Georgia’s defense made winning plays, just like Kirby Smart envisioned in victory over Fighting Irish
By Ryan Black
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For Kirby Smart, Saturday felt as if he had been transported to Baton Rouge or Tuscaloosa.
He had been through plenty of defensive slugfests as Alabama’s coordinator in titanic matchups with LSU in the past decade. Except Saturday, he was in South Bend, patrolling the sideline of Georgia, his alma mater.
Both the Bulldogs and Fighting Irish’s defenses took center stage.
But it was Georgia’s that reigned supreme, helping the visitors walk away from Notre Dame Stadium with a 20-19 victory.
“Defense, I can’t say enough about how hard they played,” Smart told reporters afterward. “Toughness, effort, relentless. All the words we talk about, they personified it. They just kept playing.”
And the proof was in the numbers.
Georgia held Notre Dame to 265 yards of total offense. On the ground, the Fighting Irish had to fight for every yard, ending with just 55 on 37 attempts — a miniscule 1.5 yards per carry. Fighting Irish quarterback Brandon Wimbush found yards particularly hard to come by.
Last week, he ran for 106 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries against Temple. Saturday, he had just 1 yard on 16 carries – a total affected by the Bulldogs’ three sacks.
Though Wimbush completed 20 of his 40 passes for 210 yards, Smart said the objective was to prevent him from beating them with his feet.
“I thought that was huge,” Smart said. “That was the plan in the game – to make him stay in the pocket, and for the most part, we did. … That quarterback, he’s a really good player. He’s a really good athlete, he’s hard to get down.”
Wimbush also was at the center of what Smart viewed as the game’s two most pivotal plays.
“There was a third-and maybe 2 or 3 where the quarterback pulled the ball on a zone-read and we had nobody on him and J.R. Reed came out of nowhere and clipped his legs, brought them a fourth-and-1 or 2 and they had to punt the ball back to us,” Smart said, referring to Reed’s takedown midway through the final period, when the Fighting Irish led 19-17. “If they get that first down, it’s possibly a different ballgame.”
The other game-changing play came even later in the fourth quarter.
On Notre Dame’s final possession, Georgia outside linebacker Davin Bellamy knocked Wimbush to the ground – and knocked the ball away as well. That allowed Lorenzo Carter to fall on it and extinguish Notre Dame’s last chance at victory.
“It was a great play. I was actually trying to get him out of the game because I thought (he) was a little winded,” Smart said of Bellamy. “We had played two, three plays that drive and I always want fresh rushers and he gets out there and he out-competed the guy. Man, a huge play in the game.”
Smart was every bit as complimentary of Carter.
“I thought Lorenzo played an outstanding game,” Smart said. “People don’t realize, Lorenzo’s not playing his natural position. Lorenzo has stepped up and allowed us to play with only four DBs, and that’s been a major concern of ours. … His value has become he can play in space. He reminds (me) of when they had Leonard (Floyd) here.
“He gives offenses fits because they’ve got to account for that guy rushing, they’ve got to account for the guy dropping. I thought he played with tremendous toughness. He plays on two special teams and he plays every snap on defense. I mean, it’s really kind of amazing he doesn’t get tired.”
But Smart wasn’t pleased the defense had to bail out the Bulldogs’ offense.
Notre Dame went just 3-for-17 on third-down conversions while Georgia was barely better, going 4-for-17.
“As frustrated as our fans are and I am with the offense we have, think about theirs,” Smart said. “They had a lot of three-and-outs as well. So it was one of those defensive struggle, field-position games.”
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said Georgia deserved all the credit for continually keeping his offense behind the chains.
“Our quarterback is learning the tools of the trade,” Kelly said. “He’s getting, you know, different looks and different reads. It was third down and they brought a lot of pressure. They didn’t want to get him out on the edge. I thought he learned a lot tonight. This is a great game for him to grow from.
“But they did a really good job up front. I mean, I’ve got to give them credit. They made it hard for us to establish a good rhythm offensively on first down.”
Still, Smart pointed to one area as the most critical in Saturday’s triumph: the red zone, an area where Georgia’s defensive struggled mightily last season.
Saturday, Notre Dame only scored one touchdown in three red-zone opportunities.
“Holding them to field goals was the difference in the game. It gave us a chance to win with a field goal,” Smart said. “We work hard on that area. We’ve got to continue to improve on it and thought the kids just fought hard. Even when (Notre Dame) scored the touchdown, our guys were saying, ‘We’re going to make them earn it.’”
Ryan Black covers Georgia football for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow him on Twitter @RyanABlack.
