There’s a misconception about Georgia right now.

Two weeks ago, Florida defensive back Chauncey Gardner said something about Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm that got plenty of attention.

“He’s throwing simple passes. I get it,” Gardner said about Fromm before the Florida-Georgia game. “Anybody can throw a slant. I get it. If you call him the best quarterback, so be it, but he has to play Saturday.”

Fromm actually didn’t have to complete more than four passes to lead Georgia to a 42-7 victory against the free-falling Gators.

A few days later, South Carolina safety Chris Lammons followed in Gardner’s footsteps, albeit in more blunt fashion.

“They can’t pass,” Lammons said before the South Carolina-Georgia matchup.

Fromm then proceeded to pass for 196 yards and 2 touchdowns while completing 73 percent of his passes in another double-digit victory. To the surprise of Lammons, Fromm could indeed pass. South Carolina coach Will Muschamp broke that news after the game.

“We made Jake Fromm play quarterback,” Muschamp said after the Georgia loss. “And I compliment Jake, he played extremely well. He was very accurate with the football.”

South Carolina did indeed “make” Fromm play quarterback. They loaded the box and unlike every one of Georgia’s SEC opponents to date, the Gamecocks didn’t let Georgia run wild. If Fromm didn’t “play quarterback,” that game would’ve gone down to the wire.

What Muschamp, Lammons and Gardner have claimed in the past couple weeks is essentially that Georgia is extremely beatable if a team can actually make Fromm do the heavy lifting.

But in reality, we saw on Saturday why the Dawgs are actually more of a force than ever with Fromm under center.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

There’s a difference between “can’t” and “won’t.” By now, Lammons should know that.

To say that Georgia “can’t” pass would imply that Fromm wasn’t leading the SEC in quarterback rating entering last week’s South Carolina matchup. By the way, he was. If Georgia didn’t have a passing game, Fromm wouldn’t be the SEC’s most efficient passer.

It’s no secret that Georgia hasn’t had to pass much in 2017. Fromm averages 16.7 pass attempts per game, which is easily the fewest among the full-time SEC starting quarterbacks.

You know what else is the fewest among SEC quarterbacks? Fromm’s snaps playing with a deficit in conference play. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Even Jalen Hurts trailed for those 13 seconds against Texas A&M.

So if you’re Georgia, why would you start throwing the ball 30 or even 20 times a game when you have a lead and a ground game that can’t be stopped? Anyone who looks at Fromm’s volume — or lack there of — and assumes it’s because of his inability to make plays is in for a rude awakening.

RELATED: Who will own the biggest matchups in the Auburn-Georgia game?

Running the ball with two dominant senior tailbacks backs is just easier. It’s as simple as that. The Dawgs haven’t lost the battle at the line of scrimmage yet this year and even with a run-heavy offense, they’ve outscored their SEC opponents by an average of 29 points. That’s, um, ideal.

I know what skeptical Georgia fans are thinking. Sooner or later, the Dawgs won’t dominate the battle at the line of scrimmage. Maybe they will fall behind a couple scores late. They’ll think the obvious. We. Need. To. Throw.

So let’s think about what Georgia has going heading into the second week of November. It has a freshman quarterback who’s gaining more confidence by the week. It has an athletic, healthy group of pass-catchers. It has a run game that will still be the top priority for a defense.

But there’s something that Georgia doesn’t have that could be its greatest benefit down the stretch. It has the least amount of film on its passing game of any contender. Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney can afford to add in new wrinkles to this passing game each week, knowing that he can surprise the skeptics. If the Dawgs really are as simple as everyone makes them out to be, they have defenses right where they want them.

That means they can do things like open a headliner game with a flea flicker. Oh, wait. They already did that.

Fromm has done everything that Chaney has asked him to do. He’s converted big-time third downs, he’s gotten rid of the ball (do people realize he’s only been sacked seven times all year?) and he’s made some nice throws downfield.

One turns on the film and they might see a pass like this one that was a ton of yards after the catch. But the ability to handle that pressure and get the ball out on time was far from simple.

Sure, Fromm isn’t Tom Brady sitting in the pocket and going through five progressions. You won’t see a ton of 5-stop drops from Fromm in the immediate future, either. But to say that Fromm can’t play the position would be shortsighted.

He’s already doing things that fifth-year seniors struggle with. He’s made back-shoulder throws, he’s stepped up in the pocket and delivered on-target throws on the sidelines, he’s checked down to his tailback instead of forcing a pass into double coverage.

That’s what winning quarterbacks do.

There’s a reason that Georgia is sitting at 9-0 and No. 1 in the country. It’s not like this team is a whole lot different than last year’s bunch. There is, however, a big difference in the production Georgia has been getting at the quarterback position. This offense is far more efficient than it was a short time ago, and Fromm is a big reason why.

Fromm has handled everything that Chaney has thrown at him. If last week was any indication, Chaney going to continue to throw more at the freshman. If the Dawgs are going to run the table, they’ll need Fromm to continue to “play quarterback.”

Sooner or later, SEC defenses will figure out that he’s pretty good at doing that.