Smart: Red zone issues come down to this

Regarding Georgia's red zone struggles when it comes to scoring touchdowns, head coach Kirby Smart said it comes down to one thing.

“The level of concern is about execution,” Smart said Monday. “It's not like you can say it's one thing or, ‘Oh, you have a problem here. No, you didn't do this right.’”

He explained, “Every play we can point to and say we have a failure here, and when you have a failure here, we don't execute,” Smart said. “You play good defenses, they capitalize on you.”

Against Kentucky, there were more mistakes than Smart cared to see.

Five times the Bulldogs reached the Wildcats’ red zone. Three times, Georgia was forced to settle for field goals by Jack Podlesny. The fifth and final time resulted in the Bulldogs turning the football over on downs after being stopped a yard short of the goal line on fourth down.

So, what needs to happen?

“You’ve got to be creative. You have to sit and think, ‘Are we in the best personnel grouping to do it? Are we giving it to the right side? Are we attacking the weakness of their defense?’" Smart said. “There are all kinds of things that go into it in preplanning. Where are their best players? Where are our best players? Are we in our best personal groups? Do you have to get big to get one yard, or can you stay little, and can you spread them out?"

A quick look at Georgia’s red zone results reveals some interesting statistics.

The Bulldogs rank first in the SEC in red zone offense and have reached inside the 20-yard line a league-best 61 times (Tennessee is second with 60), scoring on 59 of those attempts. Alabama has the third-most trips inside the red zone with 49.

However, of Georgia’s 59 scores, 19 have resulted in field goals by Podlesny.

“Yeah, it's awesome, but I'd rather have seven than three,” Smart said. “But the flip side of that is, you must go for seven if you don't have that. It is a luxury to have [Podlesny]. He’s been Mr. Consistency since he's been here. And he's mentally wired the right way and does a tremendous job for our program. But, you know, the more we use him, the more we realize that those are points left on the board.”

Defensively, the Bulldogs are not having a problem.

Opponents are scoring just 62.5 percent of the time (15 of 24) once getting inside the Bulldogs' 20.

Of those 24 opportunities, only seven trips have resulted in touchdowns. That’s seven fewer touchdowns than the second-best red zone team in the SEC (LSU) has allowed (14 touchdowns in 36 trips) this year.

“Our defensive red zone team percentages have been special. We've stopped a lot of people. And we go against each other all offseason. They get to see our guys go. We do it every week on every Wednesday—we go out and do it,” Smart said. “It’s been a point of emphasis for us. But it's one of those things we've got to keep working on and getting better at.”