Georgia’s offense struggled with consistency on Saturday, but the Bulldogs’ top-ranked SEC defense illustrated why it's one of the nation’s best.
Just ask Texas A&M, which fought for most of the day against the Bulldogs defense. It managed just 275 yards, all through the air, after Georgia held the Aggies to minus-1 yard in 20 attempts on the ground.
“We’ve bought into everything our coaches are doing,” Georgia safety Richard LeCounte said. “We’re doing it their way, and we’re getting the results. There’s some good football being played.”
On defense, that’s certainly true. The Bulldogs were pressured in the fourth quarter for the second straight week, but came through with another key series late against the Aggies.
With 7:59 to play, Texas A&M started at its own 10-yard line, trailing 19-13 with a chance to win the game.
Although the Aggies and quarterback Kellen Mond would pass for a pair of first downs, a huge sack by Tyler Clark helped push Texas A&M back. Following a pair of incomplete passes, the Aggies punted the ball away.
The much-maligned Georgia offense responded by running out the final 4:26.
“Our defense was very resilient, although I thought we got tired at the end of the game,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “And we're going to have to overcome that, because two weeks in a row now, we've kind of lost some momentum late, and struggled for a couple drives.”
However, twice when the defense needed to make big plays, it came through.
LeCounte forced and recovered a fumble early in the third quarter. It led to Rodrigo Blankenship’s third field goal.
A second huge defense stand came on Texas A&M’s ensuing possession with the Aggies driving and facing a 3rd-and-1 from the Bulldogs 26.
On third down, Mond tried to sneak for the first down but was dropped by Monty Rice and Michael Barnett.
On fourth down, running back Isaiah Spiller was stuffed for no gain by Jordan Davis, who also had a sack in the game. This gave the offense back the ball.
“Those were crucial third-and-1s. That team was like 12 for 12 on the year on sneaks. They are the best sneak team I’ve ever seen,” Smart said. “I took it to our offense and said here's how you run a sneak. They haven’t been stopped, and then our guys go out there and stop them. I think we stopped them and brought the fourth down after that. Then they got a penalty, so I don’t know the exact chain of events, but I know they didn’t get a sneak, and that was a lot of credit to our staff and the preparation."
Mond ultimately completed 25 of 42 passes for 275 yards, but only managed one touchdown.
“We thought they have an excellent receiving corps, and a quarterback that can scramble,” Smart said. “That was my biggest concern in the game, being able to cover them and then for him to take off. I don’t know how many he rushed for, but he certainly had some positive scrambles. That was the dynamic. We’ve played some other really good wideouts, but they didn’t have a quarterback that would take off running like him. I thought our defensive staff, once again, did an excellent job having our group prepared.”
