A Grip on Sports: Georgia not only crushed TCU on Monday night, the Bulldogs also answered some long-time questions
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Not only did Georgia destroy TCU – and ABC’s ratings – Monday night 65-7 in the College Football Playoff’s title game, it also answered a question we’ve had for more than 50 years. All of those accomplishments are impressive.
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• We were a student of history from a young age. Sports history. And we had a source for most of the answers.
How good was Honus Wagner? We asked our dad, who watched him field ground balls after Wagner’s playing career when the Pirates held spring training in Southern California. How about Jackie Robinson? Our father could answer that one as well, having watched Robinson as a young athlete in Pasadena.
But there was one question our father couldn’t answer, even if the game in question happened in his lifetime. Even he was stumped.
How the heck did the Chicago Bears win the 1940 NFL title game 73-0? That must be a typo, right? There is no way one football team who made it through the playoff system in place at any time could beat another team who went through the same gantlet end up winning by more than 10 touchdowns.
It had to be impossible.
Now we know the true answer. And it was the Georgia Bulldogs who showed us.
It’s quite possible, through a series of unlikely events, one championship participant can be so overmatched as to be, well, irrelevant.
As TCU was last night.
Georgia was faster. Much faster. Georgia was bigger. Georgia was more confident. Georgia was, well, just dominant on both sides of the ball. And, bottom line, Georgia was much better. Maybe not 58 points better but close. The Horned Frogs had no chance and they knew it after about 10 minutes. From there everything steamrolled.
Turnovers, penalties, passing, rushing, special teams. Everything went the Bulldogs’ way. The only question at halftime was what the final scores was going to be. And if anyone in America not wearing a Georgia sweatshirt, was watching anymore.
Certainly not anyone in our house. We found a more competitive event to take in, called “what should we watch on Netflix?” Oh sure, between episodes of “Wednesday,” we switched over to football but just to see if the tow trucks had cleared the carnage yet. Or if the confetti had fallen.
But our greatest joy was discovering the answer to a life-long question. It was real. Chicago had defeated the (insert old nickname here) that early December day in 1940 by 73 points. Such a result was possible, even if Spokane’s Ray Flaherty was the coach, Sammy Baugh was the quarterback and other Hall of Famers were on the other side of the ball. Reputation, hype, previous results don’t matter when a title is at stake. If one team is really eight, nine, 10 or 11 touchdowns better, they may just win by eight or 11 touchdowns.
We slept well.
• We don’t think the 49ers will score 73 points against the Seahawks on Saturday. Not even 65. But San Francisco is favored by 10 points, which seems about right considering the regular season meetings between the two.
The 49ers’ defense dominated Seattle. Their offense, while not dominant, did control the line of scrimmage. And San Francisco never seemed threatened in either game.
Yet, thanks to the outcome of those two earlier games, you have to give Seattle a shot. It is tough, in the NFL, to defeat a team three times in one season. How tough? Well, since the merger, the 0-2 team has won about a third of the time in the postseason matchup, though that percentage drops a bit when it is on the road, as the Seahawks will be Saturday.
Still 1-in-3 are not bad odds. Especially when it was 0-for-ever in the games coming in.
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WSU: The Cougars needed some linebacker help this offseason. They have received it from the transfer portal. The latest addition is Isaiah Paul from Incarnate Word, the same school that supplied quarterback Cameron Ward and receiver Robert Ferrel last season. Colton Clark has more in this story. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, we linked Jon Wilner’s weekend report yesterday. Now it appears in the S-R. … WSU’s upset of Arizona is still being talked about. … Will this week be better for the desert teams? … The conference women had an interesting week. … In football news, Wilner shares his last Associated Press poll for the year and also his way-too-early one for 2023. … We also pass along Stewart Mandel’s 2023 early top 25 from The Athletic. … Did Utah belong in the final top 10? Did Oregon belong above Oregon State in the final rankings. Our answers to those questions are all no. … How good will Utah be next season? … Washington has some resolutions to meet in the new year. … The college football Hall of Fame’s newest class was announced yesterday. It included two Pac-12 running backs, Oregon’s LaMichael James and USC’s Reggie Bush. … It’s hard to keep track of all of Colorado’s incoming transfers. … Or UCLA’s coaches.
Gonzaga: Lots of rankings news, with the men continuing their climb in the top 10 – Jim Meehan has that story – and the women staying steady – Jim Allen has that one. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the BYU women needed a star to emerge. It looks as if one has.
EWU and Idaho: Former Eagles star Kendrick Bourne wants to be back in New England. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana State finished fourth in the final rankings. Sacramento State was fifth, Weber State ninth, Montana 14th, Idaho 18th and UC Davis 25th. Almost a quarter of the final poll game from the conference.
Preps: Garrett White, who played at Post Falls, earned Golden State Athletic Conference honors this week. That news leads off the S-R’s most recent local briefs column.
Seahawks: Geno Smith is not only a playoff quarterback, he has earned an opportunity for next season. … The Seahawks think they should have been more successful. … Still, it was a season for the ages. … Kenneth Walker III was a big part of that. … Questions? We can pass along answers. … In the 49ers, the Hawks face the hottest team headed into the playoffs, with San Francisco having won 10 consecutive games.
Kraken: Five consecutive wins. Seattle reached that mark with another in Montreal. And with the NHL’s best road offense.
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• No, really. We never understood how the Bears could win a championship game 73-0. They scored so many touchdowns, they had to go for two at the end. No more footballs. Couldn’t afford to kick it in the stands. The NFL wasn’t a rich behemoth back then. Until later …