ATHENS – At long last, the focus now turns to Alabama.
Georgia continued to handle its opposition mostly as expected on Saturday at Sanford Stadium, overcoming some defensive toe-stubbing in the first half before pulling away to defeat Vanderbilt 38-14 behind a 295-yard and three-touchdown performance from Gunner Stockton.
“It’s all about how you respond. We get adversity Monday through Friday, and that’s very important to establishing our DNA,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “I was proud of our guys in the second half with how they responded.”
Now? A primetime stage underneath a white-hot spotlight awaits the Bulldogs on Saturday night at Alabama. Both teams are undefeated following the Crimson Tide’s 56-23 handling of Mississippi State.
Georgia (5-0) heads into Saturday having gone through its greatest measure of in-game adversity thanks to the Commodores.
“We really needed this kind of game – tough, physical, hard-fought, punch and punch back,” Smart said, “because that’s how you have to play in the SEC.”
Vanderbilt was not rattled by Georgia’s early 7-0 lead on a quick two-yard pass from Stockton to Landon Roldan that ended a 10-play, 80-yard drive. A misplayed coverage in the Georgia secondary resulted in Vandy’s Junior Sherrill getting open deep down the sideline for a 60-yard touchdown from Blaze Berlowitz with 12 seconds to go in the first quarter. Berlowitz played in place of freshman starter Jared Curtis, a previous Georgia commit who eventually flipped to the Commodores. But even without the highly touted signal-caller, Vanderbilt still found ways to move the ball in the first half.
And that was even after Georgia did likewise.
Roldan was among the prime beneficiaries of Stockton spreading the ball around to 10 Bulldogs, catching a pair of passes for 75 yards. One was a 55-yarder in the opening seconds of the second quarter, coming right before a one-yard run by Chauncey Bowens extended the Georgia lead to 14-7 with 14:29 left in the first half.
“I thought we executed pretty well. I thought we did a pretty good job with that,” Stockton said. “We talked about having F.P.E. – fire, passion and energy – and I thought we did a pretty good job with that and just making the most of the opportunities that we had.”
Then, Georgia teed up another scoring drive by way of special teams. After Jordan Hall swatted down a 58-yard field goal try by Vanderbilt with 7:33 to go until halftime, the Bulldogs needed eight plays to take the ball 60 yards, getting to the one-yard run on a screen pass to Dwight Phillips. Jaden Reddell then ran the ball in for a 21-7 lead with 3:58 until halftime.
But the Commodores countered, getting passes of 18 and 16 yards in addition to drawing a pass interference penalty, setting up a two-yard touchdown run by Sedrick Alexander.
Just like that, the Bulldogs found themselves sweating things out, leading 21-14 at halftime.
“They out-executed us. We were chasing ghosts a little bit and thinking they were going to do something they weren’t going to do. They had a good plan. They changed up some of their tendencies and at the end of the day we bent and didn’t break,” Smart said. “We gave up a lot of third downs that we shouldn’t have given up. We also have to play better defensively. I also want to give Vandy credit. They executed a good plan, and our guys did a lot better in the second half.”
Any hopes of a stunning upset that Vanderbilt had were vaporized into the muggy air hanging over Sanford Stadium on Saturday.
“I have talked about this anaconda feel where we squeeze the life out of you. That’s what we did,” Smart said. “We squeezed and squeezed and wore people down. Sometimes we wear ourselves down, but we did a good job.”
Much of that had to do with what Georgia did defensively. Vanderbilt totaled 234 total yards in the first half but could not maintain that level in the second half, finishing with 293 yards on the day.
Then, there was Georgia’s offense. A calculated drive of 11 plays over 75 yards took up 6:39worth of game clock for a 28-14 lead with 8:21 left in the third quarter when Elyiss Williams snagged a one-yard touchdown toss from Stockton.
All of this came in the same quarter in which Gabe Harris registered Georgia’s first sack of the game. Justin Williams had the Bulldogs’ other sack with Chris Cole making things rough up front for the Commodores with two tackles for a loss and one by Hall.
The Bulldogs kept the offensive hammer down in the fourth quarter, adding a 39-yard Peyton Woodring field goal and a 12-yard screen pass with 6:02 to play to Phillips, putting the bow on a 70-yard drive. Phillips had a career high five catches for 75 yards on Saturday.
But now, after the first five games of the season, all eyes focus to Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
“It’s the next week in the SEC and guess what, the next one after is another week. They’re all big. There’s not one that’s not big,” said Smart, who also looked ahead to Alabama.
“That team never quits, there have been teams that were up on them, and they came back.”