Georgia Football: Five Takeaways from the Blowout Win over Georgia Tech

Kirby Smart said after the 52-7 blowout win over Georgia Tech that he and his team expected to not only win the game but to dominate their opponent and move on to the next one.

And they did not come up short of those expectations Saturday following a lackadaisical first half from Georgia.

By the end of the contest, Georgia had outgained the Jackets 500 to 139 and forced Tech to punt a school-record 13 times, and despite three turnovers in the second quarter alone managed to hold the Jackets to just one score all game.

Here are five key takeaways from Saturday's win in Atlanta.

1.) Geoff Collins has his work cut out for him.

The first year of the Georgia Tech transformation into the modern landscape of offensive football was a tough one. They finished 120th or worse in five offensive categories. The transition is something that coach Collins spoke about after their final game Saturday saying;

"The people who get it and the people that understand what we are going through, what we inherited, this situation, (they) see the progress we have made every single week all season. The ones that don’t want to get it, they are not going to get it no matter how many times there is written or said about what we’ve gone through. But I know the future is bright.” - Geoff Collins

2.) No Lawrence Cager & No George Pickens = A Problem

George Pickens was suspended for the first half of Saturday's game for a violation of team rules and will be spending the first half of the SEC Championship game on the sideline as well. Combat that with Lawrence Cager being gone and you've got an issue for the Bulldogs offense.

One thing that was blatantly clear in the third quarter of the game against Tech is that Pickens has an innate ability to win in one on one situations on the outside. Without he and Cager in the offense, Fromm struggled to throw the ball downfield against even the likes of Georgia Tech.

Prior to Pickens entering the game in the second half, Jake Fromm was 7/18 for 95 yards and 1 TD.

In 11:32 of game time in the third quarter Pickens participated in prior to his ejection, Fromm was 6/11 for 149 yards and 3 TDs to go along with the two pass interferences Pickens managed to draw. It's going to be an issue for the early part of next week's matchup against LSU without Pickens on the field if other guys can't manage to win on the outside.

3.) Jake Fromm's supporting cast is young, getting younger.

It's hard enough to play quarterback in the SEC especially when your playmakers are either injured or suspended. Though, it's much more difficult when you have a young group of receivers on the field. Several times this season Fromm and his intended targets have been on separate pages leading to incompletions.

Matt Solorio did a great job for us last week of breaking down some of these young wideout mistakes that have killed the Georgia passing game this season.

4.) This Georgia defense is that great.

With the regular season now in the books, it's finally a fact. This Georgia defense will go down as the greatest statistical defense in the history of the Georgia football program. After giving up just the one score Saturday, they are allowing 10.39 PPG, the lowest ever at Georgia. Lower than the David Pollack led 2003 squad. Lower than even the 1980-81 championship defense.

5.) There's still a ton of hate in the UGA/GT rivalry.

If a fistfight in the middle of the third quarter in a game that's beyond out of hand doesn't prove disdain for one another, I don't really know what does. There were countless scuffles after plays between the Jackets and Bulldogs. Despite what the score was in this contest, and despite most Dawg fans having a well earned big brother complex towards Tech fans, there is plenty of hate remaining in this rivalry.