Despite strong showing, Dawgs lack "havoc"

PAT’s Weekly Stat (you likely won’t see anywhere else—and probably for good reason):

“Havoc Rate” has been a priority preached by Kirby Smart and Georgia defenders beginning with spring practice and leading up to the season opener. Yet, when it came to their havoc rate at Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs especially lacked it, despite their strong defensive effort.

Granted, Georgia didn’t allow Vanderbilt to cross its goal line, while yielding just 225 total yards and a mere 3.6 yards per play. And, one could certainly argue that it's difficult to create havoc when the opposing offense is primarily throwing short passes. Plus, as we posted earlier, it certainly appears Georgia applied plenty of pressure on the Vandy quarterbacks:

"During the 2018 season, Georgia was able to get pressure on QB at a 40% rate. In the game against Vanderbilt,the Bulldogs were able to get pressure on 62% of the opportunities. Twenty-three total quarterback pressures would have been the third best score in the entire 2018 season."

There’s even some debate on exactly how havoc rate is defined. As we understand—and how it is generally calculated—the rate is a defense’s number of tackles for loss, including sacks, added to its forced fumbles and passes defended (interceptions + passes broken up), divided by its opposition’s number of offensive plays.

Last season, Georgia’s havoc rate of 15.6 percent was rather substandard, ranking No. 73 in the 130-member FBS—and tied for tenth in the SEC. The Bulldogs, who want to attain a havoc rate of 20 percent, created only 8.1 percent of havoc on Saturday; only one game last season was actually worse for the Bulldogs:

What’s more, of all 14 SEC teams’ havoc rates in week 1 (or “week 0” in Florida’s case), Georgia’s 8.1 rate was the lowest: