BATON ROUGE – Kirby Smart didn’t blame Saturday’s botched fake field goal for stealing Georgia's momentum as originally thought.

However, it certainly did not help Georgia’s cause as the play epitomized the type of afternoon it would become for the Bulldogs, thumped by LSU Saturday, 36-16.

“We wanted to be aggressive. We came in here and talked as a staff, they were like 15 of 17 with a look it would work on and it was a look that we wanted. We thought that it was going to be perfect. They had one guy out there and we were going to block him. A couple of their guys ended up not rushing,” Smart said. “They rushed every other time and he fell into the play and made it. If it doesn't work, it was a bad call. I'm the first to admit that. But we felt it was there and thought it would be a big momentum play for us and it didn't. I didn't think that was the end of the momentum. It just that it hurt us at the time certainly.”

The poor execution of the play epitomized what kind of day it would be for the Bulldogs.

After driving 59 yards, Georgia lined up for what would have been a 32-yard field goal by Rodrigo Blankenship to tie the game.

But the Bulldogs had other plans when holder Jake Camarda flipped the ball to kicker Rodrigo Blankenship.

However, LSU wasn’t fooled.

Safety Grant Dalit didn’t bite, held his ground instead of retreating and was there to tackle Blankenship, forcing a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Devin White.

“We thought it was going to be there,” Blankenship said. “We practiced it all week, we wanted to be aggressive in the game, trying to get some momentum to our team, trying to take the crowd up a little bit. We lined up for it, the certain look was there, we ran it, but they played it a little differently after the snap.”

It was the first fake attempt by the Bulldogs special teams under Smart since Brice Ramsey faked a punt against TCU in the 2016 Liberty Bowl.

“We decided in the game to do it,” Smart said. “We thought coming into the game that it'd work. Didn't work."

Four times the Tigers went for it on fourth down. All four times LSU was able to convert, including a second-quarter sneak by quarterback Joe Burrow for LSU’s first touchdown of the game.

“We have a call on 4th-and-one that we use, multiple calls, to try to go quick. They did a good job and took some good risks at getting those conversions with some sneaks and stuff,” Smart said. “The key is you don't want to be in fourth-and-one. It's hard to stop those plays. I thought one of them we had a chance to stop and didn't. Give them credit. They kept the ball on third-and-ones and fourth-and-ones by running some good plays and converting and keeping their offense on the field.”

Broken tackles were once again an issue.

“A lot of them were third-and-shorts where we took a chance to stop them and they spit out on us,” Smart said. “Some of them we missed tackles on them and some of them they made good throws and catches. You know, they did a good job of mixing up. When people go fastball, hurry-up, a lot of times they're just running the ball, running the ball, running the ball.” Clyde Edwards-Helaire led the Tigers with 19 carries for 146 yards, while quarterback Joe Burrow – who besides completing 15 of 30 passes for 200 yards – also rushed 13 times for 66 yards, including a fourth-quarter run of 59.

“Well, they took shots outside to good wideouts. And what happens is you're not as effective rushing (the passer) when they block with seven, so you can't get pressure when they go fast and block with seven guys,” Smart said. “They were just throwing the ball to the outside on one-on-ones and we weren't able to cover better because we had to stop the run. and we weren't stopping the run well. when you don't stop the run, it makes it hard to do anything. That's where we were today. We had to be exposed and put our corners out a lot.”

All week long, Smart stressed the importance of winning both lines of scrimmage.

That didn’t happen, and as a result, the Bulldogs were throttled by LSU.

"That's the concerning part. But look, guys, we didn't play real physical at Missouri. We didn't play we needed to play at Missouri. Vanderbilt ran the ball on us. This is not just pop up out of the ground. We've been telling our guys and you know what, I really think they've listed. They understand. We've just got to keep getting better,” Smart said. “We've got what we've got and we're going to keep getting better. That's all we can do. Our kids acknowledge that we didn't play our best game; we didn't play our best game, we didn't play our best game and then today. We haven't gotten out of this team what we need to get out of them and that's on me, the leader, us as the coaches, and then all the players have to buy into that.”

Georgia will have two weeks to try and figure something before traveling to Jacksonville in two weeks.

“We’re going to bounce back from this. I mean this is very similar to last year, and we probably played better leading up to our loss last year. I didn’t think we had played as well this year,” Smart said. “But we lost to a team (in) the West, on the road, everything’s still in front of us, what are we going to do from here? Because they define you by how you respond, not how you react. We’re going to respond the right way. We’re going to go out there and go to work. We’ve got a lot we can get better on. Of course, I’ve been saying that for three weeks. We have a lot we can better on. So, we’ve got an opportunity to go to work and get better at it.”

“Well obviously I thought we would be able to sustain drives better, and score points. I thought we would be able to stop them a little bit better running the ball. We have to be able to stop the run. Once you can’t do that it’s Pandora’s Box in what they can do. It becomes offensive coordinator’s dream. And I thought we’d be able to stop the run a little better. I thought we’d be able to tackle better. But we didn’t. And we didn’t sustain any long drives. A couple big plays we thought we had a chance to hit we missed them on offense. So, the combination of that, they outplayed us. Give them credit.” – Smart on what surprised him about the game.

“No, we didn’t go away from it actually we went right back to it, and it didn’t work. So when we were in four-open sets and we were running the ball really well and we drove down there, and then we faked the field goal and didn’t get it, we kind of stayed with that the next drive, we went back to it, they changed some things up and it wasn’t working as well, so we went back to 12 personnel, and we ran the ball a couple times for seven or eight yards in that, and we thought in the big personnel we had a chance to hit some play-actions, which we did hit some. But when we went back to the package where we just rolled the ball down the field with those guys running it wasn’t there. We weren’t getting the same movement. They were making the ball bounce out. We didn’t have as much production in it. But that’s the first thing I was saying, let’s go back to what worked earlier.” – Smart when asked if Georgia went away from the run.

“I don’t think it’s ever a good time after a loss, but from a beat-up physical standpoint, injuries. We got a lot of guys dinged up during the game. We had three or four guys hurting there. It’s a physical game. They did. They had guys dropping like flies. It’s the SEC guys. It’s physical, it’s tough. We’ve got to bounce back from it.” – Smart on having an open date.

“It’s who you are. It’s who you believe, who you create. It’s something we’ve got to create. Right now, we’re not as physical as we need to be. I can promise you that. We practice physical. We try to play tough. I think our offensive line is physical a lot of times, but defensively we haven’t been able to sustain that. We’ve got some young guys out there, we’ve got some guys out. It doesn’t matter, guys. It’s the next man up. You’ve got to go out and play physical in this league. There’s no need for excuses. They’ve got guys out. So, hey, we’ll play physical, strike people, get off blocks. That’s what football is.” – Smart if physicality is a mental thing.

. . . Time of possession entering the fourth quarter was 21:43 for Georgia, 23:17 for LSU.

. . . Senior center Lamont Gaillard started his team-leading 35th straight game while junior DB J.R. Reed leads the defense, as he’s made 22 consecutive starts. Junior Charlie Woerner made his first start of the year and fourth of his career as the Bulldogs opened with a two-tight-end set.

. . . Georgia’s leading tacklers with career highs were freshman DB Tyson Campbell with 11 and senior DE Jonathan Ledbetter with 10. The Bulldogs had three sacks in the first half as D’Andre Walker got his team-leading fifth, while Tyler Clark and Keyon Richardson split a sack and freshman outside linebacker Robert Beal, Jr., registered his first.

. . . Walker left Saturday's game with a lower body injury. Smart did not have an update.