Fleeting Thoughts: LSU Edition

There's probably a lot more to say about this game than I've got the energy to write in this post, but here are a few of the things than ran through my head in the hours following Georgia's 20-13 loss to LSU.

-- A.J. Green is amazing. I know I said it last week, but I think it needs to be said again. Multiple times. Every week. For the rest of the season.

-- I know people are going to want blood following this game. My guess is that Willie Martinez will be at the top of their list. But I'll tell you this much: Willie didn't lose that game. The D was not just good, but great for three quarters. And you can't blame Willie for the utter lack of tackling on those last two drives. The game plan was good. The execution was not.

-- LSU was in the red zone three times in the first half and came away with three points. Seriously, you can't blame Willie for this one.

-- I know the Charles Scott TD at the end made the D look bad, but keep in mind, he ran that from the 33. Even if Georgia's D had stopped him, LSU runs the clock down to the end then boots a field goal without giving Georgia's offense a chance to come back. The TD was really almost a benefit.

-- I had a reader comment on this last week, but it really needs to be said again: The SEC has the highest-paid coaches, assistants making more than head coaches in most leagues, a multi-billion-dollar deal with ESPN. And yet the officiating remains a complete disgrace. There is simply no excuse for it whatsoever.

-- I have a lot of respect for Georgia's players for taking responsibility for how the game ended and not blaming the refs for the absurd celebration penalty, but the bottom line is those flags had no business being thrown. There is no excuse for ruining what had been one of the truly great endings to a college football game this season with crap like that. It's an embarrassment.

-- Despite those comments, this should be remembered: LSU got flagged for the same thing after its last touchdown. The difference? One team can cover kickoffs and one can't. That, too, is an embarrassment. And at the end of the day, it's Georgia's lousy kick coverage that was the difference in this game.

-- Trindon Holliday had two kick returns for a total of 89 yards -- an average of 44.5 yards per return. Coming into this game, LSU was 117th in the nation, averaging just 16.57 yards per kick return. What does that tell you?

-- Seriously, go back through the last two seasons and see how many times Georgia followed a big play on offense with an absolute disastrous play on special teams. I'm sure there are at least nine or 10 examples.

-- I don't blame Blair Walsh for that last kickoff either. Honestly, kicking it out of bounds would have been a far better strategy.

-- I am confused as to how Walsh missed what should have been a chip-shot field goal. In the end, it didn't make the difference in the game, but it certainly could have.

-- I've made no bones about the fact that I think highly of Brandon Boykin, but I have no clue what he was thinking taking that INT out of the end zone. It essentially gave LSU three points. I know there are a lot of young guys on this team getting a lot of PT, but you've got to be smarter than that.

-- I estimate the average blood-alcohol content of the city of Athens to be around .06 last night. And I'm including all the children, the old folks in retirement homes, the people who haven't watched a football game in 10 years… the whole city.

-- Washaun Ealey ran the ball far better than Caleb King or Richard Samuel, but he didn't see the field in passing situations. That is going to be a problem, because Georgia can't afford to sub a back every time they want to throw a pass. And as "impressive" as Ealey was, he still averaged just 4 yards a carry. Good by Georgia's standards Saturday night, but far from great.

-- Speaking of Samuel, he didn't see the field in the second half.

-- Branden Smith played a very impressive game defensively. But why didn't we see him on offense during that debacle of a first half?

-- One first down in the first half. To paraphrase Harry Doyle in "Major League"… that's all we got? One G-D first down? ("You can't say G-D on the air! … Ah, nobody's listening anyway.")

-- Georgia had 10 first downs in the second half, but only one came via the run. For the game, even with Washaun's impressive debut, the Bulldogs mustered just 45 yards on the ground.

-- Georgia had 20 negative yards on the ground, and none of that came via a sack. Say what you want about the running backs, but negative plays are a result of poor line play.

-- Didn't get a chance to ask him about it after the game, but if you noticed, Richt had the headset on for nearly all of the second half.

-- Say what you want about the playcalling, but the personnel stuff is even more confusing. There were too many crucial plays when players like A.J. and Rennie weren't on the field.

-- Drew Butler might be the second most productive player the Bulldogs have.

-- Zero penalties in the first half. Seven in the second. Not good.

-- Rennie Curran had 16 tackles in that game, and afterward, the only thing he talked about was the one he "missed" on Charles Scott's 33-yard touchdown run on LSU's last drive. And by "missed," I mean he had a shot at a shoestring takedown while being blocked by another player. That's accountability.

-- Georgia faced 17 third downs in the game. Fourteen of them were third-and-six of further.

-- Along those same lines, Georgia didn't have a turnover until its last play of the game, yet LSU still ran 14 more offensive plays.

-- Justin Houston is going to be the type of difference-maker Georgia's line has been looking for. After having just 12 tackles for a loss in the first four games, the Dawgs have 18 in the last two, including seven sacks.

-- Richt didn't know whether sacks were counted in the tackles for a loss category. I found that odd.

-- The Logan Gray fair-catch-a-thon is becoming a bit of a joke.

-- Joe Cox only had one turnover in the game, and it was on his late, last-ditch throw that was picked off with just 20 seconds left. But he had at least two other passes earlier in the game that should have not only been intercepted, but returned for touchdowns, too.

-- Having said that, was there anyone who wasn't confident Cox could lead Georgia to a score on that two-minute drive?

-- Where has Michael Moore been the last two weeks?

-- Georgia ran three screen plays to Caleb King in the fourth quarter that added up to 30 yards. Why the heck weren't they doing this earlier? I had at least a half-dozen readers this week mention how effective the screen can be against LSU's aggressive front four.

-- And the draw plays to King on the Bulldogs' penultimate drive? What the heck was that?

-- The run blocking has been brutal, and the inability to even get a snap off properly on the last drive was inexcusable. This is not the offensive line we were promised. Nowhere close.

-- Richt on why the offense goes in the tank from time to time: Too many young players at the skill positions start to press when things don't go well. There's probably a lot of truth to that, but five games into the season, that mentality needs to change.

-- As close as that game was, it was even closer than most people will give it credit for. There were two plays on LSU's second-to-last drive that could have been huge. Brandon Boykin came on a corner blitz on a third-and-10 and just miss bringing down Jordan Jefferson. Instead it went for a third down. Then later on that drive, on a second-and-3, Justin Houston had Jefferson by the shoestrings 7 yards deep, but the QB stepped out of the tackle and ran for 26 yards to the Georgia 13. A half-an-inch in the other direction on either play, and Georgia wins.

-- I don't think LSU is very good. I foresee a big win for Florida next week. (Of course, if you read my picks for this week, that probably means the Tigers cruise.)

-- Georgia could pretty easily be 5-0 right now. It could pretty easily be 0-5 right now. Somehow 3-2 seems about right. The Dawgs have been bipolar all year, and it's hard to pin an identity on them. But I think at this point it's safe to say they are an extremely talented yet invariably flawed team. Some of that is youth, some is coaching, some is utterly inexplicable. It's all pretty frustrating to watch.

-- Walking out of the locker room after the game, I happened to look over and see Mike Bobo and Willie Martinez sitting next to each other on some chairs near the coaches' office. Usually the two duck out pretty quickly during the interview session, but this time, they stuck around the whole time. Bobo had his head buried in his hands. Martinez had his fist tucked up under his chin, staring off into space. The two looked absolutely dejected. It was among the most visibly shaken I've seen two grown men outside of a funeral that I can remember. I think that image really summed things up better than anything else I could write.

ADDENDUM:

A few additional thoughts after reading through a number of your comments...

-- As bad as the kick coverage was following the penalty, I should have also mentioned this: A.) It was absolutely absurd that they kicked off out of the huddle. Why would you get cute on the single most crucial play of the game? B.) They only had THREE MEN to one side of the kicker, which was both bad for coverage (as we saw) and resulted in a penalty for illegal formation. I can't fathom how that can be seen as anything other than a coach making a dreadfully poor decision at a time when the team could least afford it.

-- Joe Cox isn't a superstar, but for all the folks saying he can't stretch the field, please look up the stats. He is among the national leaders in plays of more than 20 yards. And while credit belongs in large part to A.J. for that, Georgia's final TD was set up by a big play to Tavarres King, not A.J. If you want to make the argument that this season is a lost cause and Logan or Aaron Murray needs to see the field, OK. But if you're blaming Cox for this team being 3-2, you are being shortsighted. I think there's a good chance they'd be 1-4 without him.

-- We have the full story on Ealey playing at Macon.com, but according to the coaches, yes, they had determined before the game that he would play. Why it took until midway through the third quarter for that to happen, I have no clue.

-- As for the Tim Brando comments, I hesitate to put words in his mouth, so I venture to explain his meaning. But I will say this: If he was referring to race, he would not have been the only person in the press box saying it -- and if you've ever been in a press box, it's about as lily white a place as you'll find. For my part, I don't think there is overt racism at work, but I do think subjective rules like this go a long way toward illuminating some distinct cultural differences between the people who enforce the rules and those affected by them -- in terms of race, age and economic status. The bottom line is that celebration and taunting penalties are in place to prevent the opposing team from being shown up. Yet Mark Richt and Les Miles both said they weren't remotely upset by the celebrations. At the very least, the rule is so subjective that there should be a warning before a flag can be thrown, like a sideline infraction or a pitcher who throws at a batter.