If Georgia harbors any realistic hopes of qualifying for the College Football Playoffs, the Bulldogs know their offense has to get better—a lot better.
The question is, will it? And when?
“Offensively, we've got to improve. No bones about it. We've got to improve,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “There were things tonight we missed that were there, and that's the frustrating thing.”
Smart wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Running back D’Andre Swift, who led the Bulldogs with 19 carries for 103 yards, was asked if he could put a finger on some of the problems. If he did, he wasn’t saying.
“I don’t know,” said Swift.
Saturday’s issues were as much about missed opportunities as the fact the Bulldogs finished with just 260 total yards. Quarterback Jake Fromm wasn’t at his best. For the third straight week, the junior failed to complete at least 50 percent of his passes, hitting on 11 of 23 throws for 163 yards, with one touchdown.
It should have been more.
Fromm overthrew a wide open George Pickens on a well-designed flea flicker, and shortly thereafter, missed Brian Herrien on a wheel route that would have picked up big yardage and likely a touchdown.
“I'll get 100 questions about the explosive plays, and about the inability to hit runs. But when you get an opportunity on first and 10 to make the plays we have, you've got to make those,” Smart said. “Some of that had nothing to do with the calls. Some of that had to do with the execution. So we share in that; I share in that. We've got to do a better job.”
Georgia’s red zone issues continue to be a problem, something that can’t occur in the SEC Championship against the likes of LSU.
Twice the Bulldogs reached the Aggie red zone, only to come away with field goals by Rodrigo Blankenship. The senior placekicker ultimately accounted for 13 of Georgia’s 19 points, two field goals coming on drives that started inside of Texas A&M territory.
“It’s an inability to put people away, on both sides of the ball. You feel like you’re controlling the momentum, you feel like you should be ahead further, and you’re not. Then, whether you get tight, whether you lose momentum, whether they hit a couple of plays, you’ve got to take advantage of the plays you had earlier,” Smart said. “We had two or three positions that were in field goal range—that felt like they were out of field goal range before the possession was over. You can’t do that and beat really good football teams."
Smart admitted Fromm hasn’t been as consistent as he’d like to see.
After completing just 37 of his last 80 pass attempts in the last three games, the junior’s struggles have been frustrating for Smart and fans alike.
But is Smart concerned about Fromm? Apparently that’s not the case at all.
“Well, he made some back-shoulder throws that were pretty special. He hit Kearis (Jackson), he hit Tyler (Simmons), he hit George (Pickens), he did some really good things. So concern is not there. I want to get better. The kids want to get better,” Smart said. “Everybody’s like, what’s wrong with the offense? When the offense stays aggressive, we mix things up. We get some inside runs, we get some outside runs; we’re better. We’re also playing a stretch run of some pretty good defenses. I know that defense (Texas A&M) hasn’t played well all year, but they’ve played good recently. I’ve got a lot of respect for their defense and the way they played tonight.”
