Georgia Football: 3 powerful stats from fantastic victory over Arkansas
Dawgs limit penalties against the Hogs
Georgia football had six total penalties against the Hogs on Saturday, while Arkansas had 13 total.
Arkansas recorded three false starts, three pass interferences, two holding, one offsides call, an illegal substitution, an illegal snap, and had an ineligible receiver downfield.
It seems like they tried to hit every penalty in the book, and a good chunk of those came because Georgia’s defense was so overpowering.
Two of those three false starts came back-to-back when the Dawgs defense did their little line shuffle they love to do, and of course, it caused one of the offensive linemen to jump.
Nakobe Dean is a field general who is smart and knows the perfect time to do that shuffle. Seeing him make that call is so fun because it gets the opposing offense most of the time.
One of the pass interference calls came from their wideout when he shoved the Georgia corner to create space.
The more Georgia enforced its will on them, the sloppier they got. I will say toward the end of the game, Arkansas had more discipline, recording just one penalty in the fourth quarter, but they had too many costly mistakes at the beginning to help with the confidence they lacked.
Georgia wasn’t perfect. They had two calls on special teams with four men in the backfield, which is a silly mistake. All of Georgia’s penalties were silly, including two false starts of their own and a block in the back on a punt.
The Dawgs have to clean those up moving forward, and I’m sure head coach Kirby Smart will do just that.
These penalties made this list because it shows just how demoralizing Georgia can be for an opponent. They kept pushing and pushing — breaking down Arkansas’ will to want to play smart.
To have an opponent get 13 penalties called on them for 101 yards tells me it helped the Dawgs in some shape or form. Sometimes it kept a drive going. Other times it forced the Hogs so far back in their territory, the Dawgs blocked a punt and scored.
Being disciplined matters in big games like this and the Dawgs stayed more disciplined, though I want them to clean that up because those silly mistakes cannot happen anymore.