From looking at the box scores, things exited the weekend looking the same as they did when we entered for everyone except Auburn. But the box scores tell only a portion of the story. In no particular order...
Georgia - Obviously, with
Shockley out until Auburn with an MCL sprain no game is a gimmie. I didn't see the Dawgs realistically going undefeated before. I still don't. I think we split with Auburn and Florida, but as bad as Florida's offense has looked and as bad as Auburn is on special teams it could go either way in either game. All Dawgs should pray for Joe T. He'll need it this week
barring DJ pulling a Willis Reed on Saturday.
[Photo: Shock and AweCrap he's hurt! Photo from Georgiadogs.com]Alabama - I can't see this Bama team going undefeated until they find a way to score points post-Prothro. Luckily for them, they get Utah State and Mississippi State as get well games before facing LSU (home) and Auburn (road) in back to back weeks. The outcome of the Auburn vs. LSU game really didn't impact Alabama all that much. They still have to play both teams, and ultimately they still need to beat both teams to control their own
destiny. I think Bama splits with AU and LSU. I'm leaning towards Bama losing to Auburn, but making the SECC game anyway after UGA eliminates Auburn from the Western race the week before the
Iron Bowl.
[Photo: Shula beat the Vols and later made sweet love to Condoleezza Rice.]Neither here nor there, but Warren St. John wrote a great piece on Croyle for the
NY Times. In his book "
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer" a Tide fan says to Warren something like "You mean you get PAID to watch Bama games!" That discussion in the book was all I could think about reading this article.
LSU -- I feel for the Cajuns. On the one hand, they won an epic SEC struggle to beat Auburn. That's the good news. On the other hand, nothing that Les Miles does inspires the feeling that he's driving the bus with a clear destination in mind as much as he is just a passenger waiting to see what the tour guide shows him next on his happy aimless journey around the SEC. Did the Tigers win this game or did Auburn flat out give it away?
[Photo: Les Miles seen here holding his Master Plan for extending on Saban's foundation of excellence.]Auburn -- If I were Tuberville, I would've made the kicker walk back to Auburn. In the SEC, you should never, ever, never, ever lose a game in which your running back goes for 200+ yards. By the way, have I mentioned
how wrong I was about Kenny Irons yet? (although, I was right about Tre Smith). Unless, these guys can find a way to beat Georgia *and* Alabama, this team has Peach Bowl written all over it.
Tennessee -- This isn't the time or place to mention it, but UT really does a nice job of running the RB and FB screens out of the shotgun. It takes Georgia FOREVER to get that play going. Obviously, the fullback fumble to lose the game isn't in the diagram.
Arkansas -- I've always felt that if Houtson Nutt could just find a consistent QB, he would be fine. But after watching the Georgia game, I think the problem isn't his QBs. It's his coaching. When you've got a 6'6" WR being covered by a 5'8" CB with no apparent safety help, why not call an audible and just TRY a fade route. If the QB is so grossly incompetent that he can't make that throw, then why have him in there? It isn't like Arkansas ran the option against Georgia? The QB only handed the ball off and made basic 7-10 yard throws to the backs or TEs on play action. The best thing that Nutt did was pound Georgia's exhausted DL with that amazing freshman back. But even then, when you've got Georgia totally exhausted why not keep running it up the gut on 3rd and inches or 4th and inches? Arkansas should aspire to more than letting Nutt run the program right back down the tube in which he found it.
[Photo: McFadden is a BEAST. The 70 yard run is the longest play against UGA since the '03 SEC title game as far as I can remember. Click to enlarge.]Good News for the ACC -- With Mississippi State losing to Houston and Vandy losing to South Carolina, the SEC has virtually no chance of filling its bowl allotment. Some quasi-lucky ACC school will likely get to dodge a Boise snow capped bullet with a trip to Shreveport in December.
The Orgeron Combustion Countdown -- Ole Miss beat Kentucky. I keep waiting on The Orgeron to meltdown in a public and violent manner. Sadly, that has not happened yet and annoying wins like the one over the Mildcats only postpone the inevitable. By the way, what is UK waiting on? Fire Brooks already.
[Photo: Mohamed Massaquoi in action]
10 comments:
I think Auburn will probably make it to a New Year's bowl game, if for no other reason than because even if they lose to both Georgia and Alabama, they'll still be a more attractive 7-4 prospect than Tennessee. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Auburn splits the Georgia/Alabama gauntlet to finish 8-3 and gets invited to either the Cotton Bowl (if two SEC teams get BCS invites) or the Outback (if only one does).
Of course, this could alll change if the Peach Bowl calls someone in Orlando or Tampa to say "Please take the Vols so we don't have to invite their Creamsicle asses for the third time in four years." But who knows.
Creamsicle asses - nice. At least our losses have come against teams ranked in the top 10 (oh by the way we've played 4 of them now with one more to go) and not against some ACC candy and meaningless BCS-killing wins over some I-AA puff cake.
Vols don't want the Peach any more than they want them. What joy is there in playing for nothing against nobody (fill in the blank with ACC team).
Personally, I hope for Shreveport. While playing for nothing against nobody I can at least belly up to the Craps table for a little gambling (and it's only 3 hours from home in Dallas).
If Auburn comes to Dallas to play in the Cotton bowl, I hope for weather not fit for eskimos so that you can sit your presumably ugly mug in one of those dreadful Cotton Bowl seats while your car gets vandalized.
I dont think there is anyway Auburn beats Ga. Ga has had 2 of their 4 rivals circles since last year, UT and AU. Ga will be back at full strength when Auburn comes to Athens and with a week off for this one they will smother them at home. Kenny Irons looked good against LSU but their D isn't that strong. Ga takes this one at home.
Now for Bama, that could go either way. Ever since Fla, Bama has had to come from behind against 2 teams that aren't real good. Not to mention they hardly beat Ark and also had to come from behing on S.Miss.
So if AU is gonna split Bama/Ga then they had better take the Bama game cause they are leaving Athens with L.
LSU D isn't that strong? Try looking at their run defense rankings before the game. Give Irons credit. He did it against a stout D.
I can't see UGA losing to AUB in Athens. Tubberville did a great job of calling running plays up the gut when LSU's linebackers were blitzing around the edges and vice versa when they were blitzing down the middle. However, UGA plays a fill gap defense to shut down the run which works well when your front seven isn't injured (see Arkansas vs. all other games). With the running game in check, AUB's offense isn't geared towards being carried by the passing game. Auburn won't put up more than 17-20 points and with DJ back UGA will score in the 24-27 point range.
I wish I was a good enough liar to say I had the same amount of confidence facing FLA without Shockley, but I'm not. At best I'm hoping for an ugly defensive battle, a la Bama-UT, where we eek out a win with superior special teams play.
I hope Georgia beats Auburn. Bama would love the chance to be an undefeated team in Atlanta... See you then.
Oh, Tennvolchamp, you read the comment and automatically assumed I was an Auburn fan — when just one little clicky on a little linky would've showed you my blood runs red and black. Might be time to put the Jump to Conclusions mat back in the closet.
As for Georgia-Auburn, shit, I'm not even gonna touch that one until after the Cocktail Party. But I will say that Shockley's injury doesn't have me in wrist-slitting mode just yet. I just hope Richt has the stones to take some chances and let JoeT3 air it out a few times. If we're gonna say we have confidence in Joe, then we're gonna have to prove it, otherwise we give the Gators an engraved invitation to throw nine guys in the box all day, and I'd just as soon see our backfield come out of Jacksonville in the same number of pieces it entered in.
Your summary of Arkansas and its coach is dead on. We have no current QB that has many passing skills, but Mitch Mustain will take care of that next year. But even I could throw a fade to Monk. This is the THIRD game in a row Monk has had ONE catch. Unfortunately, politics is keeping Nutt his job. Butch Davis would take it and Johnny Tyson would pay the first $2MM of his salary, but we are stuck with Nutt. I would expect he will be forced to hire and Offensive Coordinator and several assistants will be gone. However, Nutt is known for overriding his assistants. All you can say as a Hog football fan is "thank god basketball exhibition games start Saturday."
Doug,
I think it took me two clicks. And here are my points:
- Sorry for the Auburn assumption. I still hope the Aubie's end up in cold rain with vandalized cars.
- I hope UGA wins out. I like Richt - think he's the best coach in the SEC (and respect the fact he's no media hound - see Urb)- plus I'd like to see another undefeated team from the SEC (and possibly the ACC) be left out of the NC game - not to punish UGA but for the national shock. Either that or have the computers fall in love with UGA and bump them over USC or UTx.
- I gather you're a Dem from your blog. While I'm a die-hard Republican, we might find some common ground as I agree that Bush has, in many ways, been an "anti-Republican" with his government expanding and civil liberty reducing ways.
I'll give you one guess which ACC team probably dodges the Boise Bullet if they get 6 wins...
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