ATHENS – Stetson Bennett had another far-from-perfect day as Georgia’s quarterback, but he got it going when he needed to and sprinkled in a little more run game on Saturday in a 42-10 win over Auburn.
The sixth-year senior from Blackshear finished with 272 total yards on 22-of-32 passing and 64 yards rushing. He was sacked once for a nine-yard loss and turnover.
Coach Kirby Smart was especially happy for Bennett’s 64-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
“It was a great call by Monk,” Smart said of offensive coordinator Todd Monken. “It was a good, designed play and they were in what he expected, so it worked great. It wouldn’t have been explosive if he wasn’t a really good athlete. It proves again that he’s multidimensional and hard to defend because of the things he can do.”
It topped the previously long run of Bennett’s career, which was 30 yards against Auburn last year.
Bennett was less sharp throwing the ball. He missed at least three open receivers on deep balls and finished with 10 incompletions. Two of them would have been long TDs to Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey.
“He was a little high on them,” Smart said. “We’ve got to help him. We hit those shot plays in practice. If he hits on any one of three we’re sitting here talking about how explosive we were. … We put a lot on Stetson. We ask a lot of him.”
Bennett revealed he was playing with a sore shoulder on Saturday. But the Bulldogs definitely were glad to have him. Arkansas and Kentucky were among teams to lose Saturday because they were missing their starting quarterbacks, and Alabama came extremely close to falling to Texas A&M with Bryce Young sidelined.
Here are five things we learned Saturday:
1 Daijun’s day
Like it did at they end of the Missouri game, the Bulldogs went to Daijun Edwards a lot in the run game in the second half on Saturday, especially when it got near the goal line. The 5-foot-10, 201-pound junior from Colquitt County ran for three touchdowns and actually reached the end zone a fourth time, though the play was nullified by penalty.
“He does a really good job around the goal line making people miss,” Smart said. “He’s elusive but not so much explosive. He does a great job. He’s probably not going to break off a super-long run, but has a lot of positive runs. It’s hard to tackle him for a loss.”
Edwards was actually Georgia’s second-leading rusher on the day with 83 yards on 12 carries. Freshman Branson Robinson led the Bulldogs with 98 yards on 12 carries. He also scored on a 15-yard run.
Both Edwards and Robinson got more work that usual Saturday because Kendall Milton was sidelined in the first half with a groin injury.
2 Defensive demolition
Auburn center Brandon Council infamously predicted that the Tigers were going to demolish Georgia with its run game. As it turned out, it was the Dogs’ defense that did the demolishing.
Auburn managed only 93 yards on 25 carries, a 3.7-yard average.
Asked if they were inspired by Council’s comment, Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson just laughed.
“Oh, yeah,” said the sophomore linebacker, who added five more tackles to his team-best season total of 29. “Players saw it all week. The coaches never really hit on it, but, you know, you reap what you sow, and we made sure they were at their worst today. Our theme was strike and attack.”
Georgia’s defense shut out an opponent in the first half for the third time this season. The Bulldogs entered the game ranked fourth nationally in points allowed per game with 10.8, and that dropped to 10.66. Auburn’s field goal came after it gained possession at the Georgia 19 following a fumble. The Tigers scored on a 62-yard pass play late in the fourth quarter.
Georgia’s defense dominated despite missing several key players due to injury. They included defensive tackle Jalen Carter (knee) and linebacker Smael Mondon (hamstring). Junior Rian Davis got the first start of his career and finished with four tackles.
3 Not so special
Georgia’s special teams play Saturday was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the turning point of the game might’ve been when the Bulldogs thwarted a fake punt by Auburn in the final seconds of the first quarter. On the other, kicker Jack Podlesny had a rare miss on a field goal attempt and punt returner McConkey nearly had another muff, instead quickly recovering the mishandled catch at the Georgia 43.
The whole game turned when the Tigers decided to run a fake a punt at the end of the first quarter. At that point, Auburn had already punted three times when it faced fourth-and-6 at its own 34. The Tigers’ snapped the ball to tight end John Samuel Shenker, playing the up-back. But his run into the left side of the line was sniffed out by Nolan Smith, who dropped Shenker for a two-yard gain. The Bulldogs scored their first touchdown less than four minutes later.
Georgia also got a 38-yard punt return from McConkey. That should see the Bulldogs move up from eighth in the SEC in that discipline. Kearis Jackson had a poor kickoff return of 16 yards and Brett Thorson averaged 41.4 yards on five punts, with all five pinning Auburn inside its 20.
4 More like it
A week after the redzone woes of Georgia’s offense became a major point of discussion, the Bulldogs responded with a perfect day. Georgia not only went 5-for-5 in the redzone, all five scores were touchdowns.
“We were disappointed as an offensive line that we allowed that to happen,” redshirt sophomore center Sedrick Van Pran said of the touchdown-scoring difficulties of the last two weeks. “For us, it was just a matter of us going out and making a statement. How do we get this team going back in the right direction and making sure that everybody’s positive?’ So, we just went out there and executed our jobs.”
Georgia failed on only one scoring opportunity, and that came on its third possession when Podlesny missed a 47-yard field goal try to the left. But that did not count as a red-zone opportunity as the Bulldogs only reached the 21-yard line.
It looked like Georgia had gotten inside the Tigers’ 15. However, tight end Darnell Washington was called for a personal-foul blocking penalty on what would’ve been an 8-yard Kendall Milton run for a first down. Instead, the Bulldogs were backed up to the 36-yard line.
One of Georgia’s scores came from well outside the red area. The other five TDs came on runs of 1, 1, 2, 7 and 15 yards.
The Bulldogs head into the seventh week 35-of-36 on redzone scoring opportunities with 24 TDs and 11 field goals.
5. Starks’ heavy heart
Freshman safety Malaki Starks was playing with a very heavy heart Saturday.
Starks was a close friend of Elijah Dewitt, the Jefferson High wide receiver who was tragically killed in a Lawrenceville shooting this past week. Starks also played at Jefferson.
“We did talk to him about it,” Smart said of Starks. “He was very close with (Dewitt). Our thoughts and prayers are with the Dewitt family. But Malaki’s parents reached out to us and let us know he was close to (Dewitt). Malaki handled it very maturely and did his job today.”
Starks appeared to have nabbed his third interception of the season late in the third quarter and officials initially ruled that he had. But the play was overruled by video replay, with officials stated Starks was still bobbling the ball as he stepped out of bounds near midfield.
Instead, Starks added another pass break-up to his worksheet, giving him four this season. He also had two tackles, giving him 25 for the year, second only to Dumas-Johnson.
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