For the first time in what seemed like eons the Georgia Bulldogs played their best football in the first half,
then poured it on in the third quarter, coasting to victory in Starkville.
The final score doesn’t really convey the severity of the beatdown. The Dawgs led 38-7 with 9:57 left in the third quarter before shunting in a steady stream of reserves in the remaining 25 minutes to rest up for next week’s test against the Texas Longhorns.
Gunner Stockton played a tidy football game, completing 18 of 29 passes for 264 yards and 3 touchdowns and adding 31 yards on the ground. Mike Bobo seems to have hit his stride with this offense, having one of those Bobo-type days where he just seemed to have the Maroon defense off balance. The rushing game, the passing game, it all worked on this day.
Nothing worked quite like handing the ball to Nate Frazier however. Frazier ran with patience and explosiveness we haven’t seen from him all season, blasting through the Mississippi State defense for a career-high 181 yards on 12 carries.
Kirby Smart is a confirmed fan of winning “the middle eight”, the four minutes going into and coming ring halftime. Georgia did precisely that. And if you broaden things out slightly to include the touchdown Georgia scored with 5:09 left in the first half and the Noah Thomas touchdown 5:03 into the third quarter the Bulldogs outscored Missy State 28-0 in the “middle ten.” It was, without question, the most complete stretch of football this UGA team has played all season.
The Bulldog defense also did something we haven’t seen all season: applied consistent pressure to the quarterback, including on third down. The Bulldogs notched 3 sacks on the day, a season high. That doesn’t include a pass that MSU quarterback Blake Shapen managed to get rid off despite being misshapen from the blind side by Bulldog edge rusher Gabe Harris. That play ended Shapen’s day, though Mississippi State did find some success late behind freshman backup Kamari Taylor against the Bulldog reserves.
All in all, it was a tantalizing taste of what this team can be if it plays complete football from the first snap forward. It would certainly be much nicer to see that kind of complementary football next week at home against the Texas Longhorns. At stake not only are Georgia’s chances of repeating as SEC champions, but more importantly a chance to all but punch their ticket to the College Football Playoff even if they managed to drop one to the hated Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to end the season.
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
