Defending the offense

The Georgia defense has given up one touchdown and two field goals the last two weeks in eight quarters plus two overtime periods.

The Bulldog offense, meanwhile, exited yet another game Saturday night with questions swirling about its performance, this time after a rain-soaked 21-0 victory against Kentucky.

Those critics—at least publicly—don’t include members of the defense.

“I have full 100 percent confidence in our offense, man,” safety Richard LeCounte said. “I don’t think nothing bad on them. Those guys lift u s up, we lift them up. That’s how a team works.”

Coach Kirby Smart was left to answer for first-year coordinator James Coley and the offense after the Bulldogs 35 passing yards Saturday were the sixth fewest by a non-service academy FBS team this season. Kentucky’s 17 were the second fewest of any team other than Rutgers’ 1 yard against Indiana.

“With the conditions the way that they were, I’m thankful coming out of here with a win,” Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm said.

The Wildcats had a wide receiver, Lynn Bowden, making his second career start at quarterback.

Georgia had third-year starter in Fromm, but on a night of persistent rain and some windy conditions, Fromm said the wet ball affected his ability to throw and the team had to scrap some of its plan.

The Bulldogs played it safe and the result was Fromm going 9 of 12, an average of 2.9 yards per pass attempt. Georgia rushed for 235 yards, wearing down the Wildcats in the second half.

“I don’t think anything about it was about the weather,” offensive guard Ben Cleveland said. “Obviously, our passing game wasn’t really there tonight. So we had to make some changes because of that.”

Georgia didn’t take a snap in Kentucky territory until 6:31 left in the third quarter.

That came courtesy of a 15-yard shanked punt.

The Bulldogs got their first 14 points after getting the ball on the Kentucky 39 and 31, the second after a forced fumble by J.R. Reed recovered by LeCounte at the 31.

“I don’t worry about what’s going on with the offense because whether you worry about it or not, we can’t control, that’s for Coach Coley and them,” inside linebacker Monty Rice said. “That’s what they pay for them to do. Those guys know what they’re doing. They’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m not going to doubt ‘em. The defense is not going to doubt ‘em. We’re going to get behind those guys and keep pushing.”

While the Georgia defense tops the SEC in points allowed, total defense and rushing defense, the Bulldogs are 24th in the nation in scoring offense (36.0) and 20th in total offense (471.3)

It is 68th in the nation in passing and seventh in the SEC at 234.4 per game.

Smart was asked again after Saturday’s game to asses Coley as coordinator for this season.

“Very pleased today, I thought we were extremely patient on offense and in tough conditions,” he said.

Take away the four catches for 35 yards for freshman George Pickens Saturday and the Bulldogs got five catches for zero yards on passes to James Cook, Brian Herrien, Demetris Robertson and D’Andre Swift.

Smart was asked how he feels about the structure of the offense and about Fromm.

“I feel really good about what our offense does,” he said. “I feel good about Jake. To judge it based on that game is just not very smart. It’s hard to judge anything in that game. You can’t evaluate that. What you’ve got to evaluate is what is your heart, what is your courage, what is your love of the game."

Georgia is tied for 98th nationally in passing plays of 20 or more yards, according to Cfbstats.com, with 18, but the Bulldogs are 30th in rushing plays of 20 or more yards with 13 after Swift had runs of 20, 23 and 39 on Saturday night.

All of those were perimeter runs. Georgia used stretch and outside zone plays to pick up its biggest yardage on the ground. Brian Herrien’s 8-yard touchdown run also came on the outside.

“We knew that it was going to be hard to pass the ball,” offensive tackle Andrew Thomas said. “We knew we were going to have to run it down their throat.”

Georgia found more running room outside than in an overloaded box on inside runs.

“We did a great job, guys on the perimeter of blocking,” Fromm said.

The 12 passing attempts weren’t the fewest for Georgia under Smart.

Fromm was 4 of 7 for 101 yards in a 42-7 win against Florida in 2017 and Georgia also attempted 12 passes, completing 9 for 201 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-3 win that season against Mississippi State.

Smart told the ESPN crew that he wasn’t “going to play this game to appease everybody and see the fireworks passing wise if we’re not able to because of the rain or whatever. We’re going to try to win the game.”

Georgia did in part because it had no turnovers a week after four proved fatal against South Carolina.

On Saturday, the persistent rain led to Georgia running the ball on every offensive play but one in the second half.

“We just had to stay together and stick together,” inside linebacker Tae Crowder said.

Some have pointed out that Florida’s Kyle Trask went 21 of 33 for 200 yards with four touchdowns and an interception Saturday in rainy conditions in a 38-27 win at South Carolina, but one person who attended that game said it rained about 75 percent of the time and most of it was light.

Now the Bulldogs get a bye week to keep working on trying to improve its offense before a key SEC East game with the Gators in Jacksonville on Nov. 2.

“That’s two weeks for us,” Cleveland said, “to work and get better at what we’ve got to do.”