Georgia Football: Win in Jordan-Hare a big hurdle for Bulldogs

Georgia went on the road and beat rival Auburn. It was Kirby Smart’s first win as head coach of the Bulldogs on the road against the SEC West, and an important win for the Bulldogs.

The Georgia football team entered Jordan-Hare Stadium this past weekend knowing a win would give them their third straight SEC East title. Kirby Smart was 0-1 in Jordan-Hare and 0-3 against the SEC West n the road heading into the matchup.

That would all change with a 21-14 victory over the Tigers.

Jake Fromm did not have his best day, completing less than 50% of his passes for the second straight week and totaling 110 yards through the air. Fromm has not gone over 200 yards in the last two games. He did throw three touchdowns against Auburn.

Georgia Bulldogs Football

All three of Georgia’s touchdowns came off play-action passes. Jake Fromm is 31 of 50 for 430 yards, six touchdowns, and zero interceptions on the year when using play-action.

This isn’t to blame Fromm for the low passing numbers, as part (or even much) of the blame goes to the receivers. They are still struggling to shake defenders and are dropping easy passes, making Fromm’s job more difficult. Demetris Robertson led all Georgia receivers with three catches. Dominick Blaylock had two, Brian Herrien had two, and D’Andre Swift had two (for -3 yards).

There were four Georgia receivers that caught just one pass, Lawrence Cager, Kearis Jackson, George Pickens, and Eli Wolf.

Lawrence Cager had just one catch for six yards and then exited the game. Showing once again how much he means to the passing game. With Cager out, no one really stepped up to replace him.

Georgia’s running game, behind D’Andre Swift, was once again on-point, putting up 141 yards on the nation’s No. 22 rushing defense. Swift accounted for 106 of those yards. The Bulldogs have struggled to get rushing touchdowns as of late, going without a rushing touchdown over their last three games.

The defense was once again dominant, shutting the Tigers out for three-quarters. The Junkyard Dawgs were also able to sack Bo Nix twice, giving Georgia two sacks in each of its last three games. The Bulldogs’ defense also added eight tackles for loss. Once again the defense was flying to the ball.

Once up 21-0, Kirby Smart did take his foot off the gas on offense and defense, as he is known for doing. In the fourth quarter, Georgia gave up 14 points while playing prevent defense rather than the suffocating defense they played in the first three quarters. On offense, in the fourth quarter, Georgia was only able to muster two yards after Smart went to his clock-killing offense.

This strategy has cost the Dawgs a National Championship, and an SEC Championship, and almost cost them the game in Auburn. This strategy of playing not to lose hardly ever works out. You have to keep the pedal down until the final whistle.

Georgia still has two more games left in the regular season, against Texas A&M and Georgia Tech, but it’s hard not to look ahead to their third straight SEC Championship Game appearance and a likely matchup with LSU. It should be a dandy.