Georgia’s schedule keeps looking tougher

Tempe, Ariz. — After beating Arizona State in 99-degree heat Saturday, the Bulldogs face an even more grueling assignment when Alabama comes to Athens on Saturday: a rare meeting of unbeaten top-10 teams in Sanford Stadium.

Here are five things No. 3 Georgia can take away from its win in the desert:

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Pouya Dianat/pdianat@ajc.com

Freshman wide receiver A.J. Green had eight catches for 159 yards and a touchdown.

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• The Bulldogs should have traveled far from home long ago. Both the team and its fans responded enthusiastically to Georgia’s longest trip for a regular-season game since 1960 and first trip outside the Southeast for a regular-season game since 1967.

Some 15,000 to 20,000 Georgia fans were in the Sun Devil Stadium crowd of 72,955, which — not coincidentally — was Arizona State’s largest in 17 years.

“It was awesome to see our fans out there cheering, making it hard for Arizona State on third down,” Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford said.

• Georgia’s schedule keeps looking tougher. Yes, the Bulldogs are undefeated. But so, at the moment, are five of the next six teams they will play: Alabama (4-0) Vanderbilt (4-0 and nationally ranked after winning at Ole Miss Saturday), LSU (3-0 after winning at Auburn), Florida (3-0 after routing Tennessee in Knoxville) and Kentucky (3-0 but not yet tested by a conference opponent).

Three of Georgia’s next five opponents are ranked among the nation’s top eight teams in this week’s AP poll: No. 8 Alabama, No. 5 LSU and No. 4 Florida.

Desert heat will be the least of this team’s challenges before it’s over.

• A. J. Green is, indeed, a rare talent. Who knows how Saturday’s game might have unfolded if Georgia’s freshman receiver hadn’t caught seven passes for 150 yards in the first half, fueling the three touchdown drives that fed a 21-3 halftime lead?

It would have been a longer, hotter night, for sure.

Green, who was able to exploit the Sun Devils’ coverage scheme, showed his penchant both for getting open and for making acrobatic catches.

“It might have been a surprise to the people around the country, but we knew he was pretty good,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “We might not have been doing a good enough job of getting the ball to him.”

• Georgia’s offensive line remains a work in progress. A reconfigured line had different starters at all five positions than the previous two games and featured two first-time starters, freshman Ben Jones at center and redshirt freshman Justin Anderson at right tackle.

“Better, but I wouldn’t say spectacular by any means,” Richt said Sunday of the line’s play. “We got a ways to go.”

He was noncommittal on whether the lineup will shuffle again this week. “I think on a weekly basis these guys will continue to compete,” he said.

• Alabama will pose a different test for Georgia’s defense. Arizona State knew it wouldn’t be able to run against the Bulldogs — and it couldn’t, gaining just four yards on 19 rushing attempts. So quarterback Rudy Carpenter threw the ball on 36 of the Sun Devils’ 55 offensive plays.

That continued a trend against Georgia. South Carolina threw on 40 of 56 plays and Central Michigan on 44 of 66.

Now comes Alabama, which emphasizes the run.

The Crimson Tide leads the SEC in rushing offense (236.8 yards per game) and is next-to-last in passing offense (150.8 yards per game).

By contrast, Georgia is first in the league in rushing defense (45.8 yards per game) and next-to-last in pass defense (229.2 yards per game).