Georgia’s rushing attack hits new low in loss to Florida

Georgia’s ground game, which stood for so long as the offense’s biggest asset, has proven to be its biggest weakness.

The Bulldogs were incapable of finding any room to run on Saturday, managing only 21 rushing yards on 19 carries in the team’s 24-10 loss to Florida. The subpar performance from a backfield featuring talents such as Nick Chubb and Sony Michel became the new low point in a season that began with high hopes and quickly transformed into puzzling and unimaginable results.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart stressed early in the week that the Bulldogs must run the football in order to keep up with the Gators. The Bulldogs did not manage even a semblance of doing so, which pushed the entire offense off track.

“I really thought we'd be able to run the ball a little better offensively,” Smart said. “I thought with some of their injuries and their size up front that we matched up better and we'd be able to run the ball, but obviously that didn't happen. I thought their kids defensively out-physicaled us. We didn't get much movement in the run game.”

Smart explained that the offense needed to force the Gators to respect the run in order to open up the passing game for shots down the field. Instead, the Bulldogs found next to no running room to work with the entire game, as demonstrated by the longest run being 8 yards. The offense was forced to air it out more to compensate; the team’s eight punts speak to how well that worked out.

The rushing attack was a far cry from the last few seasons when Chubb and Michel were reeling off highlight runs. Now the duo is left fighting just to reach the original line of scrimmage.

“There were no explosive plays,” Chubb said of Saturday’s loss. “There were just three-and-outs.”

The primary concern for the Bulldogs’ run game hasn’t been the ball carriers but the linemen situated in front of them. The Georgia offensive line has struggled to open up holes for the running backs almost ever since the team’s impressive victory over North Carolina to open the 2016 season.

While it’s the running backs who star in the run game, it’s the offensive line that set them up for success or failure. Saturday’s efforts from the Bulldogs’ big men resembled more of the latter than the former.

“I'm frustrated for them,” offensive guard Greg Pyke said. “Their job is to be able to run the ball, and it goes up front, so the offensive line's kind of like not doing their job. Like I've said, Florida is a very good defense. I can see how they're ranked so high in all the SEC rankings.”

The loss to Florida was another example of what’s gone wrong in 2016. The Bulldogs are a far cry from having a consistent running game, which leaves the offense vulnerable and forces the team to throw much more with a freshman quarterback than the coaching staff hoped it would.

As a result, the Bulldogs sit at 4-4 with one fact apparent: If the team is going to stop its skid and reach bowl eligibility, it will have to do much better on the ground than it did against the Gators.

“There's been ups and downs,” Chubb said of the 2016 season. “We've not really been true to our identity, not really gotten things going like we should. The season's not over yet.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2016 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Georgia’s rushing attack hits new low in loss to Florida."