Instant Reaction: Georgia 20 - Notre Dame 19

The Irish defense deserved better. The Irish offense got whooped (in more ways than one).

No need for much of a lede, let's get right to it.

- I'll start on offense, where there wasn't much good to talk about. 265 total yards seems generous the way Georgia's defense handled the Irish offense. In particular, the defensive line whooped ND's O-line. Flat out handled them all game long.

Josh Adams had nowhere to run in this game. Those massive holes against Temple? They were non-existent against a good Georgia defensive line. There was nowhere to go often. They consistently got penetration into the backfield and when they didn't, the UGA linebackers were quick to clean up anything that got to the second level.

Did some of it have to do with play-calling? Some of it, but they simply couldn't block Georgia at all for the entire game. It's tough to call plays when you can't block anybody the majority of the time.

And when they did make blocks, UGA's defenders were exceptional in one on one tackling situations. They had the better athletes and there wasn't anyone who could make a defender miss aside from Brandon Wimbush on the rare occasion.

- Davin Bellamy, the outside linebacker that made the game-clinching strip sack, is a fine football player. I don't want to take away from the play he made or how talented he is. He's going to play in the league. No doubt about it.

But when your left tackle is touted as an All-American, for the second year in a row, he can't get beat like that. Not in a critical moment. Not by reaching and getting his hands swiped away that easily. Not when it happened before in the game the same way.

Obviously the loss isn't on Mike McGlinchey for that one play. I have to call it like it is, though: If you're the best in the country, you don't get beat like that.

I know the other guy is good too, but no matter what, McGlinchey can't get beat like that.

- Roquan Smith and Lorenzo Carter were men out there tonight for Georgia. I watched several games from last season and while Smith showed that kind of ability, that is by far the best I have seen from Carter. He was possessed out there.

- As for Wimbush, it was a tough situation for him because he was pressured almost the entire game. He also got beat up plenty of times while running the football. We can say definitively that he is tough. Mentally and physically he is a tough kid for getting back up after taking a beating like that. He deserves credit for that.

He also didn't have receivers getting open very often either. I think tonight we saw that as talented as he is physically, he's still going through a process to become the quarterback he can become.

They challenged him to win from the pocket and he was not able to do so. He isn't good enough to carry the offense on his own. At least not yet.

He's got to make quicker decisions when it comes to anticipating throws. He needs to be more accurate overall as well.

- I know many people were angry that Dexter Williams didn't play. I would have liked to see him inserted into the game plan in some way, but it wasn't like he was going to have room to run out there when Adams or Tony Jones Jr. had none.

Williams is also not as good of a receiver as either of those two and he isn't as good in pass protection. Those were obviously critical areas for the offense today when they couldn't run the ball.

- There is a big issue at receiver on this team. I guess we knew it for awhile, but it became painfully clear in this game.

Equanimeous St. Brown is the only legit outside target they have. Cam Smith can be a depth guy, but if he's the fastest option out there, why don't they ever take a shot with him down the field?

I questioned why Freddy Canteen was the starter when we didn't see much from him at the open practices, but it's tough for me to say he didn't deserve it when we weren't at a number of closed practices. It always appeared that there were others that were better options. We saw a small sample size, though.

When Canteen dropped the chance at a big play and was replaced by Chris Finke late in the game, I couldn't have been the only one wondering why they didn't make this change sooner.

Del Alexander came into a situation with several guys who were blue-chip recruits. Several players were thought to be ascending players. Yet at this point, the only receiver who has distinguished himself is Equanimeous St. Brown and now Finke in the fourth quarter of this game.

How much is on Wimbush and how much is on the receivers? How much is on the play-calling? How much is on Alexander? I don't think we have an answer, but obviously something is wrong at that position and they need to get it figured out.

- When a team has better athletes than you and are kicking your butt up front, it's really difficult to call plays. I get that and that's why Chip Long gets a partial pass for this game.

I do think it's more than fair to wonder about several calls, though. There were plenty of plays that weren't working and were called again and again. They weren't going to stop dominating the line of scrimmage. They weren't going to stop being able to chase down things on the perimeter. At some point there needed to be a lot more desperation with the calls or adjustments made.

The offense was bailed out by penalties several times. They gave Notre Dame 127 free yards in the game. And the Irish still couldn't do anything when it mattered.

I spoke to a coach that I'm close with directly after the game. He's someone that has been in a position where he has been matched up against a superior opponent and has to had to be creative to have a shot at scoring. We were both perplexed why Long didn't do more in this game. Even if that meant running something they would have to insert between series.

I don't care if's an unbalanced line, gadget plays, misdirection, or whatever, but something needed to be done. It felt like a game that was called not to lose rather than to win. Too much was put on the defense.

- The defense deserved better.

Sony Michel and Nick Chubb didn't have a significant impact because of them. Chubb's first run of the game was for 30 yards. After that he rushed for 33 yards on 12 carries.

They held Georgia to 4 of 17 on 3rd down. They produced nine 3 and outs. They forced field goal attempts when it looked like they might break. They also forced two turnovers.

Mike Elko did a heck of a job with his group and the coaches on that side of the ball have done a heck of a job in general. I know they were going up against a freshman quarterback, but they made him look like a freshman quarterback. They did their job.

It's a shame it wasn't good enough to win because the offense really had no business winning the game.

- For the most part the rotation of players didn't hurt Notre Dame, but one run it did. D'Andre Swift hit it up for a big play on a jet sweep on UGA's touchdown drive in the 3rd quarter and Asmar Bilal was in the game for Drue Tranquill.

Bilal had a chance to make a play, but he just doesn't have the instincts that Tranquill has. Bilal went straight up the field while Swift cut it up inside of him for a big gain that put them in the red zone.

- That Julian Okwara late hit was a big one. I thought it could have went either way, but when it's close you've got to hold up and he didn't.

That kept the drive alive and put them in a position to score, which swung the game their way after ND was up 6. He was a kid trying to make a play. It was a tough call and unfortunate that it turned out the way it did.

- I wanted to single out some defensive players, but there are too many to name that I felt stepped up huge. I thought both corners really played well, with Nick Watkins in particular having some key pass breakups.

Nyles Morgan stepped up like they needed him to. Jay Hayes was good again. Tranquill continued his strong play and has been the perfect fit at Rover. Nick Coleman has stepped up in a huge way for them at safety. So many deserve to be praised.

I think the biggest thing with the defense is that these kids are playing hard. They left it all out on the field. It's not the offense wasn't playing hard either, but there is such a massive difference between the defense in so many areas in the first two games this season compared to recent years that it sticks out more.

I'm excited to see where things go with them the rest of the year.

- Justin Yoon looked like the old Justin Yoon. That was very nice to see.

- I know it's another close loss, but this one didn't feel like any of them did last year. It felt like there were more things to build off of. It should also be noted that I don't think the Irish will play a defense all year that is anywhere close to the level of Georgia's.

I'm confident things will get better. I think I hoped they would last year more than anything else.

- I think we saw in this game that a change in strength and conditioning in one year is not enough to close the gap in overall talent to a team like Georgia that has top 5 talent on their roster.

Even if Notre Dame had two years of working with a better strength and conditioning program, that would only make a slight difference.

They have more depth than the Irish. Notre Dame has to recruit better to get that depth. I was reminded of that missing depth today when I watched Thomas Graham pick off two passes for Oregon and Notre Dame only use three corners.

It's not just culture. Georgia wasn't tougher than Notre Dame, at least not in my opinion. They just were more talented and had more "dudes". It's really difficult to beat teams that have more raw talent throughout their roster.