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An odd week ended by a funky weekend.

Team without its head coach, for the second time in a season, wins a huge game on the road, the interim coach cries after that huge win and drops bombs twice in the postgame TV hug.

Both are glorious, though a lot of people who think they get sports don’t get it when they whine about a coach or the last Heisman Trophy winner crying, because they’ve likely never had the passion about a job and task.

The head coach of a two-time national champion has to sort of beg his fan base to show up and be loud in the biggest game of the season?

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Which most of the fan base sees as concern about the program rather than acknowledging that it’s not quite elite in the stands after all.

Not a single upset happened among Central Georgia high school football teams, and one county – *coughcough* - couldn’t live up to all the posts and exclamation points and went 0-4 and was outscored 195-25.

And one home team was outdrawn by the opposition in a battle of top-10 teams.

New Orleans is figuring a way to debut a quarterback in two weeks when it visits Atlanta, because for all the bellyaching – more accurate each week – about the offense, it’s the defense that’s failing the Falcons.

Can all coaches considering simplifying the remarkably overwrought game plan and just operate on a basic defensive philosophy of “COVER YOUR MAN AND TACKLE LIKE YOU’VE BEEN TAUGHT FOR A DECADE”?

Then enjoy the success.

Josh Dobbs shows again that smarts are a good thing – they really are - and bless Kevin O’Connell for his adjustments in Minnesota by thinking differently than most coaches under these circumstances.

People grumble about their teams while missing what a severe farce things have become in New England, which pulled the starting QB, put in the backup, had him fake a spike and then run a play, and he throws a game-sealing interception.

In a 10-6 game, that inspired some in the country of the game what they did in this half-century to deserve such a show.

Cleveland wins at Baltimore.

Jacksonville got boatraced at home by 31 points. Any NFL game with a margin of more than 20 is pretty amazing.

Note: The Falcons don’t have a 30-point loss on the ledger since the middle of 2021, and that was on the road. Last such home embarrassment is at the end of the 2014, by the same score to Carolina.

UCF stunned with such a thrashing of Oklahoma State that a mullet should be shaved off this week.

People who should’ve been fired for the Jimbo Fisher contract are still around, and fired Jimbo Fisher, because blindly donated money from rich people with kind of sad lives covers up fraud and incompetence.

Then, the beneficiary of the other worst contract in the history of sports is done for the year in Cleveland. Deshaun Watson, who quit on his team in Houston before he got in trouble, is having season-ending shoulder surgery.

Some serious karma in the same week.

Sports, sports’ll getcha.

Last week’s upsets

None. No legit upsets. In 28 Central Georgia games, no real upsets. Stratford was a six-point Maxwell favorite over Strong Rock and lost by eight, Strong Rock getting a late score in a two-point game.

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No other underdog – and 18 area teams were underdogs – managed the upset.

Last week’s surprises

Northeast’s 49-0 loss at home to Appling County – who traveled better than the home team – was an eyebrow-raiser, for a few different reasons.

Northside’s season ended, mercifully, with a decent outing against Marist, the Eagles with a different roster than in early September.

Upson-Lee’s win over Savannah Country Day qualifies because just about every Friday night with the Knights is a surprise of some sort. Who knows what they could do with some crowd support? If they get any consistency, it’ll be interesting. But overcoming a three-score is massive.

Loughdmouthings

Central Georgia started the GHSA playoffs with 26 teams.

Central Georgia enters the second round with 10. A 10-26 first week is quite a bummer.

Not a single team could muster up an upset. Six got shut out. And of all those losses, only four were by three scores (22 points) or less. …

Asked last week, and still relevant: “Dave Ragone is listed as the offensive coordinator. Maybe give him a quarter or two on Sundays to coordinate some offense and see what happens.”

Can’t hurt. …

Now, we can pull against Mississippi State and hope its athletics decision-makers soon get fired.

Know your lane, fellas.

Mike Leach was a nice coach, but pretty overrated because he was a self-promoting nut. All those years, he tied for a division title once. Rode a quality run at Texas Tech (84-43) to an enhanced rep and gigs at Washington State (55-47, one ranking) and Mississippi State (19-17, one ranking). He was 8-9 in bowls.

And a career winning percentage of 59.6 percent. Matches Todd Graham, is lower than Rick Neuheisel, Kevin Sumlin, Paul Pasqualoni, Don Nehlen, Barry Alvarez, Kirk Ferentz, Dan Mullen, Les Miles, among many, many, many others.

Calm down on the legend talk.

Mississippi State has been to 26 bowls in more than 100 years of football. And has peaked at six straight winning seasons.

Firing a guy after one season at 4-6? Fire the guy that hired him, too, because that’s kind of admitting gross incompetence. Or fine the president who allowed an interim AD to promote Zach Arnett from interim only days after Leach died.

Nothing like anti-due diligence. Never make hires on emotion.

Have always said: You give somebody a chance to dig themselves a hole, give them a chance to climb out. That’s logical, so, no don’t worry about getting it from people in charge/titleholders, who operate more on a “pucker up, buttercup” mantra of “leadership.” …

It does appear that that ol’ epicenter of college football out west in the mountains a whole lot of airheads were raving and slobbering and butt-kissing about is no longer out there in the mountains.

And some mentioning some as a Texas A&M candidate is an intellectual farce. …

Some of the brilliance painfully overheard recently – you have no earthly idea how bad it gets – on Friday night streamers ‘n screamers:

“If a blocked punt is a turnover …”

It’s on fourth down, so, clearly, no.

“The 100 percent rule … 100 percent of a ball thrown out of bounds will be incomplete.” Some brilliance is just priceless.

“Wish we had some stats …” Which, of course, you don’t, but that’s your choice. Based on what’s offered each week, there’s clearly no reason the No. 2 can’t do stats, none at all.

First, can y’all please bring binoculars so we can hear “I didn’t see what happened” and “I don’t know what happened” from everybody so often. Because seeing what happened and telling us is kinda the point. …

Yeah, it’s going to be a Cowboys and Aaron Rodgers week on ESPN. So much going on, and ESPN remains staggeringly consistent, and bad. …

Dear Arthur Smith Whiners: Did you see what Bill Belichick’s team did at the end of a 10-6 loss to Indy? Did you see the Ravens blow it at home to the Browns? Or or or Buffalo gagging, with 12 on the field for a missed field goal and then losing on a final-play field goal? After Josh Allen turned it over three times, adding to his league-leading 11 interceptions?

Many more pigs, again, needed lipstick more than the Falcons.

Why Atlanta watchers have so much lost their minds remains an enigma. They whined before the season about low expectations, and, eh, just must like whining.

Not sure why people like whining so much. …

Take II: Would the person doing Warner Robins’ MaxPreps scoretracker pleasepleaseplease realize that no, no no no, Jhayden Jones is not – not not not – the quarterback throwing touchdown passes. Nope. Been Judd Anderson doing that for, goodness, since August.

Come on, man …

Your kickoff weather report that has nothing do with Morocco or the South Pole: Better than last week, with highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s, chance of nighttime wetness around 25 percent.

Polls

The polls are taking some time off, until the season is over. Only 10 GHSA teams left and a few GIAA teams, so there’s not much chance of shuffling.

They said it

“Speaking of bad defenses again, how many yards will the nation’s leading rusher — Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon — run for against a UCF defense that is ranked 130th nationally in rushing defense? Headline: ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly, Can the Knights Stop Ollie?’

- Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel

Oops.