Quietly the stalwart during uncertain times on offense for Georgia, the Bulldogs defense would be be put on trial here Saturday.
Was this unit as stubbornly dependable as it had seemed in recent weeks? Or might Florida, with its imaginative head coach and more good receivers than anyone should have to cover expose some weaknesses?
Mixed reviews all around, but the Bulldogs resisted enough, and its offense brought enough heat Saturday to subdue this rival, 24-17.
It was, in short, a transactional defense that Georgia wheeled out Saturday.
“That was the plan going in, we wanted to suffocate the run,” Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said. “Make them one-dimensional. They’re going to hit plays on you. They got as good a group of receivers, I’m telling you, there are four guys who will be playing in the NFL among their wide-outs, and I’m including the tight end.
“We knew that we would have to give something up to get something back. But we felt you had to play for the pass and stifle the run in order to make them one-dimensional.”
Run stifled: Florida rushed for only a net 21 yards on 19 attempts.
Something given up: The Gators passed for 279 yards and a pair of second half touchdowns that made things uncomfortable for just a moment.
The good news, for the defense, mostly lived in the first three quarters.
Before Florida quarterback Kyle Trask hit Van Jefferson on a 23-yard scoring pass early in Saturday’s fourth quarter, the Bulldogs’ D had not allowed a touchdown in its previous 10 quarters, and only one in the past 13. That span included opponents – South Carolina and Kentucky – that were quarterback-challenged as well as a game played in an inspiration-strangling rain. So, maybe credit was hard to come by, all things considered.
Extending that streak into Saturday’s meeting with the Gators, in benign conditions against a foe possessing Dan Mullen and a toy chest full of receivers for him to play with would be more meaningful.
The Bulldogs’ defense expressed itself early and often.
On the Gators’ first possession, on fourth-and-six-inches on the Georgia 40, Florida lined up in the shotgun, empty backfield, determined to throw it. They possessed one of the best tight ends in the land – Kyle Pitts – and were dead set upon using him. But on this occasion, Bulldogs safety Richard LeCounte batted away the little flair pass. Happily working the shorter field, Georgia turned around on that play and drove for an opening field goal.
“A big play in the game was that fourth down to start the game,” linebacker Monty Rice said. “Richard got to that ball, that was huge to start the game. And we got some pressure on Trask, made him read fast and get rid of it.”
From there, more good work.
When next Florida touched the ball, they were quickly staring at a third-and-25 following a sack by linebacker Azeez Ojulari. It was one of two sacks by the Bulldogs offense.
For the first half, the Gators were 0-for-4 on third downs, and just 2-of-9 for the game. That tends to restrict a team’s scoring opportunities.
Witness the power of denying an opponent on third down:
Third-and-1 on their own 18, Florida tried a tricky little draw play that three Georgia defenders decoded – Tyler Clark, Rice and Ojulari swarming Dameon Pierce for a 2-yard loss. And once more, Georgia turned advantageous field position, driving 59 yards for a touchdown to push their lead to 10-0.
Florida seemed to be onto something later in the half, hitting on pass plays of 29 and 23 yards and for the first time getting even inside the Georgia 40-yard line. But again, on third down a play was made: On third-and-8 on the Georgia 21 to be precise, defensive end Travon Walker tipped away Trask’s pass.
Then, on the other side of the ledger:
The Florida offense eventually would have its share of moments. There was some inevitability to that, as it entered the game as one of only three FBS teams with at least four receivers who had caught at least 20 passes, gained 275 or more yards and had at least two touchdown catches. This was an across-the-board test for the Georgia secondary.
Indeed, the Gators completed five pass plays of 20 yards or more this day.
And the tight end certainly impressed the coach across the way. “(Pitts is as good a player as I have ever seen at that position. He is a dominant, freaky, long, hard-to-match-up-with dude, and they have good ways to get him the ball,” Smart said.
They would mount a lightning touchdown drive of 80 yards in less than four minutes to get within 16-10 of the Bulldogs. Trask completed all seven of his pass attempts and Florida gained all but six yards on the drive through the air.
Florida then would drive 75 yards for another touchdown, but at least that burned more than six valuable minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter.
Trask and his many pass-catchers indeed tested Georgia’s best-in-the-SEC scoring defense.
But in the end, Smart concentrated on the pluses of a very big win. “We did a good job up front affecting the quarterback and stifling the run,” he said.
Saturday the Georgia defense also got some help from that sometimes maligned unit known as the Georgia offense. Quarterback Jake Fromm - 20-of-30 for 279 yards, two touchdowns - surpassed the Gators output. And a Bulldogs offense that was able to hold the ball for the final three minutes of a one-score game was some of the best defense this team played all day.
