ATHENS — It appeared as if Georgia’s offensive line was about to go from dangerous to worse on Saturday.
After giving up an early sack and a number of other missed blocks within the run recreation, Georgia noticed left sort out Amarius Mims go down with a left ankle damage. Kirby Sensible didn’t know the extent of Mims’ damage after the sport, but it surely’s by no means a superb signal on your beginning proper sort out to spend the second half on crutches.
So Georgia tailored. It moved Xavier Truss to proper sort out and introduced redshirt sophomore Dylan Fairchild into the sport at left guard.
“They didn’t seem to be, they had been getting strain. They did a superb job,” Sensible stated of South Carolina’s entrance. “It’s important to win shortly, it’s important to get the ball out. You bought to have a superb plan. It’s important to make them pay. Their strain was efficient early and we made them pay for a few of it. We obtained our working recreation going and that was the distinction.”
Georgia ended the sport dashing for a season-best 210 yards. Daijun Edwards rolled up a career-best 118 yards and all three Georgia touchdowns on Saturday got here on the bottom. The Georgia entrance 5 additionally didn’t hand over a sack within the second half both, after permitting 2.0 within the first.
That Georgia’s offensive line was in a position to come collectively because it did is made all of the extra spectacular that they did it with out their most proficient offensive lineman in Mims.
“I imply, they performed onerous. Clearly, he’s an enormous a part of our offensive line,” quarterback Carson Beck stated. I imply, proper sort out, 6-8, nevertheless huge he’s. I imply, he’s an excellent participant, however we’ve obtained guys which are two deep on the offensive line. I really suppose that now we have two beginning offensive traces — like, SEC beginning traces. Ten guys, 12 guys that may all go in there, play and begin. I’m tremendous pleased with them, the best way that they performed. I imply, we run behind them, they usually lead our crew.”
Truss has earlier expertise at proper sort out, as he began the 2020 Peach Bowl win in opposition to Cincinnati on the place. And Georgia had been working Fairchild in at guard with the primary crew offense in wins over UT-Martin and Ball State. So in some sense, this group was prepared for this particular scenario.
As Sensible talked about, Geogria’s ablitiy to run the soccer made the distinction on Saturday. South Carolina had solely 53 dashing yards on the afternoon, with Spencer Rattler being the crew’s main rusher because of quarterback scrambles.
For Georgia, it leaned on Truss, Tate Ratledge, Sedrick Van Pran, Fairchild and Earnest Greene within the second half to place the sport away. The Bulldogs lastly transformed within the crimson zone, as Edwards scored a landing on Georgia’s first drive of the second half and Dillon Bell adopted it up with a dashing landing on the subsequent drive.
The Bell rating made it 17-14 Georgia, and the Bulldogs had been in a position to wrestle management of the sport away from the Gamecocks.
“I believe that is what you dream about as an offensive lineman as a child. Wet, moist video games, slippery,” Van Pran stated. “Can’t actually get your foot within the floor. You simply obtained to go and push guys round. I believe we did a very good job of creating the run recreation.”
Georgia ran for under 99 yards within the win over Ball State. The working recreation, particularly the shortage thereof, was a serious dialogue level in every of Georgia’s first two wins. On Saturday, it was why Georgia was in a position to transfer to 3-0 on the season and picked up its first SEC win of the season.
Shifting ahead, all eyes will probably be on Mims and his left ankle. Georgia was already with out offensive sort out Austin Blaske, as he continues to cope with an MCL sprain that has now pressured him to overlook the final two video games.
On Saturday although, Georgia’s offensive line had the solutions and aced the check when it wanted it to. And the members of the Georgia soccer crew are very grateful for that.
“They performed their butts off, I’m not going to lie. We had 200 yards dashing all because of them, you realize,” Bell stated. “We actually owe them a dinner, however, yeah, they did their factor on the market tonight.”
