Georgia football: 12 quick takeaways from the Dawgs 12th victory

9. Georgia football’s third-down numbers are slightly deceiving

Even though Georgia football went 2-of-5 on third down, those numbers are somewhat misleading. The Dawgs didn’t need third down often because they were able to find success on the first two downs.

Georgia earned 21 total first downs during the game against Georgia Tech, and among those 21, six came on 1st-and-10, and 11 came on second down. The last few weeks have seen the Dawgs find more and more success on those first two plays, which means offensive coordinator Todd Monken is making the right calls.

The Dawgs are executing them, but Monken is doing a fantastic job and being just creative enough to trick opponents, allowing success on that first or second down.

We’ve talked about this before, but it is still really something that stands out. The Dawgs converted 40% of their third downs against Georgia Tech, and that isn’t a terrible day. Most teams would take that instead of their third-down conversion rate, so the Dawgs are doing something right.

Monken needs to keep it up because this strategy works for Georgia. They have less pressure on them because they know they could possibly get the 10-plus yards on first or second down instead of depending on converting a lot of third downs to sustain drives.