It was an awful loss, but it wasn’t the end of UGA’s ascent
It wasn't the greatest homecoming for Georgia's Aaron Murray, was it? (AP photo)
Tampa — This was a bad loss, OK? This was a really bad loss by a team that had positioned itself to win by two touchdowns until its quarterback began throwing the ball to the wrong team. But in the grand scheme — and by “grand” I mean a distance of Grand Canyon dimensions — losing to Michigan State might be a good thing for the Georgia Bulldogs.
A year and two days ago, Georgia was wondering how how long it would take to rise from 6-7. To the Bulldogs’ credit, they rose to 10-2 and to the SEC East title in the span of 11 months. In its final two games, Georgia proved its transformation from underachiever to champion is not yet complete.
In the SEC championship game, Georgia led LSU 10-0 but lost 42-10. In the Outback Bowl here Monday, the Bulldogs led Michigan State 16-0 and had outgained the Spartans 217 yards to 81 when, four minutes into the third quarter, Aaron Murray scrambled to his right and saw Tavarres King near midfield. Murray thought King would backtrack. Instead King ran deeper. Murray’s pass, directed where King wasn’t, was intercepted. With that, a game Georgia had dominated began to unspool.
Said Mark Richt, Georgia’s coach: “Aaron had plenty of space. He was being pressured, but he wasn’t under duress.”
Had Murray scrambled for a modest gain, had he flung the ball out of bounds, Georgia might well have won this game breezing. The interception gave the Spartans a lift they hadn’t really earned, and therein hangs a lesson.
Said Todd Grantham, Georgia’s defensive coordinator: “Good teams are always going to make plays. You have to learn to put teams away, and there’s a learning curve for that. You’ve got to educate yourself. You’ve got to go through things.”
What Georgia went through the rest of this excruciating day was a crash course in comeuppance. Ahead and in control, the Bulldogs blew that 16-point lead, surged back ahead inside the final seven minutes, saw Michigan State tie it with 19 seconds left in regulation and managed to mess up three overtimes as badly as three overtimes can be messed up. It was as if the Football Fates said, “Yeah, you’re young and you’re talented, but you’re not there yet.”
Bacarri Rambo intercepted a Kirk Cousins pass at the beginning of overtime, and that should have been that. But Richt, choosing to err on the side of extreme caution, opted to have Blair Walsh try a field goal on third down from the 25, which is where you get the ball to start an overtime. Sure enough, Walsh missed. (A low snap contributed.) Two more overtimes would follow, and finally it ended with a Walsh kick being blocked.
Georgia’s offensive yield in the three OTs: Eight plays for minus-4 yards. Indeed, Michigan State — which managed two first downs in the first 35 minutes — would outgain the Bulldogs 391 yards to 339. Georgia couldn’t run a lick, and 20 Murray completions were offset by two interceptions, a lost fumble and four sacks.
The second Murray interception was returned for a touchdown, the fourth time this season a Murray throw yielded six opposing points. Three of those came in losses. As superb as Murray can be, there’s still a bit of the wild point guard in him: He can keep both teams in the game.
Said Mike Bobo, the offensive coordinator: “We’ve just got to do a better job as a team of protecting the football.”
Said Richt: “You’ve got to respect the ball.”
Somehow Georgia contrived to lose on a day when Brandon Boykin, ostensibly a defender, scored three times (tackle for safety, punt return, pass reception). Somehow the champ of the SEC East lost to the champ of the Big Ten Legends Division, and we all know the SEC shouldn’t be losing to the Big Ten in a bowl game. That said …
This ugly loss does not — repeat, does not — invalidate the 10 games Georgia won in 2011. This game is not — repeat, is not — proof that these Bulldogs will never win anything big under Richt. Yeah, it was a wretched ending to a turnaround season, but the turnaround stands.
Said Boykin, a senior who was the game’s MVP: “We made huge strides from 6-7, but great teams finish when they’re supposed to. The LSUs and Alabamas — there’s a reason they’re going to the national championship game. We held LSU to 12 yards in the first half and didn’t finish. We had the lead today and didn’t finish. Once they figure out how to pound a team and not give up anything, Georgia can be special.”
Said Richt: “At the moment, this one hurts. But in time it will heal.”
Some of you might consider those empty words. But we need recall another bowl loss, the Music City defeat by a Boston College team of no special distinction, that capped Richt’s first season. It was easy that day in Nashville to claim that Georgia was still the same old Georgia, but soon it wasn’t. The next year the Bulldogs went 13-1 and won Georgia’s first SEC title in two decades.
By Mark Bradley
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1,128 comments Add your comment
Mark Bradley
January 2nd, 2012
8:56 pm
I asked Todd Grantham, who’s one of my favorite people to interview, about not bringing more heat on the Spartans’ final drive of regulation. He said he was trying to mix it up — rush some, cover some — and that one of the times Georgia brought a big blitz wound up with Cousins scrambling for big yardage.
TampaGator
January 2nd, 2012
8:57 pm
You gotta love the thinking process of one…..Coach Richt.
Yeah Boy!
Phil
January 2nd, 2012
8:57 pm
King had a great game. Why not throw the ball his way on the last drive in regulation to pick up the first down? Game over with a first down. Richt and Bobo blew it.
William
January 2nd, 2012
8:58 pm
The Bulldogs SUCK….. HAHAHAHAHAHA !!!! Fire Richt…… Fire Bobo….. Michigan State just scored again….. GEORGIA SUCKS !!!!!!!
Chris
January 2nd, 2012
8:58 pm
Buzz 2011
hahaha!!!!! you can win the acc every year!!!! but when we continue to whoop yalls butt we are obviously the better team!!!! hahahahahahahahaha your comments are cheering me up after a tough loss today
kerryb
January 2nd, 2012
8:58 pm
TampaGator. You are completely delusional. You don’t have the players of the 90’s and 2000’s and Muschamp is NOT Steve Spurrier or Urban Meyer. Those days are OVER.
DawgMan
January 2nd, 2012
8:59 pm
We only seem to beat FL when they’re in transition – the week that Zook got fired and Muschamp’s rookie year. Until we beat them straight up, I think we should keep our mouths shut. Today is about another bowl disappointment. All of CMR’s momentum has been lost.
Tom
January 2nd, 2012
8:59 pm
If Bobo was in charge of painting the Sistine Chapel it would have been beige. No imagination. The schedule next year sets the Dawgs up nicely but we all will be disappointed again. Time for a change.
Mark Bradley
January 2nd, 2012
8:59 pm
As for going for it on fourth-and-1 in the first quarter … I had no problem with that. Wasn’t it only a year ago that we ripped Mark Richt for kicking a field goal on fourth-and-goal in the first quarter in a bowl game? Can’t have it both ways, I say.
FLA DAWG.
January 2nd, 2012
8:59 pm
Josh,
THANK YOU for being one of the few intelligent writers to state what is the main problem with our O!
Yes indeed, our OL cannot pass block nor run block despite the fact they are the biggest averaged OL in college and NFL this season.
Murray is a high quality QB. We do lack tough hitting runners however – but the holes are often not there anyway.
As long as Richt and Bobo are on the sidelines we will continue to lose against most (if not all) good opponents.
Gdawg
January 2nd, 2012
8:59 pm
Tampa Gator,
UGA beat the Gaytors. Get over it biznitch! We’ll kick your butt with whoever you hire on Offensive Coordinator. Good news is Jabba the Hut is no longer eating all of your linemen’s pregame meals next year…BBWAAAHAHHAAHAHAHHHAA
King of mean
January 2nd, 2012
9:00 pm
Hey dawg fans, I really, really know how you feel. I’m an Alabama fan.
FLA DAWG.
January 2nd, 2012
9:00 pm
NOT IN THE FIRST QUARTER.
WE’D HAVE WON THE GAME WITH A FIELD GOAL THEN.
Dawg enuff
January 2nd, 2012
9:00 pm
Erk Russell’s dog ,those figures are a pittance compared to todays figures! Mark Richt already has at least 25 million or more banked from UGA. You forget that he already makes almost 3 million a year,and has for most of 11 years.
TampaGator
January 2nd, 2012
9:00 pm
FLA Dawg…..
Yeah Boy……you have been regularly whipping Gator butt in recent years, haven’t you. Not much since the 1990s. But, yes, Gator fans were used to in back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s…..not much since.
kerryb
January 2nd, 2012
9:01 pm
DawgMan, have some spunk. Quit running around with your tail between your legs.
Fire Mark Richt
January 2nd, 2012
9:01 pm
Mark – you’re wrong – it basically IS the end of any hope UGA had of ever being anything besides a second-run team under CMR. How many years has it been since we beat an opponent of signifcance that was actually good at the time we beat them. CMR – and especially Bobo the Dodo – have embarrassed us long enough. Not another dime of mine will go to UGA until at least Bobo is gone. I’m sick to death of throwing ridiculous sums of money away for donations, tix, travel – knowing, and I mean KNOWING, that we’re going to lose every big game. It’s time to end Bobo’s reign of ineptitude. Until then – i’m done with these losers.
Chris
January 2nd, 2012
9:01 pm
tampa gator
i know yall have obviously whooped our tail the last 20 years. But we won this year so thats all that matters this year. We will win next year tooo
Phil
January 2nd, 2012
9:01 pm
Bradley,
I think you’re dreaming if you think Richt will win the big one at UGA. As long as Richt is here, Bobo will be also. These 2 clowns will never get us to the big game. Let’s face reality here.
TampaGator
January 2nd, 2012
9:01 pm
GDawg……
You must be training to be a comedian…….keep studying……and dreaming.
jack bull
January 2nd, 2012
9:02 pm
Mark, did you ask him what he thought about his QB play??? Not. Good.
big bark no bite
January 2nd, 2012
9:03 pm
what up with the world beaters tonight?go jawja dawgs.
DawgMan
January 2nd, 2012
9:03 pm
kerryb – where am I wrong on this? Not trying to be negative, but it seems like every time we’re ready to turn the corner, we take a step back.
James
January 2nd, 2012
9:04 pm
Basically played out exactly in the same fashion as the LSU game, though not as one-sided obviously, but still, the same idiotic, self-afflicted wounds occured.
Still, even though Murray at times gets confused with what color his team’s jerseys are, I’m more than excited that Blair Wlash will no longer be able to destroy this team going forward. He completely ruined all the good he achieved in his previous 3 years here. Lost himself MILLIONS. He has to live with this, but he cannot say Richt did not give him opportunity after opportunity to right his ship. Even at the expense of the entire program.
So long Walsh!!!
kerryb
January 2nd, 2012
9:04 pm
Gator fans, your mojo is gone. The past is the past. A new run is starting and it will belong to the Dawgs. That rivalry changes every 20 years. What shows me that is that UGA would have folded in the past down 17-3. They didn’t this time. The rivalry has changed.
Apostle
January 2nd, 2012
9:04 pm
The Dawgs proved they are not on the level of Bama or LSU,teams they will have to beat to win an SEC title.Murray is up one series and down the next.That MUST be fixed.And a running game would be a good idea too.
Red
January 2nd, 2012
9:04 pm
I don’t understand how guys like Saban can walk in to Alabama and turn it around the first year with the players from the previous staff and never look back then you have Richt here for ten years and we have to deal with this!
TampaGator
January 2nd, 2012
9:04 pm
Chris……
You did win this year. But, what gets me is you and everyone else keeps saying you will win next year when you have no clue that it will be a fact. I have never been on here telling anyone…..even after Florida has won….that Florida was going to win the next year. That is what gets me about Dawg fans…..you just got creamed by LSU and upset by a Big Ten team….after losing to Boise and SC…..and yet…..you are convinced Georgia is “on the verge of greatness” and a guaranteed win over the lowly Florida Gators. So funny……so, so funny.
Cuz
January 2nd, 2012
9:05 pm
Georgia lost the Outback Bowl to Michigan State. Life now has no meaning.
SEC_LSU
January 2nd, 2012
9:05 pm
How is this clown a writer for the newspaper since he MUST be on the take from someone in the Georgia athletic department! Where is the critical analysis of what went on with Georgia’s final possession? THAT WAS LOSING FOOTBALL CONSIDERING GEORGIA COULDN’T RUN THE BALL ALL DAY OR RUN OUT THE CLOCK WITHOUT AT LEAST TWO FIRST DOWNS. “SO, WE’LL DO WHAT WE’VE DONE WORSE ALL DAY — RUN THE BALL” — EVEN THOUGH MICHIGAN ST., WITH THREE TIME OUT LEFTS, WAS GUARANTEED OF HAVING A TON OF TIME LEFT IF GEORGIA DIDN’T GET AT LEAST ONE FIRST DOWN!
Is playing the easiest and weakest schedule in the SEC to be praised? How many games would Georgia have lost in the West? Richt would have then been fired! THAT, goofy writer, is the measure you should be using for success, and using that you’d fire richt. Or, at least he should be fired.
That coaching mismanagement job was a SEC embarrassment. Do it inside the conference is one thing; doing it in a bowl game against an opponent you have on the ropes 3 times is pathetic!
RUN, RICHTY-BOY, RUN! AND, RUN YOU TEAM RIGHT INTO THE GROUND AND A LOSS FOR KIDS AND A DEFENSE THAT PLAYED HARD.
FLA DAWG.
January 2nd, 2012
9:05 pm
TampaGator,
Your team is a stinko with a crummy coach that UGA wouldn’t have thought of hiring.
We got your quality AD, your HC took a year off and is now going to coach a quality team of kids.
You hired an OC for ONE YEAR who went rolling out of Florida.
Man oh man, if there is any college program in shambles it’s UF’s.
Flounder
January 2nd, 2012
9:05 pm
kerryb says “The Spartans didn’t beat us … we beat ourselves”. Hey! That’s GT’s line and they have the copyright on it!!
Phil
January 2nd, 2012
9:06 pm
James,
Right on man. Goodbye Walsh! And Good Riddance!!
Chris
January 2nd, 2012
9:06 pm
richt wasn’t terrible today. He is being criticized by being aggressive on the 4th and 1 call. But then being conservative in OT. I thought neither were that bad of calls. RIcht had confedence in his kicker he jus didn’t come through.
I feel bad for walsh
Coastaldawg
January 2nd, 2012
9:06 pm
Bobo needs to go! Run Thomas up the middle with no fullback blocking time and again? Defense played well and Grantham deserves a lot of credit, but the offense has to help. Too much talent wasted on bad play calling. Upgrade the OC next year and we will be a real contender.
TampaGator
January 2nd, 2012
9:06 pm
keeryB……
So….it is the law……the rivalry changes every 20 years. Guaranteed, right?
Yeah Boy! Book it.
Karma . . .
January 2nd, 2012
9:07 pm
Football Fates said, “Yeah, you’re young and you’re talented, but you’re not there yet.”
Uh, no. Football fates said “this is what you get when every year you say your winning a NC, and you never beat a ranked team, with your 4 and 5 star recruits!”. Hahahahaha. Even UF won. MB – switch from kool aid to beer. It might serve you better!
kerryb
January 2nd, 2012
9:07 pm
Dawgman, ask yourself, would the team that played in the Liberty Bowl last year would have gone 3 OT’s with this Mich State team? The answer is no so you can;t say this team isn’t improving. We redshirted freshman players that are going to be as good as the ones that played this year so this team will be better next year.
brain doctors R US
January 2nd, 2012
9:07 pm
Addtion by subtraction moving forward. Wlash is gone (FINALLY) and Crowell clearly should not be on the team come this spring. He showed everyone today that he is not mentally or physically capable of playing at UGA and in the SEC.
Eddie Haskell
January 2nd, 2012
9:07 pm
At least you beat Vanderbilt
Mark Bradley
January 2nd, 2012
9:07 pm
I did ask Richt about Murray’s two interceptions. Richt said he’d have to look at the tape but thought the first was a miscommunication and that the second might have been tipped, which it was. He didn’t criticize Murray, unless you count his line about valuing the ball as a rip. Which I didn’t.
FLA DAWG.
January 2nd, 2012
9:08 pm
SEC_LSU,
It pained me to read Bradley’s post.
I must agree with you.
FLA DAWG
UGA Class of ‘79
Gdawg
January 2nd, 2012
9:08 pm
Nope, Tampon Gaytor just stating the facts. Who’s your offensive coordinator? Your Head Coach? Florida had a nice run and a good number of wins. We’re taking your running back from Stone Mountain and just about any other player we want. They don’t want to play in Gainesville…gonna be a while before that city sees another title.
You can keep dreaming. UGA will be in the Dome for the SECC in December. Gaytors might be 7-5 next year.
TampaGator
January 2nd, 2012
9:08 pm
Flounder…..
Georgia never loses when it loses…….it only ever beats itself….or the refs beat them. They never lose because the other team is better…..because no team is ever better than the Georgia Bulldogs…..not since 1981….anyway.
kerryb
January 2nd, 2012
9:08 pm
TampaGator, we owned your butts in the 70’s and 80’s. You owned our butts in the 90’s and 2000’s. It’s about to change.
All I remember is
January 2nd, 2012
9:08 pm
3 sloppy overtimes and another ‘cloud of Bobo’.
Dawg enuff
January 2nd, 2012
9:09 pm
Lets hear it for the four horsemen next year, Crowell, Marshall,Davis,and Gurley! {this from Davis] !
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
January 2nd, 2012
9:09 pm
kerryb
Georgia is on a better path than FL?
You do know UGA hasnt beat a top 25 team in 3 yrs
What path are you talking about; the path to mediocrity
Chris
January 2nd, 2012
9:09 pm
tampa gator
i think every real fan is optimistic (except my dad hahaha). Most fans exspect there teams to win. You should exspect florida to beat uga next year. i exspect uga to win because i have confedence in our guys and i think we are the better team
Jim
January 2nd, 2012
9:09 pm
Nothing surprising here…this is generally the way UGA plays…gets down during the season, then gives you hope, then back down when they play a quality team. They always will be farily good, but never in the class of Alabama, LSU, or a Spurrier coached Carolina. How UGA can avoid being really good in spite of ranking in the top ten nationally in recruiting every year can only be explained in one word: coaching.