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Kirby Smart upset with team's tackling at halftime of Georgia-Vanderbilt game

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•10/15/22
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Photo: Adam Hagy / Getty Images

No. 1 Georgia leads Vanderbilt 28-0 at halftime and appears to be cruising toward its seventh straight win prior to a bye week and then the annual showdown with Florida in Jacksonville. Still, coach Kirby Smart wasn’t exactly thrilled at halftime.

The Bulldogs tried to get the ball back for a final drive before halftime, calling timeout with 55 seconds left with the Commodores facing a third-and-12. Vanderbilt converted for a first down, then converted a third-and-6 moments later to really derail Smart’s plans.

“Well the emphasis was to get the ball back for the offense and we had third-and-6 or -7 and we missed the tackle,” Smart said. “You can’t be a good football team if you miss easy tackles.”

Still, a 28-0 lead over an SEC opponent is a good place to be for Georgia following some lackluster games in recent weeks.

The Bulldogs managed to knock off Auburn 42-10 last week but didn’t really pull away until the fourth quarter. That game came on the heels of a 26-22 escape on the road at Missouri and a 39-22 struggle against Kent State.

“We started faster,” Smart told the SEC Network’s Alyssa Lang at halftime. “We still had one wasted drive in there. We’ve got to convert, but they’ve done some good things.”

Georgia dominated Vanderbilt in the first half, opening up a 295-105 advantage in total yardage before the teams headed to the locker room.

Quarterback Stetson Bennett IV was an impressive 18-of-20 for 211 yards and two touchdowns. He’s had to connect, because the Commodores have done a reasonably impressive job bottling up the Bulldogs on the ground so far.

Georgia finished with 20 carries for 84 yards in the first half, averaging 4.2 yards per carry. That’s well shy of the 5.7 yards per carry average the team entered the game with.

Still, everything is going well for the defending national champions.

Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong in the second half of the Georgia-Vanderbilt game, Smart’s Bulldogs will get a chance to head into the bye week unbeaten and with a chance to rest and recover before the annual meeting with Florida in Jacksonville.

Florida and Georgia are slated for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Oct. 29 at TIAA Bank Field, the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the annual site of ‘The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.’