Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart defended quarterback Carson Beck following his up-and-down performance against the Texas Longhorns. Beck helped Georgia win on the road 30-15, but threw three interceptions and averaged 4.3 yards per attempt.
Beck and the Georgia passing offense struggled at times against Texas. The senior quarterback threw a pair of first half interceptions including one in the red zone. The Georgia offense was unable to score touchdowns in the first half, which helped keep Texas in the game.
After Beck’s third interception, which was the controversial pass interference penalty, Texas cut Georgia’s lead to 23-15. However, Beck engineered a long touchdown drive on the following possession to give Georgia a 30-15 lead that it would not relinquish.
“I don’t agree with that,” said Smart when asked about Georgia winning on an off night from Beck. “He had probably eight or nine drops, and that’s hard on a quarterback. Psychologically, when you start a game and you have drops, sometimes it affects you.”
“I’m not saying he played perfect, but I saw a third-and-four scramble where he put his life and body on the line and made an incredible play,” continued Smart. Beck’s clutch third down conversion helped Georgia run out more clock against Texas.
“I think he played pretty good. But everybody will look at stats and everybody will look at other things, and they’ll have things to say and we’ll keep on playing with Carson Beck,” concluded Smart.
It is safe to say there is no quarterback controversy at Georgia. The Bulldogs will roll with Carson Beck, but UGA needs to maximize his production in the passing game.
Beck stepped up when Georgia needed him to against Texas, but the Georgia passing game looked out of sync for most of the night. Beck has now thrown eight interceptions this season, which is more than the six interceptions he threw last year.
“He (Carson Beck) had a lot of drops that maybe without the drops, he don’t have as many interceptions,” added Smart. If Beck can have a little better ball placement, then it would help his receivers.
One example of ball placement that stood out was Beck’s second interception, which went off the hands of tight end Lawson Luckie. Beck could have delivered a more catchable ball, but Luckie could have reeled it in or at least not allowed the ball to pop up into the air.
[lawrence-auto-related count=2]
There’s no doubt his receivers should have caught a few more passes against Texas.