ATHENS — When a team wins a national championship and opens the following season by scoring touchdowns on seven straight possessions against a ranked opponent, the euphoria starts to become mixed with a little bit of a curse. That team suddenly isn’t judged by just winning games. You can expect wins. But they are ranked. A good win. Bad win. Ah, better-than-last-week-but-not-as-good-as-three-weeks-ago win. It’s not about the record, it’s about a fluctuating approval rating.
Georgia today is in this place. This is Georgia today. BulldogsAre now 6-0 following a victory over 42-10 AuburnSaturday. They lost votes in otherwise meaningless rankings twice in a row, and were knocked off the No. 1 spot. Why? Because voters just didn’t believe they were beating teams convincingly enough. Fair or unfair, the Dogs aren’t being judged by results but rather what everybody else thinks they should be.
Stetson Bennett, who’s being judged more than anybody else, is kind of fed up with it.
“We let people tell us how we should feel about a 42-10 SEC victory against Auburn,” Georgia’s quarterback said Saturday. “Like, enjoy it. Yeah, we have things to clean up, but that’s football. We’re not perfect. We should want to be, but we shouldn’t kill ourselves if we’re not. I have things to get better at — a million things. Auburn is a great team. We should be content.
“We’re just getting to, ‘Ah, well, it wasn’t perfect, so I’m going to be miserable.
