Georgia Football: Week 7 report card vs. LSU Tigers

Each week, Dawn of the Dawg will grade Georgia Football’s performance from the previous week. How did the Dawgs do against LSU?

Offense: C-

Georgia had its worst offensive performance in quite some time against LSU. The Dawgs finished with only 322 yards of total offense which included an abysmal (by Georgia standards) 113 rushing yards.

LSU’s defense was in Georgia’s face the entire game. Jake Fromm was forced to make bad decisions and the team only averaged 3.8 yards per carry in the running game.

The Dawgs were 5 for 14 on 3rd down and the offense as a whole just never seemed to get in sync. Couple that with the bizarre one-play rotations of Justin Fields and you have an offensive game plan that was never executed effectively.

The one bright spot on offense was a reduction in penalties from the previous few games. Georgia as a team was only penalized four times in this game which is a good indicator that the team has at least improved on its discipline issues from prior weeks.

Georgia gets a bye week now before going to play Florida in the annual rivalry game in Jacksonville. Hopefully, the team will take advantage of this extra time to fix the offensive mistakes and get back to playing Georgia football on offense.

Defense: C+

Georgia’s defense does not deserve a lot of blame for what happened on Saturday. Yes, LSU had almost 500 yards of offense and scored 36 points but it’s important to put those numbers into context.

Georgia’s defense forced LSU to kick five field goals. Five field goals. What more could you ask of a defense? This unit gave Georgia’s offense every opportunity possible to get back in this game after falling behind early in the first half but it simply didn’t happen.

LSU rushed for 275 yards against Georgia’s defense. Part of that was because the Dawgs’ defense was on the field a lot in this game. LSU offense seemed to never leave the field and the Tigers simply wore the defense down. But when Georgia’s offense failed to help out the defense the entire game, how much can we really blame these guys for what happened?

The Dawgs do need to clean some things up on defense. Getting more physical on the defensive line and getting players lined up in the right positions are just two things that come to mind. The bye week coming at this point in the season is a blessing and I fully expect this defense to hunker down for the game against Florida in Jacksonville.

Special Teams: C

The special team’s grade is so low mostly because of coaching and not player performance. Perhaps the most puzzling moment of Kirby Smart’s career in Athens was the decision to attempt a fake field goal against LSU in the first quarter. LSU had the play sniffed out the whole way and it failed miserably.

If Georgia had elected to kick the field goal instead, the team would most likely have been in a 3-3 tie with LSU. Instead, LSU scored a touchdown shortly thereafter to go up 10-0 and stole all the momentum in the game. With having an All-American kicker in Rodrigo Blankenship on the team, I am not alone when I say I simply will never understand the decision to go for the fake instead.

Blankenship did convert on a field goal and extra point which hopefully keeps his confidence high. Punter Jake Camarda had a rough game against LSU and only averaged around 35 yards per kick on six punts. Special teams will be crucial going forward as the Dawgs’ schedule only gets tougher from here.