The venue was on the road. The opponent was from the SEC this time.
Otherwise, Saturday was a rinse and repeat afternoon for the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs as they easily handled Arkansas in a business-like 45-17 win to open SEC play.
Georgia, which held the Razorbacks to a scant 17 rushing yards, held an Arkansas team that is still winless to one touchdown until the fourth quarter as reserves rotated into the lineup.
The Bulldogs continue to be driven by quick starts, now having outscored the opposition 105-12 in the first half.
SEC play continues back home in Athens this Saturday with the hosting of No. 24 Oklahoma (2-1). It’ll be the Sooners’ first trip to Athens and first meeting between the teams since the Jan. 1, 2018, Rose Bowl.
“I’m really proud of our guys (Saturday). A hot environment, tough environment to come in and play. We talked all week about road games in the SEC. I am proud of this team. I am excited about this team. We have a lot we can get better at, but man, they buy into it,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “They are physical. They believe in who we are, and we continue to get better.
“We have to improve, but that is always tough to go on the road when 50 percent of your team is in a first-time environment. Really, the whole team was in its first time here because we’ve never been here.”
Saturday’s win may not have held handfuls of outrageous highlight-reel plays to collect style points with pollsters, but Georgia’s punishing defense and precisely executed offense appeared to overwhelm Arkansas with ease, scoring on three of the Bulldogs’ first four offensive drives and taking up nearly a third of the time of possession in the first half. It all added up to 21-3 lead by halftime, and those Arkansas points came on a field goal by Max Gilbert with just seconds to go before the break.
The Bulldogs got it done offensively with sustained drives, as well, beginning with six plays over 62 yards as Nate Frazier Jr. got into the end zone from five yards away. He led Georgia in rushing against Arkansas with 14 carries for 75 yards, while as a team, Georgia had 464 yards of total offense.
But the ground game for Georgia was more than a one-back attack. Chauncey Bowens was every bit of a shortyardage specialist against the Razorbacks. He may have only picked up 39 yards, but eight of those came on bruising three rushing scores. A two-yarder with 8:45 to go in the second quarter extended the Georgia lead to 14-0 to end a 10-play, 75-yard drive. But neither Bowens nor Georgia were finished.
The Bulldogs needed all of 3:52 to drive nearly the length of the field, 93 yards, to go up 21-0, this time with Bowens taking it in from five yards away.
“I love Chauncey. Chauncey’s one of the hardest workers on the team. I think he’s a violent runner. He likes contact; he seeks contact. He got the beneficiary of some good blocking on a couple of those,” Smart said. “He had a couple runs that I thought could have been even bigger, but he also bounced out on some and made some plays.”
After Gilbert booted a 41-yard field goal, the Bulldogs entered the half ahead 21-3. That scoring drive by the Razorbacks was the first one of substance since a game-opening one in which they drove past the Georgia 40-yard line before turning it over on downs. They ended their next three drives with a punt.
“The team played fast, physical, and hard, especially in the second half. I feel like we played better after a rough start. In general, I thought we played better. You’re going to have bad plays that happen. You’re going to give up some ‘go-balls’ coming across. You never know with QB runs,” Georgia safety KJ Bolden said. “You’re going to give up some things. It’s about the next play mentality.
“We always have the next play mentality here at Georgia. Even if we give up a first down, it’s like, ‘Let’s try and go three-and-out right here.’ Just correcting our mistakes and fixing it. We did a good job of having short-term memories.”
The second half? It was more of the same as far as Georgia was concerned on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville.
Following a 38-yard field goal by Peyton Woodring, the Georgia offense took advantage of a scoring chance that was teed up by a tenacious defense.
After Raylen Wilson forced a fumble by Arkansas quarterback KJ Jackson that was recovered by Jordan Hall, Georgia worked its way 32 yards on eight plays to go up 31-3 on a one-yard run by Bowens, his third and final run to paydirt of the day.
Wilson led the effort to frustrate Arkansas up front, having a pair of sacks with Justin Wilson having one.
Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton, who showed off his mobility on Saturday by way of 97 yards, 62 of which came on one play, was once again sharp, completing 10-of-13 passes for 147 yards. The signal-caller got into the end zone for himself by way of the pass early in the fourth quarter, when a pass to Craig Dandridge Jr. was good for a score from 61 yards away.
The Bulldogs added a short, two-yard score from backup quarterback Ryan Puglisi to Lawson Luckie with 2:31 to play as the Razorbacks got on the board with two late touchdowns, a Sutton Smith two-yard run and Jackson pass to Ty Lockwood.
