Georgia football falls back to Earth in loss to Auburn

Our Georgia football team had a bad day Saturday, losing 40-17 to Auburn on the road. The Bulldogs fall to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the SEC.

Well that was a hard one to watch. I did not expect that kind of performance from our Georgia football team Saturday. A loss wasn’t surprising, Auburn was ranked no. 10 after all and I’m very familiar with the history of upsets in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. But 40-17? That came out of no where.

I’m sure we don’t need to run through stats. Our offense was abysmal. The defense bent more than we’re used to and after a while they just broke. A scoring summary is also pointless. Me, nor you want to relive any of that. And like you all, I’m left with some questions following the loss.

Does Jim Cheney have a plan-B?

We were just beginning to praise Cheney for turning the offense around. And then Saturday happened. Our run game was shut down. It became clear in the second quarter that there was no room between the tackles. And we had no ability to slow down Auburn’s pass rush.

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Where were the screen’s, toss sweep’s, stretch hand-off’s, quick timing routes? I’m not asking for a complete overhaul of the offense. No one is. But where are those simple tweaks to the offense that every successful team turns to when they need a spark?

That kind of stubbornness might not be an issue somewhere else. But in the SEC, that loses you games and it certainly played a part in us losing Saturday.

Where was the leadership?

For weeks now, the Bulldog nation has gushed over Kirby Smart’s post game and weekly comments. Quotes like “humility is a week away” and always talking about staying focused on the next opponent have been echoed by numerous fans.

And it’s those quotes that helped fuel our hopes week-to-week. We felt like Smart would always have his team prepared. And I know this sounds like critique of Smart for maybe not communicating that enough this past week, but it’s not. I’m critiquing our seniors.

Once Smart says it, it’s up to the mature players to relay that and start practicing it. But there was a lack of that leadership on Saturday. Dumb penalties, lack of pride from the offensive line, and other bad mistakes cost Georgia the game.

The bright side

The good news is that this does not diminish anything Smart and the Bulldogs have accomplished to this point. Georgia is still SEC East Champions. Smart still kept the team focused on winning for nine straight weeks. He’s still a relatively new head coach, and with that comes a need to work through new situations.

This was a new situation for Smart as a head coach. Being the no. 1 team against another top-10 team on the road, in a major rivalry game. There’s a lot that Smart could learn from this game. From how to prepare to how to handle being down.

This isn’t time to panic. Next time Georgia is in a game like this and we output a similar performance, then you can panic. But until then, it’s a learning experience for Smart. Not only is it up to the team to learn the lesson, it’s up to Smart as well. Probably more so than the players.

Next: We were way off with this prediction

We have Kentucky this week. They’re not very good, but that shouldn’t matter. Remember 2012? This loss to Auburn felt a lot like the loss to South Carolina from that year. And that team followed that game with a bad game against Kentucky that they barely survived.

Here is where we see what this Georgia football team is made of. We find out how focused they are and how much pride they have.

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