One would be hard-pressed to find anything negative regarding Georgia football’s win at Vanderbilt on Saturday. The offense scored early and scored often.
On defense, the Dawgs kept the Commodores off the scoreboard all together. Georgia is now 4-0, beating a team that was supposed to be one of the best in the country in Clemson, as well as two SEC opponents and UAB.
With the way the last four weeks have gone for the Clemson Tigers, one could easily argue that the next game against Arkansas will be the toughest of Georgia’s early season.
Knowing that played a part in me looking at writing this differently than I would have following the win over South Carolina or UAB.
Yes, I believe the Dawgs will be 5-0 at this time next week. Still, I like the thought of watching Georgia play some competition other than just seeing how high they can run the score up on someone.
So, here are the final thoughts I have reflecting on the win at Vandy as Georgia prepares for the Razorbacks.
Three Georgia football receivers with four receptions
Dawg fans don’t need reminding that George Pickens and Dominick Blaylock weren’t on the field against the Commodores.
The sky’s the limit concerning how dangerous the passing game will be once those two are both healthy. That said, the Dawgs still had three different receivers with at least four receptions in last week’s game.
Brock Bowers led the team with 69 receiving yards, finding the endzone twice. Ladd McConkey was right behind him with 62 yards and two scores of his own, and Jermaine Burton hauled in four catches for 46 yards.
Most college teams with their top two receivers on the sideline struggle to find able bodies to carry the additional load. This issue wasn’t on the radar for Georgia last Saturday. Regardless of who was under center for the Dawgs, they had options concerning where the ball was going.
As a team, Arkansas has 10 sacks and four interceptions this season. No, those aren’t exactly the best numbers in the country, but the Hogs can get after a quarterback.
After watching how well Arkansas played defending the pass against Texas A&M, I’m more confident in the Georgia offense seeing how well they spread the ball against Vanderbilt.
Dawgs have plenty of depth at running back
I think this is an area where Georgia fans have grown so accustomed to having depth that we almost take it for granted. Almost. The Dawgs had four different running backs with at least eight carries against Vandy, averaging five yards a carry as a team.
Zamir White ran the ball nine times for 48 yards and a score. Daijun Edwards had 10 carries for 46 yards and a touchdown of his own. Both Kenny McIntosh and James Cook had eight carries, with McIntosh scoring and picking up 36 yards while Cook ran the ball for 35 yards.
Again, looking forward to the game against Arkansas, the Hogs held the Texas Longhorns to 138 rushing yards and Texas A&M to 121. No, this is by no means the top rushing defense in the conference, but those numbers deserve a little respect.
Georgia has more than one threat on the ground that can help take pressure off the passing attack.
JT Daniels looked sharp against the Commodores
Because of how quickly Georgia could break out to a considerable lead in last Saturday’s game, Daniels had five fewer attempts than Stetson Bennett and 22 fewer passing yards.
Still, while Daniels played, he found his receiver on 9-of-10 attempts for 129 yards and two touchdown passes. He finished with a 98.8 QB rating.
After four games this season, the Arkansas defense has held opponents to an average of just 144 passing yards a game. So far, for Georgia, Daniels’ biggest threat has been a lack of competition.
I want to believe if the Dawgs had been playing a more challenging SEC team instead of UAB in Week 2, Daniels would have been on the field.
He might actually play through three quarters this week. His accuracy against Vanderbilt was reassuring, to say the least.
Dawgs only fault against Vandy
I wrote one would be hard-pressed to find anything negative about Dawg’s game at the beginning of this article.
If there were one stat I would have liked to see better from Georgia in the last game; it would have to be that I wanted to see the defense get to the quarterback more than they did. Linebacker Robert Beal Jr. had the Dawgs only sack.
Georgia is ranked number one in the nation in both points and yards allowed per game. They have a total of 14 sacks on the year, just four behind four different teams who lead the country at 18.
Obviously, it’s not an area where the Dawgs are horrible. Still, I think it’s fair to say that the Vanderbilt game was an opportunity to move up on the total sack list.