Central Georgia Sports ReportComment

Column: Catching up on all sorts of football, from the regular season to playoffs, high school to college to pros, the F-word (Falcons), Loughdmouthings galore

Central Georgia Sports ReportComment
Column: Catching up on all sorts of football, from the regular season to playoffs, high school to college to pros, the F-word (Falcons), Loughdmouthings galore

          Talk about cramming a lot into the final column of 2024, this is it. And talk about cramming a lot into the first column of 2025 tomorrow, that’ll be it.

          From the longest high school football season in Bibb County public school history to Mercer’s now-regular playoff run and the college playoffs, not to mention the sudden – and dastardly and profoundly cursed – implosion of The Sports Report’s primary computer – fill in expletives here – so much has been unfortunately been pushed back.

          So let this week be the week of catching up, a week loaded with topics on its own with college football, Raheem Marshall’s impersonation of Norb Hecker, and the picking up of basketball team.

 

College playoffs’ debut

          Dear Playoff-watching Knee-Jerkers: It’s the first year.

          The first year.

          The first.

          Calm the hell down, while going back to two weeks ago and what you were saying that you forgot Friday and Saturday.

          Every first has adjustments. Remember when Kirby Smart was a slice a pizza away from losing to a bad I-AA Nicholls State his first year?

          Adjustments.

          Calm the hell down. Folks really, really, should be a whole lot better with imperfection, considering, well, never mind.

          There will be adjustments. There always are. Nobody got screwed just because some early games were double-digit spreads.

          Not that the SEC land won’t come up with huge excuses for Tennessee and Ohio State. Lately, it just means more whining.

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          Granted, it’s math and all, but the closest margin in the first round was Indiana’s loss to Notre Dame, the newbie to success playing at the most overrated program in the land.

          “Yeah, but Notre Dame was never going to lose that game.”
          How many times a week do we say/hear, “Well, the best team didn’t win”? Sure, it would’ve taken some unusual plays for Indiana to score 10 more points, but it takes less than 10 inches on two plays to lead to 10 points. A slip here, a tip there, a missed read, another wretched tackling attempt.

          Second: No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas.

          “Well, Clemson wouldn’t have gotten an at-large.” So what. The Tigers did what the plan said. And Texas remains overrated.

          The only non-surprise was Penn State-SMU. Didn’t we want surprises?

          11 of the 12 had warts coming in, which was clear to some. Ohio State didn’t have any until Michigan, so that was fixable.

          Kentucky beat Ol’ Miss, who hammered Georgia (so, uh, Lane …) Clemson eked in, played Texas decent. Texas and Indiana came in with minimal quality wins.

          Teams play well. Teams don’t. Every week.

          Granted, it’s math and all, but all those piling on SMU might just want to note that Tennessee, with thousands of fans on hand, lost to Ohio State by only three fewer points than newbie-to-the-bigs SMU did at Penn State.

          So let’s put SMU and Tennessee on that “never shoulda been in” list, right? SMU gave away so many points and self-destructed more than Penn State hammered it for a whole game, while hotel bars in Columbus started filling up around halftime with orange-clad and red-faced fans.

          The biggest blowout shook the world. OK, well, one region. Nobody argued against Tennessee, and people – how many people don’t walk into walls or poles is amazing – wondered if Ohio State should be a single-digit seed.

          You can’t just look at a score and say they screwed up. Gee, Georgia lost to a team that didn’t make the playoffs, and lost to a team that was handled by Oklahoma.

          See? There’s a reason for yays and nays to make the final 12. Somebody has to be No. 2, or 3, or 4. This year, the gaps are very, very tight.

          Yo, Mississippi’s loss to Kentucky was much worse than Michigan over Ohio State. Alabama losing to Vanderbilt was much was worse.

          South Carolina may a gripe, officiating having turned a win over Alabama into a loss. The Gamecocks’ other losses: by three to LSU in September, by 24 to Mississippi in early October, by two to Alabama a week later.

          But every time there’s a debate about who should be in, few can or will muster an argument about who should be out, be it any playoffs or awards, etc.

          There will always be the “how can you leave a 10-1 team out?” with legitimate reasons why you shouldn’t. Gee, Indiana lost to Ohio State by only five more points than Georgia lost to Mississippi by and six more than Alabama lost to Oklahoma by and then there’s Northern Illinois.

          People talk about how all this drives conversation and attention, and grumble about the conversation.

          Close games aren’t guaranteed. Unpredictability is, and people love that, except when they don’t.

          It had to have been on a weekend that aspirin, Pepto, and vodka were invented.

          Some parity, i.e. new blood, seems to have finally arrived in college football, something I thought would have happened 20 years ago.

          Let’s enjoy this before it’s screwed up by the offensively greedy conference bosses, athletics directors, head coaches, parents, kids, presidents and chancellors, money-grubbers with money, and lawsuits.

          And let’s remember the days when offensive greed wasn’t so accepted and defended.

 

(Pre-Washington game) Speaking of calming down, Falcon fans

          A friend said he was convinced after two passes that Michael Penix Jr. was a second coming and Atlanta never should’ve taken Kirk Cousins out to dinner way back when.

          Was among the dumber takes on the day. The hard drive in people’s brains has a number of viruses that kick in after the first pitch, kickoff, tip off, etc. This was just such a case.

          Receivers dropped passes, for both quarterbacks. The offense was pretty much the same for both quarterbacks, albeit a few times when Penix moved around.

          For all the expected hyperventilating, the defense turned a 20-7 win into 34-7, and took all the pressure off of Penix, pressure it didn’t take off Cousins the last few weeks.

          Penix didn’t throw for a touchdown, and shouldn’t get blame for the “interception” which really was a fumble by Kyle Pitts, for whom the clock should be ticking so very loudly.

          It was a nice game, his reads were good, he didn’t inspire cringing, but he did nothing extraordinary for an NFL quarterback, rookie or not. All that said, yessir, it was a positive.

 

(Post-Washington game) OK, uncalm yourselves

          Hooooly crap.

          There’s a decent shot that in a year from now we’ll be deliberating over the next Atlanta head coach.

          I’m not one to pile on, and I’m one to defend coaches. Having no team and operating with objectivity helps. But Raheem Morris flat lost me, first on Sunday night – I can yell at a teevee, and he had me yelling at the teevee – and completely on Monday.

          He accomplished something rare: smart people and dumb people were in pretty much total agreement that they had no idea what the hell he was doing, followed by not knowing what the hell he was talking about in explaining it.

          Morris started losing some of the team with that bevy of botching, and sure lost a whole lot of the fan base. This is a team of 12-5 talent that is unlikely playing after Sunday.

          And it’s been a team effort, but Morris rendered this Sunday’s game moot by taking chances to win last Sunday out of his team’s hands. He took five timeouts home – that’s worth of a $100,000 fine in-house – and blew 35 seconds at the end of the first half and the end of regulation.

          People who can’t manage timeouts and clocks – if they’re not calling plays – should, yeah, be fined, and should publicly apologize.

          This isn’t to say Atlanta can’t storm out of the gate next year. This is a playoff roster, period. It’s been a playoff roster all year, even amid transition.

          But the heat’s on Morris, who has inspired less confidence as the season has progressed. He could lead a great turnaround, or he could – well, it’s Artie Blank, so you never know – be watching the college football playoffs from the house.

          Then, the only timeouts to worry about will be for his kids. 

Loughdmouthings

          Exhausting and depressing – and inexplicable - issues with The Central Georgia Sports Report’s prime computer have, in addition to increasing stress and clenchedness, pushed back a look at Northeast’s magical year.

But, of course it’s coming. …

          A reminder: AMERICA HAS A CRAPPY-TACKLING EFFORT EPIDEMIC. All levels. It’s worth about two touchdowns a game, made or saved. …

          Catching up, from a month ago: “Yes, Georgia Tech can beat Georgia.

          “The Bulldogs have been inconsistent on defense, and have had uncharacteristically mediocre tackling days. And if starting quarterback Haynes King can throw at all – and Tech might be wise to hold that secret for awhile – the Jackets are a legit threat.”

          A week later: Yes, Georgia Tech should’ve won that game, but didn’t, and Georgia deserves credit for climbing out of that hole.

          Regardless, it’s rare that one can’t over-hyperbolize a game, and that was one of those times. Nope, you can’t say too much, and it’s hard to exaggerate what we saw.

          And only the smallest – in several areas, physical and in the noggin – Georgia fan didn’t walk away kind of wanting to shake Hayes King’s hand, because that was an epic performance.

          Talk about a football player who happens to be a pretty good quarterback. We need more of them.

          And Georgia now has one. …

          In case you didn’t grasp that it’s cold everywhere in December, moreso in the northeast and Midwest, the teeveecomtwits make sure to tell you how difficult their lives were at every single opportunity at every game on every network.

          Because, of course, it’s all about them, from the remarkable crew gutting it out in a truck or room or people standing still pointing a camera at the action.

          “Getting over ourselves” is the New Year’s resolution you’ll never hear from that crowd. …

          A reminder that contributions of support for the most relevant, professional, objective, consistent sports coverage in Central Georgia – free of noises, pop-ups, tooshy-smoochin’, favoritism – are needed to keep it going. Needed, easy, and appreciated.

          And anybody who wants to contribute to the “The dang computer done died allasudden” fund gets a digital hug (until a live one presents itself). …

          Reminder: Players gotta play. Nobody coaches false starts or encroachment or missed reads, or lazy routes, or passes at feet. …

          Those prone to coming up with certain hydration games during events: Contestants should not engage at the mention of the word “portal” because few would make it to halftime. 

          There’s so much quitting going on, you can only go on every fifth mention of “portal.” Sadly. …

          A dated – only here – but accurate offering from Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: As a Heisman voter for years, I’ve never had a more difficult time deciding who most deserves the coveted trophy. A strong case could be made for all four of the finalists — Miami’s Cam Ward, Colorado’s Travis Hunter, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty.

          “Deciding among those four finalists is like trying to choose what to order from the Cheesecake Factory’s 50-page menu. If only our political system could deliver such worthy candidates!”