The story coming into the game against Arkansas was essentially this: What do we actually know about Georgia? The Bulldogs had scored 133 points against Tennessee State and Western Kentucky, but even Kirby Smart acknowledged that those games hadn't shown him much about his team.
Georgia finally got its first SEC test and somehow raised more questions about its ceiling. Seriously, how good can this Georgia team be?
We spent two weeks repeating that big wins against Tennessee State and Western Kentucky couldn't tell us much. The SEC road opener against Arkansas was supposed to at least provide a decent measuring stick. Instead, Georgia controlled virtually everything in a 45-17 rout of the Razorbacks.
Kirby Smart wasn't sure how his team would respond to adversity, and he specifically warned that opening SEC play on the road would be different. Well, the only adversity was a pair of injuries to key offensive players, and it would seem that this time, SEC play on the road wasn't much different.
Georgia didn't merely survive the transition from cupcakes to SEC football. It made its first SEC road game look remarkably similar to the cupcakes, which was a welcome sight for Georgia fans who've watched the Dawgs squeak out SEC road openers in the last few seasons.
But this year, it was all Dawgs, and an already-jaded Arkansas fan base was witness to the sacrifice of the Hogs.
What if Georgia's ridiculous first two weeks weren't a mirage at all?
The numbers reinforce that. Georgia had 164 rushing yards at 6.8 per carry by halftime, while Arkansas had only 11. The Bulldogs led 21-3 and had outscored their first three opponents 105-12 in first halves at that point. Stockton's 62-yard run also showed that the offense's explosiveness wasn't solely a product of throwing against overmatched secondaries.
It was a complete performance against a team Georgia was supposed to beat, something that has been an issue for some of Kirby Smart's teams in the past.
The offense continued scoring efficiently; the running game traveled well; Gunner Stockton remained dangerous without needing huge passing volume; the defense suffocated Arkansas' run game; and, most importantly, there was no sleepy “looking ahead to Oklahoma” performance
Georgia still hasn't been pushed. We can't declare every question answered, simply because Arkansas isn't the measuring stick we need. But after three weeks, the burden of proof starts shifting a little. Instead of asking whether Georgia can do these things against somebody better, we're getting closer to asking who is actually going to make Georgia stop doing them.
Oklahoma is the payoff. Georgia is coming back home to Sanford Stadium against a ranked team desperate to crawl back into that group with playoff potential. Playing a much more talented team in terms of roster, and a quarterback who wants to silence all the doubters.
But if you're the Sooners, or anyone else in the SEC, for that matter, you're looking towards Athens with probably a little more fear than you were after watching Georgia completely deconstruct two creampuffs. Now, they're doing it to an SEC opponent, and we still don't know just how good they can be.
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