What did Georgia do wrong (and right) at Alabama, and what does it mean for Bulldogs?

ATHENS, Ga. — On Monday, Kirby Smart held his first midweek news conference following a loss in four years . Appropriately, it started a couple of minutes late.

But, to be fair, it was informative. As was rewatching Georgia's 41-34 loss at Alabama . After doing that, listening to Smart, talking to some sources and just generally thinking things over, here is our second look at what went wrong for Georgia , what went right and how it may play out:

Playmakers and identity

Should we believe the air show Georgia showed in its comeback, given the situation in the game, is instructive? Yes, because in that game situation, Alabama knew what was coming and still couldn't stop it. You could take it with a grain of salt if it was a too-little-too-late situation, but Georgia actually took the lead. This was not loading up meaningless plays against a prevent defense.

The discourse going in to the game had focused on if Georgia lacked playmakers without Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey . They are there, they're just different kinds of playmakers: Dillon Bell , Dominic Lovett and Arian Smith are downfield, vertical threats.

That doesn't mean forsaking the running game: On Georgia's first touchdown drive, 45 of the 75 yards were via the run. But as the game went on, the score dictated a more aggressive game plan, and that worked.

There's evidence of this team figuring things out around this part of the season and getting much better afterward. It happened last year. It happened in Todd Monken's second year as the offensive coordinator. It happened in Mike Bobo's first tenure when the offenses from 2012-14 were at their best during the stretch run of the season.

This offense may have hit on its identity, that of a vertical-passing team that uses the pass to set up the run. Whether that's what we see from here, we'll see. It may depend on Smart trusting his defense enough to allow the offense to take those risks. It may depend on Carson Beck trusting in his protection enough to not feel like he has to throw quickly.

Another difference from 2023

Georgia is a statistically much worse third-down team without Bowers and McConkey, who were great safety valves for Beck: Last year, Georgia was first in the nation at 55 conversion rate, and two years ago, it was fifth at 51 percent. This year, it's 107th at 33 percent, including 3-for-15 against Alabama. Some of that is deceiving because Georgia knew it was in four-down territory throughout the second half, so as Smart put it, second down became third down. Still, the third-down issues are a real thing.

Smart, a man who knows his team's analytics, said Monday that the reason Georgia was so good on third down was it so good on first and second down that it led to more third-and-shorts. And that has not been happening this year.

"When you start backing it up on third down, it doesn't take a Ph.D. to realize you're not going to be as good," Smart said.

That's why there may be an adjustment, to minimize the chances the offense is in third-and-long. But when it does encounter third downs, there's still hope: Georgia was 5-for-5 on fourth downs, including completions to Bell and Lovett.

An underrated thing: Smart went for it on fourth down in his territory three times on the same drive, when Georgia was trailing 30-7. The Bulldogs got all three and eventually scored. If you're looking for a hint that Smart is willing to let the offense let it rip, maybe that's something.

Beck and the slow starts

In the previous two slow-starting games, Georgia was more conservative. That wasn't the case this time.

The plan to start the game was sound. The execution was off, which does get back to coaching: The coaches have to call the plays they know will work. There's an underrated value in that: Too often we think it's only about calling the right plays or the players executing the call correctly.

Smart said the coaches do quality control to see how much they practiced plays, how much they practiced them against certain defensive looks, etc.

"Did we do it enough that we can actually say they should have gotten it right? Because if you do everything once and you only get one look at it, which that's not what anybody does, that's not enough," Smart said. "But if you do everything 10, 20 times, you can't do as much. And so, then you run out of, you get lower execution, but you get higher volume, and it's a constant balance between what you're doing and how well you're executing."

The first drive, Smart said, was mainly about execution: Beck put a perfect deep ball in Smith's hands, but he dropped it. Then Lovett was called for a pass interference on a play Smart says is rarely called. But it was a sound drive, with four-wide sets and Beck looked comfortable.

The second drive is when things started to unravel for Beck: Rolling right on first down, he threw into coverage when he probably should have just grounded it. Two plays later, he threw a pick, a miscommunication when neither Oscar Delp nor Smith was looking for the ball. It looked like Smith was supposed to be the target, but Alabama was all over the play anyway.

The call had no chance. The miscommunication set up the disaster, and Beck threw the ball anyway. Nobody did anything right.

Beck's second interception is just a mystery: He had time to throw, went to a second read, looked like he had his eyes on what was good coverage and threw the ball anyway. This was after Georgia's defense had gotten a fourth-down stop at 28-7, and there was some momentum, and Georgia was trying to capitalize.

Beck's fumble was a case of bad decision-making. The game-ending interception was a bit underthrown, with Colbie Young perhaps too off-balance to be able to fight for the ball. It was a debatable call, given the time left in the game. But it was one-on-one in the end zone, which is the reason Young was signed. If it works, it's a brilliant call.

Other offensive notes

• Smart was asked Monday why tailback Nate Frazier didn't get any touches. Smart said Frazier didn't "do anything wrong; the opportunity didn't present itself the other night because of the type of game. ... That wasn't going to be a patient, methodical game that might fit Nate more than what it turned into."

It's understandable why there would be curiosity about the highly touted freshman, who had 83 rushing yards and a 24-yard catch against Clemson , not getting any touches. But this was a game during which the running game took a back seat, and Frazier's touches have been down the past couple of games, so this is probably a case of coaches still gaining confidence in the other parts of Frazier's game, such as ball security and blocking.

• Sophomore receiver Anthony Evans did get more snaps and more targets, including a 21-yard catch in the fourth quarter. That may have been what London Humphreys would have had, but it may continue even when Humphreys returns.

• Sophomore tight end Lawson Luckie is the team's best receiving tight end. Delp is more physical and has shown he can make some plays, but the way the coaches used Luckie down the stretch shows the way this is probably going.

-5 clash

Defense: The tackling

You might say, well Georgia played against a couple of special players, so don't ding the defense too much. But senior linebacker Smael Mondon had a good comeback to that.

"Those are special athletes, but this is the SEC. We're going to play special athletes every week. So we've got to be better," he said.

Georgia has struggled with tackling two straight games: 15 missed tackles against both Kentucky and Alabama, per Pro Football Focus. How much of it is one-on-one misses, and how much is it not enough to swarm to the ball?

Smart said the coaches chart "swarm," which they chalk up heavily to effort.

"I don't think we have a swarm problem," Smart said. "We tackle at a high rate historically. Tackling as a whole is down nationally. But certainly for us we want to tackle better. Some of that has to do with who you're playing against. I think a lot of them we had the other night were the players."

On re-watch, it seemed a mixture of issues: On the first drive, Christen Miller got a hand on Jalen Milroe in the backfield, but Milroe scrambled free for a 16-yard gain. On the second derive, Joenel Aguero whiffed on a receiver in open space, turning a 7-yard completion into a 19-yarder. On Milroe's 36-yard touchdown run, Malaki Starks couldn't get him, although again nobody else was close. Zero swarm to the ball.

What changed after Alabama went up 28-0, meanwhile, was glaring.

? Conflicted

Defending the edges

Alabama essentially ignored running between the tackles: three rushes for 8 yards, per PFF. And one of those was a Milroe scramble up the middle for zero yards.

But it attacked the edges with success: 22 rushes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. And it wasn't just Milroe: On a first handoff, Justice Haynes went 23 yards to the left sideline. Alabama came out attacking the edges with short passes: The first play was a screen pass to Ryan Williams . The Crimson Tide saw something there on film. And on Milroe's 36-yard touchdown run — on fourth-and-1 — nobody was on the edge other than Starks, who was beat on the play.

Milroe had a 26-yard scramble in the second quarter when, as Kirk Herbstreit said, it looked like middle school when the best athlete made the defense look overmatched. Milroe ran through and around the Georgia defense. But that isn't a lack of speed; it's a lack of awareness, players with their backs to the play, eyes all over the place.

"Some of that is scheme; some of that's player. It's shared," Smart said. "The common fan likes to talk about contain but contain is built on the call and a lot of things outside of just keep contain. It's not that simple. There are defenses where you're built to go underneath, defenses where you're built to keep it with the secondary. Sometimes it's a corner, sometimes it's a linebacker, sometimes it's a defensive end. It's a shared responsibility that we all have to get better at."

An adjustment was made, which was most evident on Alabama's first play of the third quarter: Milroe tried to roll right, but Damon Wilson was waiting on that side. Milroe then tried to scramble up the middle, but defenders were converging, including even Nazir Stackhouse , who wasn't pressuring. And when Alabama got into the red zone after Williams' tip-drill catch, Milroe tried on two straight plays to go to the right edge, but Georgia had it covered both times.

This time, a red-zone trip only netted a field goal. The defense forced a three-and-out after Beck's fumble near midfield when, on second down, Milroe went right but was stopped.

The defense deserves credit for getting off the mat the way it did. After the fourth drive, the next eight drives produced only three points. It gave time for the offense to make its comeback, and kept it from getting worse: After Beck's second interception, Mondon's hit led to Dan Jackson 's interception, keeping the score at 28-7. After Beck's fumble, giving Alabama the ball at midfield with a 33-15 lead, Georgia forced a three-and-out.

The ending? Well, Julian Humphrey was beating himself up over it. And you can criticize the coaches for not making sure Williams was blanketed in coverage.

There was a lot to learn from this game. Leading to a very short:

Final thought

There are lots of people out there who left this game with more confidence in Georgia. They may be right, especially if this proves a taking-off point for the offensive identity and the defense doesn't have to play anyone as good as Milroe or Williams during the next eight games (or at all, perhaps).

But it was still a loss, in the first of what look to be four difficult games this season. Smart was not looking ahead on Monday, only talking about Auburn , but the rest of us are free to talk about Texas , Ole Miss and Tennessee . If Georgia takes the right lessons out of this game, there is evidence that the talent, character and coaching are there to win enough of the remaining games, even all of them.

If Georgia had pretty much any other team's schedule, there would be extreme confidence in still making the College Football Playoff. But because Georgia has the schedule it has, there should be concern. And frankly there always should have been.

(Top photo of Kirby Smart: Kevin C. Cox / )