After Georgia’s defense labors against Georgia Tech, Bulldogs must enter ‘Playoff mode’
ATLANTA — Georgia may still have the best team in college football. It does not have the best defense in college football. Those who watched another uneven, flawed performance on Saturday can attest to that, and count among them junior safety Javon Bullard , who made his feelings clear as he sat on a bench in a weight room.
Georgia had just won its 29th consecutive game. It had just finished a third straight unbeaten regular season. It had just beaten its in-state rival Georgia Tech 31-23. And Bullard was doing zero celebrating.
“I mean, s—. Ain’t anything to celebrate, to be real with you,” Bullard said. “I feel like we didn’t play to our standard, that’s really what it is.”
How did Georgia make its name on defense the last four years? By stopping the run. The Bulldogs were top three in the nation in run defense every year from 2019 to ’22. This year, not so much: 47th as of this weekend. Georgia hadn’t given up 200 rushing yards since 2018. Now it has done it twice this season — Auburn had 219, and Georgia Tech had 205.
“I’m going to say it over and over again, we can’t win giving up 200 yards rushing,” Bullard said.
But you have won, it was pointed out. Is it something where you can keep doing this if the offense keeps doing this?
“No. No,” Bullard said. “We’re in crunch time. It’s championship week. Playoff mode. Take it one game at a time. If we give up 200 rushing yards to Bama it’s not going to end pretty.”
Maybe not. Or maybe the Alabama team that should have lost at Auburn on Saturday, needing a miracle pass to escape, is also so flawed that Georgia will find other ways to win. That’s been happening all season. The identity of this team, the one trying to three-peat, is not great defense plus good offense (2021) or great offense plus great defense (2022). It’s great offense plus defense that does enough to win.
Even after this struggle, Georgia’s season-high for points given up (23) is still less than its season-low for points scored (27, against Auburn). None of the other unbeaten Playoff contenders can say that.
Kirby Smart has another, more touchy-feely, way of summing it up.
“This game is not measured by stats and rushing yards and first downs. It’s measured by heart,” Smart said. “And you have to have a whole lot of heart to go out there and fight and play like our kids have done week after week after week.”
But that’s about as joyful as the sentiment got on Georgia’s side after this game. Well, that and Kendall Milton , the senior tailback, who is turning into the feel-good story for the offense, finally breaking out into a star after so many struggles with injuries. Milton held court with media members Saturday night, a few seats down from where Bullard took a very different tone.
To what did he attribute the defensive issues?
“Not playing aggressive enough,” Bullard said. “Those guys played like they really wanted to win, man. The stat sheet doesn’t show, it doesn’t dictate how well they played. Those guys played hard. They fought, they had a great scheme, they had a great coaching staff, and the players just played like they really wanted to win this game.”
The subtext: Georgia just played to get through it. And it showed.
Four key offensive players were held out: All-American tight end Brock Bowers , who played the past two games after undergoing ankle surgery but not this one; receivers Ladd McConkey (ankle) and Rara Thomas (foot), and guard Tate Ratledge (knee bone bruise.)
How close were those guys to being available?
“Define close,” Smart answered.
Would they have played if it was a championship game?
“If they could play, they would play,” Smart said. “A hundred percent. It was a championship game. It was a state championship game. They wanted to play. All of them wanted to play. Look guys, we’re beat up.”
McConkey, Thomas and Ratledge weren’t surprises. Bowers, however, went through warmups on Saturday until the very end, and by kickoff the team had told ABC’s broadcast that Bowers was out.
“He was more sore this week than he’s been. He was not able to do much during the week,” Smart said. “He tried to go, he wanted to go. But it’s sore. He’s gotta be honest with us and tell us.”
Bullard, to be clear, was not referring to the Georgia offense holding those guys out. And to be fair, the defense was only missing inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson , who has been out three weeks dealing with a clearly serious forearm injury. Maybe he can make it back for the Playoff — if Georgia gets there, which is now the big question.
This very much looks like a win-and-in situation for the SEC championship, which it has not been the previous two seasons for the Bulldogs. That’s through no fault of their own, just that this year, unlike 2021 and 2022, there are viable contenders in each of the other four conferences. If Georgia loses to Alabama, then it will need either Florida State to lose the ACC championship, Texas to lose the Big 12 championship or probably both. (The Pac-12 winner likely is in, and asking Michigan to lose to Iowa seems like too much.) Alabama, by beating Georgia, would probably leapfrog Georgia in the rankings.
So Georgia will just have to avoid all that by beating Alabama, which is very doable. But that will also involve containing Jalen Milroe , the elusive quarterback who has racked up 100-yard rushing games this season.
Georgia, meanwhile, gave up 42 yards on eight rushes for Haynes King , the Georgia Tech quarterback. That was actually under his average. But King also didn’t have a strong passing game. It’s the opposing quarterback — with weapons at receiver — who can use his arm and legs that worries Georgia.
“There are quarterback runs and gap runs, which are really hard to defend if you have a good quarterback and you can run the ball with him,” Smart said. “I’ve seen it all over the country. We’re pretty good at stopping a lot of runs. We’ve struggled with stopping some of those runs. And we’ve got to do a better job.”
Also worrisome: Georgia Tech’s two tailbacks, Dontae Smith and Jamal Haynes , combined for 149 yards on 30 carries, and did it throughout the game. This wasn’t like Tennessee getting 75 yards on the first play last week and then hardly anything the rest of the way. This wasn’t Georgia getting gashed early then adjusting.
This was making just enough plays.
“It’s a little bit of everything, man,” Bullard said. “I take pride in dominating the line of scrimmage. When the defensive linemen are making plays in the backfield, I may not be in on the action but that’s beautiful to me. I love to see it. When we’re not being able to do that – and it’s not just the defensive line, the secondary’s got to make plays, the linemen’s got to make plays. All over the ball we’ve got to be able to make plays.”
Defense doesn’t win championships anymore. That axiom died a long time ago in college football, and Georgia learned it in 2019, which is why Smart went out and hired Todd Monken and modernized the offense, and the end result is one of the better offenses in college football this year.
But balanced teams do win championships. Georgia still has that, or at least has had that for most of this season. It did not on Saturday. And so one of its stars, the man who was defensive MVP of both Playoff games last year, had a simple suggestion for next week: Play aggressive. Don’t play soft, as another Georgia safety warned his teammates 11 years ago.
“It starts up front. The defense. The Jimmys and Joes. It starts with the players,” Bullard said. “You’ve gotta strike. We’re going up against a great team this coming week. A team very similar to ourselves. We’ve just gotta strike.”
(Photo: Dale Zanine / USA Today)
