Three weeks after Alabama scored 30 points in 30 minutes against Georgia, Texas managed 15 points over 60 minutes. (Seven points bear an asterisk, about which more soon.) A week after the Bulldogs struggled to separate from Mississippi State, they led the nation’s No. 1 team 23-zip at the half. On a night when they were underdogs for the first time in three years, they rolled into Austin and acted as if they owned the place.
It was almost as if Kirby Smart saved the good stuff for such a moment. He mentioned at halftime that coordinator Glenn Schumann had conjured up some curlicues, most of which left Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams unblocked. Alleged wizard Steve Sarkisian was so frazzled he summoned the latest Manning before halftime. He could have deployed granddad Archie in his prime and it wouldn’t have mattered.
The season — and not just Georgia’s season; college football writ large — changed Saturday. Texas, now of the almighty SEC, was exposed as being not quite SEC-ready. (“Austin, Texas: Where It Means A Bit Less.”) The Bulldogs, seen as a fading power in the wake of Tuscaloosa and its halting aftermath, are again the team to beat, and good luck trying to beat this team.
All the stuff Georgia hadn’t been doing got done again. (Well, except for Carson Beck not throwing the ball to the other team. He needs to stop that.) We wondered if the gap between Georgia Talent and Everybody Else’s had been narrowed if not eradicated. It hasn’t. The Bulldogs still have the best players. They absolutely have the best coaches.
Smart’s team wasn’t ready for Alabama. Still almost won, though. Smart’s team was so ready for Texas that the Longhorns, who’d outscored six previous opponents by an aggregate 131 points, were cowed, pun intended, from the jump. Morals of our story: Michigan minus Jim Harbaugh is not Georgia; Oklahoma — at least this Oklahoma — is not Georgia.
Such was the scope of this mismatch that the refs felt moved to put a finger on the scale. OK, so the original call was weak. So fans threw items — none of them bouquets — on the field. So ESPN officiating expert Matt Austin was incredulous. So what did these officials do? They CHANGED THE CALL, which meant GIVING THE BALL TO TEXAS.
I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories, but I must admit: The thought that someone at Disney/ESPN shot a text to somebody saying, “We’re losing our audience, plus we might need Matthew McConaughey for some Peak TV streaming series – GIVE TEXAS THE BALL” ... well, it did cross this addled mind.
Quoting Matt Austin: “Pass interference is not reviewable.”
Said Smart, who would make a splendid litigator: “”Now we’ve set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes that you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed.”
Given this gift of gifts, Texas pulled within one score. Georgia had every excuse to be frazzled. It was not. Beck converted on third-and-10. Mike Bobo dialed up a flea flicker. Smart went for it on fourth-and-goal. Trevor Etienne blasted over. Texas still had 12 minutes to rally. It didn’t score again. Bye, Bevo.
The chances of the Bulldogs missing the playoff have dwindled. ESPN’s Playoff Predictor assigns them an 87% chance of making the field of 12, tying them with Oregon for shortest odds. Even if Georgia slips again, it can still finish 10-2 with wins over Texas and Clemson. That would suffice.
Come Sunday, Georgia will be assured of no worse than a tie for second place in the SEC. It’s off this week. Texas A&M and LSU — the only teams unbeaten in league play — face one another Saturday night in College Station. The Bulldogs occupy prime position to play for the SEC championship, though getting to skip that game wouldn’t be the worst of fates.
After Kentucky and Alabama, especially after Auburn and Mississippi State, we wondered if Georgia was still Georgia. We have our answer. Georgia is still Georgia. Until proven otherwise, it stands alone.
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