Kirby Smart explains Georgia's rushing issues early vs Mizzou in frank NSFW terms
Kirby Smart was proud of how Georgia rallied on Saturday against Missouri, but Bulldogs faithful had to be worried watching the No. 1 team in the country struggle so mightily against the Tigers, especially in the first half.
Regardless, Georgia escaped with a 26-22 victory over Missouri, remaining No. 1 in the country. Afterwards, Smart had the perfect response to explain his team’s issues running the football early against the Tigers.
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“Getting yo ass whipped up front,” responded Smart. “That’s what the finger was. Like, when you put on pads and strike another man and he’s across from you, and he weighs 300 and you weigh 300, somebody loses. So the finger is, we getting out butts whooped.
“Okay, now scheme-wise, we can maybe help them out. We can do some different things. We can look and find some things. Gap plays helped us. We ran some gap plays and that really helped us. But when you’re not running the ball well, you usually get whipped.”
Nevertheless, Georgia found their run game at the right time, using two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter to propel their squad to victory. While it was an exciting SEC showdown, the Bulldogs will be hoping for their following matchups to be a little less frightening.
Kirby Smart updates DT Jalen Carter’s injury situation, bemoans how it happened
Furthermore, Georgia was without star defensive lineman Jalen Carter for the second half Saturday night after a scary-looking low block from a Missouri lineman banged his knee up. Head coach Kirby Smart provided more context into the injury, but downplayed the notion that it was a dirty hit.
“It’s a knee, but I don’t know how bad it is yet. He tried to go back, he couldn’t,” Smart said after the win. “We think it’s an MCL strain, which is probably good news. Tough, too, because it was a tough block, a tough, tough cut block that they do well. He wanted to go back, but he couldn’t go back.”
Carter was only able to record one tackle before leaving the field. That was more production than he had last week against Kent State, however, as he wasn’t able to put any numbers on the stat sheet. That is due, in part, to Carter dealing with an ankle injury all season and now, the potential MCL issue is just the latest.
Looking ahead, Carter is projected to be one of the top picks in the 2023 NFL Draft. He is in the discussion for being one of the best non-quarterbacks available for selection. While this injury doesn’t seem to have a long-term effect on his healthy, it’s something Smart and the Bulldogs will certainly monitor moving forward.
Carter’s injury was one of several blows to the Georgia defense, though most of which didn’t come through injury, but rather Missouri’s offense keeping the Bulldogs on its heels for the entire game.
With more updates on Carter’s injury timetable likely to come within the week, Georgia will likely have to game-plan without their star defensive lineman as they prepare for Auburn in Athens for Week 6.