Each week during the season, we re-watch that week’s Georgia football game in order to gain more insight, observations and just plain make sure we didn’t miss anything. This week there was nothing quite like being inside Notre Dame Stadium, where Bulldogs fans basically took over and watched their team pull out a 20-19 victory. But after navigating travel issues and a hurricane, this reporter watched the TV version of the game. Here are some observations:

GEORGIA’S DEFENSE

Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy really start to emerge in the second half. That’s when Carter in particular kept making plays. Their collective first half was more quiet. It seems that Georgia’s entire defensive strategy eventually wore down Notre Dame’s blockers, and that’s when Carter and Bellamy pounced, their athleticism proving dominant.

The underrated play of the game may have been midway through the third quarter, a first down when Bellamy ran around Notre Dame left tackle Mike McGlinchy, applying pressure to force an incompletion. Notre Dame was driving, and a touchdown there would have made it 20-10. Instead the drive stalled after that play.

What’s so impressive about those two guys is that on that final series, Georgia was rushing four-on-five, saving its numbers for the back end — and Bellamy and Carter still broke through.

But the takeaway from watching is the number of Georgia defensive players who deserve plaudits.

Roquan Smith was so good. No. 3 was seemingly always on the screen, wherever you saw the ball going. That’s just football intelligence, a nose for the ball, whatever you want to call it, Smith has it. An example: On a rare occasion when Irish quarterback Brandon Wimbush did fool Georgia’s front with a handoff, Smith was the one player who saw the call and raced to the sideline, bringing Wimbush down for a short gain.

It was also pass coverage: Smith had good coverage on a third-and-3 pass on Notre Dame’s opening drive, staying in the passing lane and forcing an overthrow. That’s the kind of play that doesn’t appear in the stat book but is a big contribution toward keeping points off the board.

When Notre Dame popped that 33-yard gain on a delayed screen in the second quarter, setting up its lone touchdown … yeah, Smith wasn’t on the field. Smith also isn’t on goal-line so he wasn’t on the field when Wimbush outran the defense and scored Notre Dame’s lone touchdown of the night.

Another Notre Dame big gain — a 32-yard pass to the tight end — came when Georgia rushed six, leaving the secondary somewhat exposed. That was on second-and-long. Georgia had far better success in pass coverage when it protected the secondary, such as a third down later in that same drive, when only four rushed and a short screen was snuffed out.

Dominick Sanders made a brilliant play on Notre Dame’s opening play, the flea flicker that would have been a 75-yard touchdown pass if Sanders hadn’t knocked it away. Not only did Sanders knock it away, but he saw what was happening about 25 yards downfield, sprinted down and had perfect timing on the knockaway. Amazingly, you don’t see Sanders look up to see the ball coming in, he’s just watching the Notre Dame receiver, and uses that to know when to throw his arm out. Sanders may have run his mouth before the game, but on the very first play, he did indeed punish them from the start.

Deandre Baker had a very good game in pass coverage.

J.R. Reed was everywhere, too. In fact, if it weren’t for Carter, Reed may have had the tackle of the game — an open-field one on Wimbush with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, just before the first-down marker. Notre Dame was ahead 19-17 at that point. Reed has really come out of nowhere to be a mainstay on the defense.

And I’m glad we wrote so much about Walter Grant in the preseason, as he also looks like the real deal: He was getting a lot of snaps for a true freshman, and did well. There was a third-down play early in the fourth quarter where Grant initially ran past the play, but quickly turned and caught up to make the tackle before the marker. Notre Dame settled for a field goal, and who knows what happens if Grant doesn’t make that play.

GEORGIA DEFENSIVE STRATEGY

After watching the game in person, the first pregame highlights you saw were of Wimbush running designed runs through open holes against Temple — and you knew that wasn’t about to happen against Georgia. Kirby Smart and Mel Tucker gameplanned to prevent that, and their players masterfully followed that plan. There was great discipline by Georgia’s linebackers and secondary, their first priority not letting Wimbush, Josh Adams or any ball carrier get outside.

For instance, on the second play from scrimmage, second-and-10 and a passing down, Reed let the slot receiver he was on go right by and just keyed on Wimbush — who he tackled on an option run for a 2-yard gain.

Georgia used this base defense a lot: 3-4 with the outside linebackers standing on the line, ready to pass rush or run contain./Dawgnation)

Georgia went with a lot of three- and four-man rushes on passing downs, being careful not to overplay the rush, waiting to pounce on option runs and delayed screens. That was a big reason Notre Dame was just 3-for-17 on third downs.

Georgia was in the 3-4 a lot, but with the two outside linebackers hunched at the line it’s basically a 5-2-4. That was the alignment, for example, on a second-and-long on the second drive, against a Notre Dame seven-man front. (The result was an incompletion.) And sometimes one outside linebacker dropped back and one rushed, such as on a third-and-long when freshman OLB Walter Grant brought down Wimbush for a long loss. (Great instincts by Grant not buying the fake and staying on the quarterback.)

The result on a lot of these plays is not only was Wimbush kept in the pocket, as Georgia intended, but the pocket was pushed very quickly.

Notre Dame’s first big pass play was on play-action against a five-man front. The guy was wide open. Well, you didn’t see the five-man Georgia front much after that. At most it was three down linemen with the edge rushers standing up.

It’s the obvious alignment against this type of offense, but easier said than done: You need big linemen who will get a push in the middle, quick athletes to win outside battles and keep contain outside. Georgia has both.

GEORGIA OFFENSE

Remember last season when it was said in some quarters — like here — that Georgia should use the shotgun and spread more, because its quarterback is more comfortable in that setup? Well, Georgia became just that in this game … even though the quarterback was different. 

Here was my best attempt at charting each Georgia formation, and the result of each play. (Note: Yardage gains may be approximate, as may be some descriptions of play formations. I’m trying to get this posted before my power goes out): 

Note: On a lot of those shotgun sets the tailback was off-set a couple yards from the QB, so it was quasi-pistol.

Georgia did a lot of pistol-like formations, with backs offset./Dawgnation)

As you can see, Georgia is employing a lot of different sets, moving the tight ends around a lot. And the tailbacks varied their spots, too, more often a couple yards in back of the quarterback. While the formation that was most used — three-wide, one back — the placement of the tight end and tailback in those formations often changed.

We’re not sure if this is what Jim Chaney meant by freshening up the offense, but it definitely doesn’t look like last season. One wonders if this shotgun-oriented approach was planned for Jacob Eason, who has a better deep-ball reputation. Speaking of which …

JAKE FROMM’S STARTING DEBUT

Fromm didn’t play well, and he didn’t play badly. He wasn’t as great as some thought he would be right away, based on his debut against a weaker opponent. But he also wasn’t as overwhelmed as others expected, and frankly was better on second viewing than I thought when I first watched on Saturday night.

Take Terry Godwin’s 31-yard catch in the first quarter: At first glance it looked like an underthrown ball that Godwin should get the credit for, but on re-watch Fromm pump fakes and it looks like the ball is probably thrown as designed. (If Godwin was asked about the play design after the game, I wasn’t there for it.) If that is the way it was designed, good job by Fromm as well as Godwin, but it’s also a risky play to call for a true freshman quarterback. If the defenders don’t bite on the pump fake, it very well could be a pick.

Jake Fromm unleashes a pass against Notre Dame Saturday. (Getty Images)/Dawgnation)

The Mecole Hardman bobble and drop in the third quarter should have been a catch, but Fromm was a bit short on the throw, and if he had hit Hardman in stride it’s an easier catch. The two were also close to completing another deep ball early in the second quarter, and Fromm’s pass was almost in stride and probably should’ve been caught. Perhaps a more experienced pass-catcher hauls that in for a long gain.

The definitely bad: The interception, late in the first half, was just a bad decision, the ball practically landing in the Notre Dame linebacker’s lap. Fromm did sail a slant pass to Godwin on the third drive that was eminently completeable.

On the muffed handoff fumble, it did look on replay that Fromm was supposed to get it back, and the ball stayed too long in Nick Chubb’s tummy before Fromm tried to pull it back. And little-noticed in real time, but a handoff to Sony Michel in the second quarter was also nearly muffed, with Fromm giving it to him too high. The ball was still moving when Michel was hit, but he held on, and a few plays later Georgia scored.

But end with the good: Fromm hit Javon Wims on that very vital completion to set up the game-winning field goal. And Fromm also got Georgia in and out of a lot of different formations, and ultimately guided the game-winning drive.

The tendency here, and I thought this on Saturday night, is to say that a healthy Jacob Eason would have hit on more intermediate and long passes, stretched the field, and Georgia would have won easily. But much like it was unfair last week to assume Eason would have kept struggling if he hadn’t been hurt, it’s risky to assume Eason would have that this week.

It was Fromm who played, and while it wasn’t great and there were mistakes, he got the win.

GEORGIA’S OFFENSE IN GENERAL

Probably not breaking any new ground here, but the interior blocking could have been better. Georgia didn’t get much push up the middle on those runs – the tailbacks very rarely get past the initial pile – and there was leakiness in the middle of the line on some pass plays. This may be another week of tinkering at the guard spots. It may also still be tough to gauge how things will look with a fully healthy Solomon Kindley at right guard. But considering that Pat Allen, the starter at left guard in the opener, wasn’t in the rotation this week, that means both guard spots apparently remain unsettled.

Michel looked like he got frustrated with the blocking on one run to the outside that got stopped for a 1-yard gain.

Sony Michel had some good yards on Saturday, but they weren’t easy, and he looked frustrated at times. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)/Dawgnation)

And it wasn’t caught on camera, but during the game Isaac Nauta was clearly frustrated after a third down that didn’t convert.

Predictability? Sometimes it’s good, sometimes not. Georgia went with basically the same formation two plays in a row, the first one losing 4 yards on a screen to Swift that was snuffed out, but then a run by Michel for 13 yards. But in the third quarter Georgia went with the same basic formation — three-wide, one tight end, one back — on three straight plays, and the result was no first down.

Hardman’s Wild Dawg run, which lost 2 yards, only had one blocker to the side Hardman ran, and he was easily brought down. The idea behind the call is to catch the defense over-selling to the other side and burn them with Hardman’s speed, but on that play Notre Dame wasn’t buying it.

Finally, remember all that up-tempo last week with Fromm? It didn’t happen this time until late. And even then it wasn’t very consistent. Kirby Smart wasn’t asked about this after the game, and Fromm and Chaney aren’t made available, so we can only guess. Perhaps with a new starter, and more plays given to that new starter, they wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page as to what those plays would be — receivers run the right routes, blockers know the right calls — rather than go up-tempo.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

FINAL THOUGHT

This wasn’t the hardest game on Georgia’s schedule, and my inkling heading into the game was a Georgia win. That doesn’t mean this isn’t a big victory. It instills confidence in a team coming off a disappointing season, and all you have to do is look at the schedule and know that this team has time to work out some kinks. Kirby Smart said after the game: “Notre Dame is better than they were last year. And so are we.” We’ll see about the first part of that statement, and as for the Georgia part, there’s part of us that think back to that win at Missouri last year, under similar circumstances and at almost the same point in the season.

But with a defense this salty, and special teams that definitely have improved, let’s put it this way: Do we know now with confidence that Georgia is an SEC championship or playoff contender? No, not yet. But do we think with confidence that it’s a better team than last season? Yes.