Nick Chubb, Jake Fromm Lead Georgia to Blowout Win vs. Mississippi State

“We get to do that this week, going on the road to Georgia and playing a top team in the SEC East”.

Mississippi State: QB Nick Fitzgerald, RB Aeris Williams, NT Jeffery Simmons, CB Tolando Cleveland, OL Martinas Rankin, OL Deion Calhoun, LB Dez Harris, WR Donald Gray.

Nobody’s quite ready to start comparing Smart’s second bunch of the Bulldogs to any of Saban’s Crimson Tide juggernauts.

When Fitzgerald doesn’t look confident in the passing game, a strong front-seven like Georgia’s will eat him alive in the ground game.

The Gamecocks (3-1) trailed 13-0 before a wild fourth quarter that saw SC take a 14-13 lead and Louisiana Tech (2-2) answer with a 10-play, 84-yard drive that ended with what appeared to be the game winning 25-yard field goal by Jonathan Barnes with 55 seconds left.

“We’re going to keep playing Georgia football, both defensively and offensively, and that means we’re going to be physical and fast and keep pounding people each time we’re on the field”, said Georgia outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter, who often puts a crushing play where his mouth is.

“In the back of your mind, you know, ‘Hey, this is the SEC, ‘” Reed said.

As programs including Missouri, Auburn, Texas A&M and Florida suffered non-conference losses with some less than aesthetic appeal, a national consensus came together on the SEC: it’s a one-team league. Maybe Mississippi State should have saved some of those points from the home blowout of LSU for this one against Georgia? Defensively, the Bulldogs have held opponents to 14.3 points and 266 yards of total offense per game.

Even quarterback Nick Fitzgerald had a quiet night in his return to the stadium where he used to attend games as a Georgia fan back as a kid. As good as Georgia’s defense has been, Blankenship is arguably Georgia’s most improved overall player from last season’s roster. He only ran for 47 yards. MSU struggled to execute on both sides of the ball and UGA was quick to capitalize, taking a 31-3 victory.

“We came out and played with a lot of toughness”, head coach Kirby Smart said. “It kind of rolled over into the game”. Nick Gibson was the most successful running back with 52 yards, but he did not enter the game until the fourth quarter, after the outcome was already decided.

Adam Choice had a 6-yard tiebreaking touchdown in the fourth quarter and Travis Etienne had two scoring runs in the final six minutes as No. 2 Clemson wore down Boston College in a 34-7 victory Saturday. Meanwhile Fromm put up the best game of his young career. And was Fromm ready to take the reins as something more than a game manager?

Those questions were answered after Fromm’s first pass of the night.

The Bulldogs dodged a bullet in the second quarter when Swift fumbled inside the team’s 40-yard line, but Mississippi State could not take advantage of the gift, ultimately punting for the fifth time in the first half. “That’s really all you can ask from a starting quarterback, just make good decisions and let guys make plays”.

The only person who had a worse Saturday last weekend than LSU coach Ed Orgeron was me. In other words, United Kingdom has poise and now seems to handle adversity much better than United Kingdom coach Mark Stoops’ first couple of years. The teams last played in 2011, with Georgia winning 24-10. On a flea-flicker play, Chubb tossed the ball back to Fromm, who found Terry Godwin open down the middle for a 59-yard score.

MSU did finally crack the scoreboard in the waning moments of the first half when Jace Christmann nailed a 26-yard field goal to pull State within 14-3 at halftime. Georgia had a pair of picks and his with conviction all night long.