During the third quarter of Saturday’s win over Florida, Georgia’s Tae Crowder recovered a fumble on the Florida 1-yard line, in theory, setting the offense up for a quick touchdown.
What resulted was an 18-yard field goal after the Bulldogs’ offense failed to stick the ball in the end zone on seven attempts.
While settling for a field goal on the 1-yard line is less than desirable, it’s not surprising to coach Kirby Smart, who said Monday his entire team has struggled on third-and-1 all season.
“I think (the third-and-1 struggle) comes with a combination of things,” Smart said. “Sometimes it may be putting too much on one player, asking them to do too much. Some of it is execution. At times we've had some really good play calls that we didn't execute, and then other times it's on play design and play call that we didn't do a good job as coaches. I think a combination of those things you gotta improve on. Third-and short-is what you should want to be in from an offensive perspective.”
Georgia (7-1, 5-1 SEC) converted 8 of 14 third downs against Florida, totaling 156 yards and four touchdowns off those conversions and improving from their season third-down conversion average of 45.7 percent entering the game.
On plays with three or less yards to convert, Georgia converted 2 of 6, but were given first downs because of a Florida penalty on two of those failed conversions. One of the two successful conversions resulted in a 12-yard touchdown catch by wide receiver Jeremiah Holloman in the third quarter.
Georgia tight end Isaac Nauta is hopeful the No. 6 Bulldogs will find better third-and-short plays in coming games, starting Saturday against Kentucky (3:30 p.m, CBS; News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB).
“We’ll get better at that,” Nauta said. “They did a good job there, Florida did, in that game. But we’ll put together a new plan this week, put in some new plays and make sure we get in the end zone next time for sure.”
Nauta recorded a team-high of 73 yards on five receptions Saturday against the Gators — including four consecutive catches late in the second quarter that set the Bulldogs up for a field goal and a 13-7 lead at the half.
Although the Bulldogs struggled on third-and-short Saturday, they excelled in third-and-long situations. In Jacksonville, Georgia was 5-of-7 on third downs with five or more yards to gain and scored on all five conversions.
The reason, Smart said, is because of the team’s focus on third-and-long a few weeks ago in practice. Now, coaches and players need to apply the same focus to converting shorter yardage.
“We worked really hard on third-and-long a couple weeks ago, and we got a little better at it. You know what I mean? Now we're not converting on third and short, so we just gotta do a good job of working on it all and gotta have a good plan and help our players,” Smart said.
Defeating No. 9 Kentucky is the next step in Georgia keeping its SEC championship hopes alive, but the Wildcats (7-1, 5-1) pose an interesting challenge to the Bulldogs’ offense. Kentucky’s defense has limited opponents to an average of 13 points, with a high of 20 scored by Texas A&M and Central Michigan.
Georgia is averaging 38.6 points per game and 457.8 yards of offense, while Kentucky has allowed opponents an average of 362.1 total yards through eight games.
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