Another Georgia opponent has shade for the Dawgs’ passing game, but no opponent has been able to expose it yet
It didn’t work out well last week, and the Bulldogs are still undefeated.
It’s another week, and another defense has shade for the Georgia Bulldogs’ offense.
Jake Fromm isn’t exactly gonna win the Heisman, but after taking over for Jacob Eason he’s been a key cog to why the Dawgs are undefeated.
But it’s Fromm’s deficiency in the passing game that opposing defenders keep bringing up.
Last week, Florida defensive back Chauncey Gardner said this about Fromm:
“I mean, you say they have a great quarterback — I get it,” Gardner said via 247Sports. “He’s throwing simple passes — I get it. Anybody can throw a slant — I get it. If you call him the best quarterback, so be it, but he has to play Saturday. We’re going to see what his best attribute is. If he can beat us with his arm, whoopty do.”
Fromm didn’t beat Florida with his arm, because he didn’t have to. UGA beat Florida, 42-7, in as dominant a performance over the Gators as they’ve had in decades. Fromm went 4 of 7 for 101 yards. The Dawgs were up 21-0 midway through the first quarter and rushed for 292 yards as a team. Florida was anemic at best on offense, and Georgia didn’t have to throw the ball to salt the game away.
Another week, and another Dawgs opponent has something to say about Georgia’s passing game.
South Carolina safety Chris Lammons was asked during interviews on Tuesday which facet of Georgia’s offense, the run or the pass, posed the greatest concern for the Gamecocks.
“The run,” Lammons answered. “They can’t pass.”
The common trope is that the key to beating the Dawgs is that making Fromm beat you, but nobody’s been able to do that yet.
It is true that Georgia is 112th in passing yards per game, but of 130 FBS teams, Georgia is just 124th in passing attempts per game.
But when Georgia does need to pass, the Dawgs are very efficient. Here’s how the passing offense stands up in numbers which adjust for pace and opponent.
In his first start ever against Notre Dame (on the road), Fromm was 16 of 29, and the Dawgs won a largely defensive game. In the only game this season that even resembled a shootout, Fromm was 18 of 26 for 326 yards against Missouri.
It’s not that Georgia is incapable of passing. It’s that it has shown it doesn’t really have to.