ATHENS — Kirby Smart is pretty clearly tired of talking about his own team’s pass rush.
That was evident on Saturday, when his answer came in a frustrated tone.
“Put what you want. I get to watch our guys every day in practice,” Smart said on Saturday. “I mean, I watched our team have 60, 70-something third downs in four games before today, and I have a lot of confidence in our defensive unit team, pass rush coverage, third down plan. I mean, I feel good about it. I don’t feel good about the stats. But, again, you can’t look at stats and misleading, guys.”
The stats show the Bulldogs have only 7.0 sacks on the season. Of those, 6.0 have come from the inside linebacker room. Reserve Nnamdi Ogboko picked up the first sack of the season for Georgia’s defensive line in the fourth quarter of Georgia’s win over Kentucky.
Among SEC teams, only Ole Miss has fewer sacks on the season.
But Georgia is set to face an Auburn team that has surrendered not just the most sacks in the SEC but the entire country.
When it was pointed out to Smart that Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold has a tendency to hold on to the football, Smart pushed back on that notion.
This week’s matchup between the Georgia pass rush and the Auburn pass blocking unit seems to be a stoppable force against a movable object.
“I think that he has designed runs, and he looks to run the ball when things aren’t there,” Smart said. “But I also see him versus pressure to get the ball out really quick, and he’s had accuracy doing that. He’s played in our league for two years, so I don’t really have a plan for a quarterback that per se holds the ball.”
Smart was also notified of comments ESPN’s Jesse Palmer made during Saturday’s broadcast against Kentucky. The former Florida quarterback called out Georgia’s lack of creativity on third down.
Georgia was much better on third down against the Wildcats than it had been against Alabama, where the Bulldogs allowed 13 third-down conversions.
Smart politely rebuked Palmer’s analysis.
“I’m happy for Jesse. I’m glad he makes a living getting to make those decisions,” Smart said. “I focus on what gives us a chance to be successful, play well, execute well, who’s in the game, what strategy do they have on offense. Are they going fast? Are they going slow? I don’t concern myself with it much.”
The Georgia defensive front acknowledges the national conversation around its pass rush. This was the school that recently produced first-round picks such as Travon Walker, Jalen Carter and Jalon Walker.
But sacks have not been a calling card of the defense under Glenn Schumann. The Bulldogs want to stop the run and limit explosive plays. Georgia did that on Saturday, when the Wildcats ran for just 52 non-sack yards.
The Bulldogs rank 13th in the country in both rushing yards per game and yards per carry allowed. They’ve succeeded thus far in that area.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that motivates us or the outside talk does anything to us,” outside linebacker Quintavius Johnson said on Saturday. “We just block it out and play our type of defense.”
One key difference to note with Auburn is that the Tigers have already played three road games. The two losses were at Oklahoma and Texas A&M, two teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll.
Auburn gets the benefit of playing at home on Saturday, which traditionally helps the offensive side of the ball as it can hear the snap count.
Add in Arnold’s rushing ability — even after taking 21.0 sacks, he’s Auburn’s second leading rusher and has five touchdowns — and the Georgia defensive front is going to have another challenge on its hands.
“Probably the toughest thing to defend is when he drops back, and he ends up taking off running,” Smart said. “So he’s a weapon, and they’ve got weapons around him in terms of the ability to throw the ball downfield.”
If Georgia is able to meet said moment and bottle up Auburn, perhaps the doubts about this group dissipate. Or if Arnold finds similar success that Ty Simpson and Joey Aguilar did, it could just be time to accept that Georgia simply has a limited pass rush.
