The Georgia Bulldogs’ three-game winning streak against rival Florida is done. After taking an early 14-point lead, the Bulldogs struggled in all aspects, and the Gators capitalized, particularly on offense, scoring 44 of the final 58 points to defeat Georgia, 44-28.
The Bulldogs have won the last three SEC East titles, but Georgia no longer controls its own destiny in the 2020 SEC East race. Georgia needs to win out and see Florida lose two of its last five games to return to the SEC Championship Game.
In any 16-point loss, there’s plenty of blame to go around the entire team. In our Facebook comment section, DawgNation focused on the coaching staff — mainly Kirby Smart — quarterback play and defensive depth as reasons for the loss.
Stetson Bennett IV and D’Wan Mathis combined to go 9 of 29 for 112 yards with 2 touchdowns and 3 interceptions in the defeat. Both signal callers completed under 33 percent of his passes and threw a pick. Conversely, Gators quarterback Kyle Trask went 30-for-43 with 474 yards and 4 touchdowns with an interception.
No program is going to win many games on the wrong end of that kind of quarterback play discrepancy. However, DawgNation on Saturday seemed most frustrated with the fact that time and again, Georgia has top talent at every position and yet can’t quite get enough from its quarterback to win big games.
Smart received criticism for the quarterback play as well. The coach benched Bennett for Mathis in the second half, but the offense didn’t improve. Meanwhile, J.T. Daniels and Carson Beck continue to stand on the sidelines. DawgNation wants answers at what’s going on at quarterback.
Finally, the defense didn’t exactly shine against the Gators either. In particular, running backs burned the Bulldogs defense on the wheel route multiple times. DawgNation acknowledged the defense is dealing with a lot of injuries but also wished the defensive depth played much better.
Here’s a little taste of DawgNation’s reaction to Saturday’s loss to Florida from Facebook:
