Ad Disclosure
Well, that was weird.
We had injuries galore, late-game swings galore and head-scratching decisions galore. But in the end, Georgia found a way to win a 34-20 thriller against Florida.
Carson Beck shook off a disastrous start and led Georgia back against an injury-depleted Florida team.
Here were 3 takeaways from Georgia’s victory in Jacksonville:
1. DJ Lagway left the game with a “significant” hamstring injury (and a lead)
With 4:30 to play in the second quarter, “worst-case scenario” played itself out for Florida. Lagway went down with a hamstring injury while trying to pick up yards. Lagway was carted off the field as Florida led 10-3 thanks to a deep-shot score he dialed up to Aidan Mizell. Billy Napier said that the 5-star true freshman’s injury was “significant.”
It was certainly a “significant” drop-off with preferred walk-on/Yale transfer Aidan Warner. Florida’s 3rd-string quarterback — Graham Mertz already suffered a season-ending knee injury against Tennessee — was put in a difficult spot against the Georgia defense.
Warner did lead Florida down the field for a game-tying scoring drive after UGA scored 2 straight touchdowns. But his interception to CJ Allen late was all she wrote on Florida’s attempt at an upset bid.
Florida fought and did so without it’s top 2 quarterbacks (Lagway and Mertz), its top 2 cornerbacks (Jason Marshall Jr. and Dijon Johnson), its top receiver (Tre Harris) and its top running back (Montrell Johnson Jr.). But ultimately, a Lagway-less Florida squad didn’t have enough to overcome relentless Georgia.
2. Carson Beck was … a lot
Beck threw 3 interceptions for the second consecutive game. Yeah. In 2 games, Beck threw as many interceptions as he had in the entire 2023 season. If that doesn’t tell you how different Beck has been, I don’t know what will. It was mostly a day to forget for the Georgia quarterback in his hometown.
After those 3 interceptions, though, he was 12-for-14 for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns. Much like he did with that all-important third-quarter drive at Texas, Beck shook off those mistakes late. His 3rd-and-7 conversion to Arian Smith in a 20-20 game in the 4th quarter was the play of the day.
Beck continues to have extremely high highs and extremely low lows. Whether that steadies down the stretch remains to be seen.
All that mattered on Saturday was that he found a way to piece together drives when it counted.
3. UGA now has to get right on the road against a potentially desperate Ole Miss team
And by the way, Ole Miss blew out Arkansas and will enter the matchup with the No. 1 scoring defense in America because of a vastly improved defensive line. As in, a defensive line that was built with teams like Georgia in mind.
In other words, a major test will await Beck after the struggles he showed the last month. A guy with consecutive 3-interception games will see no shortage of pressure in a hostile atmosphere. Ole Miss is clinging to Playoff hopes with 2 losses while UGA will look to preserve its SEC Championship hopes.
But getting to Oxford with 1 loss was the only focus on Saturday. Georgia took an indirect route to get there, but it got out of Jacksonville with a victory.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
