Kirby Smart praises his team's performance in road win at Auburn
It wasn’t easy but Georgia just locked up the SEC East by beating Auburn 21-14 on The Plains.
The Bulldogs entered the fourth quarter in complete control of this game up 21-0 but Auburn caught fire in the final stanza of the game, forcing Kirby Smart’s defense to make two stands to win the game. After Auburn ripped off consecutive touchdown drives, Georgia stopped the Tigers on downs in back-to-back drives to end the game.
Following the close call, Smart was asked about the statement his team made by going on the road and beating the Tigers.
“We made a statement that we didn’t stop them on the last two or three drives,” Smart noted. “I mean, you have to finish teams off. Played really well early, lost our composure and didn’t finish the way we needed to.”
Here’s what Smart had to say when asked which players stepped up for the Bulldogs on Saturday.
“Travon Walker made some big plays at the end, a lot of these young kids starting to grow up,” the Georgia coach added. “We have got to continue to grow, continue to play, get better, make plays when we get a chance on offense.”
Finally, on how difficult it is to win at Auburn — the Tigers were undefeated at home leading up to this game — Smart praised the Auburn crowd and his team.
“Look guys, that team is a really good football team and you are playing them at their place, one of the toughest places to play in the country,” Smart said. “Got a lot of respect for their football team and a lot of respect for ours.”
Next weekend, Georgia returns to Athens to finish up its SEC schedule against Texas A&M. Win or lose, however, the Bulldogs are headed to Atlanta for the third consecutive season under Smart’s leadership.
4 and 1 against BYE teams, congrats my Coach of the year Kirby Smart…GO Leghumpers
He is right. You win at Auburn and you have done something. I think it is worse playing there than anywhere else. Those boys and fans never quit. I love this game more than Florida because this is more line up and beat us rather than talk.
Actually, like all Dawgs I am glad the players hung on to win…..But, the conservative strategies CKS uses when we have a decent lead is painful to watch….Unlike swinny, CKS, backs off on both sides of the ball…instead of putting the game away….out of reach…Doubt Fields(OSU) would do much bette than Jake Fromm…with CKS ‘s…offensive strategies….How Fromm. Ever gets any rhythm, with CkS.. appoach. To offense., I’ll never know…..Our Defense, needs to get off of the field to rest up at some point!…..Tonight, it did not after halftime….Thanks, defense….
Coach CKS did not drop another clutch prime time pass that Fromm put right on the money again…this time it was Eli Wolf putting on a Tyler Simmons when our pups had the opportunity to put tge game away. Bigger question to me was why Lanning went zone after smoking WarBuzzardU offense with over the top man cover all day long…that being said it was a great win against stacked odds. Go Dawgs
I thought the offense did about as good as we could hope for through the first three quarters.
I say that considering how our receivers were being held literally on every passing play. It’s hard to get separation when the DB grabs the receiver on his first break, on every play.
I hope Kirby lets the head officials in Birmingham hear about it!
Don’t worry, the SEC officials will have that all cleaned up when Bama comes to play. I wonder if that’s how Auburn held LSU to only 23?
I hate how Georgia goes conservative in the 4th with a decent lead. Kirby traded yards, first downs, and points for time off the clock. It worked again, just like it did against Florida, but this defense is good enough to not blow the game. Let the defense stay aggressive, and don’t go to the prevent. Auburn had no business scoring on this defense.
It was obvious that Cager wasn’t near 100%. I hope he can get there for the SECCG.
Congratulations to Kirby Smart, and Georgia for 3-peating as SEC Eastern dissension champs!