Reloading or rebuilding? That has been the question facing the Georgia Bulldogs all summer.
If Saturday’s result against No. 11 Oregon was any indication, the answer is clearly reload. Then again, only time will tell if No. 3 Georgia’s dominance was due to an overhyped opponent. The Ducks, under the direction of first-year coach Dan Lanning, certainly looked overmatched.
That was due at least in part to a Georgia defense that was having to replace eight starters, all of whom were NFL draft picks, five of them first-rounders. On Saturday, their replacements picked up right where the predecessors left off, while the returnees also represented themselves well.
Freshman safety Malaki Starks led the Bulldogs with eight tackles and one highlight-reel interception. Meanwhile, fifth-year senior counterpart Christopher Smith added six stops and a pretty nifty interception and return of his own. That was indicative of the defense as a whole.
It went a long way toward quashing the external narrative that there was no way Georgia’s defense can expect to dominate like it did last season.
“We don’t listen to it,” coach Kirby Smart said of external expectations, good or bad. “Externally, there’s expectations every year. We embrace our expectations. We hunt. We do the best we can, and if it falls short, it falls short.”
Georgia’s young defense definitely did not come up short Saturday. It was the fifth time since last year’s 10-3 win over Clemson the Bulldogs have held an opponent without a touchdown. This time it took a goal-line stand from the 2-yard line with 1:22 to play.
Eight of Georgia’s top nine tacklers Saturday were sophomores or freshmen. Veteran stars Nolan Smith (2 tackles) and Jalen Carter (1) were comparatively invisible.
“I think it just shows how hard we work and how good a job the coaches do with us,” Christopher Smith said. “We talked a lot about not being complacent. We want to do the hunting – we’re never going to be hunted here – and that’s something coach Smart has pounded into our minds ever since the season started. And we’re going to continue to play that way this year.”
Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s game:
1. Malaki Starks stands out
Georgia’s defensive star Saturday was definitely Starks. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound, former five-star prospect from Jefferson made the defensive play of the game with a high-flying interception in the first half. Instead of a long Oregon completion deep in Georgia territory with the Bulldogs leading 7-0 midway through the first quarter, it set up UGA for its second touchdown drive of the game.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
But it was the degree of difficulty of the interception that still had the Bulldogs’ locker room buzzing well after the game. It required a leap with a midair twist for Starks to bring in the ball and land safely with possession.
“Malaki Starks, like I’ve been talking about him all fall camp, he’s a great player,” Christopher Smith said. “I’ve seen him do that a bunch of times, but that definitely was one of the greatest interceptions I (have) ever seen. He laid out for that one. I was just excited. I couldn’t believe he made the play.
“I think y’all are going to continue to see great things out of him because he’s coming into the season.”
“Well, he’s been probably our most productive defensive back all camp,” Smart said. “He gets his hands on lots of balls. He batted balls, knocked down balls, had picks. He’s a good football player. So, we wanted to get him in the game early. Fortunately, it was a play where he was one-one-one, and he made a really good play on the ball. He’s an incredible athlete and has good speed.”
2. Pass-happy Pups
Georgia ran 62 offensive plays: 37 passes and 25 runs. The Bulldogs passed for 439 yards, had 20 first downs via the air and scored 49 points – all Chick-fil-A Kickoff game records.
They did so by being unpredictable with the ball. Quarterback Stetson Bennett completed passes to 10 different players. Six different players scored touchdowns. Twenty-one of Georgia’s first 30 plays were passes.
“That’s a product of Stetson being able to get to his first, second, third read, then also scrambling and making plays with his feet,” Smart said. “Even when they got somebody back there, they don’t tackle him. On top of that, he knows where the ball should go. When you have an accurate passer with good protection, it’s really hard to defend.”
Bennett’s 368 yards on 25-of-31 passing was a career best for him.
3. Good from the bad
Many would probably point to Bennett’s 4-yard TD pass to Ladd McConkey 21 seconds before halftime as his most impressive play of the game. But, while it was indeed impressive, he and Smart counted it as one of the mistakes he made.
Georgia had the ball first-and-goal at the Oregon 4 with 39 seconds remaining. Bennett faked a handoff to Kenny McIntosh and rolled right. Finding McIntosh covered in the right flat short of the goal line, Bennett reversed field.
Back between the hash marks, Bennett somehow avoided a convergence of four pass rushers, including two he managed to sling off. Looking to the left side of the field, Bennett found McConkey wide open and hit him with a strike for a touchdown and 28-3 lead.
“Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t smart,” Bennett said. “I need to not do that, first-and-goal from the (4). But I knew that we had motioned Ladd over there, and I knew he was over there. I started scrambling, and I was trying to find him because I knew he was over there somewhere, and then found him and threw it.
“But it probably wasn’t smart. I needed to either ground it at him or run it or throw it to Brock (Bowers) or something front side. … But it did work out!”
Said Smart: “He made some plays where he didn’t make the right decisions today, and he knows those. He knows his mistakes. He’s got to be smart. He does some things maybe we don’t ask him to do. But he did make some plays with his feet, and I think you take the good with, I’m not going to call it bad, but you take the good with his poor decisions.”
4. RBU remake?
Junior Kendall Milton was Georgia’s leading rusher with 50 yards on eight carries, but it was the starter McIntosh who starred in the Bulldogs’ backfield. His production came from catching the football. He led Georgia with nine receptions on a team-high nine targets for 117 yards. He was credited with 119 yards after the catch.
“Not only running the ball, I love catching the ball out of the backfield,” said McIntosh, who also gained 18 yards on the ground, including a 1-yard TD. “I don’t think I ever had a game like that. But it was fun out there just to be able to run with the ball in my hand like a receiver and stuff like that. So, real fun.”
Milton (1), Daijun Edwards (2) and Sevaughn Clark (1) also caught passes out of the backfield. For the game, four wideouts, four running backs and three tight ends were targeted.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
5. Bo says bye-bye
Saturday represented the last time Bo Nix will play against a Georgia defense, and he’s likely very happy about that. With the 49-3 loss, the senior transfer from Auburn fell to 0-4 in his career against the Bulldogs. Nix’s teams were outscored 131-33 in those games.
“It was the same Georgia,” said the 6-3, 214-pound quarterback from Pinson, Ala. “I’ve seen a lot of those looks. They’re just really good. They’re really good at the point of attack, really good playing the ball, really good at tackling. It’s just tough to move the ball on those guys.”
Much like his other meetings against Georgia, Nix didn’t play terribly. On Saturday, he completed 21 of 37 pass attempts for 173 yards. But the Ducks failed to score, and Nix was picked off twice. One was just an incredible defensive play, while the other was well anticipated by the Bulldogs.
“Unfortunately, that was on back-to-back drives, and that can’t happen,” Nix said of the interceptions. “But my coaches were very encouraging. They kept me in the game.”
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