The No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs pulverized their arch rival in the Florida Gators on Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, 42-7. Here are the three big takeaways.
In one of the marquee games from Saturday, the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs not only covered the 14-point spread, but routed their arch rival in the Florida Gators to the tune of 42-7 down in Jacksonville. Georgia improves to 8-0 on the season, while Florida is in free-fall at 3-4.
Georgia scored 21 points in the first quarter and never looked back. Florida was unable to find pay dirt until three minutes left in the fourth quarter when the game was well out of reach. In a major SEC East rivalry game, it was a total blowout and the Dawgs are gonna celebrate tonight!
Here are the three biggest takeaways from Georgia’s dismantling of Florida down in Jacksonville.
The SEC might get two teams into the College Football Playoff: Alabama and Georgia. We still have a lot of football left to be played, but, yes, the SEC would be getting two teams into the College Football Playoff: Alabama and Georgia. There is no way around that.
These two SEC traditional powers are on a collision course towards meeting in the SEC Championship Game. While Alabama will be favored, it could go either way. Georgia is really good. Along with the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten, these three schools will be the top-three in the initial College Football Playoff poll that will be released on Tuesday night.
Frankly, if both Alabama and Georgia are 12-0 entering the SEC Championship, maybe the loser of that game still gets in? We’re seeing greatness out of Georgia this season. This looks to be the best team the Dawgs have had in well over a decade. Kirby Smart has his alma mater’s program humming. This team is legit.
Sacksonville in the college game? Why not? Georgia dominated this game with its ferocious pass rush. Seemingly every play for the Florida offense had at least a handful of Bulldogs defenders in the Gators’ backfield. Georgia had a sack party at the cocktail party and it was amazing.
Of course, it happened in Jacksonville, home of the 2017 Sacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars have taken the AFC by storm with their own brand of ferocious pass rush. Jacksonville has two 10-sack games already on the NFL season. Unbelievable.
Not to say that the Dawgs had as many sacks as the hometown Jaguars, but the Georgia front-seven got whatever it want in the Florida backfield. Gators starting quarterback Feleipe Franks spent three-quarters of the day staring up at the sky after Georgia rag dolled him all afternoon down in Jacksonville.
Florida’s offense is beyond broken and everybody knows it. It took until garbage time late in the fourth quarter for the Gators offense to find pay dirt. Florida’s offense is worse under head coach Jim McElwain than the deepest, darkest nadir of the Will Muschamp era in Gainesville. It might cost McElwain his job.
The passing game is non-existent in Florida. It might as well become a triple-option like the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of the ACC. Oh, how things have changed down in The Swamp since Tim Tebow was the Gators starting quarterback.
Next: Top 25 NFL players from SEC
The running game carried the Gators on Saturday but didn’t result in many points. This Gators team drew a ton of laundry from false starts and couldn’t complete the simplest of passing concepts. Florida has no idea what it is doing on offense. Are we looking at a season where the Gators don’t even make it to a bowl game?