No amount of Dawg fans’ screaming at their televisions last Saturday can change one glaring fact: The Georgia Bulldogs are lucky to have beat a mediocre Georgia Tech team in Athens last Saturday. As of this writing, ton of opinions have already been expressed, and excuses put forth, but the harsh reality is this: Georgia is not playing championship football. Yes, the rabid fans can point out Ohio State lost to Michigan, but that’s their problem, not Georgia’s.
It doesn’t take eight overtimes to beat Georgia Tech, or least, it didn’t take Louisville or Notre Dame that long.
It’s true that the Dawgs did come from behind – and that shows something incredible in there coaching and leadership – but how do you fall behind 17-0 in THE state rivalry game?
If there’s any hope for Georgia to make an impact in the playoffs, things have to change, and change quickly, starting with their defense. Saturday, they gave up over 260 yards on the ground with Tech moving the ball seemingly at will. It could be argued the triple option made things difficult to read three years ago, but those days are gone at Tech. This is an average team running an average offense. The talent the Dawgs will face next week in Atlanta at the SEC Championship against Texas is bigger, faster, and far more innovative.
Now, before everyone jumps into the comment section, yes, Georgia Tech QB Haynes King is arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the nation, and he led the Yellowjackets to a record setting performance Saturday, lighting up Georgia for over 413 yards in offense in regulation play. The Dawg’s Carson Beck, their on-again, off-again starting QB, had a solid performance, but clearly wasn’t as focused as King. (UGA gave up 508 total offense to Tech in regulation) Bear in mind, Tech “only” generated 505 against a ho-hum North Carolina team earlier this year.
Coaching AND Leadership Is Helping Georgia
One thing’s for sure, the Dawgs are lucky to have leadership in their coaching staff that can turn around such a poor performance while it’s occurring. Kirby Smart is nobody’s fool, and after the game, he admitted just how close Tech had come to ruining the Bulldog’s day.
This rivalry is good for our state, and that’s what Brent (Day) and I both shared before the game and after the game. And no matter what anybody says, you know, publicly, there’s a mutual respect from me for the way, the physicality with which they play the game with and the toughness. I thought our guys played really hard and physical. They (Georgia Tech) had a good plan. They shrunk the game on us. We didn’t get great possessions in the first half.
Smart’s a savvy coach, and as he looks towards preparing the Bulldogs to play in the SEC Championship in Atlanta this coming Saturday, he knows the product they put on the field has to be excellent. Beating Texas earlier this season doesn’t count.
Texas has got a super-quality team. I have so much respect for Sark for the rivalry game they played in last night. It was a extremely physical game for them, emotional game for them. Their team has really navigated the SEC really well, especially on a first-year team coming in. He built the roster to be SEC compatible, and they’re extremely big and physical across both fronts.
The challenge? Georgia’s got to play four quarters of excellent football, or they’ll risk losing more than just another game in Atlanta. Lucky or not, sooner or later, every player has to put on the helmet and go hit somebody.
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