Georgia sees guys step up all around with Brock Bowers sidelined

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Georgia’s offense faced a big challenge on Saturday taking on Florida. For the first time in his career, Brock Bowers was unavailable. Sidelined after having tightrope ankle surgery just last week, Bowers was with the Bulldogs as a leader, but forced to watch as others did their thing, leading UGA to a 43-20 win.

“I told people, this offense, I mean, it’s not built around one player. Since Bobo was here before and had success offensively and Todd Monken was here and had success offensively and Coach Monken left and Bobo came — like, it’s not built around one player. It’s really built around the defense. That’s the beauty of it is that you don’t have to have just one guy,” Smart said. “Brock is certainly extremely valuable because you can scheme plays to make him the guy. Well, today they were plays we’d run with Brock that were just somebody else in those spots. And it’s not always Delp. I thought Delp did a tremendous job, especially momentum early in the game to go up and make that catch that he made. But Brock knows that. Brock’s over there to support those guys.”

Bowers, who was averaging 81 yards a game, saw his receptions replaced by the likes of Ladd McConkey, Dominic Lovett, Oscar Delp and others. McConkey hauled in six passes for 135 yards, tying a career-high, and a touchdown. Lovett added four grabs for 83 yards while Delp, Dillon Bell and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint each had multiple receptions too.

In total, eight different receivers caught passes from Carson Beck, who went 19-for-28 for 315 yards and two touchdowns.

“I’ve tried to say every single week that we have plenty of guys who can make plays. Obviously we miss him a lot, he’s a great player, but we have so many guys that make explosive plays and execute,” Beck said. “The plays are going to look a little bit different. We have a lot of plays where we’re trying to get the ball to 19. We’d be stupid not to, so with him out, it definitely changed the offense a little bit but we have so many guys that can make explosive plays, make guys miss on the perimeter, even the run game was huge for us tonight. That opens up the pass game ultimately.”

Bowers’ absence is expected to continue. He had the surgery on October 16th. Typical timeline for recovery would put him back in early November, anytime between the 6th and 13th on the early end. Later is entirely possible too.

Kirby Smart joked on Saturday that bringing Bowers with the team to Jacksonville was just as much about getting eyes on him and making sure he rehabs as it was for leadership. So, while the rehab continues, the production from other players will have to too.

“I think it came at the right time, right? With Brock out, had Ladd step up and make plays,” Smart said of McConkey. “We’ve gotta keep him healthy because he’s such a weapon. He’s such a competitor. The yards after catch is what he gives us that a lot of other guys haven’t done. He catches it and runs with it, and he does a tremendous job. But hey, you’ve gotta give the O-line a lot of credit for the protection to get it to Ladd and the quarterback for making some plays. That third-down play he made was really special.”

“Oscar’s great. He didn’t feel any more burden. We told him he wasn’t going to play anymore snaps than he normally does. He was going to go out and compete and work hard,” he added on Delp, who stepped into the TE1 spot. “Lawson Luckie gave him a blow, and hey, that’s why you recruit guys. You bring them in to play, and I wouldn’t say that he’s (Luckie) exactly ready for it. He got hit a couple of times in the run game, but he’s going to have to get ready for it. I’m talking about Lawson, not Oscar. Oscar did a tremendous job. He’s a very physical blocker, and the one handed catch he made over on our sideline kind of got momentum going.”

It wasn’t just the pass catchers either. Daijun Edwards found the end zone twice, totaling 95 yards on 16 carries. Kendall Milton added 55 yards and a touchdown on 13 touches. Georgia’s defense brought down Graham Mertz four times, totaled eight tackles for loss and forced a pair of fumbles. With six straight drives facing five plays or less, two of which gave Georgia the ball in Florida territory, the defense helped spark the offensive outing as well.

“We came in with the idea of focusing on the mindset of mission, team, me. We wanted to put the mission first, the team first and me last. We had a lot of guys do that today,” Smart said. “We knew if we did it together, we’d put ourselves out there, and we knew we’d play winning football.”

“I feel this team is improving; we’re getting better but we’re still not where we need to be,” he continued. “I’m proud of the competitors that went out and fought today for our university. I was proud of our fans, they supported us even though we did not start the way we wanted to. But we responded and played well.”

Georgia is back in action next Saturday, at Sanford Stadium for the first time in almost a month. The Bulldogs host No. 16 Missouri with the top spot in the SEC on the line. Kickoff time is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.