ATHENS — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea found positives in the Commodores loss that will have Kirby Smart and his Georgia staff hard at work.

The No. 2-ranked Bulldogs scored the final 17 points for a 38-14 win, but not before Vanderbilt found enough success to play UGA within a touchdown for a half.

“We were able to play within a possession there, at the half,” Lea said. “I thought we needed a stop coming out, it was a third-and-5 (pass) that got deflected and fell into the hands of their tight end (Lawson Luckie), obviously that was a big moment.”

Georgia made the deflection count, as it converted for a first down on the play as Luckie gained 43 yards after the fortuitous moment, scoring six plays later to extend its lead to 28-14.

“I was proud of the way our defense fought for every blade of grass to finish that drive, obviously it ended in a touchdown,” Lea said.

The Vanderbilt coach pointed out that the Commodores inability to convert on a fourth-and-2 at the Georgia 40 on the ensuing possession was also pivotal.

“We failed to convert on the fourth down,” Lea said, “and that was that.”

Just as Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said he felt his team was able to go toe-to-toe with Georgia’s vaunted offensive and defensive line in a 41-13 loss, Lea felt the Commodores did the same thing.

“It felt like we protected better today, it felt like there was a little more space in the pocket,” Lea sad, “it felt like the run game was able to get going, I think that’s a really good defensive front.”

Vanderbilt accumulated 293 total yards and quarterback Blaze Berlowtiz was sacked only twice while committed just one turnover, on an interception.

“It just felt like there was cleaner play today up front,” Lea said. “That’s a really good defensive front and it felt as though we were holding up in protection and we were creating space for the running backs.”

Georgia had two sacks, by Gabe Harris and Justin Williams, but Vanderbilt was a respectable 5 of 12 on third-down conversions.

With a 7:30 p.m. game on Saturday at Alabama looming, Smart and his staff will be consumed looking to solve its shortcomings.

“There a lot of things we can do to improve,” Smart said. “At the end of the day, you know, you’ve got to have an identity on third down, and they did a good job executing on third down.”

Smart said he felt Georgia’s conditioning took effect on what became a warm, muggy day.

“The heat took its toll on them, we were able to stay fresh on defense,” Smart said.

“I thought our offensive line played really well today. Vanderbilt presents a lot of problems defensively and they brought some guys in unorthodox positions. They had some timely pressure calls. We took advantage of those and Stockton didn’t make, you know, the catastrophic mistake.”

Vanderbilt was able to take the run-first element out of Georgia’s run game, as the Bulldogs gained 122 of its 176 rushing yards in the final quarter.

Smart saw value in the win over Georgia, too.

“We really needed this kind of game — tough, physical, hard fought,” Smart said. “Punch, punch back, punch, punch back because that’s how you play in the SEC, so I was proud of our guys for that.

“Probably played the most complete game we’ve played so far in terms of all the way around and responded well in the second half.”