Two areas of focus for offense

Third-down success, or lack thereof, is huge for any college football team. Your ratio of success in this one statistic often has a direct correlation on whether you win or lose.

That’s an area of Georgia’s oft-criticized offense the coaches continue to carefully navigate, while at the same time trying to find a way to generate more explosive plays.

The results have been mixed. For the year, the Bulldogs rank a very-respectable third in the SEC, converting 43.8 percent of their third-down plays.

Against Florida, they were successful on 12 of their 18 attempts. Saturday, the Bulldogs beat Auburn 21-14, but only made good on 3 of 15, which helped lead to a season-worst nine three-and-outs, one of the looming reasons the Tigers were able to get off 86 offensive plays.

Head coach Kirby Smart was asked Monday what having a manageable third down meant to him.

“Well, manageable—with our offense, third down has been anything from 1 to 12. I mean, we've had a lot of success on third-and-long during the year,” Smart said. “I certainly don't want to be in those, and if you want to keep people off-balance and you want to change things up, you're going to have to live with some third-and-tens, because you're not always going to complete some shots and some explosive play-actions.”

The trouble is, explosive plays have been a problem for the Bulldogs for much of the year.

Jake Fromm’s 51-yard touchdown pass to Dominick Blaylock certainly qualified, but in terms of long scores, there just haven't been a lot.

This year, the Bulldogs have nine scoring plays that have gone for 25 yards or more. Through 10 games in 2018, Georgia had 13 scoring plays of 25 yards or more. Two more scores came from 24 yards out that year.

“You know, there were several runs the other day that were close. They were good runs. They just weren't super explosive, where we got to the second level,” Smart said. “Some of that's the back end. Some of that, you don't create the angles when all the extra guys are in the box. You can attribute it to a lot of things.”

As it pertains to last Saturday’s game against Auburn, Smart credits the Tigers’ defense.

“I think of Auburn—you turn on that tape, they run to the ball. They hit. They tackle. They've got really good—a lot better than people even thought—corners, and they're physical upfront. They’ve got a good football team,” Smart said. “So does Missouri, guys. I mean, you start looking at it, they've got good football teams in our conference. I mean look at us defensively. We're not giving up a lot of explosive runs, either.

“Across the board, it's tough to do that, and we're certainly looking, trying, reaching, trying to find ways to create those advantageous situations. But I just know our conference is very defensive when it comes to rankings and statistics. There's a lot of good teams in it.”

Nevertheless, tight end Eli Wolf acknowledges there’s more that he and the rest of Georgia’s players on offense could be doing.

“We need to execute the game plan better. I think we had a good game plan going in, but we didn’t execute on third down,” Wolf said. “We’ve got to do a better job on first and second down to put ourselves in better position and we didn’t do a good job of that.”

The Bulldogs also need quarterback Jake Fromm to be more efficient than he has been.

After a brilliant performance against Florida that saw the junior complete 20 of 30 passes for 279 yards and two scores, Fromm has completed less than 50 percent of his passes in each of the Bulldogs’ last two games.

Against Missouri, Fromm completed just 13 of 29 passes for 179 yards. He did throw a trio of touchdowns to account for all of Georgia’s scores in the 21-14 win over Auburn, yet only completed but 13 of his 28 attempts for 110 yards.

“That’s something we're always looking to do, to not be as predictable. But also, we have to serve who we are, and we have to make sure we can get into those situations where Jake (Fromm) has a chance, whether it's to win it with his feet or if he has a chance to win it with shorter routes or keep them honest on the run in third down,” Smart said. “Obviously, we have to improve in that area, and this will be a big test for us.”

Texas A&M ranks in the middle of the league in most defensive categories.

The Aggies rank fifth in total defense (327.6 yards), sixth in scoring defense (20.3 points per game), seventh in rushing defense (132.4 yards per game), and seventh in passing defense (195.2 yards per contest).

When it comes to defending third down, Texas A&M ranks third in the league, allowing opponents to convert at a rate of only 30.9 percent. Georgia leads the league at 20.4, followed by Auburn at 30.1 percent.

Smart said James Coley and the Bulldogs’ offensive coaches will continue to try and come up with new wrinkles.

“Good football teams do what they do. The best football teams I've been around, they're not tricking you. You don't trick people in our conference. You block 'em. You don't scheme 'em. You find a way to get your best player, or whoever your guy is, a way to be successful,” Smart said.

“I don't know that we can just scheme them up. But we certainly had new wrinkles to the same plays that proved to be successful in that (Auburn) game, and they hit at the right time, because a lot of our drives didn't amount to much. But the ones that did, didn't end in field goals. That's probably more important than having a bunch of field goals. And that proved to be the difference, at least in that game.”