaties (although apparently Boykin's been lacing his breakfast with a different kind of flakes). - Tevarres King, the Academician: He's in a doctoral program. I didn't realize one could be a graduate student and play college football. For some reason, I thought it was strictly an undergraduate sport. But the TV announcers said yesterday that King graduated in May, and now he's working on his doctoral degree, and he'll receive his master's degree along the way. Stephen says graduate students can play as long as they're still eligible. I wonder when King's eligibility runs out. And when it does, will he still pursue that doctorate? I hope so, and in hopes that he does, I place his academics in the overwhelming category.
- The Helmet Rule: The NCAA has passed a new rule that if a player's helmet comes off, he has to sit out a play before returning to the field. There's some qualifying clause in there having to do with the ball carrier, but I didn't catch that. I'll have to look it up. Still, I'm a big proponent of this new development. NCAA, you rule!
- Hot Potato: That was a fun double pass from Murray to Wooten to Marshall in the second quarter. This play would have made it in the "overwhelming" category had Marshall caught the ball. And who knew Wooten could throw that well. We've watched him run and catch for so long, it never occurred to anyone he could throw that well. Now if we can just get Marshall to hold on to the ball. Wooten couldn't have thrown it any better for him.
- Aaron Murray's Arm: Murray's been working all summer on his quarterbacking skills, which is a lot more than anyone can say for other Bulldogs (Isaiah who?), and I could tell immediately when he threw that first pass, which almost landed across the railroad tracks behind Sanford Stadium. Murray had to try a few times before gauging those passes correctly, so he gets points for strength. And once he figured out the distance, Wooten and King were ready for them. Murray might climb to the "overwhelming" category if he can keep from overthrowing that ball the rest of the season. That second quarter 63 yard completed pass to King gives him a little nudge, too.
- Jarvis Jones: Even though the defense left much to be desired (see below), linebacker Jarvis Jones rises to the "whelming" category because right how, he is the defense. For much of the game he was on Buffalo's quarterback, Zordich, like a refrigerator magnet. And he had to be because Norman and Williams were too busy standing around. Jones's hair, on the other hand, falls in the rank below.
- Jarvis Jones's Hair: Cut it. Please.
- Richard Samuel: I hate to put him in this category. I love Richard Samuel. I've been watching him play for the past several years, rooting for him when the chips were down. I love that he reads, and now that he's been on the team all this time, I've solidified my status as Richard Samuel fan. Unfortunately poor Richard can't catch a break. Two seasons ago, he just couldn't make a go of it on the offensive line. Then last year, when the game started looking up for him, he got hurt. Yesterday, I saw him get in on only one play, and that was a flop. Keep reading, Richard. I'll still be your fan, along with your mom. But I'd like to see you make it up to "whelming" status.
- The Defense: Yesterday I decided to pay special attention to the defensive line. Since I've become more "safety conscious" this year, I especially wanted to see how the safety Dawgs played. One problem is that the safeties (Georgia has two of them) are so far back on the field that they're often not on the screen, so it took almost two quarters for me to figure out who they are: #36 Sean Williams and #11Connor Norman. I didn't see them do much of anything at all, and that wasn't just because they were off camera. In the second quarter, Georgia's defense let Buffalo advance to mere inches from the goal line. Thank goodness Buffalo's Zordich threw an incomplete pass.
- Speaking of #11: Aaron Murray is #11 on the offense. Connor Norman is #11 on the defense. I realize the team is so large the players have to wear duplicate numbers, but it seems to me that the coaches could figure out how to not duplicate key players' numbers, such as that of the quarterback. When I watch the defensive line and see a #11 out there, I'm taken aback at first. Maybe Norman could be #00. Richt should make him work up to a number.
- Count Up: Georgia got a penalty at the end of the second quarter for having twelve men in the lineup. Earlier they had only ten in the lineup. The team has a hundred players with ten fingers each. You'd think they'd be able to count to eleven.
I have to remind myself of what a nickel back and a dime back are. Figuring out the safety is easy when watching the St. Peter the Apostle Rams. There's only one of them. But in college ball, apparently, the team can have safeties all over the place, even though they don't provide much safety at all.
Maybe Mark Richt should be a little more "safety conscious" as well...
On to Missouri....
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