Georgia kicker Rodrigo Blankenship hadn’t missed a field goal all season but missed his first in Saturday’s overtime loss to South Carolina. That missed field goal was the icing on the cake for South Carolina’s huge win over Georgia.

Georgia dropped their first game of the season losing to South Carolina 20-17 in double overtime. It was Georgia’s first home loss since 2016, and also the first loss to an SEC East opponent in over two years.

The game was very sloppy, with a lot of errors and mistakes. The Bulldogs turned the ball over 4 times. The offensive line gave up four sacks and even Blankenship was not his usual “Mr. Automatic” self.

“We should never be in a situation like that. We’re better than that,” said running back D’Andre Swift. “We practice and I think we can beat every team we play, we just didn’t play to the standard today.”

Despite all the mistakes, Georgia almost pulled off the victory. The Bulldogs’ defense kept them in the game and only gave up one touchdown and a field goal. They also held South Carolina scoreless in the second half. Georgia’s offense didn’t force any turnovers or get a sack, but it gave the offense plenty of opportunities to succeed.

Throughout the 2019 season, Jake Fromm had not turned the ball over. But against South Carolina, he did it four times. He was picked off three times and fumbled a snap.

“That’s a big part of my game is protect the ball,” Fromm said. “When the ball gets in the other team’s hands, that’s not characteristic of me, not characteristic of our team and our offense, and that’s on me.”

Fromm threw the ball a career-high 51 times against South Carolina. He completed 28 of his passes for 295 yards, but those three interceptions hurt his team. Georgia’s offensive line also struggled. It seemed like they couldn’t keep South Carolina’s defensive out of the backfield.

Head coach Kirby Smart shared his thoughts on why Georgia lost even though they were considered as three-touchdown favorites.

“You can’t turn the ball over four times and win. There’s a lot of things we can clean up,” Smart said. “There’s a lot of things we can get better at as coaches, and we’re going to do that … but to turn the ball over and not get any back. We get two back, it cancels some of that out.”

The Bulldogs’ playoff hopes aren’t dead yet, and it seemed like a lot of the players knew they could get better, and that hope is still alive.

“We definitely going to bounce back,” Swift said. “We didn’t play to the standard we needed to play to and that’s what happens.”

Georgia can do that this week as they face Kentucky at home this upcoming Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

Here is the video from Kirby Smart’s post-South Carolina game presser: