No close call this time for Georgia in dominant win. Can it do same vs well-rested Texas?
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STARKVILLE, Miss. — Hold on a second. What is this? A Georgia football game where there’s not tension and thoughts of a possible loss bouncing around fans and players heads in the waning minutes?
The No. 5 team in the nation looked very much playoff worthy in its 41-21 rout of Mississippi State that coach Kirby Smart called “a total team effort.”
Clanging cowbells? The bell tolled on Mississippi State’s winning ways a week after it snapped a 16-game SEC losing streak.
Georgia scored every time it touched the ball on its first seven possessions except its second drive when Dillon Bell fumbled 3 yards from the end zone.
No worries. The Bulldogs reeled off 38 straight points and pretty much iced this one when Nate Frazier booked for the team’s longest run of the season for a 59-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Big plays kept coming. Gunner Stockton hit Noah Thomas who worked his way through the Mississippi State defense after the catch for a 65-yard touchdown. That was the longest pass play of the season for Georgia.
Smart brought up a 6:30 a.m. wakeup call and an hour bus drive from Tupelo before the kick after 11 a.m. local time.
At least starters like nickel back Joenel Aguero didn’t have to play as many snaps with the game in hand in the fourth quarter.
“I love that honestly,” he said. “In the last couple of games, we haven’t been in that position. It felt good just being there and watching all the young guys get an opportunity to make plays.”
The SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum was in Starkville Saturday morning for the “SEC Nation” show.
He was highly critical of offensive coordinator Mike Bobo who is now drawing praise from some of Finebaum’s colleagues.
Georgia (8-1, 6-1 SEC) had five plays on offense of 31 or more yards, three of them runs from Frazier.
“When you have explosive plays, you normally score,” Stockton said.
Georgia was just playing with us, right, when it allowed an opening drive touchdown and trailed 7-0?
“I mean, I’ve gotten to the point I’m conceding the first one and then we just adjust from there because they had tempo,” Smart said.
That made it the sixth time in seven SEC games Georgia has trailed. It is 5-1 in those games.
It ended up with a season-high 567 yards of total offense including 303 rushing.
Frazier rushed for 181 of those on 12 carries. He went 33 yards to the Mississippi State 25 on a play where he lost a cleat at the Georgia 43.
Backup quarterback Ryan Puglisi entered the game with more than 10 minutes to go and Frazier got one final carry perhaps to get him a shot at reaching 200.
Next up is No. 13 Texas which had an open date after beating Vanderbilt which gave Steve Sarkisian and staff more time to prepare for a 7:30 p.m. game Nov. 15 in Athens.
“It is what it is,” Smart said. “I texted with Sark today about the drive we had over here. I was like, this drive is an hour and five minutes. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, they had the same thing.”
Georgia got to rest most its starters for much of the fourth quarter after a comfortable win.
“It felt different,” Smart said. “I mean, I had to find something to bitch about.”
“It felt good,” linebacker Raylen Wilson said, “to come into somebody else’s house and dominate like we did.”
Was this just one good day against a team that is improved but fell to 1-5 in the SEC or can Georgia turn it on against Texas or No. 14 Georgia Tech Thanksgiving week.
“I feel like we definitely can,” Wilson said. “It’s on us every week, week in and week out to start fast and end fast.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football has rare blowout in SEC play with Texas next up
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