Legge's Thoughts: UGA Punishes Auburn - Did Dawgs Silence Critics?
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ATHENS - Kirby Smart’s No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs didn’t start hot, but they finished that way - scoring on all but two drives in the second half on the way to thrashing poor Auburn 42-10.
It was a heck of a closing for the No. 2 team in the country. 500 yards. 42 points. Allowing only only 258 total yards. Georgia should have beaten Auburn’s brains in, and they did. We now pivot to a close of the season that features a trip to Jacksonville, a home matchup with surging Tennessee and a visit to Starkvegas.
Georgia can lose to Tennessee and State. I have grown overwhelmingly skeptical they can lose to the Cats and Gators. Neither was impressive on Saturday. Florida really goofed around with Missouri. Kentucky’s loss to South Carolina, and Shane Beamer’s trolling of Mike Stoops in the post-game locker room, was an unacceptable outcome for a Kentucky program that handed Ole Miss a win last weekend.
Georgia’s weekend may have changed the team. Stetson Bennett wasn’t himself in the first half. But Georgia built a 14-0 lead after a curious call from soon-to-be-let-go Bryan Harsin on a punt fake. Side note: UGA is really seeing a ton of put fakes this season. You can go years without defending a punt fake - Georgia has seen several this season. This was the first one that was stopped thanks to Nolan Smith.
The puzzling decision gave Georgia momentum. And even after a Bennett miscue handed over three points to Auburn, the Tigers were just waiting to get blown off the field. Georiga can get going really quick. And that’s just what happened after that third-quarter fumble. The Dawgs scored touchdowns on three of their next four possessions.
Bennett made up for his mistake with a 64-yard sprint Between the Hedges for a touchdown. Georgia was up 28-3, and if the game wasn’t already over with Auburn struggling to put together drives that mattered, it was after Stetson’s score.
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Three minutes later Daijun Edwards added a seven-yard TD. Georgia was up 35-3 - probably didn’t look good enough to the toughest critics out there, but they did smash their foe. And today that was one of Georgia’s biggest rivals.
Sanford Stadium was sold out, but it wasn’t full because a slew of Auburn fans didn’t show up for the game. The 600 level of Sanford had plenty of seating. Those folks knew what was coming.
PHOTOS: Georgia Bulldogs Hammer Auburn
As we always discuss - it isn’t about who you play, but how you play. Georgia left points on the board - the long ball to Brock Bowers was a walk-in touchdown. That has to be completed. The long ball to Ladd just missed. Bennett handed Auburn three points on the fumble.
But all told Georiga played pretty well. You don’t get a bunch of 42-10 wins in the SEC, but we’ve seen that sort of result in two of the Dawgs’ SEC games so far. We’ve also seen that any win counts. A so-called good win doesn’t necessarily have to happen against a “good” team. There’s a distinction there.
Good wins, like Alabama’s over Texas A&M, don’t always come over “good” teams. Texas A&M isn’t good. But Alabama’s win - even on the final play of the game - was. Tennessee’s win over LSU was eye opening. I am not certain anyone is confusing LSU with being good right now, either. But LSU can be dangerous. They are not consistent enough to be considered good.
Tennessee’s win over LSU was a statement. Don’t get confused. A 40-13 win in Death Valley is the real deal. Ignore the fact that LSU and Brian Kelly couldn’t stay out of their own way. That was a big win for the Vols.
Beating Alabama in Knoxville is hardly out of the question. Yeah, I said it. Now, Alabama is already listed as a 14-point favorite. But the Vols can score. Needless to say, this is the biggest test the Vols have had this season. I will be very curious to see what happens Saturday.
How did Kentucky lose to South Carolina? We’ve got Shane Beamer trolling Mike Stoops. Yikes. Have the Cats simply been a mirage? Maybe, y’all. Maybe. The Cats are 1-2 in league play. Don’t look now, but the top four teams in the SEC East are a combined 19-4.
Did you see FSU hand their game to NCSU in the closing moments of the game? The Noles called a passing play having neared game-winning FG territory. Pick in the end zone. Game over. Bad. Really bad football. Future Nole coach Deion Sanders is out here getting into a post-game “incident” after a win over Alabama State.
👀
The Clemson-FSU line for this Saturday is all over the place - anywhere from the Taters -4 to -9. Nine? I’ll take the Noles, and their dysfunction.
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Hawaii-San Diego State was really bad football, too. If you care. You don’t - moving on. Did you see Stanford fall to 1-4 in the most inexplicable way possible? David Shaw doesn't seem as smart as he used to.
Kansas State is dangerous. You heard it here first. Impressive win for the Sun Devils over Washington.
Mississippi State has come into its own. That is a really, really tricky game that’s coming up here in about a month for the Dawgs. Arkansas has fallen off the face of the Earth. But State is surging. I’m not sure if the Bulldogs can do what they’ve done to other teams to the Dawgs, but they are good at scoring. State has scored 39 points or more in all but their lone loss this season.
State can win the West. They won’t. But they can. They can’t turd away a loss to the Cats this coming weekend, but State seems legit for certain.
If you noticed the Jackets winning in back-to-back weeks you were the only one, but it did happen. This time in overtime at Duke. Did you know that Tech is in second place in the ACC Mountain division? Me, either. But it is true. You think the Taters can take them out to win the ACC?
How about Oregon? Yikes. Georgia beat them 49-3... and then:
W 70-14
W 41-20
W 44-41
W 45-27
W 49-22
The Ducks have a huge test in Eugene in two weeks against undefeated UCLA, but when you are scoring at will… Oregon should be a top-ten team. That’s all there is to it. Georiga, if the CFP Playoff rankings came out today, would “probably” be the No. 1 team.
After all, and no disrespect to Alabama, Georgia hasn’t won two games on the final play of the game - only Alabama has. Ohio State continue to roll along - routing Michigan State 49-20. C.J. Stroud threw six touchdowns today. Six - and he wasn’t even playing Oklahoma.
Not much stands in the Buckeyes’ way between now and Michigan. Can Penn State really put up a challenge to the real football teams in the Big Ten? We will see Saturday when they play at the Big House (Michigan -7).
Poor Oklahoma fans - Brent Venables isn’t even allowing them to be delusional until Halloween. We are six games into the season, and Oklahoma is 3-3 and winless in conference play. The Sooners have lost by an aggregate score of 145-58.
Georgia hasn’t allowed 145 points in its last ten games. Oklahoma under Venables is a joke. Don’t get mad - acknowledge it, and understand that everything everyone was saying coming into the season… that all of the players left… that the Sooners simply were not talented… that 2022 wasn’t going to end well - is true. But you wanted to get salty and get into the comments section because your boyfriend left you for the better-looking girl with a tan.
There is very little chance of recovering this year. Folks will make excuses. But it is hard to explain away or excuse away a 49-0 loss to you bitter rival. OU allows 296 yards rushing. Five Sooners attempted a pass Saturday (what in the hell is going on right now?).
No. No, dude, no. This isn’t OK. Venables appears, at least right now, to be in way, way over his head.
Maybe he can get one of those get-back coaches to get him right. Maybe chew gum harder?
Clemson did what it had to do against Boston College. Very few wins over BC are going to look good, but the Taters are 6-0. They’ve certainly started playing better of late.
We’ve reached the halfway point for much of the college football world. Georgia’s played six games this season, and it is hard to say anyone outside of Ohio State and Alabama are better than the Dawgs. Frankly, it is hard to say anyone is “better” than the Dawgs.
Ohio State? Perhaps. Alabama? After tonight - no. No, I don’t think so. But it is those three who appear to be better than eveyone else. Maybe it is just Ohio State and UGA, but I’m not that shortsighted. I know what Bama does - they win. And six weeks into it Georgia has the most impressive win. Ohio State probably has the second most impressive win. And Alabama, to its credit, has survived Texas A&M and Texas.
Bama won’t survive Tennessee unless it plays better. The Dawgs will have to fight the Vols, too, but that game is about a month away. In the meantime, Georgia has Vandy and the Gators. Both games give UGA time to get ready for what is a challenging close to the season. Kentucky is fading, but State is coming on, and that’s over there.
Georgia should win from here on out, however. Alabama and Ohio State probably should as well. But Michigan poses a real threat to OSU. State and Tennessee do for the Dawgs and Tide - as does Ole Miss for Alabama.
Again, the default at Alabama is to win. We saw that Saturday night. The truth is that’s the case for the Dawgs as well.
32-point wins over Auburn are nothing to sneeze at. Georgia is good - it’s OK to admit that even if you can’t sleep well at night.