Now that was one ugly game. At the end of the day, Georgia football held on to beat Florida 34-20 which is the most important thing, but this is one of those wins that will leave a gross taste in our mouths.
For most of the season, it always felt like one side of the ball played really well for Georgia each game. That however wasn’t the case against Florida on Saturday. The offense struggled all game, and the defense showed some signs of weakness as well.
However, the Bulldogs did enough to win, but they clearly got a lot of help from Florida and from some very fortunate bounces.
Georgia football had a little luck on their side
Midway through the second quarter, Florida quarterback DJ Lagway went down with a hamstring injury. The injury looked very serious as Lagway had to be carted off the field. Up to that point, the Florida offense was gashing Georgia’s defense as the Bulldogs had no answer for Lagway’s running ability.
Obviously we never celebrate an injury no matter who the opponent is, but this game likely looks completely different if Lagway was never injured. But once Lagway was out, the Georgia defense was finally able to start playing well.
Now fast forward to the third quarter and the Gators were looking to take the lead back with a long field goal. But a bad snap gave Georgia great field position, which they were able to capitalize on three plays later from a nice run after the catch by Cash Jones.
Then finally, Florida tossed a late interception in the fourth quarter and UGA was able to capitalize and make it a 14-point game.
That’s the key phrase from this game for Georgia. Capitalizing on Florida’s mistakes.
If we’re being completely honest with ourselevs, Georgia didn’t do anything spectacular to win this game. But what they were able to do is capitalize on Florida’s mistakes, and minimize the impact from their own mistakes.
Carson Beck once again struggled and threw three more interceptions, but the UGA defense held Florida to just 10 points off those turnovers.
Sometimes that’s just how you have to win games. Even though we all hoped for a performance than this, Georgia did enough to win which is always a great thing to see in a rivalry game.
Looking ahead to next week
It’s safe to say that Georgia needs to improve drastically before next week. The Bulldogs travel to Ole Miss to take on a ranked Rebels team that is as hot as hot can be.
Ole Miss beat Arkansas on Saturday 63-31 on the road, so this clearly will be no easy test for Georgia.
Thankfully Georgia has proven they can win a big road game already this season, but if they play like they did today then Kirby Smart’s squad is going to have a hard time beating Ole Miss next week.