Georgia QB Carson Beck and Kirby Smart somehow both content with close game against Kentucky Wildcats
Georgia was favored to win against Kentucky by more than three touchdowns and yet struggled to win by even one point in their clunker of a 13-12 victory on Saturday. Every SEC matchup can be tough, but to barely pull off a win against a team that could barely put up 100 passing yards per […]
Georgia was favored to win against Kentucky by more than three touchdowns and yet struggled to win by even one point in their clunker of a 13-12 victory on Saturday. Every SEC matchup can be tough, but to barely pull off a win against a team that could barely put up 100 passing yards per game thus far this season is a bit surprising for a Georgia team who hasn't lost a regular season game in three years. So, what went wrong? And why did Carson Beck and Kirby Smart seem rather content after the game?
When asked about the matchup following the game Kirby Smart had to say this:
"Our defense played lights out tonight. [Kentucky]'s got a good team. When you're playing on the road in the SEC you've got to respect that. And I'm not sure our guys listened to the message all week…You don't judge SEC teams on one week…We did what we had to do, but we did not play real well."
While it is true that the defense played well, allowing fewer than 300 total yards on the game, the offense did not hold up it's side of the bargain. And yes, SEC environments can be tough on the road, racking up fewer offensive yards than Kentucky isn't a great look. Smart continued on Georgia's resilience:
We're resilient…Two years ago, three years ago, we go to Missouri and we almost lose that game at night on the road. We played at Auburn last year, first game on the road, almost lost that game. So you've got to find ways to win these. And that's what we did. We found a way to win. The best news is we can wake these guys up and get better. The number one thing we've got to do is get better.
Georgia most certainly has to get a lot better than they were against Kentucky on Saturday if they want to reach their highest national championship goals. Coming into the game Georgia was ranked 14th in yards per play across the entirety of FBS, but that won't be the case anymore. The team logged just 262 total yards, only 6.7 per pass, and less than 3.5 per rush.
So who's fault was it? According to head coach Kirby Smart it wasn't all on any one person, especially Carson Beck.
"It wasn't about Carson Beck tonight. It was about a lot of other things. It was a little bit about Kentucky. They played really physical, doing a good job. They came after us really aggressive. We've got to have answers for that. But you know what in the end our offense did pretty good when they had to. And they got first downs, and they ate a lot of the clock. I was really proud of them for that."
While the offense did what it needed to do in that the team won 13-12, the offense fell extremely short in the pass and run game outside of Trevor Etienne's bright spot of production (90 total yards from scrimmage). Carson Beck barely completed 60% of his passes and did not throw a touchdown at all against Kentucky. When asked about his performance he brought things back to the weekly focus rather than his own stats:
"The theme of the week was 'blow by blow.' How do you keep that motor rolling? How do you just keep going the entire game and just try to chop down the tree? Watching the film, you go look at their game last week against South Carolina. You look at their defense. A tough defense."
Beck is already a rather immaculate pro when it comes dealing with tough questions. He made it quite clear that the struggles of Georgia's offense were more about Kentucky's dominant defense than anything.
"You look at their front seven, what they do. They're going to bring pressure. They're going to challenge you. That's what they did to us today. They played a phenomenal game. I'm really proud of our guys. Really proud of our defense, holding them out of the end zone, just field goals. And then us being able to get that one touchdown drive to eventually take the lead. And then try to run the clock out at the end of the game."
Beck and the offense absolutely has to do better if they want to stand up against the best teams and beat them in this league. Barely six yards per pass attempt and an average yards per carry much just above three will not allow them to beat the better teams on the schedule this season.
Both Beck and Smart didn't seem all too interested in overreacting to one bad game, but they probably need to realize just how bad their offense was on Saturday. Just over five yards per play is on par with typical offenses that rank outside the Top 100 in FBS, but that's exactly where Georgia spent the entire game.
Hopefully Beck, Smart, and the rest of the team use this as their wake up call as the team progresses. If they don't, Georgia is going to lose (at least) one of their games this year. It's inevitable.
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