Georgia football: Dawgs show no signs of drop-off vs Oregon

Georgia football didn’t look like it had lost a bit of its championship form in a lopsided win over the Oregon Ducks.

Georgia football fans can rest easy — for at least one week — because the No. 3 Bulldogs didn’t look like they’d lost a bit of their championship form in a lopsided win over the No. 11 Oregon Ducks.

Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham went no-huddle, fast-paced offense to open up the game, and while there were some pockets of success, Georgia’s speedy defense was up to the task, picking off quarterback Bo Nix twice in the first half of the game.

The visibly pro-Georgia crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta made things difficult for the Oregon offense from the start of the game on, and only got louder as the Dawgs began pouring it on the Ducks.

Facing his former team, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning had no answers for Stetson Bennett and the Georgia offense, and the Bulldogs kept the normally high-powered Ducks out of the endzone for the entire game. There was visible displeasure for the Georgia fans in attendance when the Ducks put a field goal on the board with just under four minutes to play in the first half.

Georgia football fans enjoying the Kenny McIntosh show

The rumors of the Georgia running back room’s demise were greatly exaggerated. The bloodline is still strong thanks to the efforts of junior tailback Kenny McIntosh, who finished the day with just 18 yards and one rushing touchdown on five attempts but more importantly caught nine passes for 117 yards out of the backfield.

This is the new Georgia offense, and while the rushing numbers may not look like the days of old when the Dawgs would toss-sweep and dive play their way into ungodly rushing totals, the importance of running backs in this system is still crucial.

When an offense can run any screen play successfully utilizing a running back, it makes defending that offense difficult on a new level. McIntosh caught screen passes, quick outs, and little shuttle passes, making him the most versatile weapon on the field.

McIntosh was a do-it-all man for his team and his quarterback today, and opposing defensive coordinators now have one more multi-tooled weapon to worry about.

Stetson Bennett? Yeah, he’s still good at football

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett still hasn’t won over a lot of Bulldog fans despite winning a lot of games and…oh yeah…a national championship. For those who were unsure about the decision to keep Bennett in as the starting quarterback, we hope you were paying close attention today.

Bennett was a machine, leading six drives for six touchdowns (including running one in himself) and was a perfect eight for eight on 3rd down conversions. He was more than the “efficient game manager” that many believed him to be on this day, going 25 of 31 for 368 yards and two touchdown passes.

And while Bennett deserves a lot of credit for simply doing what the does best (win games) the fact that his offensive line gave him all the time he needed to work through his progressions and find the open man can’t be undersold. This was probably the best opening-game performance by a Georgia O-line in over a decade.

Oregon was simply no match for the reigning champs

While Oregon may have been ranked a little too high as No. 11 in the first AP poll of the season, this was a quality FBS team being led by a former Georgia defensive coordinator that Bennett simply dismantled at every turn.

Is he the best quarterback on the roster? None of that matters as long as he keeps leading Georgia to victories. He’s the best quarterback on the field in nearly every game he’s played, and that’s what Georgia needs to win.

The 49-3 win by the Bulldogs was the largest margin of victory in the history of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game, beating the 42-3 mark set by Alabama over Duke in the 2019 edition of the game. Congrats, Georgia. You just beat Alabama again.

This was an exhibition by a championship team that, despite losing 15 players and a top-notch coordinator, showed they are still the team to beat and the reigning champions.

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