Weird.

If I had to describe that game in one word, that would be it.

Weird.

Weird it was that even midway through the third quarter, Mizzou led Georgia in total yards … yet it trailed 27-7.

Weird it was that Georgia, which hadn’t allowed a single rushing touchdown all year, allowed rushing scores to 4 Mizzou players while holding Drew Lock without a passing touchdown.

Weird it was that Georgia, which won every SEC East game except one by more than 25 points dating to the start of 2017, struggled to shake the pesky Tigers on the road despite the fact that the home team shot itself in the foot time after time.

Weird it was that for the second time in 3 games, a Georgia player decided to (almost) release the ball at the goal line instead of taking it all the way into the end zone.

(I assumed the goal line drop against South Carolina was like when you watch your brother drop a curse word in front of your parents and they yell at him in ways you’ve never seen before, so the last thing you think to do is drop an F-bomb shortly thereafter. But apparently it wasn’t.)

It was just, weird.

But the final result wasn’t weird. It was Georgia earning its eighth consecutive win against a division that it has owned since the start of 2017. The Dawgs still took advantage of mistakes and managed to score a bunch of points in what felt like a relatively sloppy game on both sides.

In many ways, it epitomized exactly why Georgia has risen to elite status.

Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Georgia didn’t have its fastball Saturday. It just didn’t.

Maybe the health of left tackle Andrew Thomas played a part in that. Perhaps it was the 11 a.m. local kickoff. Or maybe it was just that Mizzou is a halfway decent team that like last year, was capable of showing flashes against Georgia.

You know what great teams have to do from time to time? Win a game ugly. Granted, you don’t want to do it every week, but the occasional game in which your quarterback has to throw a pass in the fourth quarter isn’t the worst thing in the world.

By the way, that was the first game that Jake Fromm threw a fourth-quarter pass this year. In other news, it’s Week 4.

And say what you want about Georgia’s reliance on Fromm, but occasionally relying on your quarterback to make a big-time conversion late in a road game can have long-term benefits. That second half was the Fromm show.

Well, Fromm and the Georgia receivers* show.

We got reminders that Riley Ridley, who hasn’t really been needed to make a ton of big-time catches, is plenty capable of doing that. Saturday reaffirmed that Mecole Hardman is extremely fast.

Georgia really reminded everyone that it’s not a 1-dimensional offense. If you undercut receivers and go for the home-run play like Mizzou did, the Dawgs can easily turn that into 6. And if you assume that Fromm isn’t capable of handling pressure and going through his progressions, he can pick apart a defense.

Was it a perfect day for Fromm and the Georgia receivers? Not exactly.

Fromm came in leading FBS in accuracy (80.4 percent), and he threw more incompletions (10) than he had in his first 3 games combined (9). That included an interception, which was Hardman not realizing that he had another defender in his face before he secured an on-target pass from Fromm.

Mistakes were made on both sides of the ball, and not just the mistakes that get Kirby Smart’s blood boiling in Nick Saban-like fashion up 42-0.

Georgia looked more average at the line of scrimmage than it has so far in 2018. The Dawgs even came up short on plenty of third downs (25 percent) and couldn’t muster what would have been a key fourth-down conversion. It felt like one of the few occurrences since the start of 2017 in which Georgia couldn’t impose its will on an inferior team.

It happens.

It’s about finding a way to win and clean up September issues that determine how good young teams are capable of becoming. Even though Georgia entered Columbia with that No. 2 ranking, we still don’t have an answer for that question. If the Dawgs are still struggling to dominate up front in November and slogging their way through the East, we’ll question how much heat is really on Georgia’s fastball.

It wasn’t humming Saturday. But Georgia picked its spots and didn’t panic when it couldn’t put it on cruise control in the fourth quarter for the first time this year.

Weird game or not, the Dawgs are learning how to do the things that’ll allow them to make early strides like they did last year. Being multi-dimensional on offense, containing a first-round quarterback prospect and capitalizing on special teams mistakes are 3 positives that Smart will take any week.

There was more good than bad Saturday, and even in a win, there will be plenty of teaching points for Georgia.

Mainly, stop dropping the ball near the goal line.