Georgia offense finally putting pieces together as SEC Championship vs LSU looms

A 52-7 win over an in-state rival appears, on paper, to be free of any criticism of the offense.

That isn’t the case for Georgia in its victory over Georgia Tech on Saturday. The Bulldogs started slow on offense yet again, and three turnovers allowed the Yellow Jackets every chance to make things interesting before the No. 4 team in the country eventually pulled away.

Even so, this is one of the most complete performances of the season for the Georgia offense. With the SEC Championship Game against LSU just a week away, the Bulldogs know they could be peaking at the right time.

“I think they continue to improve,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “We’re nowhere near where we need to be… We’ve got an offense that has some really good football players that maybe hasn’t clocked on all cylinders, but they continue to work.”

Early on in Atlanta, it looked like more of the same for Georgia’s offense. Quarterback Jake Fromm missed on his first four passes and the offense went three-and-out on its first two drives, although a good punt return allowed the Bulldogs to take a 3-0 lead on a 49-yard field goal following the second possession.

“Any time you don’t score seven points, it’s going to be frustrating,” Fromm said. “But that’s part of it. That’s part of the standard we’ve been given and we set...here at the University of Georgia.”

But seemingly at the flip of a switch, the offense then kicked it into high gear. A pair of scoring drives followed, one 75 yards and the other 77, giving Georgia a 17-0 lead at the end of the first 15 minutes of play.

The second quarter saw the roller coaster that is Georgia’s offense take a downward turn. There was a three-and-out, a fumble from D’Andre Swift and a missed field goal. A muffed punt set up Georgia Tech’s first touchdown, and the Yellow Jackets also recovered a surprise onside kick.

“I talked to them a lot like, we don’t need to be complacent out there or come out there and just think it’s going to happen because we’re Georgia,” running back Brian Herrien said. “You can go out there and try to attack everything, execute it the best way you can, but they’re on scholarship too.”

Herrien said the team is used to adversity like that. Georgia has “situational Wednesday” every week where the players are thrown into situations such as fourth-and-short or a quick change after a turnover.

Because of that, they didn’t panic at halftime. Leaders stood up and addressed the team, something Smart said he loves to see as a coach.

Even still, the third period saw some swings. There was the high of a touchdown pass from Fromm to Tyler Simmons on the first possession, and then the low of another Swift fumble inside the 5-yard line, with the added twist of the star running back injuring his shoulder on the play.

Through all this, the defense kept things from getting too interesting. They allowed a 17-yard touchdown drive following the muffed punt, but over the course of the entire game they surrendered just 139 total yards and seven first downs.

“I know that we control everything,” cornerback Eric Stokes said. “If they don’t score, it’s really hard to win.”

After Swift’s second fumble, things finally clicked into high gear for the Bulldog offense. They scored touchdowns on three consecutive drives, pushing the lead to 45-7 and, in the process, building confidence as the date with LSU for the SEC championship looms next week.

Simmons said the team still has plenty to work on, namely scoring touchdowns in the red zone, gaining more yards on first and second down and, by extension, converting more on third down.

But the Bulldogs still racked up 45 points on offense (the last touchdown came on special teams) and had seven scoring drives of 40 yards or more. It’s as close to a four-quarter offensive game against Power 5 competition Georgia has played this year.

They’ll have to put it all together next week against the Tigers in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but the Bulldogs showed against Georgia Tech they might be getting closer to achieving that goal.