The Georgia Bulldogs secondary had one of its worst showings of the season in Georgia’s 41-31 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Georgia allowed 31 points to a freshman quarterback making his second career start.
Mississippi State used motion to cause confusion in the Georgia secondary in the first half. Mississippi State burned Georgia cornerback Daniel Harris using motion for an explosive pass play that set up Mississippi State’s first touchdown of the game.
“Two of ’em were eye-control plays where a guy was running at me, and, you know, they just ran right by us. It’s like they didn’t beat us. We gave them two plays. The play down our sideline and then the touchdown,” said Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.
Georgia allowed Mississippi State freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren to go 20 of 37 for 306 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Van Buren completed a long touchdown pass on Georgia cornerback Julian Humphrey to make the game look a little big closer late in the fourth quarter.
Van Buren entered the Georgia game with only 244 passing yards this season, so it was disappointing that Georgia could not shut him down. The Bulldogs came within a play of potentially breaking the game open, but UGA penalties allowed Mississippi State to extend drives multiple times on third down after getting initial stops.
“There’s two third downs on that one drive. I mean, we’re off the field, and we have, I don’t want to say undisciplined penalties, but they’re just bad timing on them,” said Kirby Smart.
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Georgia linebacker Chaz Chambliss had a facemask penalty on a sack and linebacker Chris Cole committed a pass interference penalty that extended a key Mississippi State drive in the second half.
Georgia’s secondary will have a big opportunity and challenge next week against the No. 1 Texas Longhorns.