Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

No it wasn't the Germans, or even the Japanese, that bombed Athens on the night of September 27th, it was the fighting Bear Bryant's, err, Nick Saban's. All seemed lost for dawgsontop after that pivotal matchup. Not only were we beaten in our house, we were down right trunk-stomped. Yea, yea we only lost by eleven, but at the time it seemed like eleventy-billion. I was nervous about unbeaten Vanderbilt coming into town and ruining homecoming once again. Boy was I wrong.

We didn't dominate fat Phil like we should have and we forgot how to get in the endzone against the nerds but we got exactly what we needed, W's. We once again had hope for the future heading into a tough matchup against the Tigger's in the earthquake zone. Then came the offensive explosion we have been waiting for. Fifty-two on LSU in Baton Rouge? Not sure but a quick check of my sources, a.k.a. my brain, and it reveals that has never happened before. What's that you say? Florida exposed them and dropped fifty-one in the process the week before? You're right, playing LSU in Gainesville is the exact same thing as playing in front of the drunkest people on the face of the Earth this past Saturday, besides me.

Hope? Maybe that's all we have right now. Penn State is a virtual lock to be undefeated come season's end. Texas has a great shot at getting in, even with a loss. They have played one of the most difficult schedules I have ever seen. That's not a lie. Oklahoma has a nasty offense, so does Texas Tech, Missouri and Oklahoma State. Get through that with only one loss and you still might be the best team in the country.

Oh yea, we also have a game to play this Saturday. I forgot about that. Florida has been steamrolling. Sixty-three on that Kentucky D? Sheeeeeeeeeeyat, could have been seventy-seven. I was once a college coach, I was awesome. I won thirteen straight National Championships with the dawgs. THIRTEEN! Yet no matter how sick nasty I was on playstation 2, I don't believe I scored 152 points over three consecutive SEC games (I probably did, I was super like nintendo).

So yea, maybe hope is all we have right now. But like my main man Andy Dufresne dropped some knowledge on that playa Red between the walls of Shawshank, I will now drop on you. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

My take on "where we go from here"...

I'm worried. I have been worried since the opening kickoff and it took a embarassing first half against Alabama for me to admit the worry. 

I thought we would be very good this year. Let me change that. I convinced myself we would be very good this year. I thought Stacy Searels would repeat last year's coaching job and the offensive line would mature in weeks. I thought our defensive line would step up and continue to surprise the nation--much like a high-motor David Pollack, hardwood recruit Quentin Moses, and undersized Marcus Howard did. 

I thought our linebackers and defensive backs would be scary good. Rennie has flown around the field and shown Knowshon type excitement at times but it hasn't been enough. We have bent and broke as much in this young season as I thought we would all year. 

I thought Matthew Stafford, MoMass, and Knowshon would be an unstoppable air and ground attack that would rival Fedex. So far, I have seen more "Draft Day 2" out of Stafford than "See you on Sunday". Don't get me wrong, the kid can play. He has all the physical tools. We've all agreed on that since he was a junior at Highland Park. But...I have yet to see the leader CMR talked about all preseason--the kid who will pull the team together and say "we will not lose today". 

That is what we need as we enter the UT, Vandy, LSU, FLA gauntlet: we need the swagger the team played with last year. The swagger that had Georgia fans worried that, although we may have never lost again, we would have been compared to the U.  We all wanted to be on ESPN everyday, we got there, and lost. Now what?

Fulmer's squad sucks this year. Flat sucks. They waxed us last year and have to come into Sanford after the Dawgs crapped the bed against a talented Alabama team. There is no reason we don't beat this team by 35. The restoration of confidence began in the second half of the Bama game and will continue against the Vols. Fat Phil may be Tony Franklin'd at halftime. 

Vandy is another example of a new trend in college football. Well coached teams are beating the big boys because the big boys tend not to show up a few times a year. Vandy will not fly under the radar. We almost lost to them last year and though this team is young they do not forget that. Dawgs roll again. 

LSU and Florida play this weekend. Watch closely. Georgia will finish in time for all of you to sit down and dissect both teams like I will. You will see two beatable teams playing each other. Two teams that compare very well to the Georgia team they play in the subsequent weeks. 

For now I say the Bulldogsgo to bed November 1st with 2 losses. I hope I am wrong, but 1-1 right now with LSU and FLorida is a very acceptable proposition. 

That is all. Athens Saturday.