Suicide Watch, Week 12

Yep, it's that time of the college football season...The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry goes down tomorrow as the Dawgs travel to the Plains to take on Auburn. by far my favorite rivalry game of all...yes even more so than the Iron Bowl. it's one of the closest rivalries in all of sports with Auburn holding a 53-50-8 lead in the series. Georgia has taken the last two meetings in lopsided blowouts thanks to Brandon Cox constant hookups with Georgia defensive backs in 2006 and the Souljaboy Blackout Of Doom last year.

when i looked at this game on the schedule at the beginning of the season i thought this would be a matchup of top 10 teams both trying to get into the SEC or National Title games, what with UGA's star backfield and Auburn's dominate defense and new spread offense. how'd that work out for either team? oh yeah, not so well. Georgia has shat the field in both of their high profile showdowns with top 10 schools and Auburn has been a complete and total disaster all season, and so instead of a top 10 matchup we are left with a merely good Georgia team facing off with a very poor Auburn squad in a downward spiral to oblivion.

it's hard to get really excited about this game this year. as an Auburn fan it seems inevitable that the Dawgs will hand the Tigers their 6th loss of the season and drive another nail into the coffin for Tommy Tuberville setting him up for Saban to finish the job. the Dawgs have more offensive firepower than the Tigers with actual NFL talent at runningback, quarterback, and wide receiver. Auburn has some kind of a mishmash of spread, i formation, and just plain ugliness on offense. Quarterback Kodi Burns has been Auburn's only real weapon all season with his ability to run the football...unfortunately it's his passing that should have Georgia licking their chops as he comes into this game with only 1 touchdown passing and 7 interceptions. he is second on the team in rushing with 377 yards and 5 touchdowns and one would assume if he'd been the starter this entire season those numbers might be a little better. the receivers haven't exactly been helping him out though. dropped passes have been a theme for the year with only tight end Tommy Trott and senior receiver Rodgeriqus Smith providing much consistency. the running game has been the real question mark this entire season. back in the spring it seemed like the Tigers were set to have one of the better backfields in the nation with veterans Brad Lester and Ben Tate both returning and speedster Tristan Davis finally getting healthy. unfortunately the new spread offense has caused major problems for both the running backs and offensive lineman. Auburn finds itself 6th in the SEC in rushing, 9th in passing, and 10th in scoring....so yeah the spread has been a shitstorm...you might have heard something about that.

the one advantage Auburn may actually have is the play of both team's defenses. as bad as Auburn is on offense, the Dawgs might actually be worse on defense. Georgia is currently 11th in the league in scoring defense, 10th against the pass, and 9th in total defense. on the flipside Auburn has the 4th best scoring defense (giving up only 16.3 per game), 4th in pass defense, 4th in sacks, and 2nd in 3rd down conversion percentage (allowing less than 28 percent of all 3rd downs to be converted), and they only given up 4 rushing touchdowns all season. unfortunately the defense has been a M.A.S.H. unit this season with major injuries everywhere. during the Auburn losing streak the once ferocious defense has been largely made up of second teamers and true freshman. also the lack of production by the offense has kept the defense on the field for most of the game which has resulted in some of their 2nd half meltdowns (most notably the West Virginia game). but the news out of Auburn is that most of the defensive line should be healthy and able to play this game...including starting tackles Sen'Derrick Marks and Tez Doolittle.

do i expect Auburn to win this game? no. would it shock me if they were able to pull off the upset? not really. historically the lower ranked team often wins this game. and with UGA not playing for much more than pride at this point, they seem ripe for an upset. Georgia has been one of the more overrated teams in the nation all season and their shitty defense has had major problems when facing athletic QBs who can run the ball...hey, i think Auburn has one of those this year. even with the trainwreck of an offense that Auburn has been all season one would hope that they might be able to exploit one of the weakest defenses in the nation and get some goddamn fucking points. if Auburn can pull out a win they will have to stop the run...and if you watched the West Virginia or Ole Miss or LSU games then you might have noticed that can become a problem for the Tigers in the 2nd half of games. they'll also need to keep the score low. i'm thinking 20-14 would be the score if Auburn can upset Georgia.

of course i wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw the Dawgs chew up the Auburn front seven all afternoon long and Knowshon rush for about 200 yards and 3 touchdowns in a route. If that happens you might not see me ever again as i will have found a nice bridge to go jump off of. regardless i hope it's a good game. something like the 2005 edition that saw both schools trade scores all game long before Brandon Cox pulled off the miracle 4th and forever conversion that set up the game winning score. if that happens i might just smile about my Tigers again. at least until the Iron Bowl.

potential for tragedy: 10. even though i'm more confident about Auburn's chances after watching what Kentucky was able to do to the Dawgs last weekend, i'm not crazy. Georgia is the better team and should win easily.

method of suicide: when you're a house divided the natural choice to die is to burn your home down with yourself and your loved ones inside.


all shittalking aside, i do hope to watch this game with some of my fellow college football loving fans tomorrow who just happen to root for those goddamn Dawgs...even if it's an early game (seriously 12:30?!! that should tell you just how not a big deal this game is this year). rivalries are no fun if you can't enjoy them with your rivals.