Michael Scott once said, “It takes a big man to admit his mistake. And I am that big man.”
And today, I, too, am that big man.
Not only in a literal sense as I write this after a huge dinner and still, for some reason, snacking on Cheez-Its, but also in the sense that I was wrong about Georgia, wrong about Auburn, and wrong about Georgia-Auburn.
A rivalry that had been as one-sided as a Möbius strip suddenly and improbably gained another side, morphing into a digon right before our very eyes. And while
this day was bound to come, no Möbius strips stay that way forever, many of us were hoping we wouldn’t be around to see it.
While last week’s game was a shocking result no matter how you look at it, maybe there were some signs that this could be coming. Even in the big win against Alabama from which the Dawgs were seemingly hungover, there were issues and missteps that could have haunted them more.
Especially early in the Alabama game, the Georgia defense struggled to tackle in space, giving up unnecessary yards that kept drives alive. They struggled to contain a mobile QB at times, though ultimately kept him at bay enough to win the game. The offense fumbled the ball thrice, but the bounces went their way, and by inches, they were able to secure all three.
Even Gunner Stockton, who undoubtedly had a brilliant game in a tough environment in Alabama, threw a costly interception deep in Georgia territory, and had another that was an interception until it wasn’t. The replay booth saw a few inches of a bounce that was enough to overturn what could have been a game-deciding call.
Against Auburn, those inches didn’t lean in the Dawgs’ favor. After the first two drives, the team was a little slow, a little behind, and a little off. They were a step behind on just about every big defensive play, and Auburn was able to take advantage of the Gunner mistakes on the other side.
With the level of parity in today’s college football, teams aren’t going to be able to get away with playing sloppy for too long. Eventually it comes back to bite you, as we saw across the board with half of the top-10 losing in one day.
But as the old saying goes, it’s not about how hard you fall, it’s about how quickly you get up and get ready for Florida. We saw a similar story play out in 2018, when defending SEC champion and top-2 ranked Georgia lost its first game of the year the week before the bye. That team was able to focus during the bye week and come back to beat a ranked Florida squad with a first-year head coach, en route to an 11-1 regular season.
It seems like every team says this every season, but the bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. This is a team full of tired and beat-up Dawgs with a slate of SEC ball ahead of them. The tape will show there is plenty to correct, and now there’s some time to correct it.
If one month from now we’re buying tickets to what may be the last SEC Championship Game, it will likely be because of the work done during this week. While there may be plenty of panic emanating from my fingers as we speak, Kirby Smart has shown that he’s different. In his mind, last week’s loss was a mere learning opportunity and a springboard to better days, while us fans wanted to treat it as a springboard into the deep end of a very sad pool.
This coach and program have shown resilience is built into their DNA, and this loss just might be the ribosome it needs.
