Georgia Football: Sunday recap of Tech game and thoughts on SEC Championship

Georgia football beat Georgia Tech 31-23 on a cold, strange November Saturday night. Georgia did not have to play its best game of the season against the Jackets. But the Dawgs were in control of the game the entire time. There was no Georgia fan in the stands or at home watching the game that thought the Dawgs would lose this one.

Georgia’s weakness all season has been the outside run. This has concerned me greatly as the SEC championship looms large over the Dawgs. Saturday, the weakness of this Georgia team was on full display. Only Missouri and Auburn have been able to run the ball this well on the Dawgs. We can all now add Tech to the list. I know Kirby Smart will define an outside run, but when a team runs outside of the tackles and gains 4 yards, that is not good.

I don’t know what’s wrong with this defense and its inability to stop the outside run, but it worries me as we go into this championship run. I am not sure if it will be fixed by the time the Dawgs play Alabama, but I would like to see some improvement.

Offensively, to describe it in one word: Weird. The Dawgs only punted the ball one time in the entire game. The one punt came in the opening drive of the third quarter. Outside of that, the Dawgs moved the ball effectively against Tech.

The Dawgs did not put up more points because of turnovers. Georgia turned the ball over the first play of the game for the offense, and Beck threw an interception late in the endzone when the Dawgs could have been up by three possessions.

Turnovers made this game closer on paper than it actually was. The game against Tech reminded me of the Vandy and Auburn game. Georgia did not execute on either side of the ball at a high level, and turnovers allowed this game to be closer than it should have been.

A positive for Georgia Saturday night against Tech was  Kendall Milton. Milton ran for 18 carries for 156 yards and two touchdowns. This was another great performance by Milton, who broke his career high of 154 yards set two weeks ago against Ole Miss. Milton willed the Dawgs to victory Saturday; for that, he will always be a DGD.

Also, Dillon Bell flashed again. The guy is a Swiss Army Knife on the offensive side of the ball. Bell is an absolute stud, and I look for him to be a big part of next week’s game plan against Alabama.

Georgia did not look great, and it may have something to do with the injuries.  Ladd McConkey, Brock Bowers, Rara Thomas, and Tate Ratledge were all out for this game. They were all healthy scratches. Georgia should have won by at least three scores, but costly penalties and turnovers cost them a blowout victory. Kirby Smart knew the Dawgs would win this game and did not care if they covered the spread.

Georgia fans will forget this game on Monday. Heck, I have already forgotten a lot of what happened. This game will never be discussed or even remembered when looking back at the 2023 season.

Tech fans are taking some moral victory over keeping it close against Georgia. Good for y’all; that is why you will never be the program Georgia is. Even in the darkest days of Georgia football, I never saw a Georgia fan take moral victories. Georgia did not play well at all, maybe the worst game all season, and Tech played its best game of the season and still had no shot of ever winning this game. They really are little brother.

Also, Tech students were chanting overrated at Georgia, supposedly? I’d rather be an overrated champion than whatever y’all are. Also, I know y’all know trigonometry better than you do football, but y’all are chanting overrated to a team your school lost to? What does that say about you?

Yeah, Tech gets under my skin. But we move on to play a school and fanbase that boils my blood next week. So, congrats, Tech, for keeping it close! Like I said, this game will be forgotten. So far this season, when the Dawgs do not play their best, they bring their A-game the next week. Let’s hope they do because they will play an Alabama team that wants to prove the doubters wrong.