Today, however, we did see something close. The committee that decides such things had chosen to rank the University of Tennessee's football team #1 in the nation because it was undefeated, and had beaten Alabama. It placed the Georgia Bulldogs at #3 even though they were also undefeated and the defending national champions.
What happened today was that Georgia played Tennessee.
It was a very professional, strategic destruction. Georgia went up three touchdowns to two field goals in the first half, and then spent the second half denying the field on a prevent basis. They didn't get greedy; they didn't try to run up the score. They just burned the clock. Tennessee finally scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but it never got close to coming back. Georgia only scored one more field goal, but scoring more points was not their tactical priority. They had plenty of points; they needed to bleed the clock for every point they allowed. The opposing quarterback, a promising young man named Hooker, was sacked six times.
Justice is likely to be done in the next set of standings.
10 comments:
Sports always have chance elements that make them not quite just. Even in the pure events like running and jumping there are tiny things that can affect. But part of why we like sports is that as many as possible of those elements are stripped away, and we can at least get closer to justice.
But football is more of an exception than others, just because the ball is shaped funny and the whole thing is outdoors in all weather. In one way it is a fairer measure of dealing with the unexpected and adjusting, but it's also just a lot of noise in your justice measurement. LSU got robbed yesterday on a weird rule on a fumble, and the funny shape of the ball was part of that, because it is difficult to get a grip on when it is flopping around.
spent the second half denying the field on a prevent basis. They didn't get greedy; they didn't try to run up the score. They just burned the clock.
That is a metaphor for Putin's game plan in Ukraine--which actually follows Franco's game plan against the "Republicans."
Let the other guys beat their brains out/lose lives and frustrate their attacks by melting back into the shadows. You may take casualties, but they'll take more. Eventually they'll run out of time (lives).
@AVI:
"But football is more of an exception than others, just because the ball is shaped funny and the whole thing is outdoors in all weather...."
Yes, these are complications; but if you begin from the position that encounters with Justice are not to be expected, only enjoyed when miraculously they occur, they fall away in importance somewhat. Yesterday's contest involved heavy rain in the second half, which complicated Tennessee's attempt to recover; they also received the benefit of an extremely questionable call about a safety they should have had charged against them, but were allowed to escape.
Yet the justice of the greater judgment -- which of these is really the #1 team -- is no longer in doubt. In spite of the one thing and the other, it was clear in the whole performance that one team was superior across the board. If it hadn't rained, the ending score might have been closer; or Georgia might have switched back to a scoring strategy rather than a defensive one. It is not in doubt, however, who would have won. One team was entirely dominant in performance, and that holds even allowing for everything else.
@D29:
It's interesting that football is such a useful metaphor for war. It's definitely true that Russia has recently translated its strategy into a defensive/retrenching one. This is coupled with an aggressive use of fires against Ukrainian energy facilities, medical facilities, and other infrastructure (bridges etc) that will impair movement. I think it's going to be a horrible winter in Ukraine.
I think it's going to be a horrible winter in Ukraine.
Since we're stretching the football is war metaphor.... I suspect it'll be a far worse winter for the barbarian than for the Ukrainians. General Hines predicts a winter offensive, and the barbarian is far more ill-equipped, in combat materiel, clothing, shelter, food, and fuel, and morale than are the Ukrainians.
Even if there's no winter offensive, the barbarian is far less prepared for, and far less capable of handling, the coming winter.
Eric Hines
As a good Cimmerian, I must object to your use of 'barbarian' in the pejorative.
I don't predict an offensive from the Russians, though. They're taking steps, such as the destruction of bridges, that would complicate such a thing. I think they're going to use the pain -- in Europe as well, where it is going to be cold without natural gas, and where they are already burning firewood and garbage -- to compel a settlement that satisfies them.
There's a nonzero chance of a Russian dirty bomb attack that is false-flag claimed as a Ukrainian attack. The Zapo power plant has been shut down claiming a 'mine explosion,' which would allow for the scavenging of nuclear material that would be forensically sourced to Ukraine. (Although until lately they've been getting their nuclear material from Russia anyway, complicating the forensics; but the verisimilitude will be increased somewhat thereby.) This would serve Russian but not Ukrainian strategic interests by denying part of the coast to Ukraine for a period of time.
I don't live in Cimmerian times, I'm using the modern definition of barbarian.
I'm not predicting a winter offensive by anyone other than the Ukrainians. It would be complicated by the bridge damages, but as it is said that one doesn't have to be able to outrun the bear, only to be able to outrun the other guy, so it is in reverse. The Ukrainians don't have to be very good in the winter (though I suspect they are at least pretty good); they only have to be better than this particular bear in the winter. Just as they were last winter. And the bear is much weaker this winter, not only having been unable to fatten up over the summer this time, but having actually to have been bled to an extent.
It's also likely that Europe has already nearly all the natural gas it needs for the winter. The wood scavenging (it turns out that scavenging dead and fallen wood from the forests by civilians is illegal in Germany, but the civilians don't seem to care) going on seems to be just anticipatory backup. In this venue, I'm more concerned about political will than I am about popular will.
Eric
And TCU [Go Froggies!] beat Texas Tech. Indeed, it was a good day.
Football - the other religion in the US South.
LittleRed1
Grim, this was perhaps the most fun moment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch9fls8wS6o
@AVI,
That really was an amazing punt. Tennessee expected to field it at the thirty.
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