The Georgia Bulldogs have become a team known for some gaudy offensive numbers over the past decade, but has the defense now caught up?
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When it comes to Spring football games, you take everything with about as much seriousness as preseason NFL football. Coaches are getting a good look at players in game situations, and not a lot of stock is put into any final scores. It’s all about what players step up and make a good impression.
Or, it can be about which unit does it.
In this year’s Georgia Spring game, the Black team (consisting mostly of first team defense and second team offense) defeated the Red team (No. 1 offense and No. 2 defense) by a 24-17, and it was that Black team defense who had 46,815 fans oooo-ing and ahhh-ing.
And while returning defensive players like Lorenzo Carter and Jordan Jenkins certainly had some moments of dominance, it was some freshman who really stole the show in Saturday’s glorified scrimmage.
One player who made himself very visible was freshman inside linebacker Natrez Patrick, who was credited with one sack in the first half, and made several outstanding plays lining up on the outside. He finished the day with eight tackles and a lot of disruptive play.
Jarvis Wilson, another freshman early enrollee, picked off Jacob Park and ran it back for 53 yards, and freshman defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter found his way into the offensive backfield on several plays, stopping the run game cold.
In all, this was a showing of some defensive dominance by Jeremy Pruitt’s guys, and some sputtering offense on the part of Brian Schottenheimer’s crew.
Georgia Bulldogs
Taking into consideration that (1) this was a Spring game, (2) the quarterback situation is far from settled, and (3) the offensive line was doing some shuffling, especially at center, you can’t jump out and say that the defense is going to be the calling card for the Bulldogs this year.
Or can you?
Pruitt’s defense steadily improved all season until a completely stifling performance against — outperforming a supposedly superior defense — against Louisville in the Belk Bowl. So perhaps this will be a year for the Dawgs to lean of the D for a change.
Pound the ball on the ground, eat up the clock, let the defense shut the other guys down. Sounds like a winning formula if ever there was one.