Georgia Football: Top 15 plays for the 2017 season
Despite a crushing ending, Georgia Football fans should look back on the 2017 season with pride. Here are our favourite 15 moments from a truly memorable Georgia team.
Yes, the Georgia Football team lost last Monday, but its time to be happy Dawg fans. If the players have a 24-hour rule, then so should we and that’s why I wanted to get positive. That means writing about the new recruits, some of whom are on the team already.
It also means looking back on a truly special 2017 season. There were so many moments that I for one will always remember. This team did so many great things throughout this year and it was really hard to narrow it down to just 15 plays.
I could honestly have brought this out to about 25, maybe even 30, but we had to stop somewhere. So let’s take a look at the 15 best moments from the 2017 Georgia Bulldogs. We’re going to start with one of my all-time favourite things. An enormous hit from Roquan…
15. Roquan nearly kills Nick Fitzgerald – Mississippi State
Oh. My. GOD. That was my reaction when I watched this play in real time. It’s super early in the game against Mississippi State. Georgia is up a touchdown after an insane flea flicker but it’s still early. The other Bulldogs were moving the ball a bit and remember they had just crushed LSU.
We didn’t really know quite how good this defense was back then. This was the game that showed us. And that defensive performance all started with this one hit. It’s 1st and 10 at midfield and Nick Fitzgerald is going to throw it. Roquan Smith diagnoses the play and then literally explodes up the middle, right through a gap and just destroys him in one of the biggest and yet cleanest hits I saw all season.
That play didn’t lead to a turnover. It wasn’t a sack. But it was an absolute statement from Georgia’s best player that this year was going to be different. Roquan could make this list 5 times for all of the things that he did in 2017. But this is here for me because it was when I really realized how good the defense was.
In this game, Georgia allowed just 3 points against an offense that lit up LSU the previous week. It was the play that summed up just how outmanned Mississippi State was that week. They tried to run a simple pass on 1st down, and they were punished. It was a statement moment for the season and Roquan and the defense showed the world that they were not to be messed with.