Peach Bowl final thoughts: Kirby Smarts timeout, explosive passing, Georgia narratives

ATLANTA — The narrative has changed about Kirby Smart, and it’s perfectly encapsulated by fake punts at Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Four seasons ago, there was an ill-fated fake punt. No doubt you remember the sordid details: Georgia for some reason thought it could put Justin Fields as the up-man on a punt, for the first time all season, and not have Alabama notice. And when Alabama did notice, and Georgia failed to snap it quickly, Smart let the play happen, instead of calling a timeout.

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Does everybody enjoy reliving that? Sure you do. Well, you can laugh about it now, and maybe Smart can too because this time he did call the timeout, in the process outwitting the program whose fans had derided Smart for letting Fields fall in their lap.

But this may not just be a change in narrative. It also may simply be Smart’s becoming a better coach. This isn’t to say he was a poor coach before — this is the man who took mostly Mark Richt-era recruits and nearly won a national championship — but there were hiccups, like the fake punt and a few other moments that had critics wondering whether Smart had the game day coaching chops to win it all. Plenty of Georgia fans will acknowledge they began to wonder as well, especially after the 2019 season when the perception was Smart was too mentally tethered to a power offense.

We also saw Saturday night why that narrative has died: Georgia won in a shootout. It outscored Ohio State (barely), and it also outgained (533 yards to 467) and outpassed (398 yards to 348) the Buckeyes.

This is why Smart modernized the offense and brought in Todd Monken. Could the pre-2020 offense (maybe even pre-2021) have rallied like Georgia did in the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl? The offense did sputter in the third quarter and was a big reason the team was in the hole. But the ability to roll downfield twice very quickly, the ability to turn on the jets when most needed, is why Smart had to open up his offense. Sometimes a defense has an off night or just gets dominated by a great offense. That’s when teams need their own great offense, and Smart now has it.

The Rose Bowl victory against Oklahoma at the end of the 2017 season is the closest comparison in terms of coming back in a big game, but that comeback happened in the third quarter when there was time to hand off to Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. And it was against a porous defense. This comeback was against a more serviceable defense and in the final quarter. Explosive passing offenses can bail out teams.

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But it still probably would’ve been for naught if not for that timeout. In a conversation with a few Ohio State writers after the game, that was a point of amazement. That and Marvin Harrison Jr.’s injury were the biggest back-breakers. The Buckeyes knew going in they had to beat a formidable defense, and most of the time they did, and they knew they had to deal with a formidable offense. But the coaching matchup was also a big question, and for about 50 minutes, Ryan Day held his own.

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But down the stretch, Smart snuffed out the fake punt, and his team made the comeback. In the building where Georgia had blown second-half leads in a national championship and SEC championship games, the Bulldogs rallied this time. Symbolism abounds.

Of course, there’s still one more game for Smart to do something that brings back all the negative narratives. But at least this time he has a ring to fall back on.

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More thoughts on quite a night:

Harrison and the injury factor: Harrison’s injury can’t be glossed over. Nor can the injury to Buckeyes tight end Cade Stover, which as my colleague Cameron Teague Robinson pointed out could have led to another critical play: an illegal procedure that nullified a fourth-down conversion in the second quarter. The backup tight end was called for the penalty.

Ohio State was also injury-riddled entering the game: Its second-leading rusher and one of its top receivers were out, and leading rusher Miyan Williams was limited enough that he only had three carries.

Georgia had its own issues: Darnell Washington went out with an ankle injury in the first half. Chaz Chambliss went out with a leg injury, further depleting an outside linebackers group that was without Nolan Smith and with a banged-up Marvin Jones Jr. Receivers Ladd McConkey and AD Mitchell played but were not 100 percent: At this point in the season, everyone is banged up, and injuries are a part of football. Would Georgia have won without Harrison being out? Feel free to add it to the unknowns about what would have happened in last year’s national championship if Alabama had John Mechie and Jameson Williams. It makes for a heated discussion on message boards, but no asterisks are officially involved.

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Passing distribution: You kind of knew this would happen: The buildup to the game was heavily about Georgia’s tight ends, but Washington only had one catch before being injured and Brock Bowers had four catches with no touchdowns. (A fourth-down conversion, helped by replay, was indeed key.)

This game was an example of how spread out Georgia’s passing game usually is: Ten players caught at least one pass (compared with six for the Buckeyes), with the distribution this way:

• Wideouts: 12 catches, 260 yards, two TDS (and McConkey’s two-point conversion).

• Running backs: six catches, 65 yards, 1 TD.

• Tight ends: five catches, 73 yards.

A couple more receiver notes:

• Mitchell now has the game-winning catch in Georgia’s past two College Football Playoff games. Both came in the fourth quarter. Not too shabby.

• Arian Smith has 11 career catches, resulting in 383 yards. For those doing the math, that’s 34.8 yards per catch.

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Bennett in the clutch

When critics derided Stetson Bennett for being a Heisman Trophy finalist, some people (raising hand) pointed out that Bennett’s numbers were pushed down by how few passes he had to make in the fourth quarter this season. When Bennett does have to lead the team back in the fourth quarter, the results are telling:

• National championship vs. Alabama: 4-for-4 for 83 yards, 2 TD, plus two passes that drew pass interference calls.

• This year at Missouri: 7-for-9 for 78 yards.

• Ohio State game: 10-for-12 for 190 yards, 2 TDs.

The notable exception was the SEC championship loss when Georgia trailed 31-17 and Bennett threw a pick six that basically cemented the loss. Since then, however, Bennett has shown he’s Mr. Clutch, albeit with one more game to do something to bring back the critics.

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Regarding the defense

If Georgia had lost, we would be talking a lot about Georgia’s defensive strategy. The pass pressure was missing for too much of the game, and when it was there, the Bulldogs didn’t seem ready for C.J. Stroud’s ability to scramble. To be fair, that was a surprise even for many Ohio State followers. But the containment wasn’t there for a Georgia defense that has been better at that against other quarterbacks.

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We also would be talking about the secondary, which had its second straight rough game in that building. The LSU game comes with the caveat that much of the damage was when Georgia was well ahead and playing differently on defense. The only caveat for this game is that Ohio State is just very good, and it played out exactly as many (including me) warned: If Georgia didn’t get consistent pressure, Stroud and his receivers would do damage. It’s asking too much for any secondary to hold down elite passers and receivers who have time to connect.

But we aren’t talking about it, not just because the field goal missed and not just because of Bennett’s fourth-quarter heroics because the defense did just enough:

• Jamon Dumas-Johnson’s sack on Ohio State’s penultimate drive forced a field goal.

• Kelee Ringo made a great play on the ball on Stroud’s second-to-last pass attempt, preventing a closer field goal try.

• Javon Bullard’s hit on Harrison in the end zone probably saved the game. Replays show it was not targeting, a true shoulder-to-shoulder hit, a great play by the sophomore nickelback.

There were also plenty of big plays here and there, such as Smael Mondon’s running Stroud out of bounds to force fourth-and-1 before the fake punt that Smart called off.

Finally, there was the dominance of the rush defense: Ohio State couldn’t just hand the ball off in the fourth quarter and run out the clock. We may be talking about Georgia’s problem in pass defense. But for what seems like the 55th straight game, we are not talking about any problems in stopping the traditional running game.

Final thought

“How did they win that game?” someone asked me as I got on the media shuttle leaving the stadium. Someone else texted: “Got outplayed on every level and won. Just incredible.”

Still, don’t go too far in saying the Bulldogs won despite being outplayed. They won total yardage, as pointed out earlier. They didn’t have the benefit of any turnovers, didn’t block any field goals, and their reliable kicker was 2-for-4 on field goals.

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If that Ohio State field goal had gone through, I had an alternate story written. The thrust of it: Georgia got beat by another good team. It didn’t play well, but that’ll happen when you play other good teams.

Instead, the field goal missed, and a game that could have gone either way went to Georgia, and now it’s on to L.A.

(Top photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

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