No offensive touchdowns were scored on Saturday night during the top-five battle between the Georgia Bulldogs and Clemson Tigers.
Georgia escaped with a 10-3 win, exhibiting defensive dominance all night, holding Clemson to 180 total yards, 2 yards rushing and recording 7 sacks.
Clemson fans surely are not hanging their heads because of their team’s defensive effort.
Georgia’s high powered offense struggled.
JT Daniels, a preseason Heisman hopeful, only threw for 135 yards on 22/30 passing. He definitely struggled.
Defense was the name of the game on Saturday night.
“Obviously we’re incredibly disappointed with the outcome of the game, but congratulations to Georgia, that was a heavyweight fight,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said after the game.
“Really tough matchup just like we knew it was going to be. We knew points were going to be hard to come by.”
Georgia’s front seven was ferocious, tallying seven sacks on the night and making life miserable for Clemson’s offensive line and quarterback DJ Uiagalelei.
Inside linebacker Nakobe Dean played like a superstar, recording 2 sacks. Outside linebackers Adam Anderson and Nolan Smith each got one. Defensive linemen Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter and Travon walker all made their way into the sack column as well with one each.
“Georgia’s a great front,” Swinney continued. “They’re incredibly talented and so are we…We started a true freshman at left guard…This was two really good football teams tonight and that’s going to prove out to be the case as we go through the season. Tonight, they made a few more plays than we did. We’ve got to grow up from it.”
As mentioned earlier, it was not all pretty for Georgia. The Bulldogs’ offense struggled about as much as the Tigers’ offense did.
Superstar quarterback JT Daniels did not look great. The run game had nice moments, but they were far and few between. Overall, it looked Georgia’s offense pre-Daniels.
Swinney commented on his team’s defensive performance against the Dawgs.
“We felt like we matched up well in the run game and we did. Wish we could’ve better job of keeping them off the field, but we dropped eight and had a lot of stunts and twists. We were able to get some pressure. We did a good job, just changing it up and trying to give them different looks. We felt like if we could manage the run game and get them out of what they wanted to do, we matched up pretty well.”