Beautiful day for football. Breezy this morning. Calm and sunny all afternoon.
We watched the morning games at home and then went out for a day of tailgating. We spent much of the afternoon sitting under a tent, because sitting down with back support seems a good idea when your shoulders feel ready to pop off your torso. We made Alabama jokes with friends as we watched the first half of the Texas A&M game.
Had a great time as the sun slide down behind a tree and behind the stadium and the air turned a nice shade of cool. We walked around the stadium to get to the right gate. We walked through the inside of the stadium looking to upgrade our seats, but no such luck tonight.
Not to worry, our seats are low and not the best, but that’s pretty much what this game will be like. The Auburn Olympians are welcomed out on the field. The marketing slogan around here this year is “Welcome home.” The PA script still says, “Welcome back.” They’ll figure it out eventually.
Nova, the golden eagle, flew from the flagpole, soaring over the eastern stands and then looping into his target at midfield. He was feisty this evening. The band marched on, the teams came out. We all watched the scoreboard as the Auburn game got underway and the A&M-Alabama game wrapped up. The Aggies beat the Tide and that was the biggest cheer in Jordan-Hare this year, perhaps.
It was a fine evening. There’s nothing quite like a game under the lights. It just makes for a great atmosphere. Under those lights we saw Onterio McCalebb take the opening kickoff from his four up to the 21 :
The kickoff is a lovely moment. All of the team’s frustration of the year, all of the fans’ gripes, despair or whatever the individuals do in a bad year is wiped out with a simple promise of what might be. The analysis and prognostication and reality is momentarily replaced by the eternal ‘what if’ optimism of the fan. This might be the night.
And that gives way to the first offensive series. The struggles of a young offensive line, a true freshman quarterback, the third starter of the year making only his second start are all remembered. These things and all of the effort and successes and not-quites of all of those young men who’ve played and practiced hard are laid bare.
But still, anything is possible. Until even the most irrational possibilities are re-ordered by reality, whatever the reality is to be. No one yet knows, given the vagaries and the variances. This game could go anywhere. That’s the feeling of any game, or at least the feeling of the desperate in a desperate game.
The first drive went like this: Jonathan Wallace looked to his fullback, crowd favorite Jay Prosch, for a screen pass, gain of one. On second down Tre Mason ran off the left tackle for a gain of one. On third and eight Mason skirted through the offensive line and gained seven yards. On fourth and inches Auburn — a 2-7 team with absolutely nothing to lose except, perhaps, their jobs — punted.
Six plays later Georgia had chewed up 76 yards and scored the game’s first points.
Auburn got the ball back at their own 12 after the next kickoff. After eight plays they’d marched 49 yards to the Georgia 39. On 4th and 14 Auburn couldn’t bear to attempt a 56-yard field goal. They took a delay of game penalty and punted. After nine more plays and 80 more yards Georgia was patting themselves on the back for taking an early 14-0 lead.
Grown men and women barking at each other. This is as erudite as it sounds.
Georgia won easily, as if they were holding a mid-season scrimmage, really. They scored 28 by the half, shut it down to celebrate an SEC East championship, and rode home with a 38-0 win, the most lopsided score in the 116-game history of the series.
That’s two in a row for Georgia in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Feels like 14 in dog years.
The championship in 2010 seems like a long time ago.
Auburn, we discussed during and after the game, has been competitive in exactly three games against the top half of the SEC in the last two years.
Maybe it would be better if you could point to one thing. If, before that opening kickoff, you could say “If only we can minimize this, or avoid that we’ll have a fighting chance today” and mean it. Instead this is a near total collapse.
The turmoil is just beginning. It will quickly outpace the marketing.
