The question posed to Kirby Smart was direct: Was there anything about Georgia’s offensive approach that the Bulldogs’ head coach would like to see changed?
Considering Georgia’s struggles last Saturday at Ole Miss, the question seemed apropos.
However, when Smart looks at his team’s offensive struggles, it’s not playing calling that gets his goat, but the efficiency he wants to see improve.
“I feel like there's been a couple, you call it wasted plays or wasted drives. We have a stupid penalty. We have a good play with a negative play with a penalty, and you start kind of back up and screw things up,” Smart said. “We haven't had a lot of great field position the last couple of games where we have had some unfortunate things with special teams that have happened. But to be more efficient is the most important thing.”
There was not a lot of efficiency going around in the game at Ole Miss.
Georgia’s offense appeared stuck in quicksand, managing just 245 yards of offense, including just 59 on the ground.
The Bulldogs constantly found themselves in long-yardage situations which Rebel defenders used to their advantage, sacking Carson Beck five times with numerous quarterback hurries. As a result, Georgia’s offense never got itself on track and Ole Miss rolled to a 28-10 win.
Georgia also lost the ball five times, including one interception off a tipped pass, and four fumbles, two that were recovered by Ole Miss.
“That’s biggest struggle, is staying ahead of the chains for third downs and putting together drives where we don't have turnovers. At the end of the day, you have two to three turnovers a game, more than the other team,” Smart said. “You're not gonna win a lot of games if you have that many more turnovers than them."
When you cannot run the ball, it makes your job more difficult, too.
“I thought Trevor (Etienne) and Nate (Frazier) had some of their best runs of the year, considering what the blocking was or what we got done up front. Then you go to the pass game, and there were times we blocked them and times we didn't,” Smart said. “At the end of the day, when you play from behind and a team can rush the pass like they did, their No. 1 (Princely Umanmielen) is elite.”
Umanmielen was part of a dominant Rebel defensive line, recording two of hits team’s five sacks.
“Princely is an elite rusher. He did not play against LSU; they threw the ball. LSU threw the ball like 50 times in that game,” Smart said. “You gotta wonder, that guy's out there for 50 passes, does he have an impact on the game? He did not, he had an impact on our game for sure, and he does a really good job.”
Smart also gave a vote of confidence to his offensive line, despite the unit’s struggles in the game.
“I'm completely confident in our offensive line. I think our offensive line, it's a good offensive line but we can’t put them in harm’s way. When you play on the road guys, there’s not a guy in this room that’s lined up at left tackle with 80,000 people screaming at you at the top of your lungs and he (the rusher) knows it’s a pass,” Smart said. “He gets a distinct .5 advantage, and .5's a lot. Trust me, I know from coaching this league, it's hard to do. You have to find ways to help people. You’ve got to be able to run the ball and slow it down and you got to help the backs out, you know?”
