The beat goes on for Georgia.
The No. 2 Bulldogs welcomed No. 8 Arkansas to Sanford Stadium, and for the second straight game, held an SEC opponent scoreless in a 37-0 win.
Georgia might not be the reigning national champion, but the Bulldogs are making a case to be No. 1. They are the first SEC team since the 2018 Crimson Tide to shutout conference foes in back-to-back games and the first SEC team since the 2011 Bulldogs to hold their conference opponents to 10 or fewer first downs.
Between the win against Vanderbilt and Saturday’s win against Arkansas, Georgia has outscored its opponents 99-0.
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The win against the Razorbacks was the lastest showing of force by Georgia in 2021. Here’s a look inside the numbers for Georgia’s two dominant wins.
Team effort on the ground
Plenty of top teams have that one standout player in the backfield that handles most of the carries. Georgia hasn’t been operating that way.
The Bulldogs have rushed for 200-plus yards in back-to-back games, yet have seen zero 100-yard rushing games from any individual players.
Against Vanderbilt, Zamir White led the charge with 48 yards on nine carries with a touchdown. He was held to just 68 yards on 16 carries against Arkansas, though he scored twice. Instead, it was James Cook who led the Georgia rushing attack with 87 yards on 12 carries against the Razorbacks.
In both games, there have been at least four players with more than 30 rushing yards.
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Controlling the clock
That rushing attack has also helped the Bulldogs keep the ball out of Arkansas and Vanderbilt hands.
Georgia maintained possession for 37:16 against the Commodores, while it was on offense for 36:42 against the Razorbacks.
It has been a big change for the Bulldogs, who previously finished with the advantage in time of possession only against Clemson, where they were on offense 31:29 of the game.
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Staunch rushing defense
Arkansas came into the clash ranked seventh in the nation in total rushing yards at 1,044. It had had at least one player rush for at least 70 yards in each game. None of that mattered to the Georgia defense.
The Razorbacks were held to just 75 rushing yards on 29 carries for an average of 2.6 yards per carry. AJ Green led the team with 28 rushing yards on six carries. KJ Jefferson, the team’s dynamic dual-threat quarterback, could muster only five yards on a team-high eight carries after coming into the game having rushed for 230 yards on 32 carries.
Vanderbilt too had been held to similar challenges on the ground. The Commodores saw Mike Wright rush eight times for 41 yards, but no other player tallied more than 20 as the team totalled 53 yards on 28 carries.
It was the latest defensive effort by one of the strongest rushing defenses in the country. The Bulldogs came into the game with the seventh-fewest rushing yards allowed per game at 69.50, the fourth-lowest among Power Five programs.
Quiet passing game
Up and down the box score, Georgia consistently was ahead of the Razorbacks.
Except in one category: passing yards.
Filling in for J.T. Daniels at quarterback, Stetson Bennett wasn’t asked to do much on offense outside of hand the ball off. While he was accurate, with seven completions in 11 attempts, he only racked up 72 passing yards and didn’t throw a touchdown.
This was a shift from the previous week’s game where Bennett led the team with 151 passing yards on 11-of-15 passing against Vanderbilt. He had a passing touchdown and a pick in that game, while Daniels threw two touchdown passes, no turnovers and 129 yards on 9-of-10 passing.
Bennett lost the starting role to Daniels in 2020 after a rough stretch in the middle of the season, and when he’s been on the field, Daniels has looked like the more reliable passer.
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