Sometimes, it’s just your night. When it’s the Georgia Bulldogs’ night, they are capable of absolutely amazing things.
Georgia could hardly do any wrong in their 42-7 win over Mississippi. Head coach Kirby Smart may have found a few things to scream at his players over, but for everyone else who tuned in Saturday night it was about as dominant of a win as one top 10 team can possibly have over another.
The Bulldogs dominated both lines of scrimmage so thoroughly, it looked like they paid their opponent $500,000 to come play them at noon on a scorching September day at Sanford Stadium. But no, this was a road game in a stadium where Smart was 0-2, having not gotten within 17 points either time. Oh, and Mississippi had stunned Georgia in the Sugar Bowl the season before.
“It was good to get that out of the way, because there's been some whoopings in here, man,” Smart said of his first win in Oxford. “We got, I don't know what it is, 0-2?... It's good to get that one.”
“I don't think revenge is a big factor in a game ever,” he continued. “Revenge lasts about five minutes. But it makes me proud for those guys.”
Georgia vs Ole Miss was never a contest
The Bulldogs outgained Mississippi by 229 yards, 481 to 252. There was no facet of the game they didn’t dominate.
On offense, Nate Frazier set the tone with a 46-yard carry on Georgia’s first offensive play. The Bulldogs went on to rush for 295 yards on a clip of 6.1 yards per carry.
This made life great for quarterback Gunner Stockton, who only had to throw 15 passes. He completed nine of them for 186 yards and four touchdowns. Wideout Talyn Taylor was the biggest beneficiary of the hyperefficient passing game, catching four passes for 140 yards and three touchdowns.
“It's everything, definitely on the road,” Stockton said of Georgia’s ability to marry the run and the pass game. “When you're able to run the ball, it makes it hard to defend both. Definitely makes it a little easier.”
On defense, Georgia held Mississippi to 3.7 yards per play and didn’t allow any points until the fourth quarter when up 35-0. Mississippi rushed for 66 yards on 21 carries, with its longest run of the game going for 21 yards.
Star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who had previously had the game of his life against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, didn’t have the magic this time around. Smart said defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann had the defense practice “a little different” the week before the game because they had already seen Chambliss so much before.
He wouldn’t get into what those specifics were, but it sure looked like he wasn’t lying.
Stuck in a one-dimensional offense which couldn’t run the ball and trailed by 28 points at halftime, Chambliss threw for just 170 yards, for his second-lowest passing total in a game since he became the starter. He was sacked four times, threw an interception, lost a fumble and barely completed over 50% of his 34 pass attempts.
“I think speeding people's process up, making them uncomfortable,” Smart said on what the key to Georgia’s disruptive defense has been. “We're rushing better, we're covering better. And when you do that, you know, sacks are usually fumbles. We had a fumble off of a sack, and that's a big part of the game, getting turnovers. When you force sacks you force turnovers.”
The fact that this is the same Georgia team who lost at home to a bad Auburn team less than a month ago is telling. They couldn’t get out of their own way in that one, struggling with poor tackling, turnovers and boneheaded penalties in the shocking upset loss.
This? This is what it looks like when the Bulldogs clean all of that stuff up.
Kirby Smart knows the challenge that lies before him
In the new era of college football where the Transfer Portal has caused talent to be more evenly distributed across the power conferences, even the best teams in the country are going to have their extreme ups and downs.
The challenge for Smart now is to flatten that curve.
“I think everybody in the SEC can look and say, ‘Okay where's the consistency?’ Nobody is 100% consistent…. We've had our inconsistencies,” Smart said. “So, who is going to finish November with the most consistency, and who's going to continue to get better?”
Georgia isn’t going to win every game 42-7, and isn’t a perfect football team. But when the Bulldogs are even near their best, they don’t have a glaring weakness. There isn’t a more complete team in the country, and they can beat you in multiple ways.
And if Smart is to be believed, they’re built for the long haul. This could be a very memorable next couple of months for this team.
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