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Georgia defense still with lots to learn about 'meeting the standard'

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•09/10/22•

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Tony Walsh/UGA Sports Communications

Georgia’s defense was the biggest question about the Bulldogs entering the 2022 season. They lost eight players to the NFL Draft from a defense that helped lead them to the program’s first National Championship in 41 years. There’s got to be some sort of a drop off. Right?

Wrong. At least through two games. Georgia has kept both of its opponents out of the end zone and has allowed just three points in the two outings, including a 33-0 shutout of Samford on Saturday.

“That’s fuel to our stomach and our brains,” Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson said about the outside noise of an expected drop off defensively. “As everyone keeps saying that, we’ve got to keep being the hunting animal that we are … Part of the standard, no one in our end zone, that’s what we say all day every day, so to see that two weeks in a row, that’s pretty good. That’s just a little bit of our standard though, and we didn’t quite meet the standard today.”

‘The Standard.’ That’s a saying we’ve heard quite a bit about Georgia’s defense…

That begs the question, ‘What exactly is the standard?’

“We had a shutout, we converted on third down a lot, more than we did last week. Nobody’s scored on us,” Dumas-Johnson said. “The standard is three takeaways a game. We only had one. So it’s not really the standard we want to play at, but we’re getting closer and closer.”

“I feel like our identity’s still forming. That’s still a question that we don’t have an answer to yet,” fellow linebacker Smael Mondon added. “Our identity really hasn’t been formed yet but I know we’re a group of hard working guys. Whatever challenge that’s thrown at us, I feel like we’re going to attack it head on.”

Kirby Smart will certainly be happy that his defensive players still believe that there’s a lot to learn about the Bulldogs on that side of the ball. Still, shutouts against anybody are something to celebrate. They don’t come around all that often. After all, Georgia’s only had nine of them in the 83 games since Smart arrived in Athens.

“It always feels good, being a defense,” Mondon said. “We pride ourselves on nobody in the end zone, so if we can get away with a zero on the scoreboard, that’s good.”

Kirby Smart’s concern…

Georgia goes into Week Three of the season having only allowed three points. That’s a positive. And in typical Kirby Smart fashion, the head coach found something that still concerns him from the two performances. That is, they’ve only allowed three points and haven’t faced any adversity.

“How they’re going to respond when it gets tough. You know, I mean, how they’re going to respond when it gets thick, when it gets physical, when it gets fast, when they get tired, when they give up a touchdown,” Smart said. “The biggest concern is what the response mechanism and what are they wired with?”

So, if we’ve learned anything about that Georgia defense that lost so many players to the NFL and has been questioned all offseason, it’s that they take after their coach. They’re never satisfied and are always going to find something that can be improved on. Even after a shutout.

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