Analysis: Georgia 35, Tennessee 32

Georgia, get your popcorn ready because every game against a team with a pulse is going to be a track meet. 

Yes, the Bulldogs have one of the best linebacking corps in the country, and yes, the secondary is settled, and yes, Todd Gurley is from another planet to help grind out the clock and control the game, but after struggling a few weeks ago against South Carolina, and making Tennessee quarterback Justin Worley look like the next Peyton Manning, it’s going to be a long, hard struggle in SEC play to get through the conference slate alive. 

Even with the loss to the Gamecocks, Georgia is still the best team in the SEC East, but even with defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt dialing up the pressure when needed, and even with two key takeaways, it took a massive fight to get by a good, but a not-there-yet Tennessee squad. 

But the defense needs help, and it needs more than Superman Gurley to save the day. 

The offense has to be better on third downs, and the passing game has to be more effective to keep the chains moving. The defense has to stay on the sidelines, and the O has to help the cause. 

Georgia won the time of possession battle, and Hutson Mason wasn’t miserable – completing 16-of-25 passes for 147 yards and a score with two picks – but the Dawgs converted just one of ten third down chances. The Dawgs should’ve been able to put the game away easily when Worley went out of the game with an elbow injury, and it should’ve been tighter when he came back in, but that’s the SEC this year, more than ever – survive, win, and move on. 

But to survive, win, move on, and get into College Football Playoff, Georgia has to get more. It has to be better than this, and it’s going to have to start with the defense.