Monday Afternoon QB: Georgia win fine, polls won't change, the GSUs battle, FVSU stumbles, and ...

            Winning 24-10 was fine.

            The 24-point spread was fairly absurd. Reachable but pretty absurd.

            Georgia beat South Carolina 24-10 Saturday at home, leaving the normally off-kilter factions in Dawgnation as off-kilter as usual.

            Contrary to some paranoid folks in the Georgia camp, it was in fact a winnable game for South Carolina.

            Sure, the Bulldogs outgained the Gamecocks 438-270 and stuffed the run. Of course, Georgia averaged 5.8 yards a snap, South Caroina 5.1. So, see, it was a competitive game.

            All it takes is a tipped pass, or a missed block that leads to a fumble, or a defensive back that slips, and a team can score. And note that South Carolina was held to only two three-and-outs. Georgia had one three- and one four-and-out.

            Also a much better playcall than South Carolina chose on a fourth down in the fourth quarter helps.

            Georgia got a little conservative in the second half, and South Carolina just didn't have enough to do anything with the chances.

            Those who don't look down their noses at all competition knew South Carolina would be tough, and it was, and Georgia handled the week as No. 1 pretty well.

            Alabama was outgained by LSU by seven yards on 13 fewer plays, the Tide getting five yards a snap

            So no, while it's irrelevant if Alabama jumps Georgia in week two of the playoff poll, it's also unlikely. LSU was a little better opponent, but not by much.

            Georgia needed a close game against a quality team, becuase it's going to get one this week.

            Auburn has a top 20 defense. More importantly for the Tigers, an offense has apparently showed up on the Plains.

            It'll be an old-school Auburn-Georgia game. Put Dooley and Dye on the sidelines, keep Uga away from any Auburn receivers, and watch for the eagle to drop a present into a Georgia section during his aerial lap.

            Georgia can lose and fall from the top 4 and get right back in a week later.

Ready, set ...

            Thanks for playing in the College Football Playoff poll, Ohio State and Penn State.

            Not sure why Penn State dropped farther in Sunday's polls than Ohio State after a closer loss to a better team.

            But again, note - as was noted in a recent Loughdmouthings - that one can be ranked in the teens and still make the playoffs.

            This can happen with, well, nobody currently.

            Central Florida is undefeated, and Memphis and South Florida are one-loss teams, but none has a shot.

            Wisconsin needs to dominate the rest of the way to get in, and it's doubtful Miami can dominate anywhere near enough to have a shot. ...

            Fort Valley State had the mometum of a four-game winning streak.

            Albany State had the anti-momentum of a two-game losing streak.

            Naturally, the team going backward won the Fountain City Classic, by a larger-than-anybody-could've-thought 34-9 margin.

            The Wildcats couldn't handle ASU quarterback Kelias Williams, who had 227 yards and three touchdowns.

            Former Dodge County standout Cameron Young was the defensive MVP.

            The Wildcats had already clinched the SIAC East Division, and host Tuskegee on Saturday in the conference championship.

            But they won't have an abundance of momentum coming off a flat performance. The FCC didn't have a bearing on the division title, but not playing well against a rival can be a sign.

            Tuskegee comes in off a 50-20 win over Miles in a rivalry, to improve to 8-2. ...

            Erk Russell is fighting hard to get out of his grave and figure out what's going on in Statesboro.

            Georgia Southern had given the lead back late to Georgia State in a battle of the GSUs at seats-still-available Paulson Stadium, and was moving toward a thrilling game-winning touchdown in the final minutes.

            The Eagles were were in the red zone with 15 seconds left, but a false start penalty - on a spike - led to a 10-second runoff, and quarterback Shai Werts, a freshman, was stopped short of the end zone.

            Southern fumbled twice in the fourth quarter and couldn't come up with the clutch defensive play, or stop against talented wideout Penny Hart.

            Interim head coach Chad Lunsford said the Eagles didn't know how to win, and that's true. It was only the third Eagles game decided by less than 18 points.

            It won't change soon. Southern takes on App State on Thursday. Then again, that's a prime chance to be overlooked. ...

            West Georgia is behind West Alabama in the Gulf South, but went into the weekend ranked three spots better in the tied with West Alabama atop the D2Football.com poll.

            But West Alabama is two spots better in the South Regional II rankings.

            West Alabama has won the conference at 7-1 while West Georgia is 5-2.

            West Georgia is coached by David Dean, the longtime head coach at Valdosta who made the ill-advised decision to join Tyson Summers' staff at Georgia Southern. ...

            People pay little attention to such relevant stuff as facts, but Coastal Carolina is Division I, I-A/FBS having moved up, well, this year.

            That's not why Arkansas' 39-38 win, the winner coming with less than two minutes left, was so bad.

            The Chanticleers had only one win, and that was the season-opener over Massachusetts, which was winless until beating Georgia Southern by 35 and ending Summers' reign.

            So Arkansas should have lost to basically an FCS team. Yes, there'll probably be an opening there, too. ...

            Speaking of ill-advised decisions to join Summers' staff, Rance Gillespie's first year as head coach at Hart County was so-so. The Bulldogs are 3-7, but 3-2 in Region 8-AAA and in the playoffs. ...

            Urban Meyer's current team lost by 31 to a medicore Iowa team. Urban Meyer's last team lost by 29 to a weak Missouri team. His former former team, Utah, did smack UCLA 48-17, and Bowling Green beat Kent 44-16. ...

            Atlanta is proving what has been offered here - or Loughdmouthings - recently.

            Last year was a fluke for the team, the head coach, and the organization.

            It’s not all of anybody or anything, but just that this is the organization until it proves otherwise. Most thought this year would be one where the Falcons started proving otherwise, but nope.

            People don’t realize how great an O or D is when players execute, especially up front, because that’s where all success and failure lives. The OC had nothing to do with drops, poor routes, a defense that gave up 10 yards a pop to a quarterback,

            But yes, it’s the OC that calls less than 20 running plays and forces a QB to be better than he is.

            The Falcons are still in the playoff hunt, because we don’t know how consistent Carolina can be, Green Bay is wounded, and there’s inconsistency with Seattle, Arizona and Washington. It’s a crowded field, and the Falcons still have New Orleans twice, Carolina once, plus Dallas and Seattle, as well as Tampa Bay twice.

            That’s plenty of time to get back into major wild-card contention. But things have to change, on the sideline and between the lines. It’s just hard to say what.