Georgia defense goes viral as opponent recalls their dominance

Everybody remembers Georgia’s 2021 defense and how strong it was, especially those that played against it. The Bulldogs allowed just 10.2 points per game all season, fewer than any team since 2011. Five players were picked in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft including No. 1 overall selection Travon Walker. Two players – Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean – were unanimous All-Americans with each of them also taking home individual awards for their outstanding performance on defense. Simply put, the Dawgs were dominant.

Georgia shut out three opponents, the last of which came in the regular season finale against in-state rival Georgia Tech. Former Yellow Jackets quarterback Jordan Yates took to social media over the weekend to share what that experience was like.

“I hate Georgia with all my heart so it pains me to talk about it, but I’ll tell you how it went,” Yates said, speaking about the week of preparation to play Georgia. “At the beginning of each game week you always meet with your coaches and have a big unit meeting with the whole offense talking about the opponent who you’re about to play. Basically it’s like a PowerPoint presentation type of thing. One of our assistants goes up there, and he’s talking about them like, ‘Yeah, they have a really fast defense, big d-line, linebackers are pretty fast…’ and then another coach who was also in the meeting sitting down was like, ‘Nah! F-that! Tell them how it is Mike! Tell them how it really is!’ So my dog Mike, he just kind of pauses, and he’s like, ‘Well, statistically, this is the best college football defense ever. They’re averaging about 12 points a game, and they haven’t given up a rushing touchdown all season.’ We’re just all looking at him like… They got the point across. If we didn’t know who we were playing, we understood how good they were supposed to be after that.”

@jyates13 Story time #cfb #uga #gt #greenscreenvideo #footballtiktok #greenscreen ♬ original sound – jordan

“Anyways, we get to the game, there’s me, and the best way I can describe playing against that defense is like, the field was smaller playing against them,” Yates continued. “They were so big and so fast that it literally felt like we were playing on not a 53.5 yard field for the width, it felt like the field was probably 30 yards wide. Like when you’re growing up and playing in the street in front of your house and you can’t really go side to side, all you can do is go forward, that’s what it felt like. I had this little 5 yard run on 2nd and 4, I got up and I thought I was him really. Because they were so fast, so quick side to side, getting those 5 yards was tough. That was a big accomplishment in that game. Basically, the way the rest of the game went, I was getting sacked a bunch, we weren’t really getting anything going, you can see I just slid because I had already been hit so many times in that game. I actually finished the game with a concussion, so I just went down. Literally at one point in the game, this is the weirdest trash talk I’ve ever heard in my life, I wanna say it was No. 88 (Jalen Carter), he said the strangest thing to me. He just looked at me and was like, ‘Y’all are so unprepared.’ I was like, ‘Huh?’ Y’all are so unprepared? All the things he could have said at this point in the game, it’s like 45-0 and he’s like ‘Y’all are so unprepared.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘Y’all just don’t like know what’s going on,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t.'”

Georgia would go on to win 45-0 over Georgia Tech, clinching its first 12-0 regular season in school history and first undefeated regular season since the 1980s. While the Bulldogs lost their next time out against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, revenge came in a much sweeter form in Indianapolis with the National Championship on the line. Georgia’ defense held the Crimson Tide to just 18 points and one touchdown, holding Alabama to a trio of field goals in the first half. Then, it was the defense once again that came through at the biggest time for the Bulldogs with a pick-six to seal the deal on the program’s first title in over four decades.