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Georgia football‘s 5 best players against Mississippi State

Georgia defensive back Deandre Baker (left) intercepts Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald during the second half on Saturday.
Curtis Compton/AJC
Cy Brown
Cy Brown

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Top Dawgs

If you want to beat daylight 31-3 and put on one of the most complete performances a Sanford Stadium crowd has seen in years, you’re going to need fantastic performances from a bunch of players. That’s exactly what Georgia got in the 31-3 win over the other Bulldogs of the SEC on Saturday.

It makes my job here kind of difficult, though. Trimming the list of great performances to just five players was quite the task. But I managed to get it done, even if I had to cut the likes of Nick Chubb, Roquan Smith, Terry Godwin and seemingly countless others. Here are Georgia’s top five players from the win over Mississippi State.

5. Rodrigo Blankenship — With 6 touchbacks in 6 attempts against State, Blankenship extended his touchback streak to 13 consecutive kickoffs. He also added a 49-yard field goal, tying his career-long. I’ll go out on a limb and say kicker is no longer a liability for Georgia. It’s a strength.

4. Isaiah Wynn — The offensive line had its best game in years with big performances from a guys such as Lamont Gaillard and Andrew Thomas. But Wynn was the best of the bunch. He committed 2 penalties, but made up for those with a couple of big blocks that led to Chubb touchdowns. He sealed the edge on Chubb’s 7-yard scamper and and sprang Chubb with a pull and massive pancake block on the 28-yarder from a direct snap (4-second mark in the video below). Any time Georgia runs to the left, Wynn can help make big plays happen.

3. Deandre Baker — Baker had his best game yet with the Bulldogs on Saturday. In the third quarter, he snagged Georgia’s first interception of the season and helped put the game on ice. Outside that he locked down the sideline all night. The nearside of the field was shut off to Nick Fitzgerald thanks to Baker, who finished the game with 2 passes defended and a team-high 5 solo tackles.

2. Jake Fromm — The freshman was efficient and accurate in his third start as a Dawg, going 9 of 12 for 201 yards and 2 touchdowns. More impressive was his poise. He could have let the adrenaline get the better of him and overthrow the opening flea-flicker, but put it right on the money for Godwin. He stood strong and took a lick on the 41-yard strike to Isaac Nauta. If you’re looking to make the argument that Fromm is a better quarterback than Jacob Eason and should keep the starting job, his performance Saturday is your best case.

1. J.R. Reed — You have got to hand it to Kirby Smart for bringing in Reed. Who would have thought a transfer from Tulsa would be the most consistent player in the secondary? Yet, here we are. Reed led the team in total tackles against Mississippi State with 10, and also chipped in 3 passes defended. He popped up one of those for the Dominick Sanders interception, so you can chalk up an assist for him there. He’s only four games into his Georgia career, but Reed is already one of the stars of this defense.

Manage the hype

It’s safe to say there’s a crazy amount of hype surrounding these Bulldogs now. More than I’ve seen in years. Paul Finebaum called UGA a ‘legitimate threat’ for the SEC title, Bruce Feldman of Sports Illustrated put the Dawgs in his top five and Alex Kirschner of SB Nation called them “the only SEC team with even a prayer of beating Alabama.” I’m also guilty of throwing coal in the hype train’s engine. With the performance Saturday, it’s hard not to buy what Smart is selling.

But there’s a difference between fans and players getting caught up in the hype, and Smart is trying his best not to let his guys fall into that trap.

“As long as they don’t start believing all the things that y’all say about them, they’ll be OK,”  Smart said of his defense, according to Seth Emerson of DawgNation.

And from Chip Towers of DawgNation:

You know a team played well when its head coach devotes as much time and energy to deflecting praise as he does providing it himself.

“We’ve got to do a good job managing our team,” Kirby Smart said toward the end of his postgame question-and-answer session with reporters. “If you have a mature team, they’ll handle things well. It does concern me because I do worry about those guys reading it and believing it. But I was around a guy for 10 years who did a good job of managing that.”

That’d be Nick Saban, who has patented “the process” at Alabama.

Learning as you go

The hype isn’t just a product of a blowout win over Mississippi State. It’s a product of how that blowout came about.

The biggest question surrounding Smart in the early days of his head coaching career has been how he’ll perform as a game-day coach. He can recruit with the best, and is proving ever more capable of coaching his players up. Now he’s showing he knows how to prepare for an opponent and exploit their weaknesses. The best example of that was the flea-flicker on the opening offensive play, which showed a keen understanding of how Georgia could take advantage of State from both Smart and offensive coordinator Jim Chaney. From Jason Butt of The Telegraph:

During the week of practice, Georgia’s offense practiced the flea-flicker play over and over.

On Thursday, the offense was told it would begin Saturday’s 31-3 win over Mississippi State with the particular play. It was something head coach Kirby Smart saw on film that he believed would work early in the game. Plus, taking a deep shot that early might soften Mississippi State’s box against the run.

Smart said he spoke with offensive coordinator Jim Chaney about the potential play call on Wednesday, which is when the final decision was made to go with it.

“I thought it was there. And it worked,” Smart said. “It’s a good call if it works. If it’s second-and-10, it doesn’t.”

From the players to the coaches, it seems like everyone on this team has improved since last season.

Dawgs in the polls

The win over Mississippi State was enough to catapult Georgia into the top 10 of both major polls. The Bulldogs jumped from 11th to No. 7 in the AP Top 25 and from 12th to No. 8 in the Amway Coaches Poll. They stayed pat at No. 2 in the SEC Country Power Poll.

The spread

A week before the trip to Neyland Stadium, Georgia opened as a 7-point favorite over Tennessee.

Georgia football adds another commitment

Georgia added its 15th pledge to the class of 2018 with the commitment of Louisiana 3-star safety/linebacker Aaron Brule.

Dawgs on Twitter

Good dog

Run like the wind, my dude!

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NEXT WATCH: DawgNation Post Game Show 9/23/17
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