Considering Georgia rolled up 605 yards of offense in Saturday’s 41-31 win against Mississippi State, it sounds odd that head coach Kirby Smart would feel any cause for frustration.
You would not be correct.
“We played good at times and poor, at times. But I can say that every week. It’s like nobody plays a perfect game,” said Smart. “You have to accept that. But’s frustrating because I thought there was a moment of time in the game where we had cut it loose. I think maybe it was 27-10. I don’t remember what the number was, but I’m like man, we’ve got this thing rolling. We were getting after it and playing well.”
Other times, not so much.
Despite the yardage, quarterback Carson Beck said he felt the offense left points on the field.
He blamed himself for one of those opportunities.
Ahead 34-17 and going in for another score, Beck threw his second interception of the game – this one in the end zone – to stop a drive that seemed destined for another score. Mississippi State responded with a touchdown drive of its own to cut the lead to 34-24.
Otherwise, it was a record-breaking night for Beck, who completed 36 of 48 passes for a career-best 459 yards and three touchdowns.
“I love it. Are you kidding me? As a quarterback, that's what you want,” Beck said. “I think a good balanced attack is always nice as an offense when you can run the ball when you want and then pass the ball when you want as well. But the game plan kind of just determined that we were going to throw the ball a lot tonight and we ran the ball when we needed to. We were explosive and the guys were making plays out there.”
Senior Arian Smith led all receivers with five receptions for 134 yards and one touchdown, despite briefly leaving the game in the second quarter when he had the breath knocked out of his body making a 55-yard catch.
“Our offense got on rhythm, did a really nice job with pass throws, and Carson was in rhythm, which was great to get those guys going,” Smart said. “But we've got to continue to get better.”
He’s not kidding.
With the defense struggling against Mississippi State, Georgia needed every point it could score to come away with Saturday’s win.
Although Beck believes the defense will improve, if the Bulldogs have to win games in the manner they did against MSU, he feels they will be up to the challenge.
With top-ranked Texas up next, he may get his chance to prove it.
“We're very capable of going out there and doing that. If we've got to throw it, (throw) it. If we need to go down and score that last drive, we're going to go down and score,” Beck said. “Whether it takes two plays, five plays, fifteen plays. There's been a couple drives the past two weeks where it's been just long, gruesome drives for the defense. We're wearing them down.”
Still, being able to hit some explosives finally helps the feelings of everyone involved.
Saturday’s game saw five different players have plays of 20 yards or longer. Two others – Dominic Lovett and Anthony Evans III – had catches of 19 and 18 yards, respectively.
“It makes it a lot easier when you're going out there, only running three, four plays and getting into the end zone,” Beck said. You're getting big explosive plays. Not just 20-plus, 16-plus. You're getting 50-yard gains. It makes it a lot easier on the offense. They played a lot of zone coverage, but I thought we had a really good plan as far as (Mike) Bobo and selling that throughout the week. We go out there and guys are out there making plays.”
