Vandy loss, recent play calls final stretch of games into question for Georgia

It’s rare for a college football program to control just about every facet of a game and lose.

Somehow, and some way, that happened to Georgia in Saturday’s 17-16 loss to Vanderbilt. Georgia outgained Vanderbilt with 421 total yards to 171, good enoug for a margin of 250 yards, which marked the greatest advantage Georgia has had in a loss since prior to the beginning of the Mark Richt era in 2001.

Before Kirby Smart was hired, the Bulldogs only held an advantage of 200 yards or greater in a loss once in the 15 previous seasons — 227 against Kentucky in a 34-27 defeat in 2009. But the difference in that game was the fact that Georgia turned the ball over four times with Kentucky playing a clean game in that area.

Against Vanderbilt on Saturday, neither the Bulldogs nor Commodores committed a turnover. Georgia owned the time of possession 35:04-24:56. Georgia ran 25 more plays and picked up 14 more first downs than Vanderbilt. The Commodores did make more plays on special teams with Georgia shooting itself in the foot with eight penalties for 53 yards. Even so, Georgia made many more plays than its counterpart.

Sometimes the better team doesn’t win. That would be indicative of what transpired at Sanford Stadium.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” left tackle Tyler Catalina said. “Every day in practice we kill each other. We focus on physicality and dominating the line of scrimmage. As a team, to take a step back, it kills us.”

Vanderbilt has long been a doormat of the SEC, the program that others schedule for homecoming, which is what Georgia did for Saturday’s game.

This kind of a loss raises bigger questions for a Georgia program that fired a head coach after a nine-win regular season. The remainder of Georgia’s schedule suddenly calls into question how many wins the Bulldogs can reel off down the stretch.

Georgia has five games remaining on its schedule, and at least four can now be considered up for grabs.

After a bye, the Bulldogs travel to Jacksonville to take on a Florida team that just demolished Missouri 40-14 with quarterback Luke Del Rio healthy again. Georgia’s final road game of the season is against Kentucky on Nov. 5 is no longer a given win. The Wildcats ran wild for 258 yards in a win over Vanderbilt. Georgia could only muster 75 rushing yards against the Commodores.

Auburn should be a tough game for Georgia, considering how well it runs the ball out of the hurry-up spread offense. Louisiana-Lafayette is the only team remaining that appears to be a win. But Georgia has played down to opponents such as Nicholls State (26-24 victory), Missouri (28-27 victory), South Carolina (28-14 victory) and Vanderbilt (17-16 loss), to the point where any game is losable.

Then, of course, there’s a season-ending rivalry game against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets haven’t had a great run in ACC play but do boast a 38-7 victory over the same Vanderbilt team Georgia just lost to.

It’s quite remarkable Georgia has gotten to this point. A year ago in the preseason, Georgia was considered a potential team to earn a College Football Playoff spot. After an opening week win this season over North Carolina, the Bulldogs found themselves ranked ninth in the nation.

Since then, it has been tough to establish any kind of signs of positive growth in Smart’s first season. But that could simply be due to the growing pains of a first-year head coach and a team that is still growing accustomed to what he’s hoping to establish at his alma mater.

“It all starts with me,” Smart said. “That responsibility falls on me. And I told the players that. We’ve got to improve as a team in order to beat teams like that. We’ve got to get better.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Vandy loss, recent play calls final stretch of games into question for Georgia."