My Thoughts - Georgia

There's not too much to say this week. We got the moral victory that the few remaining sunshine pumpers had been wanting for the entire season. And even though the Shockley injury was obviously a big factor, the defense gave us a chance to win. Along with the Alabama game, that makes two top 10 teams that this maligned defense has given us an opportunity against this season. Unfortunately, the offensive coaches and players have squandered those chances.

Playing not to lose usually makes you a loser. "I'd love to throw the ball up and down the field, but this is what we do best,” Houston Nutt was quoted after the game. No coach...what we do the best right now is lose. 0-10 versus ranked opponents. 1-11 against SEC teams with winning records. But #1 in the SEC in rushing! Ask Mark Richt if he'd rather be 7-0 right now or #1 in the SEC in anything. We can brag about our rushing game...and it is outstanding...but our opponents will continue to compliment us on it as long as we accept those accolades as a trade for losing to them.

The "giving the other quarterbacks a second look" was to appease the fans. We heard the same thing after yesterday's game that we've heard all year long. Robert Johnson gives us the best chance to win. (Uh...we're 0-4 in the SEC.) He "gets the ball to the running backs deep." (Huh?) Nutt also said Johnson is the best at play-action fakes and bootlegs. (And boy, our passing threat sure makes that play-action extremely effective!) In other words, "I'm right and you're wrong. I won't change anything just because you want me to do it. Practices are closed so you don't know that I'm being pig-headed."

Seven games into the season and we are still making numerous mental mistakes. Everyone saw the penalties. If you didn't, our coach made sure you knew about how they "killed us" in his post-game news conference. But what about this one. With 14:55 left in the 4th quarter, Georgia defensive end Brandon Miller was injured attempting to sack Robert Johnson. After an almost 2 minute delay, play resumed with Arkansas...wait for it...having to call timeout because we only had 10 men on the field. The missing man appeared to be Peyton Hillis. Later that quarter, of course, Hillis muffed his second punt of the game and allowed Georgia to score the winning margin. And speaking of that...

Are players treated equally under Houston Nutt? And, if so, will Peyton Hillis lose his job as punter returner like Michael Coe did after the Vanderbilt game? I've written about this before so I'm not going to get into it again. Short version: when the coach plays politics with who he puts out on the field, it will eventually come back to bite him. But anyway...what's my best guess? I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that HDN will have #22 fielding punts from South Carolina punter Josh Brown in two weeks. And that's fine...at this point, very few people care anyway.

Also from HogBlogger: Georgia -- Passing (or lack thereof) Thoughts

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment here.