Kirby Smart discusses what Georgia's offense has been struggling with

Georgia’s offense has not been good enough this season. Whether it’s the poor play from QB Carson Beck or the fact that UGA’s receivers lead the country in drops, the offense has not been close to the expectations set for Georgia football each season.

The loss to Ole Miss on Saturday is the greatest example of that. The Bulldogs only scored 10 points, with their only touchdown coming minutes into the game thanks to the defense forcing a big turnover within the first couple plays. After that, Georgia’s offense was nonexistent.

So what’s going on with the offense? Why are they struggling so much?

Kirby Smart answered that question during his press conference on Monday.

Tough Opponents

"Well, we've played really good defenses," Smart said via 247sports.com. "So you guys will look at a stat sheet, and you'll say, where do they rank? And I'll say, well, against who? Because relative to who we've played, we've played some really good teams."

This is a fair point because Georgia has played some really good teams and defenses this season. In fact, they have the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country so far this season.

But at the same time this does sound like an excuse. Georgia teams in years past have played very difficult schedules as well, and they went on to win back-to-back national championships. So while everything Smart said is true, it still doesn’t excuse the poor play.

Increased Efficiency

"But we want to be more productive,” Smart continued. “We want to be able to throw the ball vertical down the field. We want to be able to shoot play action. Play action is set up off of your backs and off of your ability to run the ball. In some games, we have been able to run the ball better than others. In some games, we've been able to drop back pass better than others. But regardless of those two things, you must protect the ball. And we have not done that."

This is when Smart shared a little bit on what Georgia can do to improve on offense, and it all boils down to being more efficient. Specifically, Georgia needs to be more efficient in the run game.

An effective run game makes life so much easier in the passing game. Running the ball well opens up play action passes that can kill a defense and keep them on their heels all game.

But in order to do that, the offensive line needs to play much better. Their game against Ole Miss was potentially their worst all season. Georgia fans can blame Beck and the lack of deep balls thrown all they want, but if the offensive line can’t block to save their lives then there’s not much that Beck can do.

So if Georgia’s offense is going to improve, it begins with with the offensive line play. From there the run game should see a lot of improvement which will directly impact Beck’s performance in the pass game. This sounds like a lot of moving parts (which it is), but if the offensive line can dominate the line of scrimmage the UGA offense will be much better going forward.