Thursday Dawg Bites
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“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” -Harriet Beecher Stowe
Known literary enthusiast Kirby Smart reportedly had these wise words from this wise author printed all over the UGA Football facility this past week, and the advice seemed to have seeped into the minds of the players. Georgia never gave up, and the Tide didn’t turn.
Like Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Georgia Bulldogs wanted nothing more than to abolish the demons that had controlled the south for too long. But unlike Harriet Beecher Stowe, this past week’s win wasn’t born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811.
This win was born in the offseason, in the minute details, and the never-ending pursuit of improvement. The Georgia defense that played in the SEC Championship Game looks nothing like the one that played against Tennessee, Ole Miss, and in the first half of the first Alabama game. This team is the Abraham Lincoln of college football as it just keeps growing, and the domination of Alabama was their biggest proclamation yet.
As seen in those aforementioned Tennessee and Ole Miss games, if you want to beat this team, you better kill them while you have a chance. But they don’t make it easy. This team rarely ever goes to plays, and when they do, they always watch their back. They never ride in a convertible in Dallas, are unlikely to ride through a DC train station, and almost certainly will not be attending the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
When the Dawgs make their way to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl in three-weeks time, they will do so as a dangerous team playing their best football of the year. I struggle to call them Hot Dawgs due to the obvious connotations, but the Dawgs are hot right now. With more time to get healthy, even Joey Chestnut would struggle to tame them.
The next opponent is obviously still unknown, but you have to like the draw the team was given. Georgia will either play a shaken Ole Miss team with a new Head Coach and with a loss to Georgia already on their schedule, or a fiesty Tulane team who would likely be mismatched on both lines of scrimmage.
Though the Georgia offense has struggled to be explosive in the past three games, with the way the defense is playing the offense may only need a few flashes to collect their Sugar Bowl beads. The WR screens and QB draws may eventually meet a formidable foe, but we’ll lead that horse to the water under the bridge when we get there.
For now, the Georgia Bulldogs are back-to-back SEC Champions, back in the playoffs, and back to playing fast and furious on defense. Unless someone brings a .44 caliber to a production of Our American Cousin, this team might be back to hoisting a trophy while the confetti falls red and black.
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