Coulda, woulda, shoulda

    A lazy throw and bad read on the game's first play.
    A nice throw off a receiver's hands and into those of a defender.
    Nobody touching the athletic quarterback running off tackle for 51 yards after almost all of his previous runs had been off the tackle.
    A throw into almost triple coverage without looking anywhere else in overtime.
    Having a fumble begging to be recovered by one team, which botched it three times and didn't cover it.
    Not covering a wheel route and allowing a back to get embarrassingly open for a touchdown.
    An interception slips right through a defender's hands.
    Receivers yet again running open, like they had fatal body odor issues.
    And naturally, the narrow-minded and nincomtwits focus on one easy thing to blame Georgia's 34-31 loss to Florida on:
    Play calling.
    And again, it's remarkably off-base, for, at a minimum, the aforementioned reasons. Play calling is like holding: there are issues in every game.
    But when a team does score 31 points, does cruise down the field in the second half - amazing what fundamental execution can do - and does ring up nearly 450 yards in offense, is play-calling really the major issue? Really?
    Gee, Georgia converted on 8 of 15 third downs to 4 of 14 for Florida. Averaged 6.2 yards a play to 5.8 for Florida.
    Bottom line: Georgia didn't exhaust itself in coming back, because it was clear the Bulldogs could move the ball.
    It was tied with 9:01 left in the game. Couldn't Georgia's defense had come up with a stop on either of Florida's two fourth-quarter scoring drives? Not held a receiver on a play that was a sack? Not give up a momentum-slowing 45-yard kickoff return that sets up a field goal?
    A team needs to make only one more play to win, and Georgia didn't.
    There is great fervor with the TV allegation - yeah, because TV is always right, except when TV is wrong about your team, or just wrong - that UGA threw to A.J. Green only minimally in the first half, and thus, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo must be, ahem, taken out.
    For one, I'll be happy when Green's gone so Georgia folks can quit whining about his absence being a problem and he's the best and fastest player on the planet. Is Georgia going to forfeit when he leaves? People, he's not the end all.
    As for that allegation, it's aggravating that people can't wise up and consider this in their drunken or frustrated stupor:
    A) The Gators, still a fast team, sort of, ya know, covered him pretty well. Teams can do that.
    B) You can't throw into coverage all the time just because the player TAAJG: The Almighty A.J. Green. Then the whine - like clockwork, people change their views - is "you can't throw to him every time, somebody else has to be open." Aaron Murray did both, went to Green and went to others. Not everybody had a perfect day.
    C) Throwing to a receiver is based on the read of the quarterback. The offensive coordinator is not the quarterback, and yes, does know Green is good. He also knows that Florida knows Green is good. The Gators - here comes another pesky fact - entered the game 11th nationally in pass efficiency defense and 13th in pass defense.
    They can defend that a little bit, and are smart enough to make the quarterback make others have to make a play.
    D) Green slacked off on that first play - yeah, the first bleepin' play of the game went to Green - and didn't work and the pass was picked off.
    E) Murray was 18 of 37. That's less than 50 percent. He had three interceptions.
    People don't call plays that are going to be turnovers. Those weren't complicated plays or calls. Georgia won when it didn't turn the ball over, and lost when it did.
    No news flash there. But coaches don't call for such plays.
    F) What happened to the "Heyyyy, open the playbook for Murray, he can handle it." Ah, suddenly replaced by, "Heyyyy, you can't ask a redshirt freshman to do all that, you idiot."
    G) "We got to establish the run and just power that damn thing" is immediately replaced by "dammit, why are we predictable and run so much?"
    This man's pregame thought was that Georgia could handle not getting out to a good start if it just didn't have back-breaking "holy crap" plays.
    Georgia gave up that opening interception, and held, then the defense stepped up for a three-and-out and interception.
    And here's a note for you: only five times in the first half did Georgia run the ball on consecutive plays, excluding Murray scrambles or keeps. His runs did give UGA three straight running plays a few times.
    Let's point out that Georgia answered UF's touchdown with three straight running plays, and then a 63-yard touchdown pass, and that Georgia opened the next possession with three straight passes, ran the ball, then went back to pass and fumbled it away.
    Georgia never looked panicky, and that's why the Dogs came back. Once you're within a possession, it's a new game, and Georgia had momentum. UGA outgained Florida 120-43 in the third quarter and, yes, it was a new game.
    When it came down to crunch time, a redshirt freshman made a redshirt freshman mistake, which happens.    Florida is down, yes, but just as Auburn didn't become UAB and Tennessee isn't Chattanooga's equal, the Gators didn't become Florida Atlantic North. And Urban Meyer has a certain mentality going at Florida that's loaded with confidence.
    Georgia doesn't quite have that.
    To claim the loss in itself is a program-definer is a huge stretch. To be depressed because of another close loss, though, isn't.
    But as most expected, the sun came up.

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
    Georgia covers receivers like they're contagious. ...
    Absolutely nothing against Boise State, but TCU has passed the Broncos. Legitimately better defense. ...
    Georgia can beat Auburn. Smart folks have been saying that for a few weeks. And again, simple tackling and some simple coverage is the key. Auburn's defense is very bendable. ...
    That Joshua Nesbitt's college career may have ended trying to make a tackle after throwing an interception is downright heartbreaking.
    If you want teamwork, work ethic, toughness, patience and intensity, Nesbitt has few equals. He came to Tech as a "normal" quarterback who became an option quarterback and got popped each Saturday more than most running backs, and almost always got back up.
    His quarterback numbers aren't much on the passing side - and that's his bosses' fault, not his - but his running and his engineering that offense are big-time.
    He certainly deserved a better ending than for some Dec. 27 bowl to be his finale. ...
    Mercer's women and men are picked to finish pretty low in the A-Sun. The men won and the women lost to Georgia College in a recent exhibition, but both showed signs of being better than expected. ...
    When Chris Berman retires and I can watch more of ESPN's coverage of the NFL, it'll be a great day. ...
    Why is it you breathe hard on somebody, it's a flag. But when you cross the goal line - which is the end of the play - you can get hammered by a defender with no flag? ...
    When ESPN realizes, well, anything, it'll be a good day. But the nation is not enamored with the Cowboys and Favre, and hasn't been. They're punch lines. Stop shoving crap down our throats. ...
    And from Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times:
    "Guess they were wearing their Everlast jockey shorts.
    "Rival riders Calvin Borel and Javier Castellano got into a fistfight on Friday between Breeders' Cup races.
    "Neither jockey was injured, witnesses say, though the three guys who broke it up were treated for swollen kneecaps."