Observations from the Armchair, BDS Whiplash edition.

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It was the worst of times, it was the best of times (and then the worst of times). I’m guessing I speak for most of you, but I can’t recall the last time I went through that many emotions in one Georgia regular season game. Thankfully, with the expanded playoff field, it was somewhat easier (but not easy) to get past the result. Also helpful? The team’s elephantine (see what I did there?) second half comeback effort, even if it was ultimately unsuccessful. That said, I have a feeling this post will contain pieces of all those aforementioned emotions, so consider yourselves warned. On to the bullets, which I divided into halves this time, because duh:

  • We thought we had seen the worst of Carson Beck in the Kentucky game. Sadly, we had not. That first half was a Greek tragedy for Carson. He was clearly affected by the crowd, the moment, and his receivers’ mistakes. He appeared dazed and confused for the entirety of the first half. His passes were floating and lacked accuracy. If I’m being totally honest, my UGA game text thread had a lot of comments about Lambos, Instagram and premature Heisman talk. I’m not proud of it, but I’ll bet I’m not alone there. There were countless moments where I asked my buddies watching at my house and those on my text thread, “What the hell did he see there?” An inexplicably poor performance in the first half.
  • Arian Smith’s stone hands sure picked a bad game to return.
  • On the other hand, the OL rose to the challenge and largely played exceptional football. Sure, there were some missed blocks and assignments, but they were few and far between and I saw a lot more movement and running lanes than in the SECCG last year.
  • Trevor Etienne ran hard and with good vision. Not surprising that he got the bulk of the carries, given the moment and matchups we had outside.
  • So, let’s get to the WRs. Until the wide open bombs of the second half, this group got outplayed by a hungry Bama secondary that overcame their inexperience with effort. It was smart for Bobo to go after their DBs, but the receivers did not meet their end of the bargain. I counted 4-5 drops, and even more lack-of-effort plays on back-shoulder passes. That goes for the TEs as well, who continued their disappearing act for the 4th straight game until Luckie came alive late.
  • Defensively, Georgia had no answers for Milroe in the first half. I can’t recall another player that dominant against the Georgia defense in a half. He honey-badgered the Dawgs for 30 minutes.
  • The ILBs looked just as lost as they did in the last game against Bama, Christen Miller and Nazir Stackhouse missed so many chances to corral Milroe in the backfield, and the edge setting was atrocious. So, no better than last year. Really frustrating that Kirby and Schuman couldn’t get a better result. I understand that Mykel Williams and Warren Brinson played hurt, but the coaches had all offseason and an off week to get the other guys ready to play and they crapped the bed in the first half.
  • On to the DBs, where Malaki Starks picked the wrong game for his worst as a Dawg. Missed tackles, bad angles and getting beat by a 17-year-old on multiple routes is not what was called for in this game. Also, and this was more damning to me: I understand giving Ryan Williams space because he runs a 4.3, but why were they playing off coverage on a crappy TE?! Those catches were all back-breakers.
  • On to the second half, because I’m too traumatized to continue talking about the first half.
  • At halftime, I had already decided the subtitle of the OFTA post edition this morning. It was to be: OFTA, Richie Tenenbaum edition. Beck had seemingly lost his mind in the first half. He was 5/15 with 2 picks and 44 yards. And then, miraculously, he engineered the largest comeback in UGA history (which was outdone by Julio Humphrey’s stroke – more on that later, sigh).
  • In the second half, Beck regained focus and momentum, threw for nearly 400 yards and was 22/35 with 3 TD passes. He had 2 more turnovers, the fumble being the most egregious, but looked like the Beck we needed all night. The receivers finally started catching, Beck was more accurate, and they gave him more help on 50/50 balls. The result was a 27-3 pounding by the Dawgs and a miraculous 34-33 lead. We were going nuts, for 13 seconds.
  • The defense had adjusted by maintaining their rushing lanes, taking better angles at Milroe’s scrambles and forcing some incompletions. It should have been like this all game, right?
  • It ultimately didn’t make a difference in the outcome, but can someone explain to me why they went for 2 after the Luckie TD?
  • I counted 9-10 pass interference penalties that should have been called on Bama DBs, and only 2 were called. Meanwhile, UGA was called for 3 OFFENSIVE PIs. #bamarefs lives on.
  • Terrific blocking by the TEs on the Bell end-around.
  • OK, let’s talk about the last pass to Williams. Julio Humphrey got lost in space to a 17-year-old phenom. It seemed like all his training went out the window, because all he had to do was turn around and face Milroe and that ball gets picked and the greatest comeback in Georgia history is cemented. We all go berserk, get even more drunk, and this post gets put up around 3pm. But that’s not what happened. I was fine with letting Williams score, because it gave us the ball back with time to win. But the play on the ball was really poor.
  • As for the last throw from Beck, the ball flight was consistent with what he did all game (short and fluttery), but it should have been expected by Young, whose bread-and-butter is catching back-shoulder fades. He got flat-footed and the DB beat him to the ball. It was as if the first half made one final, painful comeback. And that was that.

Look, that first half was the worst football Georgia had played since 2016. But that second half was magical, and that must be remembered and credited too. “I gave up, so did you,” is what I wanted to quote for this post. But, it was not to be. Instead, the Dawgs are left to ponder how many plays they left out on that field that would have changed the outcome. There were so, so many. The Bama curse lives on in our lives, but we’ve got plenty to look forward to. Like beating the living shit out of Auburn next week. For those of you able to go to the game, enjoy. And put this one in the rearview, for now.

23 thoughts on “Observations from the Armchair, BDS Whiplash edition.”

  1. Watching different angles of the last play, it looked like Young was almost jogging and wasn’t anticipating the ball. Weird energy for a play that could’ve been his moment.

    • I haven’t watched the replay (and won’t) but it seemed at the time that Beck threw a flat pass straight to the defender. Only chance Young would have had would be true OPI by throwing the DB down before he could grab it. The ball needed a lot more air under it so Young could take advantage of his height.

      • Beck throws that to the back corner and it’s caught away from the DB. The whole play felt rushed and poorly executed when there was plenty of time to even run one up the middle where Bama was proving soft and worn down. We’ll never know.

  2. Its hard enough to beat bama. Constantly having to beat the refs from the home office in Birmingham as well is maddening.

    3 OPIs?!?!

    I bet if you counted backwards from Friday you’d get to the third OPI called on us when you were somewhere in the first decade of CMR’s tenure.

    That’s how often those things get called. I’d bet that 3 in one night is a record at every level of play.

  3. We need to beat the shit out of Auburn and Mississippi State and then find a way to win at Texas. I don’t think that this team can rely on the defense to take over or even be much more than a sieve against the elite offense that we play but I’ve been a fan long enough and have the power of self delusion that I will harness to get pissed again when we play Bama in the SEC Championship game.

    • We’re not going to see another Milroe. I don’t think you can predict how well our defense will play against other teams based on last night. Kirby and Saban would beat the fuck out of everyone on their schedule and then Johnny Football or Deshaun Watson comes along posts 600 yards and 40+ points.

      Other qbs were not replicating that shit on a regular basis.

      I’m often a questioned as to why I’ve long coveted a guy who can run and pass and why I’m tired of seeing them play everywhere but Athens.

      I hope last night clarified my position. They make playing defense really fucking hard and you are forced to score nearly every time you get the ball.

      You can’t have to’s or 3 and outs or even very many fg attempts and expect to win against them. Slow starts are a killer.

      You want him chasing if you can because at least then you can put them in more predictable situations. If he’s got the whole playbook, its tough.

      • Absolutely true, he’s an athletic freak and had a near perfect half throwing the ball too. Thankfully he came back to earth in the second half and allowed us to get back in the game. And then Julio stroked out.

      • Don’t disagree, but it’s not like every recruiting class has one and we’re not the #1 choice for that type of player. Doesn’t fit our offensive philosophy (like it or not) and we don’t help players with the Heisman hype/stats. See Fields, Justin.

  4. Great job, Austin. You made me laugh a few times and that was what I used to look forward to in the Senator’s bullet points the day after a disappointing loss.

    The first half is just bewildering. Nobody will ever explain it to our satisfaction but I’m not sure there is any explaining it. Yeah the stupid people can make themselves feel better with “Bobo sucks and I’ll kick your ass if you say otherwise!” but it’s truly astonishing what we witnessed. Beck seemed helpless. His body language and facial expressions made him seem like a whipped puppy who absolutely did not want to be there. And that brings me to something you mentioned. I don’t argue against your point that the crowd and the moment seemed to be too much for him. But why? He has played a lot of college football. I understand it not being easy and his having some struggles but he looked terrified. Why? I’m beginning to wonder if he’s just not very mentally tough. But from a fan’s limited perspective that’s impossible to know.

    The defense was simply horrible in the first half. They seemed timid and like they just wanted to get the whole thing over with rather than wanting to fight. Alabama did whatever they wanted and it was like the defense just didn’t want to piss them off. That too I’m told is Mike Bobo’s fault. lol.

    The second half effort was superb but I don’t understand how they could look so different. Kirby raising hell and “Alabama just took their foot off the gas, Paaaaaaaaawl!” don’t explain going five for five on fourth down and suddenly hitting deep balls and shutting down Milroe. It was truly a bizarre thing to witness.

    I agree on the two point conversion seeming stupid. I don’t understand the Humphrey and Bolden just being totally outclassed by what was basically a high school kid on Bama’s just what the doctor ordered answer to the Dillon Bell touchdown.

    I’m sick of “Roll Tide!” and their stupid entitled, spoiled rotten fans. I think if we play this game at home we win. But that makes me think this is a really immature team with weak leadership. Kirby hinted at this before the season. There is no Nolan Smith, Jordan Davis, and Chris Smith. There is no Stetson, Zeus, and Sedrick Van Pran. And there is really nothing that can be done about that. A team has leaders or it doesn’t. We will see how we respond to this. Go Dawgs.

    • Good point about the leadership. Jalon Walker is a great leader, but with Mykel out and Starks playing terribly, we were missing those guys last night. On offense, Tate is out and Beck is a quiet guy (and was shitting the bed). Needed Etienne, Bell and others to step up faster than they did.

  5. Re: the 2 point conversion. Beig up by one or by 2 is the same. A FG beats you, so you go for 2 to make it a 3 point game and a FG only ties. It was the proper call there.

    Of course, all of that became moot (not mute) 13 seconds later.

    • I was referring to the 2-pt conversion after Luckie’s TD, not the one after Bell’s run. The TD put UGA within 12 points, so an XP would have gotten them within 11, which was 2 scores. Instead it left them 12 points down, which required 2 TDs.

      • At that point we needed to get all the points we could to narrow the number of scores. 3 TDs plus three 2pt conversions eliminates needing a FG. Plus momentum. Plus the over/under. 😜

  7. I missed watching the game. I have power but no cable. I changed shirts at halftime because friends were keeping me up with the score. If there is a chance to watch it should I watch the second half. I hope everyone who was in Helena’s path is safe. We are lucky to have power back on but upstate Greenville SC is a mess. Friday was scary. I am ready for next Sat.

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