Defensive lineman John Atkins made it clear that the Bulldogs upcoming game against the Oklahoma Sooners is a business trip, but the team is not quite focused on their opponents just yet.
The Bulldogs have a tough task coming up as they face the country’s top offense, but they understand they have to continue to improve as a team before they can begin to gameplan for the Sooners. Atkins knows that around this team players can lose sight of fundamentals in-game and right now the Bulldogs are fully focused on not doing that.
“Well we haven’t really been focusing on Oklahoma yet. We’ve been focusing on ourselves right now,” said Atkins. “You see in bowl games missed tackles go up and the fumbles also go up because during this time of year people don’t really focus on that so that’s why we’ve been focusing on that.”
Atkins placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that the Bulldogs cannot lose their bearings when it comes to their fundamentals and they especially cannot let the atmosphere around this game let it get to them. However, Atkins is sure that the Bulldogs will not let this get to them and their experience in other big games this season will help them in this area.
“It’s always special in any bowl game like you’ve earned that right to play in that bowl game, so the Rose Bowl like Georgia hasn’t been there so doing that our last year is really special,” said Atkins. “We don’t really look at the scenery because it’s a business trip.”
The Bulldogs have done a great job this season of not allowing atmospheres like the one they faced as Notre Dame provide a distraction. That trip was alleviated by the fact the Bulldog nation traveled very well and filled Notre Dame stadium with red and Atkins expects that will be the case in the Rose Bowl as well.
Although the Bulldogs are focused on fundamentals and not allowing distractions to take over, it will be interesting to see how this Georgia defensive line group, led by Atkins, will slow down Oklahoma’s Heisman Trophy quarterback, Baker Mayfield.
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