Bulldogs explain run defense issues
"It's never as good as it seems, and it's never as bad as it seems."
Kirby Smart heard that lesson often from his father. For Georgia's head coach, it perfectly captures his feelings on his team's run defense following the 27-20 win over Auburn.
"I've actually felt better after watching the tape. I was riding home on the bus in a state of depression about our ability to stop the run," Smart said Monday. "When I got up and actually watched it, we struck blockers and played the run well at times. We didn't fit some plays well that they did, and give them credit. We probably didn't work some of those plays enough out of the formations that they did it. They did a nice job scheming it up."
Even though Smart doesn't feel quite as bad as he did at one point, Georgia's run defense has still become a bit of a question mark early in the 2023 season.
The Bulldogs rank 37th in the country in allowing 113.4 yards per game. In the yards per carry rankings, Georgia ranks 49th by giving up 3.97 yards per attempt. Those numbers aren't horrible, but they are a far cry from the standard of run defense set in Athens in recent years.
Against the Tigers, Georgia allowed 219 yards rushing on 43 attempts. Auburn hurt the Bulldogs on the perimeter and with the quarterback run game.
"It was kind of like some misdirection. They had some plays, and then the quarterback being able to run the ball, too, was kind of an effect because you’ve got to factor in him," linebacker Smael Mondon said. "With the quarterback being in the run game, that’s like an extra hat. It kind of goes with doing your job. Sometimes they had two plays going in different directions at the same time. Some people have got to play this play and some people have got to play that one. I just felt like sometimes, we weren’t all on the same page."
Mondon admitted the inside linebackers misfitted some gaps that allowed big runs. Smart added that the unit had a few mental busts that resulted in large gains.
The defensive line and outside linebackers share some blame as well. They are often tasked with setting the edge of the defense and not allowing plays to spill outside.
Smart has mentioned before that the defensive line doesn't have a singular game-wrecking presence like Jalen Carter, a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles this spring. But he also feels that has little to do with the issues against the run.
"You know, we had a lot of the same defensive linemen this year as opposed to last year, outside of really Jalen, who didn't play most of the year," Smart said. "We've got plenty of D-linemen good enough to do things and execute. We just don't have disruptive people. So you have to find other ways to do things defensively and try to make people do things negative ways."
Coming off its worst run defense game of the year, Georgia now faces an even bigger challenge this weekend in Kentucky.
In their most recent game against Florida, the Wildcats piled up 329 yards on the ground. Running back Ray Davis, a transfer from Vanderbilt, accounted for 280 of those yards, along with three touchdowns.
"He's an exceptional back, as good as I've seen in a long time," Smart said. "This guy's smooth, explosive, he pass-protects really well, he protects the ball, he's aggressive in the way he runs. It reminds me of (D'Andre) Swift, he's just a little bigger. He has a lot of the same cuts, a one-cut runner. And they do a tremendous job of blocking for him. So it's not all him."
That performance by Kentucky might not be as good as it appears. Georgia's run defense against Auburn probably isn't as bad as it seemed at the moment.
The two sides will collide Saturday night in Athens in a pivotal matchup in the race for the SEC East.
