Georgia and Notre Dame was an instant classic. Here are some takeaways from Saturday’s showdown between the Irish and Dawgs.
The biggest game of the college football regular season and possibly in Georgia football’s Sanford Stadium history has played. Now it’s time to look at the biggest takeaways from the Dawg’s win against the Irish.
The first that needs to be covered is all of this chatter going around that Notre Dame played a fantastic game while Georgia played sloppy and overall pretty poorly.
If this narrative is going to be made, then, doesn’t that make Georgia’s win even more impressive?
If a team can play sloppy against a team, who played the best game, they possibly could have then in my eyes, that means Georgia is even more dangerous than many thought.
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Another big thing that stuck out was the play of Jake Fromm. Everyone already knew what this kid was capable of but to add not one but two wins against Notre Dame to your list of accolades is very impressive.
Fromm’s stat line against Notre Dame was 20-for-26, 187 yards, 76.9 completion percentage, and an RTG of 150.
Many will look at that and say there is nothing impressive about the numbers Fromm put up.
To put this into perspective, Ian Book threw for more yards, more completions, more touchdowns, but yet he lost.
The most significant difference between the way these two guys played was their efficiency and ability to protect the ball.
Fromm’s career stats in the red zone are 65 completion percentage, 34 touchdowns, and ZERO interceptions.
Bottom line is Fromm is one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the game, a great leader, and is going to get the job done every time his number gets called.
Another thing that stuck out to me was Georgia’s overall defense and more specifically Divaad Wilson.
In total Notre Dame was held to 46 rushing yards, was forced into two interceptions, and held to 321 total yards.
Wilson for the Dawgs although only had three tackles, was able to snag an interception which completely flipped momentum on the Dawg’s side, stayed in the right positions, and broke up a pass on 3rd and 7 in the third quarter which stalled out an Irish drive when Georgia was only up 7.
Also, despite the Dawgs not forcing a single sack all game, it should be noted that Book was getting rid of the ball quickly all game. In the times where Book was forced to sit in the pocket, Georgia was able to pressure him, which resulted in the Irish being 4-13 on third down.
Flipping back to the offensive side of things Andrew Thomas has forced me to believe that he is the best lineman in the country and the entire unit is the best in the country.
In four games, the Dawg’s O-line given up only one sack on the entire year. So it is safe to say there is no getting past the Great Wall of Georgia.
The final thing that I took away from this game is how deep our receiving unit is.
I am not sure Georgia has seen a receiving core this deep since Aaron Murray was in Athens.
In just the game against ND, Georgia had a total of nine different guys catch a ball.
Lawrence Cager was, without a doubt a difference-maker all game long and racked up two very impressive catches in which Fromm led his team right down the field to go up 20-10 in the 4th quarter.
Someone who is quickly becoming a favorite target of Fromm’s is Dominick Blaylock, a freshman. A kid with speed, agility, and quick acceleration which helped Georgia pick up a couple of first downs in the game.
Overall Dawg fans should be pleased with the way Georgia responded in this game. Down at halftime, couldn’t find any wiggle room offensively, and the defense was struggling to get stops at times.
After halftime though, Georgia completely owned the third quarter, which ultimately won them the game.
Every team needs to be punched in the mouth at least once to see how they will respond and Georgia responded just as good as anyone could have hoped thanks to Kirby’s ability to make adjustments mid-way through a game.
A huge win and a huge momentum builder for the rest of the season.