Outback Bowl: Michigan State 33, Georgia 30 (3 OT) -- More of the Same for the Dawgs
by cocknfire on Jan 3, 2012 1:58 AM EST
in SEC Football
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PrintIt was looking pretty good as time ran down on the Outback Bowl. South Carolina had just defeated Nebraska in the 2012 Capital One Bowl, and Florida had slopped its way past Ohio State in the 2012 Gator Bowl. And Georgia had the lead against Michigan State, needing just to keep the Spartans out of the endzone with 1:55 left to give the SEC a perfect record against the Big Ten on New Year's Day for a second straight year.
Then it all fell apart. Kirk Cousins and Michigan State drove the ball 85 yards on 10 quick plays to tie the game at 27, and then managed to make one more field goal in three overtimes to defeat Georgia and send the Dawgs and their fans back to Athens with the same nagging questions.
It wasn't all the fault of the defense, which forced three interceptions against Kirk Cousins and held the quarterback to a 99.00 passer rating, 52 points below his season average and the third-lowest rating of his career. Cousins gained 300 yards, but you're almost bound to do that when you put the ball in the air 50 times. The defense also stuffed the Michigan State running game, which averaged just 2.9 yards per attempt.
And it's hard to entirely blame the offense. Aaron Murray might not have had the sharpest game of his career, but he had the clearly better game of the two quarterbacks by passer rating. Then again, the running game left something to be desired by only picking up 51 yards on 39 rushes.
But both of them took an ill-timed nosedive after the half, with the defense allowing scoring drives of 48 and 59 yards in addition to the 85-yarder to send the game to overtime. And Murray threw one of his two second-half interceptions to give Michigan State the other touchdown it needed for a 27-point outburst.
Everything that you want to criticize after that -- the conservative play and the blown field goals in overtime -- came from the fact that Georgia just couldn't close the door when it had to. If there's been a problem that's dogged Mark Richt's last few teams as they've gone through disappointing season after disappointing season, it's been that.
Sure, Georgia had a great season this year, one that will undoubtedly save Mark Richt's job at least for a time. But with another disappointing conclusion to a season in which most of the biggest games got away from them, you have to wonder just how much has actually changed.
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Mark Richt is the Bob Stoops of the SEC.
Always has been. Always will be.
by burmbuster on Jan 2, 2012 8:39 PM EST via iPhone app reply actions
You had me...
… then you lost me with this:
But with another disappointing conclusion to a season in which most of the biggest games got away from them, you have to wonder just how much has actually changed.
I mean, other than losing to South Carolina instead of Florida, not much has changed for any of Richt’s 11 years at the helm. Just boring, ho-hum 10-win season where we go to the SEC Championship Game. How many other SEC programs have had seven 10-win seasons in the last decade?
Did it end in disappointing fashion? Sure, no Georgia fan is going to argue that it didn’t. But don’t imply that we’re as bad as South Carolina has historically been.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
You kind of had me ...
… then you lost me with this:
But don’t imply that we’re as bad as South Carolina has historically been.
Because I’m pretty sure I didn’t write that anywhere. My point was that part of the problem that Georgia had over the last few years was either bad luck, a missing “it” or something going wrong in the later part of games. Based on the game today and the other games Georgia lost this year, that was still the problem in the losses. They just didn’t have those episodes as often this year.
The seven 10-win seasons in the last decade is fine. But I tend to look at coaches on two tracks — one over the course of their career and the other over about a four-year window. The latter was not an encouraging trend for Richt until this year. The loss today reopens a lot of the questions I had about Richt’s ability to turn the program around.
I maintain that I as a South Carolina fan would be one of the happiest people around if Richt were fired. But I’m not sure whether Georgia got that much better this year or just got better luck, and I’m not sure how sustainable that is.
Team Speed Kills. All SEC, all the time.
Well, I'm still pretty thin-skinned after today's game...
… so if I overreacted, I apologize.
I see no need to be disappointed in Mark Richt because we lost this game to a team that’s virtually identical to us, except with a kicker whose confidence hasn’t disappeared like a magician at dinnertime when the check comes.
All four of our lost games were lost in a disappointing manner, three of which because we felt we could have legitimately won. Nine of our 10 wins, though, were comfortable wins that were not as close as the score indicated (Florida is the exception). In my mind, that’s undeniable progress over 2010, when we should have won about 3 or 4 close games that we just lost in the final minutes, just got beat the other 3-4 times, blew 5 teams out, and won 1 close game (against Tech).
And again, maybe I’m being too thin-skinned, but you come across as looking down your nose at Mark Richt by saying this season will save Richt’s job “for a time.” It’s sort of like saying (and apologize again for the SC analogy, but it’s the best fit) the past two seasons saved Steve Spurrier’s job for a time, but because they didn’t win the East, one has to question if anything has really changed in Columbia. Whether Carolina gets back to the SECCG next year or not, Spurrier ain’t getting fired, and the same is true of Richt.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
by vineyarddawg on Jan 2, 2012 10:19 PM EST up reply actions
I totally get where you’re coming from; I guess I would say that I only see any coach in the SEC as being safe “for a time.” This is not a conference that is known for giving coaches too much time to turn things around or giving them more than one down period in a career
Team Speed Kills. All SEC, all the time.
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