Georgia football had a historic season in 2017. Many stats help illustrate how great the season was. Some of those stats are somewhat unbelievable.
I like my sports with a side of statistics. It’s the perfect side dish with the game on the field being the entrée. Why do stats compliment sports so well? Maybe it’s our obsession with numbers and needing to chart performance. Or maybe because it can be difficult to explain why a player or a team is good, and stats make it easier to illustrate that.
Either way, stats are very useful. Wins and losses don’t always explain why a team is good or bad. You need stats help. So as someone who writes about Georgia football, I spend a lot of time on the Sports Reference College Football website.
And recently looking through stats from the 2017 Georgia football season. A few stats really stand out as surprising. They show that Georgia was more than just a team with a great running back tandem, a stout defense and a reliable kicker and punter duo. Here are three of those stats that really illustrate how great the Bulldogs were this past year.
More from Dawn of the Dawg
- Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
- Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
- Nick Chubb is America’s running back, and he will return
- Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
- Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina
D’Andre Swift’s 771 yards of total offense
It would be easy to pass off D’Andre Swift’s freshman campaign as a product of the success of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. When the experienced backs are unstoppable, the younger backups will get their moments as well. But I don’t think that can possibly account for all 771 yards from scrimmage gained by Swift.
Maybe 400 of those yards are a product of the rest of the offense. But the rest is certainly all Swift. We saw bits of that against Tennessee when he carried defenders 20 yards on one play, or against Florida when he held on to a pass despite getting flipped by a defender. He is legitimately great on his own.
Swift rushed for 618 yards last year, a little more than half the amount Michel ran for. He also caught 17 passes for 153 yards. His 771 yards of offense is only 604 less than Chubb’s. And Chubb was a senior leaders who had already earned more touches than the freshman Swift. If you aren’t already excited for what Swift can achieve this season as a feature tail back, I don’t know what else I can tell you.
34 sacks for the defense
What made Georgia’s defense so great in 2017? Lets be honest, this defense over achieved in many ways. The defensive backfield lacked depth and was handicapped by Malkom Parrish’s injury. Plus, one of the leading pass rushers from the previous year couldn’t stay healthy.
Surely, good passing games could rip Georgia apart. Even decent passing teams could have some success right? Well Georgia only allowed 168.9 passing yards per game. How could quarterbacks not find passing lanes against the Bulldog’s defense?
It’s kind of hard to with a defender in their face. Because 13 players combined for 34 sacks. Up from 29 in 2016 and 21 in 2015. And it’s two more sacks than what the 2012 Bulldogs accumulated.
Next: Lets look back on teams Georgia used to consider rivals
Roquan Smith had the most sacks with 6.5. That’s a great amount for someone who made tackles on every part of the field. Deandre Walker was second with 5.5, that’s a very encouraging stat since he’s going to start at outside linebacker this year. Davin Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter combined for 9.5 sacks. The remaining eight players totaled 12.5 sacks.