ATLANTA -- A 20-point win in the SEC Championship Game usually doesn't leave much to be desired.
That is, of course, unless you're a Georgia team with bigger fish to fry.
The Bulldogs took down LSU 50-30 on Saturday afternoon to capture the SEC title. But the defense, especially the secondary, knows there's plenty it can improve on with the biggest games of the season still ahead.
"Our guys know everybody can get better," Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. "Conditioning level, tackling. Football's a tough, hard sport. Our guys embrace challenges. So I think they'll embrace the challenge of getting better."
The most jarring numbers are in the passing game.
Georgia has shown vulnerability, at least in relative terms, through the air in recent weeks. LSU exploited that to the tune of 502 yards through the air.
Starting quarterback Jayden Daniels threw for 208 of those yards in the first half. Backup Garrett Nussmeier then put up 294 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers tried to rally in the second half.
"Really just miscommunication, at the end of the day," inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson said. "Us not executing in the second half, they took advantage of that."
In the first half, LSU receiver Kayshon Boutte broke multiple tackles on a 53-yard scoring play. Freshman safety Malaki Starks didn't quite get over the top on a 34-yard touchdown pass in the second half.
"Our guys understand as the year goes on, teams tackle poorly, teams cover poorly," Smart said. "Defense usually deteriorates. That's not the culture here. It won't be accepted or tolerated, so we've got to fix it."
The Bulldogs will need to get things corrected in a hurry. While a win in a conference title game is nothing to sneeze at, the issues will need to get fixed if they want to claim the bigger prize of a national championship.
"We still got out of the game with a W, so it doesn’t really matter. Well it does matter, but it’s going to catch up to us," Dumas-Johnson said. "I hope it doesn’t catch up to us. We’ve got to finish strong."