Georgia football: what went right and wrong in the thrashing of Vanderbilt

ATHENS, GA - OCTOBER 6: Jake Fromm #11 (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA - OCTOBER 6: Jake Fromm #11 (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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ATHENS, GA – OCTOBER 6: Khari Blasingame (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA – OCTOBER 6: Khari Blasingame (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /

Defense bent a lot

The defense didn’t break, but they bent way too much. 321 is just too much to allow to Vanderbilt’s offense. Vanderbilt’s Ke’Shawn Vaughn rushed for 79 yards, including a 43 yarder on their first scoring drive.

At times Vandy seemed to run with ease. Georgia’s defensive line didn’t look great at all Saturday night. The Dores finished with 138 rushing yards. The pass defense wasn’t much better as Georgia gave up 183 yards. Richard LeCounte III will be a great safety, but he hasn’t learned how to shut down the middle of the field the way Dominick Sanders did for three years.

LSU has a great running game and a pretty good passing game. Georgia’s defense will need to perform much better against them. Hopefully the front-seven can fins some more strength this week.

13 penalties

Some of these penalties can be chalked up to bad officiating. But some are just inexcusable errors. A false start by Ridley and a facemask by Andrew Thomas certainly left points off the board in the first quarter. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty nearly derailed Georgia’s first scoring drive of the second half.

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A personal foul by Tyler Simmons on special teams made Georgia begin a drive deeper than they should have. And another personal foul on Cade Mays on the ensuing drive played a part in Georgia settling for a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown. Georgia won’t get away with those errors against LSU, or any of the remaining SEC games for that matters.