Georgia Football: Grade Report From 24-17 Win Over Florida

Georgia came into this weekend's matchup just having weathered off a few storms, both figuratively and literally, in South Carolina & Kentucky. Oh but the weather is rather delightful for those that dawn the Red & Black as the sun rises on yet another year of victory of the wretched Gators.

Alas, there is work to be done for the Bulldogs as they take on Missouri next week at home, then finish out with @Auburn, Texas A&M, and @ Georgia Tech.

Let's take a look at the grade report from the 24-17 victory over Florida:

QB: A+

In Jake Fromm's three career games as a starter against a Todd Grantham lead defense ('17 Grantham was at Mississippi State), he's completed 70.8%, has a QBR of 97.3.

7 TDs to 0 INTs.

The streak continued Saturday in what was Fromm's best dicing of the Third and Grantham system yet. Fromm completed 10 of 13 for 119 yards and a TD on third down last night. He was granted a clean pocket, thanks to an offensive line group that we will talk about shortly.

RB: B+

As Coach Kirby Smart said in his postgame press conference, it's hard to run the football in this conference, but Georgia's managed to do so with great play from both Swift and Brian Herrien, who made the play of the game today.

"DID HE CATCH THAT?!"
This Brian Herrien snag is something else. pic.twitter.com/d9XpzyXAP7
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 2, 2019

It was tough sledding for the most part of this football game with Florida so heavily committed to stopping the run. So much so that often times against eleven personnel (one back, one tight end) the Gators had five down lineman, with two linebackers in the box. The running was tough sledding, but without the tough yards from Swift and Herrien, the play-action passes just wouldn't have been there.

WR & TE: B+

Lawrence Cager carries the grade for this group. Time and time again during critical third downs Fromm looked to find Cager. Cager had 3 receptions for 35 yards on third down, his 7 catches for 132 yards are both career highs. Eli Wolf had the game's sealing catch on a corner route with 2:45 left in the game, allowing UGA to run out the clock.

OLine: A+

I don't know if you heard or not in the two weeks leading up to the WLOCP, but the Florida Gators were known for their pass rush, so much so that the idea of using TEs and RBs in pass protection to help provide Fromm with a little more time was proposed by some in the offensive meeting rooms.

Well, according to Coach Smart from his post-game comments, Coach Sam Pittman, a recruiting savant, but rarely the talker, wasn't havin' any of that. Coach Pittman addressed the team Friday night "No, we aren't going to do that. We are going to go let these boys play, we are going to let them play in space, and we are going to block them." And they certainly accomplished that. The offensive line held the SEC leader in sacks, sackless.

Defense

DLine: A+

Anytime your defense has held the opponent to negative rushing yards all the way up until midway through the fourth quarter, you're doing something right up front on the defensive end. Getting Jordan Davis back turns this Georgia defense into something truly scary, especially against the run.

OLB: B+

Azeez Ojulari found his way back into the sack column following a brief two-game hiatus after lighting up Tennessee with 2.5 sacks in their matchup in Knoxville. It's something we spoke to him about after the game:

Jermaine Johnson had 3.0 tackles in the contest, Malik Herring added a half-sack, and freshmen Nolan Smith added a pressure. It was a solid collective effort from the young OLBs group.

ILBs: B-

Look, we knew coming into this game it was going to be a tough matchup for the linebackers in space against a player the caliber of Kyle Pitts at tight end for Florida. Kirby Smart went as far as to say "He's the best player I've ever seen at that position." And even though Pitts got loose early, adjustments were made. Monty Rice still led the team in tackles yesterday though, so don't look too much into it, just a tough matchup, similar to our next and final group.

DBs: B-

In terms of the Eastern division of the Southeastern, they don't make a better group of wide receivers and skill players than what Georgia faced yesterday in the Gators. The gameplan was from Georgia was to keep everything in front of them and live to fight another down. J.R. Reed was playing much deeper than usual, so much so that the Dawgs 5th leading tackler heading into today's matchup, had just 2.0 tackles today.

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