It’s dark days in Athens, Ga., the morning after the 1st game of the Georgia Bulldogs’ pursuit of a 3-peat and college football immortality.

Fans are at a loss. The locker room is silent. Coaches are going back to the drawing board. At this moment, we’re just not sure how — or if — Georgia can possibly survive the remainder of the 2023 season.

What’s that? The Bulldogs defeated visiting UT-Martin 48-7? And Carson Beck passed for nearly 300 yards?

Oh.

Look, I get it. The offense stumbled. It was stuck in neutral. Beck missed some early passes. The running game never left the station. The offensive line struggled to find a push. And offensive coordinator Mike Bobo — oh, Mike Bobo — spent the game trying to figure out the best use of his immense offensive weapons.

It was not a clean game. I don’t think anyone in the Georgia locker room would tell you any different. But I am standing here as high on my soap box as I can to say, in the immortal words of Aaron Rodgers:

R-E-L-A-X.

Relax, y’all. The Georgia faithful took 2 years to fully accept former quarterback Stetson Bennett IV, who will one day have a statue in front of Sanford Stadium. And it was ready to throw his replacement, Beck, to the wolves midway through the 2nd quarter of the 1st start of his college career.

Give this thing a couple of weeks and reevaluate then. My hunch is that Beck will have settled in and convinced many of you that he, and this offense, can be everything you hoped it’d be.

Let’s get to some player accolades.

Player of the week: WR Mekhi Mews

Man, is this guy fun to watch, or what?

As if Georgia didn’t have enough weapons in the receiving game with tight end Brock Bowers and receivers Ladd McConkey, Dominic Lovett, Rara Thomas, Arian Smith and so on, Mews announced his presence in the opener and showed why he might just add another wrinkle to an already potent Georgia attack.

The 5-foot-7 phenom caught 3 passes for 75 yards, including a 54-yard touchdown on which he danced around a couple of defenders and then left them in his wake. I’ll be interested to keep an eye on his progress over the next couple of weeks as the Bulldogs figure out their offensive identity.

Freshman of the week: RB Roderick Robinson II

Mark this down as an important development for the Bulldogs.

They are painfully short on running back depth right now. And I know what you’re thinking — yes, there’s plenty of talent in that room. And Daijun Edwards is on his way back. But there was never a time over the summer where I felt like this position was in great shape, and losing sophomore Branson Robinson for the year made it even more of a question mark in my mind.

Roderick Robinson’s first performance for Georgia eases the concerns just a bit. He had 8 carries for 50 yards and 1 touchdown, 2nd on the team in rushing yards to Kendall Milton’s 53. Milton and Edwards (when healthy) will be the top 2 options, but Roderick’s presence will add some much-needed depth.

Biggest surprise: The offensive line struggles

This was an odd development for me.

I understand silly mistakes and missing passes in a season opener, especially against a vastly inferior opponent that fails to stir the excitement of the young players on the team. But you can’t teach size and strength, and the Georgia offensive line has that in spades. So why did it have such a hard time pushing around its undersized Skyhawks counterparts?

There weren’t a lot of penalties, which, I suppose, is a good sign. But it also just adds to the mystery of why Georgia struggled so much to impose its will up front. That will be something to pay attention to going forward.

Biggest concern: The offensive playcalling

Ok, we’ve arrived at the Mike Bobo portion of the show. Let’s start with an observation, and then I’ll tell you what my takeaway from it is.

It was not good.

The Georgia offense, at least early, looked every bit like the vanilla, run-up-the-middle, predictable offense that every angry Bobo detractor accused it of being when he was named Todd Monken’s successor at coordinator. It didn’t generate much explosion, it was predictable and it failed, until the 3rd quarter, to really get off the ground. Not a great 1st impression.

But here’s what I really think I saw: a new coordinator with a new quarterback and a handful of new offensive weapons experimenting with some different approaches against a safe opponent to see which one takes. If we’re still seeing this in a couple of weeks against South Carolina, which can absolutely beat a sleepy Georgia team, then we’re going to have more concerns.

Developing trend: The lack of an explosive running game

File this in the same section as the above.

Georgia has really lacked that big-play running game since the days of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel and D’Andre Swift. James Cook was more than solid and had big-play potential, but certainly the past 2 seasons have lacked a consistent threat in the running game.

I’m not talking about the plays drawn up to put Kenny McIntosh into space. I’m talking about the line our offensive line up against yours and let us bully you for consistent 7- and 8- and 9-yard chunk gains. And I’m not sure, really, who is responsible.

Is it the offensive line? The playcalling? The running back personnel? I’m not sure. But I think Georgia would like to see more consistency.

Key stat: 2 dropped passes for Lovett

It was not the best debut for Lovett, who was a highly regarded transfer for Georgia entering the season. He had just 3 catches for 25 yards. He had a 25-yard catch, as well, so you can do the math on the other 2 receptions. He dropped a pass in the end zone that would have been a touchdown and another that would have been a sizable gain. Neither were easy catches, but they were certainly balls you’d like to see a receiver of his caliber come down with. Nothing to overreact about, but I’m sure Georgia would like to see more out of him next week.

First impression about Week 2

It’s Ball State.

Georgia will win, and it will win big. The only thing you really need to be paying attention to is what sort of adjustments the Bulldogs make over the coming week. Is the offensive line more effective? Is Beck settled in and getting the ball on time and in stride to his receivers? Is the offense gaining any explosion? We need to see that before the Bulldogs host South Carolina on Sept. 16.