Georgia football: what went right and wrong in the thrashing of Vanderbilt
Tight ends being embraced in passing game
Georgia fans, you got what you’ve been asking for. The tight ends accounted for five catches and 93 yards against Vanderbilt. Charlie Woerner led that group with two grabs totaling 41 yards. Isaac Nauta caught a pair for 40 yards. Both catches came on Georgia’s quick drive to end the first half. Jackson Harris caught his first pass of 2018 for 12 yards.
Justin Fields getting his shots
After the Tennessee game, we knew we’d see more of Justin Fields and we were all correct. Fields came in throughout the game, and even received most of the snaps in the third quarter. His night ended with 53 passing yards and 18 rushing yards.
He didn’t need to energize the Georgia offense this week. Fromm did a good job keeping the momentum. But Fields did help the running backs get more involved by giving defenses something else to think about. That was on full display on Elijah Holyfield’s long touchdown run. The defense went after Fields and left the sideline open for Holyfield.
Defense bends without breaking
Georgia’s defense may have struggled against everything Vanderbilt threw at them, the Dawgs didn’t snap. Vandy’s 321 yards of total offense doesn’t reflect in the score at all. So while that total yardage is concerning, the score is the only stat that truly matters.
The Commodores marched right down field on their second possession and made Georgia trail for the first time all year. But thanks to Tyler Clark, Vanderbilt had to settled for a field goal. Two possessions later, Vandy got back into field goal range, but they got greedy, and Georgia stopped them on fourth down.
The Commodores added another field goal before halftime. Then the Georgia coaches got to make some adjustments and they led to a near shutout in the second half. Vandy’s offense didn’t have success until they went against third string players. And even then, their drive was helped out by phantom pass interference penalties and a lack of a review on the touchdown that clearly wasn’t a touchdown.