ATHENS – On Saturday, No. 2 Georgia will travel to Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium, one of the toughest road environments in the SEC. It’s not a place the Bulldogs have visited much – only ten times in 132 years of football and three times this century – nor has it been a stadium where they’ve enjoyed much success. They’ve won only twice. Ever. It’s definitely not a place where a team goes to get better. That is exactly what Georgia’s offense will try to achieve in Saturday’s primetime game (3:30 p.m., ABC) against No. 4-ranked Alabama (3-0). The Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0 SEC) will travel to Tuscaloosa with an offense depleted of the optimism that gushed in the preseason. Georgia is nine points and 95 yards below last season’s pace after three games (40.1/496.5). Carson Beck, the Bulldogs’ quarterback, has been blamed for many of the team’s failings. So has offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. Whether each deserves it is debatable.
“We have a really good offense, we have people around them, and we’ve got a good quarterback,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said last week. “We just need to go out and execute.” Clean up your work, accomplish it faster, make smarter judgments, and communicate more effectively.
Smart also suggested that starting faster would be beneficial. Slow beginnings, which were an issue last year, have plagued Georgia in their only two games this year. In their 13-12 victory over Kentucky on September 14, the Bulldogs had only 63 yards of offense at halftime. Beck accounted for 32 of them on 5-of-11 passes. They recorded three first downs. They trailed 6-3. With a 6-0 halftime lead over Clemson in the season opener, the Bulldogs are averaging 4.5 first-half points versus FBS competition this season. According to Beck, improving on that is primarily about effectively running the football.
“Got to be physical in the run game,” the fifth-year senior stated after the Kentucky game. “I believe their defense just came out strong. We did what we needed to do, but we didn’t play very well.” The Bulldogs didn’t really get going until the fourth quarter against the Wildcats. After finally crossing the goal line three minutes into the fourth quarter, they needed two big first downs to seal the victory in Lexington. Beck’s 33-yard connection to Dominick Lovett and an eight-yard gain on a pass to Oscar Delp ensured that Kentucky would not have time to recover. The Bulldogs have not given up on Beck.
“He handled it,” junior running back Trevor Etienne stated. “The occasion did not get too intense. He handled it beautifully. I’d say he kept the offense on track and kept us all engaged. We believed in him, followed him, and knew he’d do whatever it took to win. Beck almost always does. With the win, he moved to 16-1 as Georgia’s starting quarterback. But it’s not all on Beck, Smart insisted. Georgia struggled on the offensive line against Kentucky. That was before and after Tate Ratledge suffered an ankle injury in the first half. The All-SEC right guard will be out for four to six weeks following TightRope surgery last week.
The Bulldogs battled with pass protection all night. Earnest Greene, a left tackle, had one of his poorest nights of his career, scoring only 27.4 in pass-pro, according to Pro Football Focus. Backup Monroe Freeling (35.7) performed just slightly better. Even though Beck was not fired, he was frequently rushed and forced to flee to avoid pressure. This contributed to Beck’s 160 passing yards, a career low for a starter. Georgia had only 102 running yards, or 3.4 yards per carry. The Wildcats’ defense frequently crowds the line of scrimmage. Too often, the Bulldogs ran straight seven- and eight-man boxes. Beck bears some responsibility for this. “I could have checked into some different things, maybe made some different decisions,” he told me.
Beck, like previous Georgia quarterbacks, has limited ability to modify plays at the line of scrimmage. Depending on Bobo’s play call, Beck can change directions from right to left. He can shift pass protections from right to left, convert a pass play to a run play, or vice versa. Beck was ineffective in that respect versus Kentucky, but Smart is confident in his quarterback’s ability. “Carson does a great job of understanding that and knowing what to do and getting hats on people,” according to Smart. “That’s why the run game is so important.” The best friend you can have on the road in those settings is the run game. When you can’t run the ball well, you had better be terrific at something else.”
Georgia’s offensive line can also change blocking schemes and protections on the fly. In general, that obligation falls to the center. Sedrick Van Pran, who started there for the Bulldogs the previous three seasons, was said to be an expert at line-calling. Jared Wilson, a redshirt junior center, is Georgia’s first-year starter this season. When asked whether he could pinpoint one area of offensive improvement from the Kentucky game to Alabama, Smart responded “communication.” “There were some major communication errors across the front, communicating who we’re working to, points and things like that,” claimed Smart. “Some of that has to do with being on the road, dealing with audience noise, and getting everyone on the same page. Some pressures are quite simple to pick up on when protecting the quarterback.
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