It was the best of halves, it was the worse of halves.

Ian Boyd’s summary of Saturday’s game:

Georgia – South Carolina

This game was a tale of two halves. In the first half, it looked like Georgia would join FSU and Alabama as contenders that struggled late into the game against a team they should have put away early. However, in the second half Georgia imposed their will on both side of the ball and put the game away against the Gamecocks. In terms of EPA/play, the Bulldog offense ranks 25th this year. While that will still get the job done, it is still a far cry away from their 6th ranking last year. I can’t imagine there is that much panic in Athens on their offense, but it should be something to note as we continue on into the season.

That feels about right, although if I have a slight bone to pick with his analysis, I’m not sure “a tale of two halves” quite does Georgia’s second half work justice.  The ‘Cocks finished with negative EPA/play and negative EPA/pass.  Given Rattler’s otherworldly effort in the first half, that’s a remarkable turnaround.

Hurt

Shot.

The Georgia football injury report right now is longer than a CVS receipt pic.twitter.com/D2uZ3Pwxch

— Jon Tweets Sports (@jontweetssports) September 18, 2023

Chaser.

Georgia head athletic trainer Ron Courson informed Kirby Smart that the team currently "has the longest injury list we've ever had."

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) September 18, 2023

That is crazy.  And that is why you can never have too much depth.

Pay the price.

The bullshit flows so smoothly from Arkansas’ AD here.

WOW! @HunterYurachek laying it out perfectly after some confusion from @JayBilas on revenue sharing with the athletes pic.twitter.com/hZG9iN5wgb

— LR Touchdown Club (@LRTouchdownClub) September 18, 2023

Shorter Yurachek:  Kids, if we have to start paying you, it’s coming out of your health care, so don’t get hurt while you play for us!

There’s plenty more where that came from, such as $40 million in administrative salaries that apparently is untouchable.  I bet their insurance is covered, too.

It’s nice he can joke about it.  Let’s see how funny he finds it when his competitors continue to cover health expenses while paying their players.

Carson Beck IS your game manager.

I’m sensing a pattern here.

“No interceptions,” he said. “Turnovers and explosive plays are the two most important things when it comes to winning a ballgame. Just take care of the ball. Once you get down in that red zone, we start running the ball, we punch it in, it doesn’t matter how we score, I’m just trying to get a win.”

…

“He keeps us out of bad situations, which is what you ask your quarterback to do,” coach Kirby Smart said. “We put a lot on him. We put as much on him, as we put on Stetson. He handles that well. The guy’s got really good command of our offense and understands it.”

…

“He did what he was supposed to do,” center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger said of Beck. “He made checks when needed and to be honest with you, he trusted the system. He was asked to just win the game on the ground and he bought into that.”

Which is how you get to this:

Beck’s average depth of target against South Carolina was 5.7 yards, down from 7.9 against UT Martin and 7.2 against Ball State, according to Pro Football Focus. Beck used check downs Saturday rather than risky lower percentage throws downfield.

… Bennett’s average depth of target was 9.4 last season and 6.9 against South Carolina.

His completion percentage is one of the highest in the country, which is a major reason the offense moves the ball.  The catch is that, as we saw in the first half against South Carolina, there’s a premium on finishing drives, whether that’s by explosive plays or otherwise.  If a long drive doesn’t net any points, it’s a pretty useless exercise.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think this is exactly where either Smart or Beck wants Beck to be in the long run.