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After a first-half scare against South Carolina on Saturday, Georgia managed to pull away and win, but the game revealed many areas the Bulldogs need to improve.
One of those areas in the red zone play. Head coach Kirby Smart believes his team needs to get better on both sides of the ball in the red zone.
“We had 2 red zone opportunities that we did not capitalize on defensively and that was really the difference in the first half,” Smart said in a press conference Monday. “At the end of the day the difference in the first half was red area play both ways.”
To get better in the red zone, Smart wants to be able to shut down the run better.
“Things we can improve on: you have to be able to run the ball in the red area and you have to be able to stop the run,” Smart said. “We did not. We let somebody run the ball on us on defense, which is a no-no at Georgia.”
He also wants to see his team get better on first downs. Not getting any positive plays in the red zone on first down hurt the Bulldogs on Saturday.
“We didn’t have positive 1st and 10 plays in the red area on offense,” Smart said. “That can get you in trouble to, because you usually have 4 downs down there to go for it, but you can’t do that if you’re 4th and 10. If you’re 4th and 1 or 2 or 3, you can. We got to have positive plays both ways to get that and we certainly have to improve in that area.”
