Bulldogs believe ‘four-quarter game’ beneficial,
Bulldogs believe ‘four-quarter game’ beneficial
The Georgia Bulldogs entered Saturday’s game against South Carolina having won their first five Southeastern Conference contests of this football season by an average score of 42-10.
Their sixth league matchup had a different script.
Georgia’s onside kick to open the game was recovered by the Gamecocks at midfield. The Bulldogs’ first possession ended with a Terry Godwin fumble at South Carolina’s 4-yard line. The No. 1 team in the playoff rankings led just 14-7 at halftime.
The Bulldogs’ 24-10 victory wasn’t sealed until they consumed half of the fourth quarter with a 15-play drive, but they weren’t complaining when it was over.
“I think it’s great,” sophomore receiver Mecole Hardman said. “This showed that we can actually play a four-quarter game.”
Kirby Smart’s message to his 9-0 Bulldogs afterward was that the South Carolina game will be the new norm.
“I think it’s going to happen more and more,” Smart said. “I actually expected this game to be closer than this. This was a workman-like win, and that’s a good football team. I was really worried our kids wouldn’t respect or listen to us as coaches, but they had a good, physical week of practice.”
Georgia clinched the SEC East title with Saturday’s win, and the Bulldogs will look to continue their perfect run this weekend at Auburn (7-2, 5-1), which could win the SEC West by knocking off Georgia and then Alabama on Nov. 25.
Both the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide must visit Jordan-Hare Stadium, which was the site of Auburn’s memorable run to the SEC title in 2013. Auburn and Alabama are the only West teams that control their fate in terms of meeting up with Georgia at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 2.
“It takes what it takes in the SEC, and if you’re not willing to do what it takes, then you’re not going to be there,” Smart said. “That standard doesn’t change, and I almost had to taper our kids off in practice this week, because they were getting after it out there. We’re getting to that point of the grind in the season that we’ve got to start slowing down, so we’ve got to make some good decisions about practice.
“The grind is real. It’s every week. Auburn had a tough game at Texas A&M. We’ve got to go to work and do what we believe in.”
The Bulldogs opened Sunday as 2.5-point favorites over the Tigers.
Georgia remained second Sunday in the Associated Press and Amway coaches polls, while Auburn moved up to No. 10 in both. The second installment of the playoff rankings will be released Tuesday night.
Auburn was No. 14 in last week’s rankings.
“We really just turned off ESPN and kept doing what we’ve been doing that has gotten us to this point,” Georgia redshirt sophomore safety J.R. Reed said. “We really don’t have to go out there and do anything different. We just had to do what has gotten us here, which is meat and potatoes.”
Odds and ends
Saturday’s game at Auburn will be televised by CBS with a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. … The Bulldogs have rushed for an average of 279.3 yards and allowed an average of 89.0 rushing yards per game. … Freshman quarterback Jake Fromm ranks third nationally in efficiency with a 172.7 rating.