ATHENS – As Georgia prepares for its SEC home opener against Auburn on Saturday, the prevailing question is what’s wrong with the Bulldogs’ first-half offense?
The easy answer is: Everything.
That was demonstrated in the opening two quarters against Alabama this past Saturday. Certainly, falling behind 28-0 in the first 17 minutes was a study in defensive failings. But if Georgia’s offense does its part to simply execute in key moments on its early possessions, the scoring margin doesn’t become so lopsided that strategy is totally altered.
“The first play we have a great play,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Monday. “We open up with a shot play we think is going to work and we don’t hit it. We have an OPI (offensive pass interference) that’s rarely called but it’s called, and you’re behind the 8-ball.
“It’s not that we were unsuccessful. We had a plan to attack.”
There’s no arguing that last sentence. The one before it simply is untrue.
The Bulldogs’ offensive reality is this: They have not scored a first-quarter touchdown against an FBS opponent all season. They have recorded only one in the second quarter and that came against Alabama this past Saturday to make the deficit 28-7.
At that point, whatever offensive strategy Georgia came in with was out the window. The Bulldogs would rally in the second half and actually took the lead inside the final three minutes. But that had more to do with desperate circumstances and the team’s internal resiliency than creating advantages and exploiting the opponent’s weaknesses.
The bottom line is the Alabama game would have had a different complexion if the Bulldogs simply made the plays that were there for them in the first half. A few illustrations:
- Georgia’s first play from scrimmage was a 15-yard completion over the middle. The second was a go-route for Arian Smith down the sideline. Smith was open and Carson Beck’s pass was on target but the ball went through Smith’s hands.
- On the second possession, Beck checked out of whatever second-down play was called to a tunnel screen in the left flat. Smith, the designated receiver on the play, either did not see, hear or interpret the audible and never even looked for the ball. The pass was intercepted by Alabama defensive back Domani Jackson and returned five yards to the Georgia 22. The Crimson Tide scored three plays later to go up 21-0.
- On Georgia’s sixth first-half possession, with the Bulldogs’ backed up at their own 5, slot receiver Dominic Lovett split two defensive backs and found himself wide open in the middle of the field. Despite encountering no defensive pressure, Beck never squared up his shoulders and delivered a weak pass that came up nearly 10 yards short of the intended target.
Each one of the those failed plays were the result of different breakdowns: A drop, a miscommunication and faulty fundamentals, respectively. There were many more similar examples from the first half in what was a highly-charged atmosphere in Bryant-Denny Stadium. In such environments, both negatives and positives tend to produce exaggerated effects.
“I think we just made mistakes,” said Beck, who threw for 439 yards and three touchdowns but also had three interceptions and a fumble. “That was all it was. We had some busts in certain concepts, and we didn’t run the right things. You know, it just is what it is. It’s part of the game.”
Execution is a big part of the game as well. Generally, how well a team executes on Saturday is the result of how well it practices during the week. The Bulldogs want it to be made clear that they DO practice all the aforementioned scenarios.
That includes scripting fast offensive starts. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, slow starts are not a new phenomenon under Beck and second-year offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. It was an issue for much of last season as well.
Georgia averaged a hardy 40.1 points a game in 2023, which ranked fifth nationally. But it was slow out of the gate much of last year, too. Only 96 of the Bulldogs’ 562 points were scored in the first quarter last year, or 17%.
This year, their first-quarter scoring output of 14 points is down to 10.8%. All those points came against Tennessee Tech, an FCS opponent.
So what is Georgia doing about it?
“We try to show them on tape and explain where we went wrong,” Smart said. “You check your volume control of, how much did we rep (certain plays), how much did we rep it against that look? Did we do it enough that we can actually say, ‘we showed you how to do it right.’ … Once is not enough but, if you do everything 10-20 times, you can’t do as much (overall). Then you get lower execution but higher volume.
“It’s a constant balance between how much you’re doing and how well you execute.”
While slow starts continue to trend for Georgia, so do fast finishes. That, too, was evident Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
The Bulldogs recorded 519 yards offense against Alabama. Three-hundred and sixty six – or 70.5% -- came after halftime. After passing for just 100 yards in the first half, Beck threw for 339 in the second.
Some of that can be attributed to the desperate situation in which the Bulldogs found themselves. Georgia went 5-for-5 on fourth-down conversions, four of which came in the second half.
Such production with their backs against the wall begs the question: Should the Bulldogs play with an air of desperation in the first quarter? Perhaps they should maintain that mindset throughout games.
“I don’t think we need to play desperate; I think we need to play aggressive and play loose,” Smart said. “I don’t ever want to be playing in desperation. There was good execution on fourth down, but that was a very different game to evaluate.”
Whatever the Bulldogs decide to do, they hope to have the wrinkles ironed out by the time Auburn visits Sanford Stadium on Saturday for the 129th renewal of “the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.” The Tigers (2-3, 0-2 SEC) certainly have had more than their share of problems in their second season under coach Hugh Freeze, but slow starts have not been an issue.
Auburn actually has doubled up opponents in the first quarter this season (49-24), as well as the first half (90-44). It has been the fourth quarter of games that have given the Tigers fits this year. Against, FBS opponents this season, they’ve been outscored 40-35 in the final stanza, including 27-14 in their two SEC games.
Similarly, Auburn jumped out to a 10-0 lead on Georgia last year at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Bulldogs used a fourth-quarter rally to gain a 27-20 victory.
This year, Auburn arrives with the nation’s 50th-ranked defense (329 yards per game). It’s giving up 18.8 points a game. Georgia is scoring at a 32.3 clip.
Ultimately, having more points at the end is every team’s goal. Until Saturday night, Georgia had done that in 42 consecutive regular-season games, slow starts or not.
“We’re just focusing on getting in the end zone against Auburn,” junior tackle Earnest Greene said. “That’s all that’s on our minds.”
Perhaps the Bulldogs can do that in the first quarter for a change.
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