The day after: Five things we learned following Georgia's 26-24 win over Nicholls State

In the long view or grand scheme of things, Georgia's near-loss to Nicholls State may not matter.

Tennessee is a good example of why. The Volunteers almost suffered a monumental upset to Appalachian State in Week 1, which had many observers across the country thinking they were a fraud in the national conversation.

Tennessee then followed it up by spanking Virginia Tech 45-24 Saturday evening. College football teams sometimes do things that defy logic -- such as nearly blow a game against a Nicholls State squad that went 3-8 a year ago.

But in the end, Georgia won. It can go into next week's game against Missouri with a 2-0 record and the feeling that they were way too close to suffering the biggest upset loss in the history of college football.

With that stated, here are five things we learned following Georgia's 26-24 win over Nicholls State.

They aren't who we thought they were

After a win over North Carolina, and with the rest of the SEC struggling to open the season, Georgia looked like a sudden SEC East favorite.

Now, not so much.

This team has way too much to work on to be considered the front-runner for the division. It's one thing for Tennessee to stumble against Appalachian State -- a program that had a ton of success at the FCS level and has won plenty of games in the Sun Belt since becoming an FBS school.

It's another for Georgia to struggle against Nicholls State, a little-known program that went 3-8 last season.

The coaching staff failed to prepare the players for this game. Head coach Kirby Smart can say what he wants about not understanding why his players weren't ready. But the lack of preparation falls on his shoulders alone. It's his job to coach up his players and motivate them for these kind of games. At some point over the week, he failed.

Smart will have to go over what happened through the course of the week and figure out a way to correct his and the coaching staff's mistakes to ensure this kind of performance doesn't happen again.

They're not as bad as they looked

Tennessee proved against Virginia Tech that it wasn't a fraud.

Georgia may not be as good, or the kind of contender a lot of people -- myself included -- began assuming, but it's not as bad as Saturday's game indicated. The Bulldogs' win over North Carolina was proof of that.

The Tar Heels went on to show that they're a solid team by dismantling Illinois 48-23. Sure, Illinois is in rebuilding mode in Lovie Smith's first season, but North Carolina showed off its offense, which Georgia -- with the help of some miscues created by the Tar Heels themselves -- was able to contain.

In addition, there were times in the second half that Georgia could have taken over the game against Nicholls State. Up 26-14, the Bulldogs appeared to finally be in control. But a Jacob Eason interception and an Isaiah McKenzie fumble led to Nicholls State putting 10 points on the board in the fourth quarter.

A lot of what Georgia did, in terms of placing itself in position to lose, was self-inflicted. The Bulldogs will not be able to get away with that sort of thing in just about any other game this season, beginning with Week 3's game at Missouri.

Given the fact Georgia had every opportunity to run away with the game, it's clear the Bulldogs are a better team than what they showed Saturday. But they absolutely cannot afford another performance like this.

It's still not Eason's job. Yet.

Freshman quarterback Jacob Eason began Saturday's game 8-of-12 throwing and appeared to be on his way to a big game against a weak opponent.

Eason then proceeded to complete only three of his final eight passes. He also threw a critical interception off of a poor decision, which led to Nicholls State defensive back Jeff Hall returning the play 91 yards the other way. Georgia was fortunate Brian Herrien and Jeb Blazevich chased Hall down and stopped him at the UGA 9-yard line, with the defense holding the Colonels to a field goal.

Eason had a mistake-free game against North Carolina, although he was placed in mostly safe situations to throw the ball. The fact there were some struggles against Nicholls State is all of a sudden concerning, considering the Bulldogs now have a three-game stretch against Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee.

It's one reason why Smart said he and senior Greyson Lambert will once again be evaluated through the coming week of practice before a starter is decided on against Missouri.

Tweaks to offensive line needed

Whether it's shifting the personnel or getting a freshman added reps in practice, something needs to change with the offensive line heading into the third week of the regular season.

Smart said after the game that it's going to mostly be about figuring out how to improve the top six linemen -- Tyler Catalina, Isaiah Wynn, Brandon Kublanow, Lamont Gaillard, Greg Pyke and Dyshon Sims.

But this week of practice could be a good time to figure out if players like Solomon Kindley, Kendall Baker and Aulden Bynum could push for some playing time. Kindley has been Georgia's top freshman lineman in practice and might be worth a look along the interior line.

With Pyke having success previously as a run blocker at right guard, it may be worth seeing if Baker or Bynum could rep at right tackle. Maybe even Sims, for that matter.

Perhaps Wynn gets added looks at left tackle to get him better prepared for that position in the event he's asked to play it against Missouri.

Whatever it is, the offensive line, which was pushed around against Nicholls State, needs to fix a lot of issues to be competitive in future games.

Thompson a bright spot

There were a lot of negatives to arise out of Saturday's way-too-close win over Nicholls State.

One of the positives happened to be the emergence of defensive lineman Trent Thompson, who finished with a game-high 11 tackles.

Thompson seemed to be around the football all day. On one occasion, he had a crushing tackle in the Nicholls State backfield after beating his blocker off the snap.

Thompson recorded one of Georgia's two sacks and totaled three tackles for loss. He came to Georgia as a five-star prospect and was regarded as one of the nation's top overall recruits in the 2015 class. Thompson showed why that was after his performance against Nicholls State.

This story was originally published September 11, 2016 at 11:36 AM with the headline "The day after: Five things we learned following Georgia's 26-24 win over Nicholls State."