ATHENS — For a team whose strength is supposed to be its defense, the Georgia Bulldogs have shown some noticeable cracks in recent efforts.

Most specifically, when it comes to tackling. The Bulldogs saw Auburn and Alabama find plenty of success when it came to running the football. Alabama ran for 161 yards, while Auburn rolled up 192 yards on the ground.

“One of the glaring things to us is we want to tackle better,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “We’re higher in missed tackles than we’ve been in years past. That’s a big target area for us. We think missed tackles are up as a whole across college football, so we’re not immune to that. We’re part of that problem, but how do we do it better than they do it? That’s really what we’re trying to do this week.”

The Bulldogs had a tough time bringing down Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown, who rushed for 115 yards and a touchdown in the win.

Brown became the first opposing player this year to rush for more than 100 yards against Georgia.

Even with 5.0 sacks baked into Brown’s totals, Georgia didn’t do a good enough job in limiting Brown’s effectiveness.

While Florida’s Tramell Jones and Ole Miss’s Trinidad Chambliss are different kinds of rushing threats, they both figure to make life difficult for the Georgia defense coming out of the bye for Georgia.

The Bulldogs know they’ll need to contain those opposing quarterbacks, something they haven’t done as well in recent weeks.

“I mean, even, it’s just all the little things,” Georgia safety Khalil Barnes said on the importance of tackling. Just understanding the little stuff that becomes second nature when you’re out there, but again, the guys that play against their own scholarship too, they’re getting paid NIL too. So the game’s playing a lot of space, so we’re gonna miss some tackling, but we do understand we gotta get better with limiting that number, and we are. We’re gonna get better with it.”

Georgia’s defense still has plenty of talent on it, led by linebackers Chris Cole and Raylen Wilson. That duo led Georgia in tackles again vs. Auburn. Georgia was also without star safety KJ Bolden, who it hopes to get back soon.

One way to limit the number of tackles the Georgia defense has to make is to reduce the number of plays the Bulldogs have to make.

Auburn held a 76 to 65 edge in terms of plays run. Three Georgia turnovers created extra possessions for Auburn, which proved to be the difference in the game.

Auburn scored just three points off Georgia’s turnovers. But the 3-0 edge — Georgia did not turn Auburn over — was the difference in the game.

“How can we get better incrementally and gain inches,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “When the margins are tighter, the inches are everywhere.”

Smart stopped short of going full Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, but with games against Florida and Ole Miss coming out of the off week, he knows his defense has to do a better job of finishing plays.

For all the talent on Georgia’s team, tackling is a byproduct of effort.

Against Auburn, Georgia’s effort wasn’t good enough. If the Bulldogs are to look like a championship team once again, it has to get better in that regard during this critical off week.

“We gotta do a good job of managing that and dealing with it because the margins are just tighter,” Smart said.