Georgia Football Is Back To The Standard On Defense

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ATHENS - It didn’t take long for the Georgia Bulldog defense to start creating havoc on the Florida Gators.

After a tough loss to Auburn two weeks ago, Kirby Smart has his defense hungry over the weekend. Hungry to hit the field against a wounded Florida offense, looking to get back to the Georgia Bulldog standard.

And boy are they back.

The Dawgs played violent, aggressive football from the start, creating early turnovers while making play after play in the backfield. They feasted on the Florida offense all game long and put the game away with a 66-yard fumble return touchdown by Chris Cole.

The turnover battle was key in this game, and the Dawgs won that battle easily.

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“That was a big play in the game,” Smart said of Cole’s touchdown. “It was a huge momentum play because it's really a 14-point swing. But that's football, right? If you get sacks, then you get turnovers. Most fumbles occur on sacks. We got pressure on the quarterback. We affected both quarterbacks and I think anybody will tell you, if you can't run the ball, and they struggle to run it, it makes you one-dimensional, and then everybody gets to feast and rush the passer.”

The Bulldogs sacked the Gators four times during their dominant 27-8 victory. They also created consistent chaos against the run, making 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. The knew what was coming, played sound gap assignment up from, and got excellent play on the edge.

The plan was to contain Gator running back Jadan Baugh, and the Dawgs executed their plan to perfection.

“I felt they had a good plan and it was an effort deal,” Smart told reporters. “They stayed behind the sticks. Even when we gave up throws, we got them on the ground quickly. No yards after the catch. They helped us.”

“I was really proud of them,” Smart added. “They worked really hard. The most proud I was was the red-area stop down there, and that was huge because we needed to win in the red area some. We've worked really hard on the red area.”

“But it was a disruptive game plan,” Smart continued. “The defensive staff did a tremendous job and tried to keep things simple because Buster (Faulkner) causes a lot of confusion. We didn't do a whole lot. We kept it simple and played fast, played hard. They had a chip on their shoulder to try to control the run game with less. And once you do that you fill up some lanes, some throws, and I think it disrupted the quarterback.”

Georgia’s defense played at an elite level on Saturday, but they’ll have a much tougher test this weekend against Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebels. The Dawgs will have to play disciplined with their eyes and be fundamentally sound in their tackling, as Chambliss is coming off a big day against Auburn where he ran for 65 yards and a touchdown.

As for Georgia, the Dawgs now rank second in the SEC in total defense, giving up an average of 272 yards per game. They rank first in scoring defense, giving up just under 15 points per game.