Tennessee looked borderline unstoppable early on in Saturday's game with No. 1 Georgia.

Through their first three drives, the Volunteers amassed 147 offensive yards and 10 points. For the first time all year, it looked as if the Bulldogs might be involved in something at least resembling a shootout.

Then, two things happened.

First, Georgia's secondary made a critical adjustment. In addition, its inside linebackers started to dominate. As a result, the defense rebounded and suffocated Tennessee the rest of the way en route to a 41-17 victory in Knoxville.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart spoke all week about the unique challenges of the Tennessee offense. The Volunteers operate at a lightning-fast pace and spread the defense out with their offensive formations.

"Tennessee is going to be a good team because of the way they play," Smart said after the game. "They make you play one-on-one outside. It becomes feast or famine. If you can't win one-on-one, they're going to have a long day. But when you can, they're extremely explosive."

Early in the game, Tennessee exploited Georgia with quick passes on the edge and an explosive run game.

The Bulldogs made a move before Tennessee's fourth defensive drive. Smart replaced Latavious Brini at star with safety Christopher Smith. Dan Jackson then replaced Smith at safety.

"We felt like, during the week, we worked that hard to try to get some depth," Smart said. "(Javon) Bullard’s been a little banged up. We had to move (William) Poole to star and repped Chris there throughout the week, thinking it could help us because Chris has some good man-to-man ability. We had to play a different style defense this week, and I thought the changes we made really helped us."

From that point to the end of the first half, Georgia's defense allowed just 22 yards in five drives. The Bulldogs turned a 10-7 deficit into a 24-10 lead in that time.

The secondary held up well for the last three quarters against a strong Tennessee passing attack. Also turning in strong performances were the inside linebackers.

The trio of Nakobe Dean, Channing Tindall, and Quay Walker combined for 27 total tackles and five tackles for loss. Tindall had three sacks, while Dean chipped in one along with a pass breakup.

"Nakobe, Channing, and Quay have no egos," Smart said. "It's just another microcosm of the entire team when you watch that unit, that they don't get upset over who starts, they don't get upset over who makes plays. They make a lot of calls and they lead our defense."

Tindall in particular stood out. With some of the attrition on defense, he's been called upon to take on a larger role. In a marquee matchup on Saturday night, he turned in one of the best games of his career.

Georgia also limited the Volunteers in the red zone. Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning showed the team clips earlier in the week of the Bulldogs allowing big plays, but then bowing their necks inside the 20.

They did just that on Tennessee's third drive, allowing just a field goal. The Volunteers then turned it over on downs at the Georgia 17-yard line on their first drive of the second half, trailing 24-10 at the time.

"(Lanning) showing us that just kind of reminded us that we’ve been doing it all year, offseason and everything," Dean said. "That’s kind of what we’ve been working toward. It was nothing just to do it."

Considering the productivity of the Tennessee offense, Saturday might have been Georgia's best defensive performance of the year. It started off a little rocky. But thanks to a secondary adjustment and dominating linebacker play, the Bulldogs stifled their opponent yet again.