Tuesday April 23rd, 2024 6:16AM

Tuesday Morning Quarterback: Georgia Tech

The world has returned to its proper axis, thanks to Saturday's 38-7 smackdown of Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

For the second time this season, I was watching the game from the ESPN Lounge at Walt Disney World, and for the second time, Georgia won.

(The other was the 45-14 thumping of Samford, which wasn't nearly as refreshing as whoopin' up on Tech.)

It was a relatively stress-free victory in Bobby Stadium, which recently announced the University of Georgia as its new owner.

But enough of this boring intro.

Let's chat.

1) The Bulldogs never flinched.

Last year, the Yellow Jackets ripped out pieces of the hedges following a 28-27 upset in Sanford Stadium.

More than once it could be seen on the TV broadcast that a few Tech players would try to stir up trouble in the middle of a pile — getting a bit "chippy" as the announcers like to call it.

Every time I saw it, the player in the red jersey would simply shrug it off and walk away.

Business as usual.

Jake Fromm simply pumped his fist after he took a veeeeeeery late hit after dropping a beautiful bomb right into the arms of Akhil Crumpton, who raced to the end zone for his first career touchdown.

Nothin' special. Just another day at the office.

Georgia will need that same mentality if it wants to win next week.

(More on that in a second.)

2) The Revenge Tour continues.

In 2016, the Bulldogs dropped games to Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Florida and Georgia Tech.

One was a Hail Mary, two were one-point losses and the other was a 24-10 defeat in Jacksonville.

This year, Georgia won those games by margins of (drum roll please) 41-0, 45-14, 42-7 and 38-7, respectively.

That's an aggregate of 166-28.

Clearly the returning seniors, Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy, had something to prove.

And what a great opportunity for one more round of revenge coming up.

3) What the heck was up with the opening kickoff?

The Georgia Tech returner, Jerry Howard, put one hand over his head as the ball approached, which he then mishandled, chased into the end zone and returned to the 1-yard line.

The refs opted to review the play, saying that Howard signaled a fair catch.

Look, I know I'm not exactly a neutral party in this equation, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Howard was shielding his eyes from the sun. There was no "wave" motion. His hand was motionless once he put it in line with the sun.

And still, if it was a fair catch signal, why was Howard not therefore whistled for a delay of game penalty for trying to return the muffed kick?

Instead, the whole fiasco turned into a touchback for Tech, which didn't ultimately make a difference in the outcome of the game, but at the time provided the Jackets with a much better starting point for the opening possession.

But still. I wish somebody smarter than me could explain it.

4) The look ahead.

Speaking of revenge, this team gets a chance to do just that, with a rematch against Auburn coming up in the SEC Championship.

The Tigers won 40-17 three weeks ago, but will the outcome be different on a neutral field?

My gut tells me this one will be closer.

The oddsmakers like Auburn by a field goal, but it wouldn't shock me if Georgia pulled the upset.

I think I would still pick the Tigers to win, but my gut says this one will still be a game when the fourth quarter rolls around.

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