To be so honest, this outcome was pretty unexpected. Just about every Georgia fan was heading into this game with some reason to believe that it would be a bit closer than the actual outcome of a 43 to 20 Georgia victory. But, maybe this team took the bye week to look a little deeper in themselves. With the way both the offense and defense played, it sure looks like it. Smael Mondon said after the game that he “felt like it helped a lot.”
Before this game, Florida was the third best passing defense in the SEC in terms of yards; to this point in the season they had held teams to an average of 187.6 yards per game– letting up about one passing touchdown per match up. These stats are definitely bound to change after dealing with Carson Beck and his crew.
Beck turned up in his hometown of Jacksonville throwing 19 for 28, piling up 315 yards through the air, and not one– but two touchdowns with a Brock Bowerless Georgia receiving core. Without the Heisman-contending tight end, Beck instead turned to everyone’s favorite curly-headed pass catcher, Ladd McConkey– who finally seems to be 100% back from the back injury that was nagging him at the beginning of the season.
Beck and McCoknkey connected 6 times for 135 yards and a score; it speaks to the depth Georgia has and the talent that’s been developed up until this point.
The passing game wasn’t the only taking off though. The ground game had a solid day too with Daijun Edwards leading the way, running 16 times for 97 yards and finding the end zone twice. And on top of that the defense looked like the Georgia of old– old being two years ago, like the 2021 Georgia defense. Schuman’s guys got four sacks, eight total tackles for loss, and forced two fumbles– the first of the year.
Other than the garbage-time yards and touchdowns given up towards the backend of the game, yesterday’s performance definitely feels like something you could write home happy about.
Critics thought this Georgia offense was cooked without Bowers, but after this Georgia-Florida game, Mike Bobo and Co. showed them that Bowers isn’t the only ingredient the Dawgs have up their sleeve.
Smart said it best in his postgame presser:
“It’s not built around one player. It’s really built around the defense.”
And without Bowers and with the defense (in meaningful time) holding the Gators to just one lone touchdown, we can really see this quote live true.
Now after a successful outing in Jacksonville, the Dawgs look onward to next week as their set to host the ranked Missouri Tigers and see if this performance was an outlier or rather an exhibit of them finally living up to the Georgia Standard.