Thursday, November 26, 2009

Who Knows? You Don't, I Don't and Yellow Dog Don't

This Georgia team has been consistently unpredictable and predictably inconsistent. All of Dawgnation has had a Godawful taste in their mouth since the halftime of the Kentucky game when our team slipped into a coma. This was after the uplifting win over Auburn had everyone feeling skippy. So now, after a manic-depressive season that will be one to forget, one last order of business remains. Georgia Tech enters with a 10-1 record, a berth in the ACC Championship Game and a shot at their first ever BCS Bowl appearance. Georgia has a chance to wear the spoiler's cap, yet no one is giving them any chance. And for that reason alone, the Dawgs may have a chance.

Actually, our defense has been mostly uninspiring this season and could possible get torched for 500 yards of rushing. On the other hand, our athletes are as good or better than their athletes and it is a huge rivalry game with hometown bragging rights on the line. Tech wants this game but doesn't need it. The Dawgs need this win to garner some measure of redemption for a season otherwise destined for the rubbish bin of UGA football history. The question is, "How bad do they want it?"

Based on recent performances, Georgia should have no chance in this game, especially without AJ Green. Vegas agrees and has the Dawgs as an 8.5 point underdog. I am surprised they ave it that close.

Having watched Paul Johnson's offense during his Navy tenure and the past two seasons at Tech, it is clear that the only way to stop it is to play rigidly disciplined assignment-oriented defense and to create turnovers. This year, our defense has created only 7 turnovers and has shown no discipline when facing misdirection or zone-read types of plays. Guess what... the Paul Johnson offense is all about reads and misdirection. Tech will not lose if they do not have turnovers. Is this article inspiring any confidence in any Dawg fans?

So, if we can't stop them and we can't cause any turnovers, we just have to outscore them right? And we have to outscore them without AJ Green. And we have to outscore them with Joe Cox at QB who had his night game unbeaten streak ended last week with his two 4th quarter throws directly into the arms of Kentucky linemen. Anybody got any bright ideas about how we can score enough points to win?

When in doubt, go to your tight end. Especially when AJ Green is in street clothes. Our tight ends will need to catch a lot of balls Saturday night if we are going to have any chance. Not only that, but we will need to rush for no less than 200 yards. In other words, we will need to have our best rushing game of the season and will also need to have one of our best passing games of the season to win because we will certainly give up no less than 30 points to the Tech offense. I won't say it can't happen, but the odds are long.

Still, at this blog, we never pick against the Dawgs. We either don't pick, or we predict a Dawgs victory. I am not yet sure which it will be. If I can conjure up any way for the Dawgs to pull out a win, I will come back here tomorrow and blow sunshine up your ass and predict that the Dawgs will reverse all of the terrible trends they have establish this long season and will finally, in their 12th try, come up with a successful game in all phases for four quarters. Long odds, indeed.

2 comments:

MikeInValdosta said...

If you are going to have policies, make them good policies. This, is a great policy:
"we never pick against the Dawgs. We either don't pick, or we predict a Dawgs victory."

I assume, it matters not to you whether you blog at night or in sun. Hamp, thanks for the very solid effort all year long.

Hunker Down said...

Thanks Mike. I recognize that in my Footie Picker I picked Tech, but that is for reverse psychology purposes only.

I must admit that it got harder and harder to get excited to blog this year. I just don't want to get on here and complain about things and try to find the positives. I appreciate those of you who hunkered down on a daily basis to provide us plenty of reading material to keep us from being productive. :)

Let's hope for a perfect performance tomorrow night.