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FROM DOWNTOWN: Stopping to smell the roses

Posted 1:03PM on Wednesday 3rd January 2018 ( 6 years ago )

I didn’t think there was a halftime adjustment good enough to bring the Bulldogs back Monday night.

After Oklahoma’s last score of the first half, dejected and slumped on a couch, phone attuned to Twitter, I said aloud to no one in particular, “We’re just getting our (hineys) kicked.”

In one half, Oklahoma had managed to put up more rushing yards and points on the Bulldogs than any team had in a game this season (sans Auburn, but I’m fine acting like that Saturday just across the Alabama border didn’t happen).

What could be said or schematically employed to stem Lincoln Riley’s boys? What could be said or schematically employed to keep mine eyes from having to watch Baker Mayfield’s post-score antics (other than one of my size 11s through the 60-inch)?

Then the glimmer of hope: the squib kick.

Being a Georgia fan and all, I was familiar with what a squib kick could do for an opposing team in desperation mode (see Georgia vs. Georgia Tech on Nov. 29, 2014).

A 9-yard completion and Rose Bowl history-making 55-yard field goal later and I was sitting up a little straighter and saying aloud, “We’re alright, still a lot of football left; and we know Kirby (Smart…first-name basis in private) is the boss of halftime adjustments.”

The rest, as it’s said, is history: the Bulldogs did adjust and did so in 180-like fashion, ending the game with a play that is already the latest inductee into the fraternity of iconic moments in Georgia football.

Years from now, when we think back on this magical season, the answer to one question will be bandied about, “Where were you when Sony Michel scored?” There won’t need to be a game reference or time stamp to conjure up the memory.

I was standing right in front of a 60-inch television that I wanted to throw a shoe through a couple of hours before. I didn’t jump up and down or scream as I had so many times in the second half, but instead put my hands on my head in disbelief as tears streamed down my cheeks. For all the previously mentioned iconic moments, this was the first one I’d watched live, and the moment wasn’t lost on me.

Whatever was said and whatever was schematically employed at halftime had worked.

The glimmer of hope turned into a bright, shining light leading the way to Atlanta and the national championship.

A few more thoughts:

http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/1/621389/from-downtown-stopping-to-smell-the-roses

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