It wasn’t the prettiest win, but it was a win nonetheless, and it was one had by the Georgia Bulldogs against their much hated in-state rival the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. 

Watching Georgia these past couple weeks towards the back end of their regular season, it’s felt like the Dawgs had finally come into their own. Starting with their game versus Ole Miss, a fifty-two to seventeen route at Georgia’s very own Sanford Stadium. The same momentum appears to follow the team into Knoxville, Tennessee where Georgia silences Neyland Stadium and “Rocky Top,” beating the Volunteers thirty-eight to ten.

Now headed into the final game of the regular season in Georgia Tech, you would have thought the Georgia team heading into Atlanta would have a good sense of themselves. A team whose defense compliments its offense and vice versa. But no. They were a team that was rattled by an unranked Georgia Tech. Yes, the rivalry stands, but if this team’s going to play Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide next week, this was not the performance you wanted to see. 

The Yellow Jackets were different yesterday, and it’s because they’ve gotten a good bit better since the last time these two teams faced off. 

Georgia Tech did a couple of things yesterday that threw the Dawgs for a loop and definitely turned the heads of plenty of Georgia fans in the process. Tech was very much present in the trenches; both sides of the ball were impressive. 

The Bulldogs threw the ball about a third less than they usually do and you can credit that to Tech’s defense doing it’s job disrupting the pocket and getting to Carson Beck. This game featured multiple interception scares from Georgia’s Davey O’Brien semifinalist– one of which actually wound up becoming an interception in the end zone. 

Now on the defensive side of the ball, multiple players came out saying after the game that they didn’t feel like they had played to their “standard,” and the numbers whether you like it or not, the numbers speak to that. In total Georgia allowed 205 total rushing yards, two of Tech’s runners went for over fifty yards, and overall the Yellow Jackets were able to average 4.7 yards per carry against this Dawgs’ defense. 

The team didn’t seem very satisfied with the victory. In fact Javon Bullard went as far as to say that he didn’t even celebrate it and the fact that the Governor’s Cup was going to stay in Athens. But even though a lot of “standards” weren’t met today, the Dawgs did what Coach Kirby Smart had been preaching all season. 

Yesterday, the Dawgs took a couple punches. And they kept taking punches until the near end of the fourth quarter, but they stayed true to themselves and exhibited that they knew how to throw punches back. When the moment called for it they stepped up. When they were scored on, they answered back. When a stop was needed, a stop was had. 

This team just knows how to find a way, and hopefully they keep it up with the giant they have to face next week in Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.