embarrassment, a flaming pile of horse manure, and whatever other colorful adjectives you wish to use at this point.
Mark Richt, and the rest of his coaching staff, have gone from being a group with potential to a potential group without jobs—if you believe the interwebs.
Well, if you came here to see Mark Richt or Todd Grantham get thrown under the bus, leave now. That's not going to happen here—not today.
Despite the hideous display of undisciplined football that was played in the first half of the Mississippi State game, Georgia wasn't demolished by those other Bulldogs. On the contrary, as they have done all season, Georgia shot themselves in the collective foot by making foolish mistakes and continually forgetting that every down matters.
That is the reason why most rational fans are unhappy this morning. That is why they are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell is going on in Athens. The fact is, by the end of the first half, the Bulldogs should have, at worst, been sitting on a 14-7 lead.
Washaun Ealey's ill-timed fumble (again) and Marlon Brown's inability to play with proper fundamentals, erased eight points from the board. In both cases, the mistakes were avoidable and the poor execution of those plays was the reason the momentum of the first half ended in Mississippi State's favor.
Moving on to the defense, the one question that has to be asked is: what was the problem on third downs? Time and again, the defense placed the Bulldogs in situations where they should have been playing back on their heels, yet they let them off the hook by allowing them to convert for the big gain.
It was like they gave all they could give on first and second down, then let their foot off the gas on third downs—hoping Mississippi State would do the same.
Even more, where's the pass rush? Chris Relf had too much time to sit back and scan the field. Give any quarterback that kind of time and he will beat you. It also didn't help that the guys up front were continually dominated by the Bulldogs' offensive line—a frightening trend that began in week two at South Carolina.
People say there's nothing wrong with the strength and conditioning program at Georgia, well, all signs to the contrary because what I've seen is a front seven that can't muster a fraction of the pressure that they should under this new "attacking" style of play.
Admittedly, some of that is personnel. Grantham doesn't have the players to fit what he would like to do, but there are still plenty of good athletes at Georgia, and they should not continually get whipped by every offensive line they come up against in Division I football—that's embarrassing.
One of the lone bright spots is Aaron Murray. He continues to shine despite standing behind an under-achieving offensive line. Bless him for being the play maker that he is, but he's going to get killed at some point this season because his line has no heart—that's right—NO HEART!
Last night, it became more and more difficult to count the sheer number of times the pocket broke down, particularly on the right side, and defender after defender was able to break through and flush Murray from the pocket. He was able to scramble his way to the first down more than once, but is that really what you want him doing all season—running for his life?
At one point, either Chris Burnette or Chris Davis just got outright flattened by a defensive player who managed to break through the line—sad. Did Stacy Searles (Georgia's offensive line coach) go on a long vacation because he's obviously not showing up to coach these "so-called" veterans who were supposed to be the rock for Georgia this season.
As for the offense, where do you possibly begin? Mike Bobo is atrocious at play-calling. There is no other way to say it. Georgia had one-on-one coverage all night against the Bulldogs, yet he decides to let Carlton Thomas have a go, or he calls some crappy draw play that loses yards—just no imagination whatsoever.
The only thing Bobo did right last night was accept responsibility for being such a hack. A welcome change from the idiocy that was last week when he, essentially, blamed the lack of offensive success on Aaron Murray's inability to get rid of the football—such class that guy.
Special teams is another conversation altogether. Did Georgia ever start outside of the shadow of their own 20? Seriously, where is the protection on special teams during kick/punt returns? The blocking was horrible and, aside from one very nice run by Brandon Boykin, there was nothing spectacular about the way Georgia played on returns last night.
All of this leads to one conclusion: Georgia is young and undisciplined in most areas. There is no leadership on the field and no player seems willing to step up and be the guy. The arrests and suspensions that plagued the team in the spring and summer were a harbinger of just how young and undisciplined this team would be on the field this season—hate to admit it, but it's true.
A.J. Green can't fix what ails Georgia. If you still believe he can, stop fooling yourself, it's simply not true. Even more, if you think firing Mark Richt right now is the way to go, answer this question: then what? Who do you think should take his place? Rodney Garner? Mike Bobo? Todd Grantham? Some other, currently unemployed, has-been, who got fired for doing the same thing Richt is right now?
Forgive the license, but continue to take your chances with Richt the rest of this season and in 2011 too—he's done enough to earn that much. Firing Mark Richt today is not the answer. He's still a good coach and this one season, as catastrophic as it has been thus far, could just as easily have been one that started 4-0.
Last night was painful. No doubt about it, but with 5:32 left to play in the game, it was still a 10-6 contest that Georgia had every opportunity to win—it's the same opportunity they had against both Arkansas and South Carolina.
This team has questions to answer about their heart, but the talent is there—they just need to start figuring out if they're man enough to use it.
The comment section is open to whatever you want to say, even if it's in total disagreement with my take—I assure you, your points are every bit as valid as mine.
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