Me Manifesto on Auburn/Georgia

Editor’s Note: Yup, this is a week late, but Auburn didn’t play this weekend, so it’s still valid and… what? No, you shut up.

If I could figure out how to give these posts subtitles, this one would be: The one where I didn’t say “fuck” in front of a little kid.

The game was a lot better than I thought it would be, what with us leading in score for about a quarter of the game, and Kodi the Burninator (yay!) throwing for 179 yards and 1 TD with absolutely no picks (yay again!). The Burninator kept showing glimpses of how good I kept expecting him to be all season, but he has yet to have a game where everything clicks into place. This game was no exception, as Kodi went for a passable 16/30, but failed to deliver the ball accurately during the big end-game drive.

Georgia looked flatter than my abs (that’s pretty flat!) with their only bright spots coming from middle to fair showings from Stafford and Moreno, but even then both of those guys were kept reasonably in check by Auburn’s defense (compared to the West Virginia and Ole Miss games, jackass…).

The real story during the 4th quarter was Georgia’s best players, the zebras. This will come off as a bit whiny and fan biased, and perhaps it is, but you shut up and listen first, then complain. Georgia’s last scoring drive was helped along by a phantom pass interference call against Auburn DB Jerraud Powers, which left coach Tuberville spitting mad and glaring at the offending line judge for the next three plays. On the play following the phantom penalty (that was some serious bullshit), Georgia receiver AJ Green pushes down Auburn DB Walter McFadden way past the line to keep him from getting a good angle on the ball and an interception and… oh what’s that? No flag. A blatant offensive pass interference incident just went uncalled because I’m assuming the same line judge who flagged the previous play was glaring back at Tubbs.

Georgia in effect receives 30 free yards on that series and manages to put up a good throw from Stafford to Green for a TD, taking the lead 17 - 13. Georgia gets Auburn to punt on the next series, goes 3 and out, and pins Auburn back to their 20 or so. The Burninator leads us on a very decent drive with two very solid third down conversions (these are some of the moments where I see Burns’ potential). Auburn gets down to the Georgia 14, and on a 3rd and 1 play, the left side Auburn receiver is blatantly fouled by the Georgia DB (names escape me at this point because I was so incredulous at the turn of events), and once again, the zebras miss it.

I’m not going to be one of these jackasses who says the the refs “cost us the game”, as we had another down on 4th and 1 with 13 seconds left and still failed to get it done, and Burns overthrew Tate in the end zone. But what the refs did was cost Auburn the opportunity to win the game, and stack the odds in Georgia’s favor significantly with a net results of 45 yards that all went in Georgia’s favor. I realize that Georgia was penalized out the wazoo during the first half with 9 penalties for 95 yards, but when the game was on the line, the officials failed to keep it fair. Granted, Auburn has been stagnant in the red zone all year, and Saturday’s game was no exception, but to miss that pass interference call at such a key point in the game is inexcusable. I hope that Tubbs and Auburn file some sort of grievance, for all the fucking good that will do.

On the plus side, I saw an Auburn team that really looked alive for one of the few times this season, and saw the potential for some good things if the administration and Board of Directors stops fucking with this program like it’s a veteran porn star two years past her prime. Oh, and I didn’t say “fuck” or any of the other choice words I had floating in my head for the zebras because a little kid was around at the place where I was watching the game, so good for me.