Cam's quiet, and UGA still can't cover anybody

    Let us give a high five that Camgate is having a quiet week so far.
    We're in the third day since Auburn and Cam beat Georgia, and it's been news-free. Somebody named Newton had a hand out, and Cam is at Auburn, which is 11-0 because in part defensive coordinators - and many defensive players - are a bit slow.
    That's not to say the UGA-Auburn game didn't leave a postgame residue that had nothing to do with Newton.

    There was great consternation - unhappiness - in Bulldog Nation for some punches and cheap play by a few Auburn players. It was an ugly end to a pretty entertaining game, and many in red and black suddenly deemed Auburn to be the team of Idi Amin and Kim Jong-il.
    Hah.
    Any group of fans in the SEC - whose team is regularly ranked - that whines about any other group fans or another team's actions is just being unintentionally funny as hell.
    Pot, Kettle, y'all go get a beer, huh?
    Did a couple Auburn players go stupid and cheap? Yes. Did they do so against a team with halos on their helmets. Not by the longest shot. Suddenly, the same fans who have been bellyaching about their stupid thug constantly-arrested team takes great personal offense at some idiocy.
    The Tigers were caught and tossed, putting Auburn's game against Alabama in jeopardy, since they'll sit the first half of that game, which we can fully expect Alabama to take advantage of.
    Some lucid folks saw the same thing Mark Richt saw on Aaron Murray's injury, that it was more momentum from a 1,000 pounds of human falling toward him. Some other hits, not so much. Some other hits are football, and yes, the NCAA needs to tighten up a bit on some of the QB stuff without going as anal as the NFL has in similar areas.
    Which brings up a digression: Why is it that you can fart on a quarterback late near a sideline and get a flag, but a player scoring can get clocked two yards after crossing the end zone? It happens all the blessed time. Some dingbat who got beat levels or shoves whoever scored, and there's no call. I thought once the ball cross the line, the play was over.
    Digression over.
    The 18-point spread doesn't change the justification here of picking Georgia to beat Auburn. It was a 4-point game for three quarters and seven minutes. Then yet again, what's hurt Georgia all year came back: bad coverage.
    Philip Lutzenkirchen - Gesundheit - just jogged past another flat-footed Georgia defender - who was apparently watching a videoboard shot of a cheerleader - and was open for the game-clinching touchdown with 8:05 left.
    So people run wide open and a guy who runs to one of two spots still gets a buck fifty. ... Just checkin'..
    SEC defensive coordinators should have been fined for failing to adjust for four years to one simple thing: TEBOW'S RUNNING LEFT. MAKE HIM BEAT YOU THROWING OR RUNNING RIGHT.    But they didn't, and Tebow kept running left and winning.
    Newton is different but the same. He runs to both sides, but mostly right behind the tackle. In every game this season but Mississippi  State, Louisiana-Monroe and Ole Miss did Newton run more than he threw.
    That's a tendency. Hell, against Georgia, he ran twice as many times as he threw, and still went for 151.
    It was easy to agree with talk to spy him, but then Coach Einstein here had a thought: spy on him from both sides, lining a defender and a half across from the tackles, and sort of load up there a little bit. React substantially quicker.
    Conversely, that would mean some man to man defense, which Georgia seems to have ignored in favor of the Grand Canyon pass coverage. If you can't get open against Georgia, you must be a lineman.
    Georgia doesn't need to "recruit to the 3-4" as much as it needs to recruit better football players, smarter football players, more fundamental football players, especially on the back two lines. And there has been some sightings of Martinez-like planning and philosophy, because it's often been hard to tell there was a change.
    I picked Georgia because in 17 stat categories ranked by the NCAA, the Bulldogs' average was higher than the Tigers. Thus, the Tigers are fairly one-Cammensional and the Bulldogs better than some - like 73 percent of the fan base - realize. Not good, but better.
    And again, ANY FUNDAMENTAL TAUGHT-IN-JV PASS COVERAGE and I'd have had a very good chance of being right. Of course, any of that, and it wouldn't have been an upset because Georgia would have been about 7-2 going into the game.
    Alas, no.
    And one game remains between our state's top programs, both with only five wins. Tech and UGA tied in the Ugly Loss Bowl: Kansas beat Tech, Colorado beat Georgia, and then Kansas was bad enough to trail 45-17 and Colorado was bad enough to lose it 52-45 and get head coach Dan Hawkins fired.
    Early call: Georgia 40, Tech 20.

LOUGHDMOUTHINGS
    So if we had an eight-team playoff, our current pairings:
    1 vs. 8: Oregon vs. Nebraska
    2 vs. 7: Auburn vs. Wisconsin
    3 vs. 6: TCU vs. Stanford
    4 vs. 5: Boise State vs. LSU
    Same as last week.
    What's annoying is the raging changing because of one week, a rough game. Does one struggle trump four sizzling games in a row, or a quality body of work in general?
    It shouldn't. One bad day doesn't make for an unsuccessful month. I'll still take TCU over Boise State, though the talkng heads made TCU's 40-35 win over a 7-2 San Diego State sound embarrassing.
    State's losses had been to Missouri by three and BYU by three, and it had topped then-No. 23 Air Force. Missouri became ranked about two weeks later and is 15th.
    That wasn't such a bad win. ...
    Here we go again: Stetson has beaten Wake Forest and Kennesaw State pounded Georgia Tech. A-Sun 2, ACC 0.
     Next to worry: Tennessee (hosts Belmont), Wyoming (hosts North Florida), Missouri (hosts North Florida), Auburn (hosts Campbell), Baylor (hosts Lipscomb), all in the next week. ...
    Yes, Mike Vick is having a career first half of the season, and the Washington game was remarkable.
    But oh dearest GOD, make the IWM - Idiots With Microphones - just stop. Possible Player of the Decade? So uttered one of the IWMs in the booth Monday night.
    Wipe off your chins, guys.
    Six quality games doesn't a history erase or rewrite. He's been sacked 15 times in six games, but the stunning stat: no picks in 153 pass this season, after a preseason of five swipes in 28 passes.
    And speaking of IWMs and chins: fellers, guys are supposed to complete passes, catch passes, block, tackle, make shots, defense, hit/pitch/field the ball, etc..
    I'm beggin' ya to please stop making every such play Hall of Fameesque. Some plays, yes. Every other play, no. ...
    Our first lopsided gift to UGA fans courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi questions the ability of Urban Meyer. Wow. ...
    So far, so good in the NBA. Eleven teams have a better record than Miami and The Stooges. Keep it up, guys. ...
    Are we ready for a national championship team that's played three Friday games and once on Tuesday? ...
    A second lopsided gift for Pooch fans from Bianchi after the Cocktail Party:
    "After losing three straight regular season games, the Gators needed this one so much that they brought star running back-wide receiver Chris Rainey back from text-message purgatory.
    "Meyer said when Rainey was arrested for his infamous 'Time to Die' text to his girlfriend earlier in the season that the player had violated the team's 'core values.' But as Florida's season circled the drain, Meyer's core values must have been amended. 'Time to Win' obviously became a higher priority than 'Time to Die.' ...
    "Hey, maybe they should put up a plaque in the stadium for Rainey next to Tim Tebow's 'Promise' memorial. I can just see it now … 'I promise never again to get arrested for aggravated stalking …'    A few weeks later, of course, the Ol' Ball Coach made Meyer feel like retiring allll over again.