Sobered Up - Week 4

First, check out BI's plea of "maybe we should just take a break and see what happens, but I still love you, baby!" to the Blackout era.

I was in Athens and I caught the replay (eh, certain parts I could stomach) last night. It was ugly. It was an ass-kicking. It reminded me of when Georgia was up-and-coming as a national power in 02-03 and would go on the road to Knoxville, Fayetteville, Tuscaloosa, etc. and just pound the living piss out of an overmatched opponent. That's what this was, only the Dawgs decided to play a little role reversal.

Regardless...there are some encouraging signs. While one who saw the score at halftime and postgame might be inclined to think the score didn't properly reflect the level Bama truly beat down on Georgia, I'll put on my Red and Black blinders and look at the following:

• Alabama outgained Georgia by only 10 yards (334-324).
• Most of Alabama's points came off of excellent field position they were given in the first half from dumb penalties and Brian Mimbs inexplicably forgetting how to punt a football like a Division 1 punter. These mistakes can hopefully be corrected.
• Despite the fact the Dawgs had to abandon their gameplan for pretty much the entire 2nd half and their best playmaker was limited to 12 touches, they were able to pull within two scores with a quarter remaining. This gives me alot of confidence in Stafford and the rest of the Dawgs ability to work from behind under a more reasonable deficit (maybe 10-17 points).
  
• An extraordinate amount of injuries to key contributors. The ball is definitely not bouncing our way on the injury front this year. Remember less than a year ago when we worried about having too many tight ends on our roster? Safe to say that problem won't be rearing its head again anytime soon.
  

I won't say anything about the defense, because I have spent the last 36 hours decompressing after this loss, and I don't want to think anymore about Akeem Dent perfecting a 15-yard bitch slap penalty or Willie Martinez employing the same zone scheme that allowed fucking JOHN PARKER WILSON to look like Tom Brady circa-2001 out there in the first half. I'll just leave it at 'the Dawgs have work to do, their strengths and weaknesses are pretty clear cut at this point, and they have two weeks to do fix what needs fixin.' They can still win the SEC and beyond. GATA, Richt and Co.

On the other end of the spectrum, USC's Thursday loss should NOT be compared to Georgia's. I don't wanna hear how at least they lost on the road...going to fuckin' Corvallis, Oregon on a Thursday should not instill fear and intimidation in the minds of USC's players that have been watched at a national level since high school. So anyways, it looks like USC's title hopes are done...

...or NOT. What the hell?!?! Are you kidding me? Watching both those games, they determined UGA was a lesser team than USC? They were so disgusted with UGA losing to the #8 (now #2) team in the nation that all of a sudden USC's inability to move the ball 48 hours earlier against a team that couldn't even stay on the field with Penn State didn't seem as bad?

Again, rankings at this point in the season really don't mean anything, and if Georgia wins out, I do think they'll be ranked higher than USC. That being said, I've had it with these idiotic pollsters. Let computers do it. I'm serious. Take a consensus of all the major computer polls and let them rank the teams using the criteria voters should be using. If college football isn't going to have a playoff, you may as well eliminate any bias that could fester when you involve human voters.

Memo to Urban Meyer...two years ago you could get away running Tebow up the middle on a 4th and 1 in the 4th quarter. You could for the majority of last season as well. Now? Everyone knows what's coming in that situation. It sucks for you that your highly touted RBs haven't panned out yet, but you're not fooling anyone anymore. And it's clearly taking a toll on your QB, who by the way, is 8-5 as a starter in his last 13 games.

This Arkansas team might be the worst non-Vandy SEC team I have ever seen. Petrino roaming the sidelines in Knoxville next year?

ECU, really, that was fun. At least your mini-run of relevance brought us the joy of watching North Carolina's finest putting tax dollars to good use...by bodyslamming inebriated 150-pound 19 year olds. Skip Holtz roaming the sidelines in Knoxville next year?

Speaking of Tennessee, this is going to end badly. We're at the point where a 14-12 loss to Auburn is a suprise...in a good way. Watching those two offenses was like watching a soft-core porn from the early 90s. Sure, it's still SEC football/naked women, but in the end, you're gonna leave disappointed and wholly unsatisfied.

Navy 24 Wake Forest 17. Maryland 20 Clemson 17. Another stellar weekend along the eastern seaboard.

And on that note, let's wrap up this really cheerful edition of Sobered Up with the Weekly Top 10:

1. Oklahoma
2. Alabama - 2 wins in the state of Georgia against Top 10 teams. One of those teams is actually good, too!
3. LSU - The Georgia/Florida SEC GAME OF THE CENTURY looks like it will now be played a week later. In Baton Rouge. And instead of Georgia and Florida, Alabama and LSU will be there.
4. Penn State
5. Texas
6. Missouri
7. Georgia
8. South Florida
9. USC
10. Texas Tech...this...this is tough. Their most impressive win thus far is a 35-19 win at Nevada. Let's just say this is a tentative ranking right now.

And in honor of Blutarsky's Mumme Poll, we'll go ahead and round out the Top 12 with Florida and BYU. Though for the quality of the game's sake, I'm glad to see Ohio State have Beanie Wells back. This looks to be another wild season in the College Football world...but after this one, I'll be glad to take a break this upcoming weekend.