OPINION: Putting Georgia's Win Over Vanderbilt Into Perspective

Look, Georgia fans, I understand the concern many of you felt during and in the immediate aftermath of the Bulldogs' 37-20 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville on Saturday afternoon. After all, you had watched your team defeat the Commodores by a combined score of 117-0 over the past two seasons and it had been five full years since you had seen someone in the black and gold of Vanderbilt cross the end zone against these Bulldogs. Reasonable or not, that type of sheer domination creates a certain expectation for how all future games against that particular opponent should unfold.

So, naturally, when that opponent finds a way to cross the end zone not once, not twice, but three times against your team this season it leads to crossed arms, sullen looks, more than a few choice words, and a general sense of concern with what you just watched transpire.

And I do not begrudge you for that. It's college football. You love your team. It means something to you. You feel every high and every low viscerally and I, for one, love that. I appreciate you for that. That type of profound emotional connection is what makes college football uniquely special in the American sporting landscape. But when your team falls short of the expectations that you have developed after a dominant two-year run that has seen it win back-to-back College Football Playoff national championships, that type of profound emotional connection also leads to profound emotional overreactions, which some in the Georgia fan base are guilty of in the aftermath of the win over Vanderbilt.

Emotions have a tendency to obfuscate reality and the reality of Georgia's win over Vanderbilt is that the Bulldogs utterly dominated the Commodores. The 17-point margin of victory is not indicative of how thoroughly Georgia dominated the game in Nashville on Saturday. The Bulldogs outgained Vanderbilt 552 yards to 219 yards and while it is true that is not as impressive as the 458-yard or the 429-yard margins that the Bulldogs outgained Vanderbilt by in 2021 and 2022 respectively, it still represents the second-largest yardage margin for the Bulldogs over an opponent in 2023, only behind the 425-yard margin between Georgia and Kentucky. The 332-yard margin between Georgia and Vanderbilt is also the largest margin by which Vanderbilt has been outgained by any opponent in the eight games it has played this season. To put it more simply, Georgia dominated Vanderbilt on a down-to-down basis more thoroughly than any other team has this season.

To further expound on the way your team dominated Vanderbilt on Saturday, the 219 yards that Georgia held Vanderbilt to was the lowest yardage output by the Commodores all season and was the first time they had been held under 300 total yards by any SEC opponent to date. The 9 first downs Georgia held Vanderbilt to was also the fewest first downs Vanderbilt has posted in any game this season. Conversely, the 552 yards of total offense that Georgia dropped on Vanderbilt also just so happens to be the highest yardage total that the Commodore defense has surrendered this season.

In fact, rather than being concerned about Georgia's national title aspirations coming out of the win over Vanderbilt, there were a number of developments that should actually be viewed as encouraging signs as the Bulldogs continue their quest for an unprecedented third-consecutive College Football Playoff national championship.

Georgia ripped off 291 yards rushing against the Commodores, besting its previous rushing season high by more than 100 yards. Those 291 rushing yards - you guessed it - were the most rushing yards that Vanderbilt has surrendered in a single game all season. Senior running back Daijun Edwards also posted a career-high 146 yards rushing, while his fellow running back Kendall Milton gashed the Commodores for 10.6 yards per rush and a touchdown prior to being removed from the game for precautionary reasons when his MCL tightened up late in the first half. After posting season-highs in yards per rush in each of its last two games, it appears as though Georgia has begun to solve the running game riddle that plagued it through the first several games of the season, a promising sign for a program that has traditionally built its offense around a strong down-hill rushing attack that it can work play-action off of.

The Georgia defense also limited WR Will Sheppard, who entered the game inside the top-5 in the SEC in receiving yards and second in receiving touchdowns, to 1 reception for 25 yards. Sheppard came into the game against Georgia fresh off of 205 receiving yards combined and a pair of touchdowns in the Commodores' last two games against Florida and Missouri, two of the strongest contenders for Georgia's SEC Eastern Division crown. If anything has given the Georgia defense trouble in recent years, it is elite receiver play, so when the Bulldogs limit a receiver of that caliber to his lowest reception and yardage output of the season, that is certainly encouraging.

Wide receiver Dominic Lovett also had his most productive game as a Bulldog against the Commodores, while veteran receiver Ladd McConkey took more strides toward returning to his old form after dealing with a lingering back injury for most of the season. True freshman tackle Monroe Freeling also came off the bench cold and played surprisingly well in relief of Xavier Truss. Sophomore JACK Marvin Jones Jr. also saw more meaningful game action than he has all season and showcased how he can help elevate the Georgia defense with his talent as the Bulldogs enter the stretch run.

And the Bulldogs did all of this with Brock Bowers - arguably the best player in college football - leaving the game in the second quarter after suffering a high ankle sprain and starting right tackle Xavier Truss - who was already playing out of position due to an injury to the team's true starting right tackle, Amarius Mims - also leaving the game in the second quarter with an apparent ankle injury. Not to mention that the team was coming off of a big win against Kentucky only to play in a literal construction zone with a scoreboard being held up by cranes and outdoor tents serving as the team's locker room at 11 AM local time. That should not matter, but it does. This is a college football; a sport that is overwhelmingly played by 18-22-year-old players who tend to have difficulty staying focused and fully-juiced in an environment like that coming off of a big, prime-time, emotional win the week prior.

Ultimately, the reality is the Bulldogs were an uncharacteristic blown coverage by Tykee Smith on the first drive of the game and an uncharacteristic tipped-ball interception away from defeating the Commodores by a margin that, while maybe still not up to the impossibly lofty standards you have for your team, certainly would not have yielded the concern in some corners of the Georgia fan base that the 37-20 victory ultimately has. And this coming one game after Georgia throttled Kentucky in its most complete performance of the season, a performance that had the Bulldog fan base collectively ecstatic over the team finally demonstrating that it was a national championship-caliber team. Are two plays against Vanderbilt, neither of which represents enduring issues for the Bulldogs really enough to change that perception and convince you that this team cannot still accomplish all of its goals?

Of course, you have the right to feel any way in which you want to, but if you find yourself discouraged about Georgia's chances to three-peat after the victory over Vanderbilt, for your own sanity, I implore you to walk yourself back from the emotional edge and consider the full context in which the win over Vanderbilt played out. You might just find that all is hope is not yet lost for this Georgia football team.