Three Answers From Georgia - Ohio State

In all honesty, it’s a good thing those of us reading this site don’t have to recover in time to play TCU, because we probably wouldn't make it to the airport. If you take a look at photos from after the game, you can tell Georgia’s players and coaches are a mix of elated by emotionally drained. Now, the challenge of getting home late and having to travel cross-country awaits Georgia against a TCU team that wrapped its game up four hours earlier and is half a country closer. Odds are good that at the worry of not enough practice time crossed Kirby Smart’s mind late Saturday/early Sunday.

At some point, the discussion of where this game ranks in the UGA football lexicon will be brought up. In terms of thrilling wins for Georgia, this may have surpassed the Rose Bowl.

To say that Georgia did not play its best is a gross understatement. Frankly, it deserved to lose, but it found a way, somehow.

Here are three answers...or at least attempts at them, from Saturday night’s wild, crazy and worse than bonkers win.

If Georgia gave up so many big plays to LSU’s receivers, how testy will OSU be?

Let’s not mince words. It was painful, but not shocking to see Georgia’s secondary carved up. OSU’s receivers are very good, and the Dawgs having a hard time mounting a significant pass rush did not help, that’s for sure. When you face receivers and guys in space that Ohio State has, you have to concede that you’ll give us chunks of yards and plays, you just have to have enough grit to take those punches and bounce back and do enough to win.

It was not a textbook-level showing by Georgia’s defense, but it was enough to win and at this point of the season, it’s all about winning, no matter what.

Will non-SEC teams kick and scream about teams playing too close to home?

Did Georgia have an advantage at home? Sure. The crowd and secondary ticket market showed that, for sure. But there’s one simple way for teams to fight that home-field advantage- seize the chance when it happens. Remember - the top two seeds get preferred sites of semifinal games based on how their locations match the venue location. The Rose and Sugar are scheduled for now to host semis next year, giving the Big 12 and Pac-12 chances to gain a closer to home edge, and in two years, Dallas is a semi host, which would be an incredible edge for TCU.

The fact is Georgia had an advantage, and it took full advantage of it.

Is this another “Kirby Smart Death March” waiting to happen?

With the way the game was going, you would have doubted it, but a funny thing happened as the game went to the fourth quarter. Georgia took over. A banged up defense may not have totally shut OSU down, but it did barely enough to slow the Buckeyes down and enable Stetson Bennett to entrench himself in Georgia lore even more.

Remember how angst-filled the Mizzou win was? One big thing you heard said after that win was about this team’s resiliency. That built over the course of the year, and you saw it big-time when it mattered most.

Go Dawgs!