Like most true fans going into a game like this, I'd made up my mind in advance not to expect too much. Since the Clemson game, I've repeated coach Saban's mindset to myself over and over again: this is all a mirage; it's a process; it doesn't happen overnight; etc, etc, etc.
So I was anticipating a Georgia victory going away Saturday. I saw their skill set, saw the night game on the road, saw a road team that would hang tough, but ultimately fall short.
Sometime around the :58 mark of the second quarter, when Julio Jones hauled in a TD pass from John Parker and Leigh Tiffin drilled an extra point to make the count 31-0, two thoughts dawned on me simultaneously:
- Holy #@&%! Alabama's whooping the third-ranked team in the country, on national television on the road!
- Dammit ... I bet we'll be ranked too high next week.
But you weren't expecting this. How could you have? How could any of us? And now that it's happened, suddenly all of us as fans -- the rational ones of us, not those idiots who fill up Finebaum's afternoon with inane blather -- are afraid to poke our heads too far out of the ground, for fear of getting them chopped off, again.
The folks at tidesports.com understand how I'm feeling. That's why this was their centerpiece art late Saturday:
That, of course, is the maddening thing about the doubts being carried around, by me and everyone else. Cecil Hurt nails it correctly in his column for today.
The Bulldogs changed the margin. They didn’t change the verdict. Alabama was better, tougher and stronger. Yes, there are still areas where Alabama needs work. No, the process is not complete. But there is no arguing with the position that Alabama finds itself in this morning.It's a little scary, isn't it? With trips to Tennessee and LSU remaining, and dangerous home games left against the Mississippi schools -- not to mention the annual November Armageddon against the team our boys haven't vanquished since the Dennis Franchione era -- Alabama is suddenly in the national discussion, ranked second in the nation for the first time since (take a deep breath) 1993. Frankly, I don't even like thinking about it.
The problem with obsessing about Point 2, of course, is that it minimizes Point 1.
Let there be no doubt: even if the Georgia Bulldogs aren't the national powerhouse they were expected to be in preseason, UGA is a good, good football team. They proved it after halftime, Matt Stafford inparticular -- many of the throws Stafford made in the second half were made against a heavy rush, into tight coverage, and he made them anyway.
And here's the thing: like they did against Clemson, Alabama dismantled that very good team. The running backs who killed them a season ago were rendered irrelevant. The fronts that bedeviled the Tide in Bryant-Denny last season got pushed around like they were on rollerskates.
Even in the second half, when one more UGA stop might've given their offense a chance to make a game of things, Alabama systematically marched down the field, pushed the lead back to three scores and that was that. We've said all season that we don't know how good our team really is. We've got a pretty good idea now.
Some other notes ...
-- It can't be overstated the job Alabama's front did Saturday night. This is the best offensive front Alabama has had since 2004 (when Wesley Britt, Justin Smiley and Evan Mathis were all seniors), from the standpoint of coaching and experience. And they've played like it.
-- The draw play to Upchurch that made the score 24-0 was the exact same play -- in nearly the exact same situation -- that Major Applewhite called on the goal line last season vs. Tennessee.
-- I'm not here to complain about officiating, particularly not after a win like that one. But it is worth noting that UGA's punt return TD was aided by at least two illegal blocks. Although I was happy the UGA students who painted themselves black got something to be excited about.
-- I can't wait to read the blogs this week talk about how UGA was overrated the whole time, and they knew it. Keep talking, guys. You can't take this one away from us.
Elsewhere ...
-- Thus far in 2008, I've watched all of two Auburn games -- at Miss. St, vs. LSU -- and bits and pieces of two others -- Southern Miss and that 14-12 borefest vs. Tennessee -- and I've yet to understand the upside to Chris Todd, starting QB. I keep hearing that his arm is superior to Burns, and that he's a superior decision-maker. I don't know for sure. I can say this: as an Alabama fan, I'm terrified of Burns. Todd? Meh.
-- That Ole Miss went into Florida, pushed the Gators around and made the game closer than it should've been wasn't a huge surprise. That Ole Miss WON? Huge surprise.
On the other hand, maybe it shouldn't be such a surprise, because that's what Houston Nutt does: uglies things up and makes you earn everything you get. At Arkansas, every season he won one game he shouldn't have, and every season he lost one or two games he shouldn't have. That's just the way it is. And if you don't think 'Bama and Auburn are already losing sleep over Ole Miss, you don't understand much about SEC football.
-- USC's upset at the hands of Oregon St. was more of a shocker. Oregon St. lost to Stanford. Oregon St. got housed at Penn St. Oregon St. is awful. For them to beat the team I christened Team of the Decade a few weeks ago ... that's inexcusable.
-- The Mets missed the playoffs again. This makes me strangely happy.
That's pretty much all I got. Always read Dr. Saturday, EDSBS and BSR.
wlh
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