So, if you didn't know better you'd think we lost Saturday if you just glance around the Dawg world this morning and see what folks are talking about.
It's not like we beat UT 38-12, our RBs rushed for 250 yds, our D held them to 66 yards and had 5 sacks.

But noooo.....we are the worst 5 win team in the nation and don't deserve to be #2 in the country and LSU is going to prison rape us.

Is this what happens when you become an elite team? If anything short of total annihilation is gonna be criticized? If we don't play THE perfect game every Saturday, we are going to moan and groan like we did back during the ol MR days when just a win against the likes of UT would have been great and a loss would have sent everyone running for the Prozac bottle?

Gees...maybe I'm expecting too little here or something, but anyone want to chime in on this? Is football not about sitting around enjoying a beautiful fall day with fam and friends after a curb stomping of one our rivals, like we did Saturday? It wasn't our best performance, but holy cow yall, this is the first time this season we've been held under 40 points and you'd think THAT alone is reason to think we're gonna end up in the Independance Bowl! Yeah, I know we got some games that looms large coming down the pike...UK suddenly looks formidable and I said in the preseason that if LSU runs the table, that game is going to be huuuuuge. But dang, there is a looooot of football left to be played. Let's just settle down and enjoy the ride, we are a very good team that hasn't looked the sharpest at some points this season, but we are 5-0 and until some team proves it otherwise, I say we are worthy of our #2 ranking.

Thoughts?

Yea, my thoughts also. Team goes out and belts rival 38-12 and getting graded down for style points. Some things need to be cleaned up, no doubt. Penalties which gave Tenn two first downs and about 25 yards contributed mightily to that first TD by them.

After Tenn scored that second TD, Georgia took the ball and stuffed it right down their throats and ran a bunch of time off the clock.

I was greatly impressed by how hard the running backs ran. Herrien, Holyfield and Swift are some tough dudes.

Here is the deal Darin, I was at the game on Saturday, and it just seemed that the fans were not into the game from the start-and that is what happens when A) your fans are super confident/cocky and B) you are playing a team that the stupid "experts" in Vegas make a 32 point underdog. You have fans expecting a blowout like they saw in the other two home games.

Now, what I saw and I try to be realistic as much as possible, is very suspect OL play, very suspect play calling and lack of execution on offense. Granted, we have been missing two starting OL during the last 4 games, not at the same time but missing them-AND we have one SR that starts, along with a sophomores and FR starting on the OL. It is not that I don't like a ground game, it is more like I really love our stable of WR's, and I think if we threw the ball more, it would open up our running game more. BUT, it seems for now at least, we are determined we will run the ball and wear out the defense-and it has worked for the most part this year-we seem to have the opposing D's tired in the 4th. You couple that with what is going on over at Bama, yes, our fans now see us on equal ground with Bama and they are scoring points like a video game while we seem to sputter along especially in the first half. We have a dual threat kid that is finally starting to get more and more snaps. We look over at Clemson too, we see their talented FR playing, and want to see more of ours. What I am trying to say is that we are spoiled and also our expectations have grown. I know I am guilty of it at times, but I was just not overly impressed with our performance the last two weeks. Granted, we won two conference games by 14 and 26 points, but we had a big talent advantage over both and both games were within 12-14 points in the late 3rd or even early 4th quarter. We have been VERY fortunate with turnovers so far as well-so I guess fans are just ready for us to put it together and actually look like a solid #2 team in the nation. Bama is without a doubt looking head and shoulders above everyone else, and I think our fans are waiting to see our domination come back. Besides the two smaller schools from Tenn, the SCarolina game was our finest hour, that 3rd quarter was what we expect to see in all games and it just has not been the case.

We need to come out strong against Vandy and really get the offense ironed out because against LSU, they will be facing the best D they have faced to this point. The offense needs to get rolling and make us all feel better. The defense I think we all expected to be good but not as good as last year, and I believe that has been the case thus far-we are not as strong on that side but still plenty good enough. I just think the offense has not lived up to what we all thought it would be-keep in mind we have scored TD's against Missouri and SCarolina with defense and also had a special teams score at Missouri.

I think the displeasure emanates from Kirby Smart's "We have to improve!" mantra. Instead of being satisfied with the win, many folks want to nitpick everything that didn't go perfectly well. In the eyes of high achievers like Bill Belichick / Nick Saban, this mindsight prevents complacency by insisting on compliance with a standard (i.e., perfection --> domination).

I had to miss the entire game Haney and haven't watched a replay, so breakdown the OL play if you can....did Mays play pretty solid? Did Thomas looked to be his old self, or did he still look gimpy on that ankle? What about Kindley?...I've heard some say he looks a little over powered for a big guy sometimes, even against smaller guys he should be destroying? And also, I heard Baker came in an spelled Wilson some....was that just for freshness purposes or was Wilson not playing great or what?

Sorry for the bombbardment, but just wanted your eyewitness analysis on all of it. I still think we're gonna rise and fall with the OL play. They really are going to be the key, whether it's improving pass blocking for Fromm or if we keep on with this read-option thing with Fields (which I'm fine with, cause that read option always seems to frustrate opposing Ds when you got somebody that can really run it, like Fields...but the OL has to be running on all cylinders to make it all happen.

Darin-

The sack that resulted in Nauta's TD, it was Nauta who missed his block-and so he was in great position to see the sack and grab the ball. I think Wilson struggled a bit this past weekend, I think Cade Mays played pretty well, I think Thomas did a good job, I think it was more Kindley/Wilson and then also maybe TE blocks-pressure came more around the edges, but we also had trouble running the ball at times-getting very little push.

I honestly think the play calling was suspect, I think throwing on first down is a huge deal-and something we should do more of. Sometimes when you see the offense struggling and want to blame the play caller, it is really a good play and just poor execution. Also sometimes the QB doesn't make the the right check as well. Bottom line, we are not as explosive on offense YET as maybe we all thought. Granted, you look at how much youth we have, maybe we expected too much.

Perhaps the play calling has been rather vanilla of late, working on fundies, and keeping some more creative sequences under wraps.

It is possible Smart has treated these games a glorified practices not pulling out all the stops, want to play "smart" and conservative and polish fundamentals.

Possible. I don't know.

I'm not seeing the gaping holes I did last year for Chubb and Michel.

Speaking of Chubb, we all knew he was just a slow fullback, but apparently some safeties in the NFL are even slower.

He reminded me of a certain game against South Carolina in about 1980.

Darin has been suspended for a week without pay for the use of the word rape in his comments.

What if we're just catfishing Alabama into a massive beatdown in the SECCG? Just looking like we can't put it all together in any one game. Then, when we meet Alabama, SURPRISE!

Wishful thinking. Haha. But seriously, how cool would that be?