Oh me of little faith

You'd think I'd have learned by now, wouldn't you? You'd think that someone of my unquestioned fandom wouldn't have crises of confidence...wouldn't listen to the pundits...wouldn't doubt the awesome power of Chris Petersen or Kellen Moore. But I did. The closer the Georgia game got, the more my confidence was shaken. By game time, with the Dutch 3 sitting at home and no fullback to speak of...I started to panic. Not a full-fledged hyperventilating panic, mind you...but I was starting to prepare myself for something inconceivable—a loss. 

Can you find it in your hearts to forgive me?

Some Nazi dude—and not the one from the Indiana Jones movies—once said "if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth". Well, let me tell you, after months of hearing about how much deeper, bigger, faster, stronger, smarter, and just plain better the SEC was than us, I started to believe the lie. Me, of all people!

Now, I can tell you that it's no rarity for me to be a nervous wreck before games. I chug Pepto Bismol before games like Vandals chug...well, everything, but this game had me out of my gourd. "Kellen's lost two security-blanket receivers", they said. "Running back depth's looking awful thin", they said. "Derp", said Mark May. It was enough to put tiny cracks in my confidence that became fissures by the time it was announced that the Dutch 3 would be non grata in Atlanta. What were we to do?! Remember what happened in 2005?

Oh me of little faith.

It only took a quarter for the Broncos to remind us why we, as a fanbase, have been confident-bordering-cocky the last few years. The key is, you can't look at the team through the same lens that most folks do. Was Georgia big, fast, and scary looking? Absolutely. Did Boise State's wide receving corps look decidedly small, slow, and well...white (yeah, I said it) by comparison? Yep. Did Kellen look like he could've been stepped on by one of the Dawgs 350 lb. nose tackles? Uh huh. But that's all surface noise. What the lead-up to the game tricked me into was focusing on it, just like everyone else.

Kellen Moore, despite looking slightly more menacing that Opie from The Andy Griffith Show and slightly less so than Barney Fife, is the best quarterback in the country. This is a fact that is hard for some to swallow because they focus on all the wrong things—arm strength, height, athleticism. Those are the guys that drafted Nate Enderle and Tom Brandstater. Forget about'em. Focus on the facts. Kellen is the best QB in the country—why did I think for a minute that the loss of Pettis and Young would change that? Sure the passing game looked different...but the results were the same—that's because we have Kellen at the helm, and I temporarily forgot that.

Boise State has the best D-line in the country.—another thing that I somehow "forgot" in my moment of crisis. Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe was out and Georgia's O-line was monstrous. Besides, "that D-line hadn't really proven themselves outside the WAC" (they had...but the talking heads weren't about to admit that). So, the lie got repeated...and repeated often...and I found myself surprised that I was surprised when they did exactly what I should've expected...dominated. 6 sacks against an SEC squad with an all-conference QB. Now does anyone think they're only "WAC good"? I don't...and I've seen the error of my ways.

Never again will I doubt that a Chris Petersen squad can't simply "reload" from one season to the next. Never again will I doubt that superior game-planning can win games wherein one faces other "disadvantages". Never again will I doubt the coaches if they put a 5' 8" corner up against a6' 5" WR. And never again will I show a lack of faith in this team. They've been doing this for roughly 10 years...it's time for me, of all people, to have a little faith. And what better time for this gentle reminder than in week one?

Your turn

If you want to come clean in the comments section, now's your chance to do so. Come on...you're more anonymous than I am, and misery loves company.