Saturday was perplexing to say the least. We all knew we'd be getting Georgia's best shot. We always do. They hate us. Judging by the way some of our friends in orange and blue were treated over in Athens, they really hate us. But we have a roster full of players from the Peach State. We all figured they would get our best shot, too.
Then a funny thing happened, and I mean funny like "I fell down a flight of stairs and got a massive head wound" funny. Auburn didn't show up. In all three phases of the game, they sucked. It was mind numbing.
I kept muttering I thought we were past this.
But we are not apparently. And that is troubling.
A post-mordem from last Saturday lmight look like this: A team that lost a chance to play for another national championship against Texas A&M died a slow death Saturday. Maybe in the minds of the 18-22 year old men they had nothing to play for. Maybe they thought Georgia really wasn't that good. Maybe they thought that after the miracle in JHS that the football gods shined on us against the Dogs.
That's all horseshit.
Auburn was not ready to play Saturday night and that falls squarely on Gus Malzahn. You will rarely hear me criticize the man. I think he is one of the best coaches in the game today, but he is to blame for this debacle. His kids were not in the game mentally pretty much from the word go.
It is the first time we've seen anything like this. I do think there was a hangover from the Texas A&M collapse. It cannot be an excuse. It simply cannot.
This is one of the most storied rivalries in college football. As a fan I feel cheated I didn't get a great ending, or at least a good ending.
I feel cheated that I got one of those Tommy Tuberville games of yesteryear.
So, we are left with two games. One sure win coming up in a few days against Samford. One against Alabama I have no idea about. Which Auburn shows up? The team that won a gutsy road game early in Manhatten Kansas? The team that flat out dominated LSU? The team that won another gutsy road game at Ole Miss? Or will it be the Auburn we've seen the last three weeks? You know, the one who squeaked by a pathetic South Carolina andthen didn't squeak by a 24 point underdog in A&M. Or what we saw Saturday.
Teams are different from year to year, but the cast of characters from 2013 and 2014 look very similar. Maybe ason, Robinson and Prosch do make that much of a difference. I can tell that Dee Ford definitely did.
But for for the first time we see Gus Malzahn cut. Not badly, but still cut. We also see that you can't just show up when you want to.
I thought we were past this.