Georgia played its worst game of the year and still won by 17 points.

Overall, that's a good result. The Bulldogs sleepwalked their way to a 39-22 victory despite three turnovers and an up-and-down defensive performance.

A win is a win. But Kirby Smart and his players also know they didn't meet their own standard against the Golden Flashes.

"We’ve got a saying in the locker room, either you’re elite or you’re not," defensive back Javon Bullard said. "We don’t feel like we were elite today."

The proceedings started well enough for the Bulldogs. Tight end Brock Bowers ran for a 75-yard touchdown on the game's second play, and the defense followed that up with a three-and-out.

But then receiver Ladd McConkey muffed the ensuing punt. That miscue led to a field goal for Kent State.

Georgia then turned the ball over two more times in the first half. Quarterback Stetson Bennett threw his first interception of the year, and McConkey fumbled at the end of a receiver screen.

"I don’t know if we were awake to start; it was a noon kick," Bennett said. "I thought we had a great week of practice, felt we had a good walkthrough. For one reason or another, give them credit, they’ve got a bunch of seniors. They’re a good football team. Interception, fumble, dropped punt, just can’t have those."

This week, Smart talked about the team needing to grow and use its "composure muscle." Smart faced that test himself on the sideline as his team shot itself in the foot en route to a 26-13 halftime lead.

"We have to keep our composure card in the back pocket," Smart said. "We can apply it anytime we want. We work and exercise that muscle all the time, and it hasn’t happened this year. It got to happen several times today. I thought the kids got to flex that muscle. You don’t feel a muscle is strong without using it, right? We certainly got to use it today."

The defense faced struggles of its own in the second half. Georgia gave up a pair of extended drives to the Golden Flashes. One ended in a field goal after a goal-line stand. The other resulted in a fourth-quarter touchdown.

Bullard noted that there were several factors indicating the defense was not playing to its standard. They didn't take the ball away until Kent State's final drive when the game had been decided. There were missed tackles aplenty in the second half.

But in the locker room, the players tried to keep things in perspective.

"It was basically, it’s not always as bad as it seems," Bullard said. "We looked at the stats, and the stats were in our favor. We liked where we were in the stats. Like I said, little things like we lost the turnovers battle. That’s a huge part of football games. Just little things like that, we can’t give up."

Smart liked how his team handled the lead-up to this game. After the game, he also felt pleased with the growth resulting from an outing like Saturday's.

The win over Kent State didn't look as pretty or flashy as most expected. But for Georgia to achieve its ultimate goals, it will have to face more and more adversity like that as the season wears on.

"I feel like we, personally, needed this," Bullard said. "We talked about it in the locker room afterwards. We needed it. We always talk about composure. We need adversity. It defines you as a team. I think we needed this game."