Georgia (6-0, 3-0 SEC) looked to its ground game this past Saturday against Auburn (3-2, 1-3 SEC), and a pair of unconventional characters powered its offensive attack.
Junior Daijun Edwards and freshman Branson Robinson were relied upon when redshirt sophomore Kendall Milton went down with a groin injury. The pair combined for 181 rushing yards and four touchdowns. However, as a whole, the Bulldogs rushed for a season-high 282 yards and averaged 7.5 yards per rush against the Tigers.
“It was good. I still think there are inconsistencies,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said of the run game. “There are some things we missed. We missed a block here, but a guy runs through and our backs just made a guy miss a few times. We had third-and-two and Daijun didn’t touch anybody. It was much better at the line of scrimmage. We played more physical at the line of scrimmage, and I thought we wore the other team down.”
Robinson was impressive in his breakout game as a Bulldog. The talented freshman running back rushed for a career-high 98 yards on 12 attempts with a touchdown on Saturday.
Nevertheless, it was Edwards who stole the show. The Colquitt County native rushed for 83 yards and a career-high three touchdowns while averaging 6.9 yards per attempt.
“I thought he did a really good job,” Smart said. “He does a good job around the goal line and makes people miss. He’s elusive, but not so much explosive. He’s not going to break off a super long run, but he gets a lot of positive runs. It’s really hard to get him for a tackle for loss.”
Edwards became the first player to rush for three touchdowns in a game since former running back Sony Michel accomplished that feat in the 2018 Rose Bowl versus Oklahoma.
Edwards now leads Georgia in rushing. He’s racked up 284 yards on 49 attempts with four touchdowns. He is now primed to take on a bigger role in the offense since he’s proven his worth.
Though a bit undersized, Edwards makes up for it in toughness.
The 5-foot-10, 200-pound running back was one of the main reasons the Bulldogs escaped Missouri with a victory. He carried the ball 11 times for a total of 49 yards and the go-ahead touchdown, which gave Georgia the lead. Edwards is becoming a go-to option in the backfield because of his ability to push the pile and overpower defenders.
“If you look at him with a regular shirt on, his arms are cut, his legs, his quads, his calf muscles,” UGA defensive tackle Zion Logue said. “He works, man. He’s nothing but a workhorse. Ever since he got here in 2020, he’s just been a steady guy, steady working, steadily improving.”
Robinson carried his weight, too. “The addition of Branson was big for us,” Smart said. “He’s a guy we felt like all week we had to get more opportunities for him because he’s run the ball well in practice. He’s got a bit of a burst and was able to get some carries with Kendall being banged up. I thought he did a good job.”
Robinson averaged a team-high 8.2 yards per attempt against Auburn and his physicality matched Edwards. He also became the first true freshman running back to rush for 95-plus plus yards in his first 10-plus attempt performance since Michel in 2014.
“He was able to do it because of opportunity,” Smart said of Robinson on Monday. “He was able to do it because of a really good game plan in the run game and our offensive line moving their defensive line. But he was given the opportunity to do it and he seized that opportunity. He created that opportunity for himself through his work habits and his hard work since arriving.”
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett rushed for 64 yards and a touchdown. The super senior had negative yardage until his long scoring run, where he took off down the middle of the field.
Senior running back Kenny McIntosh also had a productive game. He rushed for 37 yards on eight attempts with a score. Milton also had two carries for 13 yards before his injury.
The Bulldogs’ front five was able to control the line of scrimmage as their playmakers were able to gash the Tigers on the ground. They needed a performance like this after Georgia’s offensive line struggled mightily against Missouri the week before in Columbia.
“I liked their tenacity. I liked the fact that they came out and tried to be physical and create a demeanor,” Smart said. “We didn’t do it every play and you’re not going to do it every play. They’ve got guys on scholarship over there, too. But I liked the fact that they came out competing.”
Regardless, Smart wasn’t pleased overall with the 42-10 victory over Auburn.
“Everything,” Smart said when asked about what Georgia could improve on. “Like, what does the score have to do with how we played? It really doesn’t to me. You look at the stat line and you say, ‘Oh, we ran the ball great,’ and I think there’s a lot of times that we didn’t block it right. We got whipped at the point of attack. There are other times that we did it right. That’s across the board. Defensively, all we talked about was containing the quarterback. Well, we didn’t do that all the time. He got out of there. There’s an immense amount of improvement that needs to happen for our team to get to the level we need to.”