Across the South: Georgia showed vulnerability

Every Wednesday, Yellowhammer News presents “Across the South,” a feature on SEC football. There are breakdowns of the previous week and previews of the upcoming weekend.

In this week’s edition, the two-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs showed some vulnerability last Saturday at home against South Carolina.

Now, I’ll say this. Being the two-time defending national champions, Georgia does get a little bit of a benefit of the doubt. Couple that with the fact that they did win 24-14 with an absolutely dominating second half that saw them score 21 unanswered points.

But, for just a minute there, Georgia looked vulnerable on both sides of the ball. Gamecocks’ quarterback Spencer Rattler moved the ball up and down the field en route to a surprising 14-3 halftime lead in a game where the Dawgs were favored by four touchdowns at home.

Was this simply a sluggish performance by Georgia, or a legitimate cause for concern in Athens?

It’s hard to say. Georgia hadn’t faced a real opponent through the first two weeks and appears to still be figuring itself out. You can make the case that it was a good thing for this team to face some adversity and have to make a second half comeback.

It took less than 8 minutes for Georgia to reclaim the lead in the second half, scoring on their first drive, forcing a quick Gamecocks three and out, and then going right down the field and scoring again.

Once Georgia took the lead, South Carolina really had no chance, struggling against the Dawgs defense for the remainder of the afternoon.

Holding an offense scoreless in the second half that it did not have many answers for in the first half was an extremely impressive effort from Kirby Smart’s group.

But when the opponents get tougher, the Dawgs must get off to a faster start. The simple fact is that South Carolina is not a very good team, and Georgia outplayed them as they should have in the second half. But a start like that against an opponent that is on their level may not be as forgiving.

Ultimately, Georgia will be fine. Their only real test in the regular season is a road game at Tennessee, who is coming off a beatdown at the hands of a Florida team that is suspect at best. That being said, if the Dawgs hope to make history and three-peat, the effort they produced on Saturday will not be good enough.