Latest / Dawgs Down South / Episode 122: Arkansas Recap, Frazier and Canion Injury Report, Week 3 SEC Power Rankings

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Episode 122: Arkansas Recap, Frazier and Canion Injury Report, Week 3 SEC Power Rankings · Dawgs Down South

• Ted Turner: Readings, everyone. Welcome to Dogs Down South. I'm your host, Ted Turner. Glad to be with you tonight on a Sunday night. Well, the Dogs took care of business. SEC Opener versus Arkansas. Georgia 45. Arkansas 17. This was our SEC Opener. the Dogs went into Fayetteville for their first SEC game of the season. And Georgia left Razorback Stadium with a convincing Forty-five seventeen victory. wasn't necessarily the prettiest game in some avenues. A lot of people would look and say that would be the end of the game. but we're I mean, obviously we could see last week that Kirby was not very happy at the end of the Western Kentucky game as he was bringing players in to, you know, get some reps and just kind of figure out if some of these players were gonna be able to help us during the regular season. how they were gonna be able to help us and so forth and so on. And, you know, giving up the twenty points, seventy to twenty was I mean, seventy's a big number, but I'm sure people were kind of scratching their head going, Man, twenty points, Western Kentucky. And then you look at Arkansas and, you know, this game wasn't that close. I mean, you look at forty five seventeen, this was thirty eight to three actually before the backups came in. And Georgia dominated dominated the line of scrimmage for the most part all day. ran the football extremely well. controlled the clock, held Arkansas to just seventeen rushing yards throughout the day. But, you know, there are also some things we're gonna go back to and talk about tonight. I know that, you know, Dog Nation wants to know some questions. They want they want to hear some questions answered. And I'm gonna do my best tonight to do that. So obviously this is, you know, we're we're heading into tomorrow's Monday and we're getting ready for Oklahoma week. Which is a whole nother story because, you know, if you to take took me back three weeks ago and we were coming into this week, this was a circled week where this was gonna be a very tough game. And I think this still will be a tough game. but a lot of people that are looking at Oklahoma right now are kind of questioning what's going on with them as well. so but here here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna break down some things. What went right, what went wrong, was Georgia a lot a lot of, you know. People were like, was Georgia too run heavy? why didn't Gunnar Stockton throw the ball more, maybe, was some questions they asked. did the pass defense actually struggle? How much pressure did Georgia generate? and you know, what did Kirby have to say about the performance? So before we hop in, let's let's look at some final numbers, statistical numbers. Georgia, 45 points obviously, 464 total yards of offense, 254 rushing. Two hundred and ten passing. that's interesting, right? For a lot of dog fans who were hopping on the Facebook chats and things of that nature. pretty decent balance. I know a lot of people would look at it and be like, where do those two hundred and ten passing yards come from? but I personally think we were we were very balanced. I think we're gonna get into s to parts of this breakdown that I think were were maybe we should have been a little bit less predictable as far as what we were doing, but I think after what we hear from some of the things Kirby said, it makes more sense. 22 first down, seven of eleven on third down, one of one on fourth down, six of six in the red zone. It's extremely impressive. on the road, first episode SEC opener. And I understand it's it's Arkansas, and people are people are like, we should be killing Arkansas. And it's like, if you look at it, it was honestly, it was total domination. Arkansas 17 points, 300 total yards, 17 rushing yards was the key in that. 283 passing yards, 18 first downs, four of eleven on third down, one of two on fourth down, three for three in the red zone. Georgia averaged 7.4 yards per play, while Arkansas averaged just 4.8. that's the story of this game, really. You know, Georgia was much more efficient, I think much more physical. So for the most part, I I believe that you know statistical value and what we came out of Arkansas with, I think Kirby was pleased with. Now, let's hop in real quick and let's answer some questions. Right. So what went right? as we dive into this part of tonight, also letting you know, I I will share my my power rankings for week three at the end as per usual. So so what went right? obviously I think the running game was very, very dominant. If if you go back and you look and you re-watch the film, you're gonna see a an offensive line that was very, very dominant all day. a lot of people are asking like, what was the deal with the run game? Why were we so heavy on the run? I mean, can we not pass the ball? What happened to these explosive plays and all these other things? But I think it's an incredibly good job of scouting from Georgia. I mean they saw what Utah was able to do versus Arkansas the week before. And Georgia came in and was even to do a better job of it because of, in my opinion, better athletes, you know, a better, a bigger offensive line, more probably a stronger offensive line. I think we dominated all day long. Now, let's speak to really quick. since we're on the terms of offensive line and the run game, a lot of viewers out there were asking, you know, they were like, man, The offensive line got dominated. They look terrible. We need to, we need, we need to work on the offensive line. It looks horrible. If you really go back and you look at the sacks, okay, one of those sacks happened. Okay, it happened. I get it. It happened. but two of those sacks were, if you look, you can see they're lining up six, seven blitzers. We got Five hats on six or seven, right? The first one that happened when we were in the red zone, Gunner's gotta Gunner's gonna make that arrow. He's gonna make that throw to the corner of the end zone, right? So if it's five blocking six, he's gonna get a hot, he's gonna have to get rid of the ball. He can't pump, he can't keep the ball in his hand. That had nothing to do with the offensive line. Zero. That's that's a numbers game. And we knew the numbers game. So right there you have to you have to take. what the defense is giving you and and it and it and it gave that seed. Same thing later on. It's it's another whole scenario where we know hat for hat we're not going to be able to block what's coming. Has zero to do with the offensive line needing to improve in pass protection. It has everything to do with scheme and making sure that we're on point with what has to happen if we're going to keep those plays. Now, if you look throughout the game, I think what you're going to see is is you're going to see that Gunner actually changed the play at the line of scrimmage multiple times when we were in passing formations. And he has a lot more leeway to do that this year. So to answer the question about the the run versus the pass, I feel like you have to dive into what is Gunnar seeing and what plays are called and how much influence does he have to change the play at the line of scrimmage. Are they gonna coach him up on that? Or there's some shots we probably should have taken, maybe. And we did. We really did. There was some really explosive plays. I mean, the opening play of the game, lost some lucky, we just missed. He fell down. It was a PI, maybe. but right out of the gates, first play of the game, we were we were trying to break one. We were trying to hit an explosive. still got it for 19 yards. but I feel like what some people are are not looking at is that. Gunner has more control of the offense this year. He doesn't have to step up there. He doesn't have to run the play that's called. They have more confidence in him this year to be able to do that. but when you look at the running game, how dominant it was. Georgia ran the ball 42 times for 254 yards, averaging about six yards per carry. And here's the crazy part. If you remove three sacks from Gunnar Stockton, Georgia's rushing production becomes even more impressive. Two hundred seventy nine yards on thirty nine actual rushing attempts. It's a seven point two yards a carry, which is incredible. Nate Frazier obviously fourteen carries, seventy five yards, one T D. Everybody looked at Nate and and, you know, obviously was like, Man, what's going on with Nate? You know, and I I think Kirby was very, very upfront with it. He's like, Look, he's dinged up a little bit, he could have come back, but there's really no reason to bring him back and You know, Chauncey steps in, goes eleven carries, thirty nine yards, and scores three times. And Chauncey ran really violent, right? I think Nate and Chauncey are really running at a high level right now. I think Nate's gonna be fine. I I think everything that happened was precautionary measures. I think Isaiah Canyon as far as injuries go. I think he's gonna deal with a little bit of a of a hamstring. I don't know the severeness to it. I'm sure Kirby will give that give us those details on tomorrow during his press conference, but Obviously Gunnar broke that ninety seven yard. he had ninety seven rushing yards, broke the big one for I think sixty two yards in the second quarter. biggest play of game, in my opinion, as far as an explosive. maybe maybe you could consider the one to Dandridge was explosive as well, because it's not normally the same way we see it. But you know, Kirby said Stockton, you know, his ability to run, you know, makes him a weapon because many of those plays, you know, begin as drop back passes and they turned into explosive runs and I mean Gunnar just took what they gave him all day. And that's something too that, you know, we have a lot of fans out there that you have to understand like what you want and what you see from a game is not necessarily how it's always gonna go. y you guys tune into other teams at other parts of the day, you know, and you see some of this stuff going on and, you know, I'll pick some teams right out of the hat this past week that typically would put up a lot of points. I mean you look at Tennessee. I mean Tennessee still put up a lot of points, you know, but I felt like that game was a lot closer than it should have been as well. You know, Tennessee has a very high powered offense. I think you look at what even Oklahoma was supposed to be this year. I mean, geez, Mateer, the run game was supposed to be better, the offensive line was supposed to be improved. They spent all this money on on the offensive line through N I L and you know Satania and the these receivers and man, the offense is really really struggling for Oklahoma right now. And and you know, you look at the points they put up, and I think you can go back and look at like Texas AM, who I mean there's some offenses out there that are just you thought would look different even this past Saturday. But honestly, Georgia's just looking at how can they scheme to make sure that they're game planning against the team they're playing, and it may always not look very great to you. But they're gonna do what they think is best to win the football game, good, bad, or indifferent, right? And so if it's not this big explosive air attack, and a lot of our viewers, a lot of Georgia fans that were on the the the the meet the boards on Saturday, I think you just got overwhelmed with the fact of Kirby wants to be more explosive, he wants to be more dynamic and pass rush, things of that nature. So it's going through your mind, it's looping through your brain, and you're like, why am I not seeing this? Why is You know, why we predictable? I heard well, we're predictable again. They couldn't stop they couldn't stop the predictable. So it doesn't really matter. could we have popped a couple plays, play action? I agree. But I think that Gunner felt like that's not what was given to us. And and I'm fine with that. I know Kirby's fine with it. I felt like I I wanna I wanna pick this up because I said something about it, but Chauncey really showed up like when when three rushing touchdowns, physical decisive, like finishing drives. I mean, this is with Nate running a little bit different and Chauncey really showing a different level even for him this year, that one two punch is going to be very, very dynamic for Georgia this year. I think we haven't even begun to see how we can use them this year. so that was cool to see. Kirby Smart called him a violent runner who likes contact. He seeks it. That's exactly what saw Saturday. It was incredible to see that from Chauncey. And you know, Georgia didn't get cute. when they got near the goal line. I mean, you saw Zakai, Zakai Hilton that run lining up at fullback, and we're running straight at the we're running straight at Arkansas. So I think another thing that went really well was the defense completely shut down the 17 yards, 20 rushing attempts against any SEC school is an incredible number. Okay. We're fixated on these passing yards. But guys, we gotta remember it was 38 and 3 before the the second and thirds took over. 38 to three. You know, well I would tell you that if if Kirby leaves the ones in, people are gonna be pissed because like, look, you know, Nate's already been out, Canyon's already been out, why are the starters in? And then we we put these, you know, backups in to get some quality time versus an SEC opponent, they give up a few, you know, they give up a few touchdowns. And I mean, is Kirby okay with it? No. He actually if you look at him when some of are coming back towards the sideline during some of those reps when the touchdowns were scored. You can see his lips saying it's that was embarrassing, right? So he's coaching them. He's coaching them all the way to the end. These guys are young. They they they gotta learn. A lot of a lot of those guys are I mean, you heard it. Although we have the most returning players, I think probably top two, top three in the SEC is returning players. There's still a lot of youth on this team. A lot of youth, a lot of talent, but a lot of youth. Georgia averaging only, giving up zero point eight five yards. Per carry. Even if you remove Georgia's three shots, Arkansas still produced only forty-five rushing yards and seventeen actual rushing attempts, averaging about two point six yards per carry. Arkansas simply just couldn't run the ball. once Georgia took control, Arkansas became increasingly dependent on the passing game. were there some underwhelming looks in the passing game? A few times, I mean, everybody was a little bit thrown off by the twenty one zero right before halftime drive that you know, lending them three points. You know, I thought we sat back in a soft zone. I didn't like the call, but I understood it was like, Look, you know, we're coming out, we have the ball, we don't want to give up an explosive play to them. So we would much rather keep everything underneath and stay locked in for a field goal. They got it. It is what it is, but once again Like the 17 points at the end of the game, the three points at the end the half was just kind of it kind of felt tarnishing, right? What about the pass rush? Let's talk about the pass rush. Georgia finished with three sacks. Three sacks came from Justin Williams, Raylan Wilson, and Valdine Sohn. Georgia also had four credited quarterback curries in the official play by play. Now, Arkansas had three sacks. Two credited quarterback curries. It isn't a game where Georgia, like when you look at it on film, it's not gonna be a game where you're like, Man, we got a ton of pressure. I mean, Kirby said in his press conference, he said, We have to continue to find ways to get pressure, right? I've heard I heard people in my group text, you know, rich man text me in my group text and he was like, you know, we're getting manhandled. We're we're or let me just let me let me say the right thing. We're not getting a ton of push. Okay. I think when you look at some of the ways that we were taking Arkansas on, I think some of the blitz packages and the schemes don't bear a lot of fruit towards what the eye looks like it's happening. But I feel like when you break it down and when you really look at the tape, we got some good push. We got some great stunts. We had some great things happen. I think I think we had to still send people that we didn't want to send, but I think we got good push. If you go back and rewatch it, I think we I mean three sacks were I mean, we were looking for ASAC last year in some of these SEC games. Yeah, I said it ASAC. So if fans are a little bit, you know, underwhelmed with three sacks, still a SEC offensive line. This team was I mean, is it it in my I mean, it's the team in the bottom of the barrel, the bottom of the SEC for me. But still, I mean I think Arkansas has a pulse. I mean, they were better than the the first two teams we played in. I mean, if you look at some of these SEC teams, they had some problems this weekend versus teams that I mean were not near the caliber of Arkansas. Just put it that way. but one of the things Kirby Smart said was he had to improve on it. He said we didn't affect the quarterback enough defensively. He also said Georgia needs to get better at running the ball. passing the ball and rushing the passer. So it's like, well dang, Kirby, like what did we do well? but that's just Kirby, right? That's Kirby's always going to keep it a buck and be like, look, it's early in the season. We have things we can work on. we can better ourselves. but he was very proud of this team, very proud of us going on the road. Some of these guys playing together on the road for the first time. Was it this electric, crazy, hostile atmosphere? No. But it was an SEC stadium and it was a weird game time. I mean, you're technically kicking off at eleven a.m. and I thought Georgia came out, I thought Georgia came out very well prepared. and they got a win. So a lot of people are gonna ask, did Georgia run the ball too much? I mentioned it earlier, but I want to just reassess this. Okay. Georgia took advantage of something that was scouted very closely, and it was going to help them win the game. I think a lot of viewers that look at these games and listen, I'm just repeating this from earlier, that listen to the talk of we're gonna we want to be more explosive this year, these wide receivers. All we've been hearing is wide receivers, tight ends, explosive. Gunner throwing the ball deep. We get fixated on the fact that Georgia is and and will always be under Kirby Smart and Mike Bobo. They will be balanced, very balanced. A lot of you say, Well, we well, we weren't really balanced. We ran the ball way more than we passed, of course. But you have no idea how many of those plays Gunner backed out of that were passing plates. You also did see a good bit of explosives. Okay. I saw a couple of really great throws. to our tight ends. obviously the explosive to Craig Dandridge. that everybody was kind of going, okay, there it is, right? we had some explosives in the quarterback play as far as making some you know, you saw the sixty two yard run, you saw Gunner taking what the defense was giving him. Those are all explosive plays. And even though we don't we don't like to we don't like the look of them, like we can't see we can't sit there and be like, Well, what are we doing? Right. I think for the most part, I mean, I challenge you, go back and watch the tape. Go back. If you have a streaming service, go back, click on it, and watch it again. There's some really good stuff going on on the offensive line. there's some great, great wide receiver blocking. Just great wide receiver blocking. There's some great special teams team stuff going on. I don't know if you guys heard it, but you know, obviously when London Humphreys tipped and blocked the punt. Kirby said it's part of his NIL deal. It's part of his NIL deal. The more special teams he plays, the more money he gets NIL wise. Apparently he has to ask the kid sometimes, just, hey, take a break. Because he's everywhere. He wants to be everywhere. He's a winner. And we're going to need those guys. Those guys are going to be called on and needed throughout this season. It's going to happen. So it was, it was really good to see. Some of the solidarity all around. A couple of great catches from Craig Dandridge, obviously. a lot of things in the mix of the wide receiver room and the tight end room, people get just enamored with this, like, be careful too from the first two games. You know, you saw 15, 17 different players catching the ball. You guys are like, where's Jaden Riddell? Where's where's that? It's like it it's just not. It's not gonna be that every game. And you're looking at going, well, if it's not Arkansas, then win. I mean, Arkansas gave us they gave us the run all day long. And if you look at it, you got Ar you got Oklahoma, you got Alabama around the corner, Auburn, you got Vanderbilt, and then you and then you go into another, you know, Meat and Potatoes, Florida, Ole Miss if your schedule. we don't have to put anything on film, we shouldn't put anything on film. and maybe that's it. Maybe I I think the hot take that I want fans to know is is when you look at this game and you're looking and you're thinking, you know, why didn't we throw the ball more? Why why weren't we more explosive? Why didn't we get, you know, things down the field quicker? We we ran the ball way too much. Explosives are not just deep passes. Okay. And I know it. You wanna see something that's really, really cool. You wanna see this, I don't know, this high powered potent offense. And they didn't have to do that on Saturday. They they we were able to line up and the offensive line manhandled the defensive line. And they did manhandle. Manhandle. I mean, go back and watch the film. I think our I think the I can of this out there is it's like, man, we got sacked couple of times. Okay. Okay, but two out of three of those were there was there was more hats than we could block. And you're gonna have to play hot. And Gunner pumped Gunner held the ball too long one time. The second time was an obvious breakdown. And the third time was against the second string. So third string. So, you know, it is what it is. but There's an important part to all this. Kirby Smart doesn't necessarily see it any way that anybody sees. He explained that several of Georgia's runs actually started as pass plays. I'm gonna repeat this. Several Georgia runs actually started as pass plays. In other words, I I said it earlier, Stockton changed the play. his basic message was the defense dictates the play, and that makes sense when you look at the results. Georgia was getting huge chunks of yardage on the ground. Huge. so I mean question to the fan base is why do we abandon that? Just so that you can see explosive plays. I I I don't agree with it. even when you look at should we have thrown more. You know, you bring in yeah you bring in the Oklahoma conversation. You know, better defense coming to town obviously than Arkansas. Gunner was ten of thirteen. the big stat for Gunner is, and I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm going give you a wild statistical measure here. Gunner has thrown nine touchdown passes and only seven incomplete passes up to this point in the year. I repeat, he's thrown nine touchdown passes and seven incomplete passes. That's crazy. That's a crazy good stat. And I particularly like when he does throw the ball, I like where he's putting the ball at. What we're not seeing is him just throw the ball all over the place and he's missing. And he just looks like, man, if we gotta throw the football, we're in trouble. No. I think if we need to throw the football, we're gonna add a layer to this offense that just gonna be it's gonna make us even more deadly, in my opinion. Stockton was ten of thirteenth, one forty seven and a T D. Ryan Pukleesey was seven of eight. Sixty-three yards and a T D combined. They seventeen of twenty-one for two ten with two T Ds. excellent completion percentage for these guys. Excellent completion percentage. the problem isn't that George couldn't throw the ball. The question was is They didn't need to. I mean, the well, the answer was they didn't need to. will it be I mean, against better defenses like in Oklahoma, will they? Maybe. Yeah, of course. but Arkansas was giving Georgia opportunities to run the ball. Georgia was taking it. Oklahoma may be a different challenge, but Georgia allowed Stockton to take some some hits in this game, but he also allowed him to dictate what he saw and give him the freedom to make the calls to put us in the best opportunity to win. When you take away even the the extra touchdown, you take away the two touchdowns that were blunders towards the end. It's a 38-3 game. And that's that's how the ones finished it. And so now, when you look at what our fan base caused a big concern, okay? probably the three sacks will be something that comes up over and over and over. Kirby acknowledged that the offensive line does need to improve. However, I do feel like that just because the quarterback's getting sacked, hear me out on this. I'm not saying that allowing your quarterback to get hit is right, but I am saying that the quarterback has to help himself out, right? Just like he's taking what the offense is, I'm sorry, that taking what the defense has given him, you have to take what the blitz is giving you as well. Obviously, he wasn't just, it wasn't coverage sacks. These were, these were, you knew it was, it was happening. Pressure was there. But the line, go back and watch. The line wasn't getting overwhelmed. I mean, when you gotta block more hats than you have, and at some point in time the receivers, the chips, the running backs, the quarterback. Main the main thing in the red zone when Gunnar took that play was it was hot immediately. It was six on five. Six hats on Arkansas to five hats on on Georgia. And it was gonna hot it was gonna be hot and the arrow was open. It was wide open. The running back was wide open, going towards the end zone. So Gunnar's got to throw that ball. but he didn't. He kept it and that's why we ended up taking a sack. it's something to watch closely though, because I do agree that you don't want to see that from an Arkansas team. But guys, there's a there's a couple of guys in the o that Arkansas defense gonna be playing on Sundays. there are good players on every team, regardless of if this team is not a top five team or not in the SEC. They had a couple of really good players on defense, I thought. That were strong, that were fast, that were that caused some problems. They're gonna cause problems in against anybody this year. Now that doesn't mean that the defense is gonna be just this lockdown defense. They're gonna have some good players that are gonna make some plays. Georgia can't afford to lose the sack battle. they can't afford to lose the the yardage battle as well, especially coming in against Oklahoma team that's gonna be very stingy. on defense. This is a good defense coming in. but let's just be honest. Like did the pass did the pass defense really look that bad? Arkansas threw for two eighty three. Sorry, I transitioned in my notes. but the question is on defense as far as what went right and wrong is you know on the wrong piece did the pass defense really look that bad? there was some, you know I think the box score you know, needs some context in my opinion. the number everybody's gonna see is the 283 passing. And yes, giving up 283 passing is is is is an ideal. but when you look at those, you know, when you look at those yards, Georgia's defense forced five punts, a turnover, a turnover on downs, and a fumble recovery. And Arkansas's first eight possessions produced five punts, a turnover, and a turnover on downs and a field goal. so this wasn't a defense getting shredded from the opening whistle. I do think we gave up a few, like we said, right before halftime. I feel like we gave up some throws on th in the third quarter, and I definitely think we gave up some throws in the fourth quarter once the backups were but a lot of that production came after Georgia had established a huge league. At one point, Georgia was ahead thirty eight to three. Remember, I said that. so we acknowledge that it was a good time. to get some of these backups in against an SEC opponent, which is huge on the road, which is huge. so I wouldn't look at 283 passing yards and automatically say the secondary had a terrible game. Okay. But there is something to watch. George needs to create more constant pressure. I think that will help. Will continue to help. you know, and and we if we play better quarterbacks, you know, that could become a bigger issue. And I and I and I s I see it. But I don't really think I come out of Arkansas very concerned like people like some fans are that the sky's falling because of the pass rush or the inability to stop the pass. and Kirby himself identified pass rush as something that Georgia continues to need to improve on. a couple of players of the game. I'm gonna give some players of the game out and we're gonna talk some like final thoughts of the game and then we're gonna give our I'm gonna give you my power rankings for week three. I thought Nate Frazier could have ran for a hundred yards, obviously, before Kirby just kind of said, Man, we're good. but he left the game seventy five yards after scoring a touchdown. He scored a touchdown in every game this year. and obviously I'll repeat this, you know, Kirby said Frazier could have probably came back. He was dinged up, probably could have came back, but everything was out of precaution. I don't think on tomorrow to George Presser we're gonna hear anything different. With the game under control, there's no reason to take any more chances. I thought Chauncey was I I I said it earlier, I thought Chauncey was incredible, deserved definitely deserves a game ball. I think I think he was the offensive player of the game. three touchdowns, physical runs, finish drives. gave Georgia exactly what they needed. when we as far as dominating the line of scrimmage, I think it was inevitable that the run game was very, very hot. the guys that were that were carrying the ball were getting chunk plays every single time. That's hard to do against any SEC opponent. So let's let's not let that you know get swept under the rug too too far. And then Craig Dandridge, I thought on offense was explosive as well. Four catches, 74 yards, had 61 yard touchdown from Gunner Stockton. Kirby praised Dandridge that says the kid's very intelligent. He's tough. his ability to make plays after catch is huge. it's a role that's gonna grow much more for him this year. You know, you look at who can get these the you know the balls in space and become explosive and it could his role could continue to grow for Georgia, especially with the possibility of not knowing a lot about what's going on with Isaiah Canyon. and then obviously I I feel like on defense, I feel like Justin Williams I played a really good game. it's really good to see that kid have a solid game. recorded a sack, was part of was part of a defense that completely eliminated Arkansas's rushing attack. But like I saw nineteen in every play on on Saturday. So kudos to Justin Williams. Really fast kid, really smart, really intelligent kid. so I thought he did a really, really good job. really quick, you know, Kirby's press conference. You know, what did Kirby think? What did he say? I said, you know, it's my my favorite part is to hear Kirby. He's I think a little bit more upfront about a lot of comments on the post game pressers than he is on the weekly press conferences on Monday. I think it's a little more driven around the game. but, you know, he he wasn't interested in in really celebrating, you know, the victory and pretending that Georgia played a perfect game. although he he prized the team in winning because they work hard to and when they get wins, they should be celebrated, but His mind is always focusing on man, we could have done this, we could have done this, we could have done this better. And we'll work on this next week. And he's always, I can guarantee you, he's sitting at that table already going, All right, Oklahoma, Oklahoma. There's things running through his mind. but his message was basically, you know, we're good, but we need to get better. Smart said we gotta get we gotta get better. And he specifically identified three areas. He said we we have to run the ball better, which said this earlier. we gotta pass the ball better. And we gotta rush the passer better. So, you know, you look at some of those things, and even though we have these opinions of how good we ran the ball and you know, the certain plays we did see we passed the ball, and and you know, we got the quarterback a lot, but Kirby Kirby just wants more. And he knows we're gonna need more when we're going up against teams that we're gonna face in the next three or four games, such as Oklahoma, Alabama on the road, when you got Auburn, you know, Vanderbilt, you're you're gonna you're gonna need these things to be better. and I don't know how the run game could be better, but I know that I think when you just go back and look at the tape, there was very obvious things that could have been I think they could have been just bigger plays that could have happened. but all in all, you know, he emphasized he was proud of how we how Georgia handled a difficult SEC road environment. any SEC road environment is difficult, regardless of if these fans from Arkansas are just not really digging their A D right now. so obviously there was some stuff at the beginning that it was like, hey, we we got the stands packed and we're we're rooting Arkansas on, but once we see the games out of control, we did see the we did see the sacks, the paper sacks going over the the fans' heads, which was very wild. for Hunter Euro check that obviously a lot of these fans want out 'cause they don't feel like they're getting the funding and they're getting the needs that they they're getting their needs met as far as what Arkansas needs to field a good team. but that's very Kirby smart ask is the is to be very basic, you know, not too high and not too low. But a win by twenty eight, he said it's good. you know, now we gotta just go fix the mistakes. So he was proud of the effort on the road, from a team that hasn't this team hasn't played together on the road yet. And now they have. So big takeaway. Georgia went on the road in the SEC won forty five seventeen. Bulldogs dominate the line of scrimmage, rush for two hundred and fifty four yards, held Arkansas to 17 rushing yards. Possessed the ball for 36 minutes. They were six for six in the red zone. controlled the game almost from start to finish. but legitimate questions coming out of this game. Can the offensive line protect Gunner better? These are questions we're gonna field this week in our preview against a preview for Oklahoma here in the middle of the week on Wednesday. Make sure that you join us for our Wednesday night regular show as well, leading up where we'll do our picks. We'll preview Oklahoma and we'll talk about some of these things. We'll talk about, you know, what has to get better in order to beat Oklahoma. but can the offensive line protect Gunner better? Is one thing that everybody's gonna be asking, although I felt like for the most part, we did a pretty good job. Challenge you to go watch the video again if you thought I was wrong. can Georgia generate more pressure? I think three sacks was good, but I think Kirby himself wants more quarterback disruption. Sacks versus the Can we just get the quarterback very antsy, un unpredictable type stuff? can the secondary tighten things up a little bit? I think, you know, you look at the two hundred and eighty three passing yards. something to monitor, right? obviously Carson I Arkansas, you know, K J Jackson was mentioned for K J Jackson shared time with the kid from Memphis too. And so I think inevitably that was a mistake because I think K J was pretty hot throughout the day. I think we talked about how K J throws a really good ball. He throws a really pretty ball. got a little lot of zip on the ball and I thought he looked good when he was in there. So not sure what that was about. Not sure if they were just getting those reps to use it in a against a really good defense to the best of their ability to to come out of there with some work getting done. and you know, will Georgia have to throw the ball more against an Oklahoma team or some of these other teams in the SEC? It's a chance to be physical and run the football on the road. They took advantage of it. It's a win, 45-17, and we'll take it. The question is now whether Georgia can maintain that identity when the opponent takes away the run. That's the biggest thing. Or maybe it was just like everybody said. Maybe it was, hey, we knew we we knew we had what we we had when it came down to the run game. And they bought into it and they did a really good job. I thought any SEC road win is a good SEC road win. here's what I wanna know. And I'll and I'll answer this too, but you know my my my questions, my my and ores are these. Was George's run heavy? This is kind of my little I'm gonna tack these on just for kind of clip purposes, but then we're gonna do the power rankings. But you know, I wanna ask our our viewers and I wanna ask like our fans that are just kind of acting like, I don't know, man. It's like I'll give you an example. Honestly, think some of these guys in these chats need to have their caretakers take their phone from them on Saturday. I really do. I've heard a lot of people that's like, man, we gotta get Stetson Bennett back and Gunners, you know, this and just a little information. Stetson Bennett's not coming back to college football. Okay. So that's the biggest reason I think your phone needs to be taken. Now, secondly, I think Gunner Stockton's playing very, very well. I think he's extremely explosive. I think he gives us a dynamic of being very as much a triple threat as I could ever call it as far as not having a like an option style offense type thing. I mean, I'm pleased with Gunnar. I think Gunner's looked really good. You know, barring a couple of plays where he took a sack or maybe he could help us with a little bit of a of a quicker hot read, but Other than that, I think Gunnar has played very well. But, you know, was Georgia's run heavy approach exactly what you wanted to see? Or do you want to see Gunnar start to throw the football more before Oklahoma? That's the question. My answer to that is is that that's really that's really what fans want. They either are they either are fine with winning the game like that and seeing Gunner take what the what the defense gave him, or they're just sitting back and going, Do you want to see Gunnar just throw the ball all over the over the field? My my question would be to you if it if it if it skewed the outcome of the game, would you would you care? Right? So if we were just throwing the ball downfield left and right, and it was just a battle, a battle of the day where it was like five hundred yards passing on both ends, and we're sitting there like some of these other teams were like a Texas CNM this week, right? Or an Oklahoma this week, where they were wondering, I mean, e not wondering where they were gonna lose. I mean, I I think that Oklahoma thought it might happen. And Texas AM did lose to the Kentucky team that just flat out played better. But I think that Texas C and wouldn't care if they would have got a win. Nobody would have came back and said, man, I wish we'd have done this, this, this, and this, as long as it included a W. And it did. So now they got to go back and go, hey, what do we got to do different to make sure that doesn't happen again this year? Another one is you know, are we concerned about the two hundred and eighty three passing yards allowed? Or Are we putting too much stock into garbage time numbers when George's defense has already completed and controlled the entire game? That's the that's key. Is like we have to be sensible about this and understand that it was mop-up time. If if it was injuries over mop-up time, everybody would be like, Kirby Smart's nuts. Why do we have the starters in? Do the backups in the third strings are are they supposed to go in against KJ Jackson in the first string that's trying to get Points on the board and stop them? Yes. Are they gonna succeed? No. Not always. Because these guys are young. Some of them are playing together for the first time. There's still parts of the s of scheme and parts of plays that they're just that are still fresh on their mind. That's why you call those a lot of those first stringers are vets, and a lot of those guys that are getting a lot of playing time are really learning and and putting it together at a very high level. So in my opinion, like Four more more of this into 283 yards was mop up time. It was total domination. 38 to 3 on the day. 45 17 is what it what it landed with. And last is the biggest concern going into Oklahoma, the secondary, or the three sacks allowed by the offensive line. I personally think both of those don't concern me against Oklahoma. I don't think the secondary is going to concern me against Oklahoma. Because I've what up what I've seen from John Mateir and these receivers. and as far as our offensive line, I would tell you that doesn't concern me that we're not going to block well against a really good Oklahoma defense. But it does concern me that as far as how we're checking in and out of plays and what Gunnar sees and how the line is adapting to the hats, because I think Oklahoma is going to send pressure. they're very similar to Georgia and and Pinnables loves to do a lot of stunting. He loves he likes to blitz. He likes to play men. He likes to mix it up actually. But I do think they'll give us a much bigger run for our money and a much tougher look on the defensive side of the ball versus the offense. So with that being said, I'm going to Go through my sixteen top sixteen power rankings. Let's hop in down here. We'll end the show tonight with this. And we'll go this route. So power rankings week three. man, it was a wild SEC week. sixteen. I have Arkansas here. I think Arkansas still struggling to find identity as far and run as far as running the football. They're very predictable. Still figuring out running two quarterbacks, although I thought KJ Jackson looked okay. We're not gonna spend a lot of time on Arkansas. Was the defense? I mean, there's some, like I told you earlier, there's some studs on that defense. There's some there's some guys on that defense that are gonna play on Sundays. But overall, I think I think this is a team that's really trying to find themselves. I hope for for Arkansas's sake, that they just need one year under under You know, new coach, new new coaching staff. I don't know, man. A lot to be said about Arkansas. I think their A D's gonna have to go to get this going in the right direction. But I got them at sixteen. Fifteen, I got Vanderbilt here. I thought Vanderbilt looked okay. Thought Jerry Curtis had some really cool moments. It was cool to see his arm and his arm talent and obviously why he's a quarterback that came out as a five star and Had a lot of upside as far as dual threat. I thought he looked good. I thought that Vanderbilt got extremely lucky. I have them here because they got extremely lucky against an NC State team who just really, even if they fumbled the ball, no no pun intended, but all they had to do was take a safety. And so you're looking at a Vanderbilt team that obviously could be fighting for 16th. take the difference in Bandy and Arkansas is literally I trust Jerry Curtis as a freshman at quarterback a little more than I trust either quarterback that's playing in Arkansas right now. 14, I dropped Oklahoma all the way down to 14. the inability to to to produce any offense is just it's wild. this is my this is my head scratcher. I had Oklahoma way up top. I had Oklahoma really given, you know, Georgia a really hard time. I think they still will give us a hard time. We're going to get everybody's best game this year. It's at home, the 330 game. We're going to preview at the middle of the week, but for now, the inability to muster up any offensive productivity with John Matheer, this offensive line, this run game, these receivers, I I don't know, man. I don't know. John Matthew has to produce a little bit better for what he was supposed to be for Oklahoma this year. Thirteen, I got Auburn. I just think, remember, on a neutral field, who would win this game? I I think Auburn put up a little more offensive production and were maybe, maybe not points wise, but I I think the defense looked as good as they possibly could in the in the experience they had with a really good Florida offense. but I think the the ability to score points, which Auburn was able to do a little bit, is way better than Oklahoma right now, period. does Auburn have a lot of work to do? Yeah. I mean, I think Auburn's, you know, we we were looking and going, all right, who's gonna be the team that really these two of these new coaches that are gonna really take off? I thought it would be Auburn because of DJ Durkin in this defense, but we've been sadly mistaken. We're gonna talk about Florida here in a minute. But I got Auburn at thirteen. I dropped South Carolina down to twelve. Man, Shame Beamers. So it's kind of like when you get in in the middle of the winter, it's the first cold day of of fall and you know it's not like twelve degrees out but you c you turn your your heated seats on one because you don't want them you know you're not you're not quite freezing but you just need enough to knock the chill off, right? That's where we're at right now. We're not this seat isn't like on fire, but South Carolina's gonna have some opportunities to play and prove Everybody including this you know, this school w these leaders that are watching what Shane Beamer's doing, gotta prove him wrong that he's not the, you know, somebody else hitting the in the guy for the job. And I can tell you that it didn't do him any favors by having that game somewhat in hand at points and just the inability to put it away. And you know, Lenora Sellers turned the ball over way too much for an S E C opponent. And and I think Mississippi State is is is climbing my ranks. I think they're really good. But I think that was the winnable game for South Carolina. And I can just tell you, I feel like Lenora Seller panicked that he didn't didn't provide a really great look for South Carolina, nor did Beamer. defense, not enough. I got South Carolina at 12, but very well could be right there with 12, 13, and 14 with those two teams. 11, I got Missouri here. Missouri played Troy. I feel like they didn't do a lot. I think this is a different team with a mod heart. I'm very interested to see once he makes his return, how good this offense can be. I think maybe they play down to their opponent in Troy this past week, but I got 11 Missouri. That's about all I got for them. Florida. Florida moves up into my 10th spot. Florida looked human on defense, but I think what you're gonna have to do this year versus Florida is you're gonna have to outscore them. This offense looks really, really good. Buster Faulkner, Aaron Philo, these receivers, Jaden Baugh, this offense. This offense is really, really, really good. Really, really good. you're gonna have to outscore Florida this year. Period. I like him at ten. Honestly, the the complete version of Florida right now, you're gonna probably be like, Man, wait a yeah where Kentucky and and and some of these other teams l land. But in my opinion, Florida moves up to that tenth spot. And you could even say, you know, you got them Texas AM. I I don't know, man. Like I think this was a fluke with Texas AM, but we'll hop to my next team and that is that is Kentucky. I I have Kentucky right above Florida. Let me tell you why. I think I think Kentucky beating Texas AM was a bigger win than Florida beating all of them. That's it. I the eye look of everything, I I'm just giving it to I mean to go into Kyle Field and beat Texas AM convincingly. I I think it deserves that ninth spot. So I have Kentucky at nine. I like what I'm seeing from them. Can Will Stein keep this up? And can this team keep this up? What would be a huge deal. next my next team on this list is Texas AM. Now, I put Texas A I'm sorry, I have these flipped. My deepest apology. Horrible. eight. I'm sorry, nine, Texas AM. Nine is Texas A Obviously nine and sex AM. They lost to Kentucky. Marcel Reed defense just was not there. This was I feel like we got duped a little bit by Texas C and That's all I'll say about that. Eight at Kentucky seven. My seventh team in this in the in the power rankings is Mississippi State. Man, great win against South Carolina. They go into South Carolina and do something that if you'd have told me earlier in the year they were gonna do this, I would have said you're wrong. I would I wouldn't have believed you. But man, what a this this Zach Arnett defense is built different. We said this would be the difference maker. We knew that the offense would be good. We knew Levy and this offense would be incredible. It would be electric. But we needed to know if Zach Garnett could g could get a defense and field a defense that could keep him in ball games and not make them have to outscore every single opponent. and I think for the most part, I think we're seeing a different Mississippi State team. This is a very dangerous Comario Taylor and this and this Anthony Evans, this team This is going to be a very hard team to prepare for this year. So I have Texas AM at I'm sorry, I have Mississippi State at seven. Six, I have Tennessee. Kennesaw State, not a lot to really. This was a kind of that that game where you look and you go, it's kind of like the Georgia, Western, Kentucky game. You're like, all right, I don't really nothing really much here going on. at a couple of times Kennesaw State was moving up moving the fo the ball up and down the field on Tennessee. Nothing to worry about here. Faison Brandon, this offense looked really good. Defense looked good. Tennessee rolls. The the big question for Tennessee will be answered this week. They take on Texas game day will be in Knoxville, at Neeland. And so this will be a this is gonna be a big test for Tennessee five. I have Alabama here. I think Alabama for the most part, when you look at this game against Florida State, you gotta worry and scratch your head about some of the times when they were down, okay? this is still a very, very iffy spot for me right here. I don't I don't know the Alabama team that you're gonna get. You see an Alabama team that came out a little little weary versus Kentucky, but you see a Kentucky team that beat Texas A and at Kyle Field and that that Alabama very much so manhandled the second half. But you this is a team that with FSU, I feel like that Alabama's a more talented team, the better talented coaching staff, better fan base right now. just felt like that these players are playing a little bit more for Norvell. that held up for as long as it could. I think the lightning delay killed Florida State and was totally in favor of Alabama. Before I have LSU, I didn't drop them too much obviously the big game and Adi Tyville this past weekend where Ole Miss beats the Lane Lane Giffen and the LSU Tigers as they return back to his former His former job and man, everything was cinema about this game. Everything was cinema about this game. But at the end, I think it was it was the ability for Ole Miss to jump out early on LSU to do the seventeen point lead was huge. and I think L S U did everything they could, but they just kind of ran out time. I I see these two teams not going anywhere. I think they'll get better. And I think you're looking at the top tier of the of the playoffs of the SEC. when you're looking at any of these top six teams. I I think this is this is it. The only other two teams that I think could make a a real case for saying something different with that is Mississippi State and Florida. sorry child I feel. three, I have Ole Miss. I think they're solely locked there. I think Trinidad had Chambless and this offense and the the the defense doing what it had to do when it needed to do it. Pete Golding. It's their first big win as the coach at Ole Miss. And so a lot of things to watch this week. Ole Miss plays Florida. it's in the swamp. Florida's red hot. The offense is red hot. Can the defense kind of calm down this explosive Ole Miss offense? two, I got Texas. I think they really didn't move. UTSA this past weekend. some head scratchers. I mean, Arch took a couple of hits that were kind of head scratchers to me and but it was a normal normal game against a normal opponent for a Texas team that should handle work just like they handled. Then obviously I have Georgia at one. I feel like realistically it's a 38-3 game, not a 45-17 game. I think Georgia looked good in all parts of the game plan. I thought the offense looked good, I thought they ran the football really well. I thought the defense looked really well, especially in the in the ability to stop the run. The offensive line, even though they gave You sacked now the pe the the the blocking was exceptional. the offensive line was was a man handle ship for Georgia. So I have them at one. So that's it. That's the power rankings for week three. so as we close tonight, I think it's very important that you know if you that you know that you know three games in, Georgia definitely you know, first I would call it what small quarter of the first season, I think is in the books. We're learning a lot about this team. I think we'll learn a whole lot about this team after this week. You're gonna see a much better defense. You're gonna see an offense that has the capability of doing a lot of great things, but you know, we shall see. As to close tonight, just wanna close with a couple of these final thought moments. was it perfect? No. But at the end of the day, Georgia gets that SEC opening win forty-five seventy two, 4517. If I had to give the final takeaways, these are gonna be some kind of hot takes I have as we close tonight. I'm gonna I'm gonna close a little bit longer tonight, but some things I just wanna say to the fans. Okay. You know, you get on these boards on Saturday and I might repeat myself as well, but you know, when you look at this team and what they're how we look from top to bottom this year, I think this defense is hungry. think it's I think we're trying to do some things. We're trying to expand the playbook on defense because we're gonna need it later on. So even when you look at some of the things that are going on blitz package wise, zone scheme, man scheme, choosing a blitz sometimes, not choosing to blitz, we're getting we're getting pressure on the quarterback. We're finding different ways to do different things. And this is the time of year to do it. On offense, our fan base wants to see something that looks just I don't know, Corvettish, right? You want to see Ferrari. But guess what? A good old fashioned Ford F one fifty gets it done sometimes too, right? And that's what the run game did on Saturday. It gets it done. It was kind of embarrassing. Arkansas should be embarrassed, the lack of productivity in their run game versus the lack of productivity in stopping the run against Georgia. Georgia was able to do exactly what they want to when they wanted to do it on the on the ground. Why in the world would you step away from that? Just so that the that the crowd can be like, we want to see some Corvettes out there. We wanna see some like we want to see the ball flying, explosive plays. It did happen. But we're just picky fans sometimes for picky. If it was twenty four to twenty seven and we won that game, but you saw more explosive explosive plays, more more passes, things of that nature, I still have a feeling we would we would have something to complain about. I really do. But instead the ones get a thirty eight to three victory, forty five seventeen is the final score, and we're still picking apart who this team is and why this team is, I don't know, compared to I don't know, the last two national championship teams, they're gonna be different. Do I say they have national championship qualities in them? Yes. I think this team could definitely I could see them definitely getting to the end this year and winning the national championship. This is a very well rounded, deep team. I think Georgia's doing what we have do to see how many times we can be battle tested on these second, third stringers because we may need them throughout the year. The last thing I would say before we get out of here for the night is is that our fan base needs to understand that also when it comes down to game planning and scheming, what what do you do you not know Kirby Smart? Like, do you not know Kirby Smart? He doesn't really care what you think it looks like. He doesn't care what you want it to look like. He just knows that if I go in here and I and I get these Ws, we're gonna make it to the next week and we're gonna have a W. And the goal is to get in the playoffs, get in the SEC championship, win the SEC championship, win the playoffs, win a national championship. Nobody is gonna remember how it happened, but everybody will will remember if it didn't get done. Okay. And so at the end of the day, I think what you're What we're doing is we're being a little bit greedy. We're wanting to see it play out exactly like we want to, is but but we're getting the outcome that we that we do want to. So I will take it any day of the week. I thought, in my opinion, that every single thing we did, did we have some things we should work on? Absolutely. But the way we went about doing it, I'm totally happy with. I'm happy with the path plays. I'm happy with the ability to stretch the field when we did. I think there were some plays that caught off at the line of scrimmage that would stretch the field more, but I'm fine with with Gunner making that adjustment because we had a lot of big plays on the ground with his legs when it didn't. And also at the end of the day I thought there was some extremely good blocking going on. hence the not so popular opinion that the offensive line is terrible. I think that's absolutely ridiculous to say. I think if that's who you are and you really don't watch this team You just watch a couple of plays as you're waking up and falling asleep on Saturday during game day. That's it for tonight. please, if you haven't already done so, please go and like and follow her on Apple Podcasts, Dogs Down South, Facebook, Dogs Down South, Twitter, Dogs Down South. We are on Spotify Dogs Down South, and also YouTube, Dogs Down South. Make sure you go drop a like and a follow. Those Apple Podcasts we fly up twenty-four hours later, although I get them up there a little quicker. I guarantee 24 hours. So go check out. You can check this one out on your ride into work tomorrow morning. And we look forward to our midweek. Also TikTok Dogs Down South. Look forward to our midweek show on Wednesday where we'll preview Oklahoma. We'll talk about keys to victories and we will pick every SEC game going on this week. And there's a really, really good slate going on this week. So hope you enjoyed the show tonight. Hope you guys have a great start to your week. And as always on Dogs Down South, go dogs.