Horns down – Texas preview

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I hate this. I admit I didn’t like it from the day it was announced. The SEC has bent over backwards to accommodate this bunch of arrogant jerks by giving them an easy schedule and getting to host the Dawgs on F1 weekend. Later tonight, we’ll see if the top-ranked Longhorns are who the pollsters and media think they are or whether their ranking is due to a soft as Charmin schedule. Let’s get to the preview.

When Texas Has the Ball

Quinn Ewers is a good quarterback, and Arch Manning has the last name. Just as last year with AD Mitchell (sorry, not a DGD – great player for us, but not DGD worthy IMHO), Texas plucked Isaiah Bond out of the portal to add firepower to the Texas passing game. Steve Sarkisian has made his career as an offensive mastermind just as Kirby Smart made his career as a defensive genius. Georgia’s front 6/7 needs to play their best game since Clemson to limit the Texas offense’s opportunity to score, and some red zone defense that produces field goals over touchdowns would certainly be beneficial. I see Georgia taking few chances in this game and forcing Texas to drive the length of the field without explosives. Whether that can be done or not likely is the difference in the game.

When Georgia Has the Ball

The Texas defense hasn’t been challenged yet. Whether that’s because they are good or whether they haven’t faced a good offense is the question. I do think this is the game for Carson Beck to show his ability to make the team around him better. A solid run game would be a big help tonight to provide some sense of balance in the offense. A slow start similar to the Alabama game is a recipe for a woodshed whipping in Austin. This offense needs to be ready to score into the 40s but also be ready to grind out a win if the defense can hold up under pressure.

What Will Happen

Kirby hasn’t had the opportunity to coach as a true underdog in quite some time. I’m guessing he has relished in the lack of rat poison for his team for the last month. I expect this team to come out playing like their collective hair on fire. Texas doesn’t have better athletes. They have the home field advantage (and, likely, the Birmingham suits’ advantage). That probably doesn’t add up to a victory tonight in Austin.

If this team has a “60 minutes of hell” game in them, tonight would be a good time for that to show up. I hate to say it, but this team is what they are 6 games in. Talented, maddening, athletic, boneheaded at times.

Final Score Texas 38, Georgia 31

Please, please, please let me be wrong.

This entry was posted in Don't Mess with Texas, UGA and tagged , , by eethomaswfnc. Bookmark the permalink.

About eethomaswfnc

I've been a Dawg my entire life. UGA was always my dream school where I received 2 Terry College degrees and met my DGD wife. I've been a season ticket holder for over 30 years and love the in-stadium experience over anything from Section HD. My first game in Sanford Stadium was the 1981 Auburn game where we clinched the SEC championship. The best game I've attended in person was the Midnight Miss against Ohio State (nite, nite!). The best home games I've attended were the 1984 Clemson game (the Butler did it) and the 2013 LSU game (that 4th down is still the loudest single moment I've experienced between the hedges). The game I love to win is against the Handbags (FTMF), and the game I hate to lose is the NATS (Tuck Fech).

26 thoughts on “Horns down – Texas preview”

  1. Unfortunately I don’t think you’re wrong. I hope you are but I have a bad feeling about this one. I agree we need to come out with our hair on fire. But this team doesn’t seem to have that personality. Yes, they played mostly lights out in the second half against Alabama. If Georgia has a hair on fire at the start mindset I think we would have seen it against Auburn. We didn’t. I think the Dawgs need to take the crowd out of the game in order to win. I hope they can do that but I’m not sure if they will. At least they do have the experience in Tuscaloosa. That will help. I don’t think we can afford to fall several scores down in this game. Like yourself, I’m praying I’m wrong. Go Dawgs!

  2. OU, Michigan, Bama, Notre Dame…we can travel and win the big games. I’m not seeing Texas with a clear advantage in talent. If Sark is truly the “genius” everybody makes him out to be then our secondary is in for a long, bad evening. But…despite our resident haterz…Mike Bobo is every bit as good. His resume is better. So which coaching staff wins the chess match? Which team executes? Whose playmakers step up? Through the prism of recent history I like our Dawgs in close one. Less a shootout and more of a need to close out the game with a long clock-eating drive. Home field advantage is huge for the horns but take the Dawgs to cover and the under. That’s usually $$$$. And let’s hope the cover includes the win.

    Dawgs 27 – Cattle 24

    • Not sure how you think Bobo is as good as Sark. He wasn’t OC in any of the traveling wins you referenced. I said before this is the kind of game that a Bobo team is one score away from winning. I hope he shuts me the hell up tonight! Obviously, our D is the biggest problem this season thus far, but we cannot afford 2 quarters of offensive impotence in this game. We cannot afford to play wait until they score before we score again. Again, shut me up, CMB!

  4. I’m sitting here in a creek bottom on the opening morning of deer season thinking about Ranger Russ and all that has happened over the last year. I don’t know what to make of this team. Win here and I can see them going on a run and winning out. Or I can see a loss here and this season just being kind of Richtian and not terrible but just sort of a dud. It kind of has that feel anyway. I’m normally against such Eeyore bullshit but this a damn head scratcher of a team and oddly not much fun to watch. But that could all change today. Go Dawgs.

    • Good luck out there Mike. I couldn’t make it out this weekend but the bye weekend next weekend is where I’ll be. Hope the full moon isn’t making it boring out there.

      • Thanks, man. Had one come by me about fifteen minutes after I got in here but it was still so dark that I couldn’t tell what it was. Had some turkeys put on a show right after daylight. Had one blow at me on the hillside off to my west. It’s about what you would expect on a morning hunt with a full moon but I’m fired up just to be out here.

    • I passed on a 2 1/2 year old 15″ eight this morning. Watched him piddle around out in the pasture at 120y for probably 15 minutes.
      If the D line shows out and heats up Ewers, and Frazier & Etienne break for over 12-15 a few times, then we win. Thery have to be ever so tired of hearing the name all week; very Brady Bunch, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.” I agree with you to a degree. They just need to play a full four quarters, but you’d shot that little buck and you know it.

      • Naw just out past the ears eight points are a dime a dozen here. Hunting here is different from just about every other part of the state.

        • Same here. I would have let my wife take him; he would have been a decent first deer for the wife or grand kid. I’ve been doing this since about 1971-72 so I tend to be a bit more patient.

          • I don’t know what year it was when I started. I was around five years old so about ‘82 I guess.

    • Mrs. Cowdog is travelling tomorrow for work so we’re hanging out at some of our favorite places with good friends before she goes. Once the driver picks her up…
      I love this time of year. We had our first frost Thursday. Hay and corn were cut early this week so it’s time for me to clean up. I don’t really “hunt” anymore, but the M1A I bought off RangerRuss rides in the tractor cab and I’ll happily snag a fat doe for the freezer. Good luck in the woods and be safe.

      • Thanks, man. I’m back it. Sitting.a different spot this evening. It’s windy. Hopefully they get up and move before dark.

    • Mr. Mike,
      Senator and RR will be at the game tonight.
      I ain’t worried.
      GO DAWGS

  5. I don’t know what to think about this game. On one hand, Texas hasn’t played a competent offense all season so I think the defensive stats are inflated. On the other, we haven’t played a complete effort all season long on offense that’s been free of warts. Becks first pick last week was a bounce that went State’s way, the second was a head scratcher. If there’s one thing I don’t like about him is that his ten foot tall head is locked in on his primary receiver from the snap if the play takes more than two seconds to evolve, and lanes shut quick. Our defense has been awol and misses as many tackles as they make it seems. Interesting stat though, Texas’s defense has missed more. Somehow given the complete domination that’s been exhibited by the final scores, Texas’s defense has had more snaps than Georgia’s, so there’s something amiss about the number in my opinion. Seems like Texas is feast or famine, both sides of the ball.

    While our offense has been frustrating and has been generous with turnovers, outside of the Kentucky game and the first half of the Alabama game, they can be hard to get off the field. If the Texas defense is out there for a while and we keep consistent drives going, I don’t think the Texas O finds the rhythm they need and Ewers is just as guilty of slow starts as Beck. I hope that’s the case and we play a consistent game throughout.

    Feels like last year when we went to Tennessee. I don’t think anything’s going to be worse than BDS at 7:30 on a September evening, and the environment won’t be the factor it was then. I have to think the schedule and trials this team has already been through has hardened them moreso than they were going into the Bama game. My inner Munson says we’re cooked, my faith in Kirby says he’s embraced the underdog aspect and will have them ready to play. They’ve got some disguised coverages coming today that they haven’t shown yet and throw it at them like Ole Miss last year. Hope is a dangerous thing, amirite?

    • Beginning to think Beck might be like Murray in that he needs to get hit to settle down and stop thinking about throwing. Dial up a few QB runs the first drive or two and see what happens.

  7. been prepared for the start of a game yet this season and I’d agree that this team is who we’ve seen so I wouldn’t expect anything different tonight.

    I’d expect around a 24-10 halftime score with UGA going three and out the first possession after halftime and losing something like 41 – 24. As in most years I think there’s about 3 teams playoff worthy and based off of performance and net ypp this team just isn’t one of them this year. Top 10 sure, top 3 not in my opinion. I hope I’m proven wrong! Go Dawgs!!

    • Damn you! This is where I’m at. I keep trying to leave but the inner Munson won’t let me.

  8. Used a lot of words yesterday, so I’ll try to narrow my focus. Defense Demands Discipline. If we play with discipline and intensity, we’re going to leave some bruised bovines in our wake. GO DAWGS!

  9. If it’s a 3-point game at the break, then things get really interesting the rest of the way.

  11. Mitchell will always be a DGD to me for his play in winning g two NCs.

    Today, I like the fact the entire world is picking Texas. Logic tells me we won’t stop the Texas offense and lose a shoot out. But maybe this is the game where we get it all together and play a complete game. Pressure should be squarely on Texas so we can play free and loose.

  12. I’m gonna take a shot every time Bobo calls a tunnel screen and hope I’m not dead by halftime. Otherwise, I just don’t feel good about our chances. Texas is the media darling and it is at their house. Please prove me wrong Dawgs.

  13. Pingback: Tale of the stats – Georgia 30, Texas 15 | GTP Refugees

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