Kirby Smart provides harsh evaluation of Stetson Bennett following Mizzou win

Georgia spent the majority of their road win against Missouri on upset alert. The Bulldogs were down in that game up until the last four minutes with a lot of it falling on their offensive struggles. Some of that leads back to the play of Stetson Bennett and Kirby Smart did not mince words when it came to his quarterback’s play.

Smart broke down Bennett’s performance during media after sneaking out with the 26-22 win. He said it wasn’t Bennett’s best and that he needs him to be more accurate.

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“Stetson didn’t play his best game. I think he’d be the first to tell you,” said Smart. “I don’t know if the atmosphere got to him. He kept his composure, he had two really good drives…he made some big-time throws, but he missed some throws tonight and I think he’d be the first to tell you that. He didn’t play his best game…I thought he did a good job of what we asked him to do, but he does have to be more accurate.”

Bennett completed just 55.8% of his passes on Saturday for 312 yards and no touchdowns. It was a big part of why Georgia’s offense was so stagnant for the majority of the game. However, Smart didn’t put it all on Bennett. He said it’s on he and the staff as well for potentially overloading their quarterback this week, especially on the road.

“That’s not all Stetson’s fault. That’s some of my fault putting a lot on him on the road. Coach Monkin (?) will take some of that,” Smart said. “We all take, as an offensive staff and head coach, some responsibility of maybe asking him to do too much.”

There is no JT Daniels behind Bennett this time around in Athens. This team is Bennett’s and Smart will need him to play better. Considering they still got the win, though, they managed to avoid what would have been a catastrophe. Bennett and his teammates will have a week to get it out of their systems before they face Auburn next weekend.