The CheckerBoard

Georgia gave us a pick 6 and three turnovers inside their 30. We lost, but that's why it was even close.

Florida demolished us in the second half and won by 17, so I don't get how you think that was close.

South Carolina was out of contention, out of the East, and unmotivated, yet they still won because we can't punt and our defense has shown zero improvement in 8 weeks. Oh yeah, and we lost the turnover battle for approximately the 35th straight time against a competent opponent that isn't UGA.

MSU isn't very good, they just got housed by Bama and our offense couldn't finish the game after they basically tried to give it to us in the second half.

Bama was the best performance by our defense in the first half but our offense imploded. Bama is good but if you want to compete in this league you have to be able to ride your horses, and ours didn't even show up against them.

So no, we did roughly as well against most of them as other average teams would do. Because of our mediocrity is defined by an unbalanced offense/defense competency split some games seemed closer than others, but in the end our offense simply wasn't good enough to compensate for our atrocious defense and special teams. That's been the recipe all year.

Now we'll go romping through the weak part of our schedule(maybe), just like we did through the weak part at the beginning of the year, everyone will forget how godawful the last five weeks were and suddenly half of you will be calling it progress. There is no progress. This is the same team we had week two of last year, except this time we didn't lose our QB and #1 receiver to injury so we don't have an excuses. We beat up on bad teams and lose to good ones, and there is no evidence to contradict that assessment.

Offense is why were in those games. Without it, we are worse than the '08 team, and that team had a defense that played tooth and nail every game.

They turned the ball over FOUR TIMES INSIDE THEIR THIRTY, ONE OF WHICH WAS A PICK SIX. It should be impossible to do that and win. IMPOSSIBLE. That game is not evidence of anything other than the complete inability of this football to win a game against a team with a pulse, even if said team does everything in its power to give it to them.

Think about it, the best Dooley can do now is 7-5. That doesn't get him any long term security, and we will get ravaged on the recruiting trail. No elite kid is going to come play for Dooley after this year there is no guarantee he will be here after next year.

No you don't. And it sucks. But there is some middle ground between "we are the worst team ever" and "we need to congratulate them for only five losses. If we are the best 5 loss team (which we probably are), it doesn't matter in the big picture, BUT...

Reality is, we have lost 5 games to 5 very good teams. That is not a dumpster fire or a tire fire or a tailspin or a meltdown or whatever term people throw around. It sucks and it's not acceptable, but we aren't a terrible team. That is what makes it suck even more. This isn't like losing to Kentucky. That was embarrassing. Our record is terrible, but we haven't been embarrassed this season by anyone but Bama and they've done that to everyone.

The point is, this COULD be a very good team. That's what makes it so frustrating. We COULD, but we're not. 3 of our losses could have been wins with better coaching (UGA, MSU, USC). We have an ELITE offense, and a terrible defense, but I put 90% of the defense on Sal and Co. Our defense has some very talented players on it. We need tougher CBs and safeties, but every one of those guys are competent SEC athletes. 8 of our 11 defensive starters were 4 stars according to Rivals. They're not Bama or LSU caliber, but they're not Vandy either. They COULD be good, but they look lost and they get put in bad positions.

This is so frustrating. These players deserve better than this.

What experience or proven talent will we have at WR next year unless Hunter, Patterson stay? Z Rogers gone , Rivera gone, Croom is moving to TE and doubt he gets the concepts of that position in one spring. Pig is going to be good bit how many jump balls will he come down with at 5'8"? Bowels is going to be a redshirt freshman with no game experience oh I forgot Jacob Carter great kid but I doubt he toast the load.