The Georgia Bulldogs Hit Their Admiral Ackbar Moment
ATHENS - This is the game of the season for LSU, which means Georgia had better know what is about to hit them.
The season will be on the line Saturday in Baton Rouge for these Tigers, who are at the corner of desperation and despair - they see what’s left of this schedule, and it is not easy (UGA, State, Alabama and A&M).
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Everything looked pretty positive when they were pile driving a Miami team that struggled to take out a horrible Florida State team, and taking out an Auburn team that as of Saturday night pretty much had all the air taken out of it.
Is LSU the LSU that earned two wins over what looked like two really good teams entering the weekend, or the LSU that struggled to put away Louisiana Tech and lost to the Gators?
Losses bring out questions at most places the way not winning by 30 brings out questions in Athens.
Pre-season concerns about everything pop up after the first loss of the season each year. Saturday’s loss at Florida will ramp up chatter in the program about Easy Ed Orgeron, who took full blame for the loss in the post-game press conference.
Don’t look now, but as Admiral Ackbar said in Return of the Jedi - “It is a trap!”
Georgia had better watch it here - better watch if for sure. LSU can, for the most part, fight Georgia along the offensive and defensive lines. LSU has guys. The Tigers will have the home-field advantage, and this isn’t the normal home field. There is an actual Tiger on the sideline, and probably more crazies per capita in the stands than any other SEC program, which is really saying something.
And if LSU loses this game its championship aspirations for the season are over. Alabama won’t lose twice in the SEC, so if Georgia beats the Tigers there’s really not much hope of catching the Tide even if LSU beats Alabama, which hasn’t happened in recent memory.
Frankly, and Las Vegas will back this up with the point spread it puts out on Sunday, Georgia should win this game. The Bulldogs are the better team, and they have played more consistently much of the season. More than anything they have been built for these games and moments with intense practices, which players say are more difficult than actual games.
But when you go down the list of teams that can beat Georgia, LSU is near the top of that list. The list isn’t very long, either. Still, No. 2 Georgia has hit this moment at a not-so-opportune point in time. I don’t know if teams backed into a corner play better than they normally would (that’s probably an over-used thing from fans and the media), but that reason alone should focus Georgia on the most important week of practice thus far this season.
Missouri is fine, but they are not LSU. South Carolina can be a tough environment - it isn’t Death Valley.
There’s only one Death Valley (Oh boy, I didn’t mean it that way. Save the hate mail Clemson folks - or maybe mix in a live Tiger, or be less sensitive about this entire topic.)
This game isn’t like the Vanderbilt or Tennessee games where UGA was so much more talented than the other team that it was just a matter of time before they came out on top. Yes, Georgia is more talented in more important spots than LSU, but not so much so that “it will be just a matter of time.”
It might be a matter or time - because that’s Georgia’s style - but these Dawgs need to play much more like the last three quarters against Vandy than the first (and the penalties are suddenly out of control… which isn’t like what we’ve seen in the past). Once more, Georgia still gets credit for scoring in the fourth quarter - even if its demanding fans expect blowouts early and often.
Perspective is lost when you’ve put a run together like Kirby Smart and company have over these last 21 games.
Nonetheless, this trip won’t be easy. And if Georgia wins it won’t get the credit it would have had if the suddenly-surging Gators not won in the Swamp on Saturday. But Georgia will get credit for a win at the end of the day… if it does win.
And a win this week won’t be about style points. It will be about surviving until it can suffocate LSU with the run game late. This week is about a win. That’s it.
