It Sucks to be Wrong: Dawgs By 20 Over LSU
2005-12-05
Posted by: badanov
Sometimes you just get blindsided with your own beliefs.
In this case it was what we so “expertly” called the “Shockley Factor” in Georgia football.
The “Shockley Factor” was supposed to be one of those immutable facts we all know about: The sun rises in the east, is on of those. So is our cat will wake us at 0600 to be fed every morning.
We watched the progress of Georgia throughout this season, and let's face it, folks: Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley was a team leader through and through.
Our best impression of Shockley's Dawgs was in their home opener when Georgia hammered then ranked Boise State 48-14, . We watched an incredibly quick quarterback rivaling his own backfield for yards, and we saw an offensive line up to the challenge. We should have noticed how Boise was held to less than 125 yards passing. That was the mark of a Georgia pass rush.
We also saw some not so pretty things about this year's Dawgs, and that was how when Shockley was having a bad game, the team would suffer. And when Shockley got seriously hurt in the Arkansas game, we knew it was going to be bad for the following week at Florida, and so it was, 14-10.
When Shockley came off the bench against Auburn, the Dawgs lost by one point with Shockley getting the most yards, 74, as Auburn focused on shutting down the running game.
And the last two games, Kentucky and Georgia Tech, Georgia came out with narrow wins, it had to be the end of the line, we were certain, inasmuch as the Dawgs had won the SEC East.
Frankly, we didn't think the Shockley factor was going to be much against what we considered the much deeper in talent LSU Tigers, which had recorded only one loss against Tennessee in that weird Monday night game.
He wasn't.
An honest mistake, but that is really not the story. Georgia had been statistically in the top three in all categories of team offense and defense in the SEC. It was rather inevitable the Georgia pass rush would take its toll against LSU Saturday. It also appeared LSU believed in the “Shockley Factor” a lot more than they really should have. Shockley wasn't much of a factor in this game. The Georgia pass rush was.
LSU was held to less than 156 yards passing and 76 yards total rushing. It was a stunning defensive effort by Georgia, made more so by the fact that Shockley himself only gained 112 yards passing and was held to 10 yard rushing.
Color us humbled every bit as much as LSU was by Georgia football.
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