ATHENS — There have been stretches this season where Georgia has resembled a great team. There have been times when they’ve been sub-standard as well.
But to this point in the season, it’s undeniable that Georgia has yet to play a complete 60 minutes.
More than anything, Kirby Smart wants that to change this week. No better time to play your best game than on the road against the No. 1 team in the country.
“I want to see them play their best game against Texas,” Smart said. “I mean simply, stated, we have not played our best game. We have not put a complete game together, and that’s what every coach’s goal is. Right? To play your best game moving forward. That’s what’s going to be needed to go on the road at Texas and play. We got to play better and that’s the only goal I’m thinking about right now, how we play this week.”
Playing an A game is easier said than done against a Texas team that is dominant at just about everything. The Longhorns have won all of their games by double-digits and that is with starting quarterback Quinn Ewers missing multiple games with an injury.
Ewers returned to the lineup last week against Oklahoma and Texas cruised to a 34-3 victory.
“I mean, it’s a great team,” running back Trevor Etienne said. “They play hard, play physical in all three phases of the game, so I’m expecting this to be a hard-fought battle.”
If Georgia is to play a more consistent brand of football it starts with the offense. The Bulldogs have topped 30 points in each of their last three games and showed moments of being explosive.
But Carson Beck also has multiple interceptions in two of those three contests and Georgia was lacking in the explosive play department in the win over Auburn.
“I mean, we definitely wanna get better each week,” Etienne said. “And that’s something we strive to do as a team. But I feel like, no, we haven’t played a great game of football offensively yet. And that’s just, that’s something we gotta keep working at and get better at throughout the season.”
Some of the offensive struggles can be attributed to the level of competition Georgia has played to this point in the season. Clemson and Alabama both currently rank in the top 10 of the AP Poll, while Kentucky was able to pull an upset win over Ole Miss.
Texas has wins over Oklahoma and Michigan, but those wins look far less impressive than they would’ve in the preseason. Michigan ranks 110th in the country in yards play, while Oklahoma comes in even lower at 127th.
For all that has been made of the Georgia offense to this point in the season, the Bulldogs rank 17th in yards per play. By a wide margin, Georgia’s offense will be the best that Texas has seen to this point in the season.
And for as much hand-wringing as there has been with the offense, Georgia did still finish with 605 yards and 41 points against Mississippi State this past week.
“We’ve just continued to develop and get better each and every week,” Beck said. “And I think that’s something that we’ve done so well year to year is continue to develop, continue to get better, and as that chemistry kind of meshes — as we find our groove — I think it’s definitely hitting at the right time.”
Georgia has not yet played up to its standard this season. It speaks to how absurdly high that is, where Georgia can be both disappointing and one of the best teams in the country.
If the Bulldogs are to get a win on Saturday, they’ll have to be at their best against the No. 1 team in the country.
There’s a belief Georgia could do it. But there might also have to be an acceptance that this is just who this Georgia football team is. And Texas could be yet another data point.
“Our issues have really been inconsistency, not depth,” Smart said.
