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Athens Banner-Herald
Fire, passion and energy? Not so much for Georgia defense in first half of SEC games
- Story byAthens Banner-Herald
- Fire, passion and energy? Not so much for Georgia defense in first half of SEC games
Georgia football players and coaches talked the talk all offseason about playing with fire, passion and energy.
It hasn't translated into the Bulldogs playing like their hair is on fire, to borrow a football phrase, at the start of games in SEC play.
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Last season, it was the offense that had the reputation for being slow starters.
Now it's the defense which has given up at least 21 first-half points in back-to-back games for the first time in Kirby Smart's 10 seasons in the 44-41 overtime win at Tennessee and the 24-21 home loss to Alabama.
"I think we've put together some really good game plans," coach Kirby Smart said on Monday Sept. 29. "I don't know that we've executed them all the time well. There's a line between execution responsibility, me, coaches, players, everybody's involved in that. But I mean, the same calls that we called in the first half, we called in the second half. We got some stops, and we made some plays. It's not about just calls. It's about execution, putting people in a good position. Sometimes it's playing with confidence, and we got to do a better job doing that."
Georgia has given up 45 points total in the first half the last two games. It allowed 65 points in the first half the entire 2021 season. Alabama had 24 of those in the SEC championship game in a 41-24 win.
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OK, there may never be another defense at Georgia that will live up to the 2021 season.
Not with big money and more playing snaps luring players away through the transfer portal.
There's less depth and less overall talent on this Georgia defense.
It showed when Georgia fell behind Tennessee 21-7 and Alabama 14-0.
It trailed 24-14 and 21-17 at the half in those games.
"We've got to do better at it," defensive lineman Jordan Hall said. "I don't really know why it's happening, truth be told. Our goal during the week is to make sure it doesn't happen. Going through practice and trying to come out with a little more energy. Just coming off the ball, striking people, making plays on the ball when it's in the air. The majority of the time we did get off to slow starts we had long drives and that plays into it."
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Georgia gave up 3 points total in the first half against Marshall and Austin Peay to open the season, but Alabama got points but all but one first half possession.
"You know, there were some guys really upset at halftime, especially defensively," Smart said Saturday. "They wanted to come out and play better. … I don't have an explanation for it. I mean, not starting well on defense. I can't say that, it's not really both sides of the ball. The kicking game, we made some plays. Offensively, we made plays. Defensively, two games we did, the two better opponents we played, we did not execute well in the first. It's really frustrating because we show we can in the second half."
Only 10 times before this season in Smart's time at Georgia have the Bulldogs allowed an opponent to score 20 or more points in a half.
The only other times it happened in back to back games was 2020 when Tennessee had 21 and Alabama 20 and 2016 when Missouri scored 20 and Ole Miss 31.
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Alabama jumped to a 28-0 lead last season in Tuscaloosa, led 30-7 at the half and ended up winning a wild 41-34 decision.
This time, Alabama didn't score in the second half, but Georgia still saw its 33-game home winning streak end.
Georgia can try to start a new streak Saturday against Kentucky .
Georgia sure looks like it could use a pass rusher like Damon Wilson, who transferred from Georgia to Missouri. He's tied for fourth in the SEC with 3 ½ sacks. Georgia has 5 total led by Chris Cole 's 3.
Army transfer Elo Modozie , expected to boost the pass rush, has been used sparingly. He has two tackles and one quarterback pressure this season.
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The Bulldogs rank 13thin the SEC and 91stin the nation in third down defense at 40.7 percent after Albama converted 13 of 19 Saturday.
"We've got to affect the quarterback," Smart said after the game. "We've got to do a better job of affecting the quarterback. I mean, we've got more packages than the man in the moon to affect the quarterback, but we've got to do it. We've got to do it, and we've got to go out there and execute and be able to do it."
Georgia's offense also started slow against Alabama with a three-and-out and then another punt.
"How do you do it better?" Smart said. "Maybe we change something up, maybe we do something different, but at the end of the day, I'm very confident in who we are. The week before on offense, we drove down and scored. The two weeks prior on defense, it was bang, bang, bang, out, out, out. We didn't even play 50 snaps. Now, our opponents weren't great, but we've done it both ways."
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The opposing offenses don't look great the next two games either.
Kentucky, which comes to Athens Saturday, and Auburn are tied for 14thin the SEC in yards per play at 5.28, ahead of only Florida .
The Bulldogs did shut out Alabama in the second half, but it wasn't enough.
"Part of the game is adjustments and I feel like in the second half we do make great adjustments and we do come out playing better football," Hall said. "I don't have an answer why we don't do that in the first half of the game, but I know we're going to do better at doing that. That's what this week is for."
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia nets 21 points back-to-back games 1st time under Kirby Smart.
