Snap Judgments: Georgia shows some fight in Tuscaloosa

Georgia had no business getting out-classed like it did in the first half of Saturday’s loss to Alabama. It also had no business climbing back into it and taking the lead. A loss is a loss the Bulldogs engineered one of the weirdest ones I’ve ever covered a little while ago. Below are my initial thoughts.

*** Really just can’t believe Georgia even got back into that game. There’s no excuse for how bad UGA was on both sides of the ball in the first half. I do think that Kirby Smart saw they were close to something offensively in the first half when he said what he did going into the break.

What got Georgia into that hole is a concern and it will be until the Bulldogs can string together a few fast starts in a row. The defense was completely lost early and the offense couldn’t get out of its own way.

I saw a potential four or five loss team fall down 28-0 and then saw one that I think can beat anyone in the country come all the way back before letting it slip away. I personally view the response as a pretty incredible one.

*** As Georgia strung together scores to get back in the game, it was pretty clear that it was forcing the issue a bit. It was getting defensive backs in tough one-on-one situations and letting players go get it. Carson Beck was putting the football where it needed to be in those situations.

We saw Georgia do some of that with little success to start the game but that, too me, appears to be the offense. The Bulldogs need to be a play-action, shot-play offense that gets comfortable in the middle of the field from the jump. Despite the result, I thought the start was better in terms of the plan. The execution was just awful.

*** Beck can’t turn the football over like that. I’d be surprised if we don’t hear him say it on the record. Three of those four turnovers were about as bad as they could be and the fourth ended the game. We saw what the Georgia quarterback has to offer on the high end tonight and it’s pretty great. He should be more consistent than we’ve seen this season.

*** I have no clue what’s going on with Nate Frazier. I just know he didn’t play much, if at all. I haven’t heard about there being any issues and he made the trip. Trevor Etienne ran really hard tonight and fought hard in pass pro. Cash Jones came up with a couple of really nice plays when Georgia needed them.

*** The receivers really stepped up in the second half. Arian Smith‘s drop on the opening possession was massive. That was a chance for Georgia to snag some momentum early in the game and there weren’t many. He came back to make some massive plays in that game and his block on the big play to Dominic Lovett, the one before Smith’s touchdown, was a big play.

I feel like we saw some pretty good stuff out of five Georgia wideouts tonight. Anthony Evans stepped up as did Colbie Young. I thought he could have been more competitive with that football in the air but he was off balance.

*** The offensive line really held up well with Georgia going so pass heavy late. Alabama knew it was coming and the Bulldogs were able to give Beck time. If we see these two teams again, I wonder if we don’t see Georgia try to run it at little sooner because I think there were some scheme advantages in that part of the game.

*** The interior of Georgia’s defensive line didn’t get tested much. I thought some guys flashed like Nazir Stackhouse and Christen Miller, but Alabama didn’t come downhill much. It was a lot of attacking on the edges. The Bulldogs worked hard in the pass rush. That jumped out to me.

On the edges, that was a bad first half from Chaz Chambliss and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins. CJ Allen wasn’t great, either. Allen bounced back to have a tremendous second half. Georgia fit so many runs poorly in the first half and once it started fitting them correctly, the tackling got better.

*** I do not understand where all of the easy throws came from in the first half. To me, that was as big of a deal as the outside runs in the first half. I feel like everybody in the Georgia defensive backfield did a few things well but all of them got humbled, too.

When Alabama’s trying to get the offense rolling in the fourth quarter and Georgia is playing off-man coverage against an intermediate over route, that’s just too easy. Either the cornerback, Daylen Everette in this case and he did not play well on the whole based on what I saw, is playing it wrong or they’re just conceding that route because there’s no way to play it.

The Ryan Williams touchdown came down to Julian Humphrey just not being able to find it. It wasn’t a great throw or an insane catch. It was, however, an incredibly run after. He’s a tremendous player without question. It’s a really tough play for a defensive back but one Humphrey knows he has to make if he’s gonna make a lot of money playing this game.

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