Kirby Smart Postgame: “There’s no magic. You just gotta go to work.”

After Georgia battled its way to a 43-29 road win against Missouri you’d expect Kirby Smart to be relieved to get out of Columbia with a win. And you'd be right.

Youd also expect the top ‘Dawg to have some thoughts about how his team can fix some of what ails it. You'd be right about that, too.

We got a little bit of injury news, and it sounds like the Red and Black may have come into this one a little more banged up than many realized. There was some indication that Tyler Simmons may be out for a couple of weeks, that Monty Rice is struggling with an MCL injury, and that we’re just not sure when Andrew Thomas and Ben Cleveland will return from the dreadfully nonspecific doom of the ole “lower leg injury.”

Before the season we talked about how embarrassingly lucky Georgia was from an injury standpoint in 2017, and how a regression to the mean in that category could have dire consequences in 2018. We’re not in peril yet, but it is awfully early in the year for the rolls of the walking wounded to be so long.

While he was proud of how his team responded to adversity, Smart wasn't pleased with how they defended the run, especially in the redzone, calling it "the one most disappointing thing” on the day. Stopping the run first and foremost is a big part of Georgia’s defensive identity, and the fact that they didn't do that today (Mizzou churned out 172 on the ground, rivaling UGA’s 185 on the day) looks to be a sore spot.

Smart has some very simple thoughts about how to address the issue, and some interesting points about Eric Stokes’s big day, below: