Georgia football: What went right and wrong against South Carolina

What went wrong

Not everything went right. 17 points is still a lot of points to give up because you can’t always rely on the offense to score 41 points. The game was also close for a while in the first half. Here are the biggest issues Georgia needs to clean up.

Third down efficiency

Georgia was 4-of-10 on third down in the entire game. 40-percent isn’t bad, but Georgia was just 1-of-6 going into the final drive. The Dawgs converted three of their four third downs on that drive. While having only six third downs 50 minutes into the game is great, it’s better to have converted more than one of them.

Miscommunication with Tyler Simmons

Jake Fromm only had one mistake in the game and it spawned from a miscommunication with Tyler Simmons. Fromm threw a deep pass when he expected Simmons to keep running. Simmons instead tried to come back to the ball and it flew straight to a defender. Fromm seems to be on the same page with every receiver, so if Simmons wants to keep being targeted, he needs to work on that relationship.

Relaxing in the second quarter

In post game interviews, both Fromm and center Lamont Gaillard mentioned how the team relaxed in the second quarter, and how that lead to the Gamecocks tightening the score after a 14-0 start by Georgia. It’s great that the team felt frustrated by their second quarter effort because it led directly to a 21-0 third quarter, but better teams wouldn’t have just closed the gap on Georgia in that situation.