Bulldogs win again - but are they meeting their "standard?"

ATHENS. Ga. — Watching Georgia now is really kind of strange, because it has become a completely subjective exercise. And that’s how it will work so long as its games contain all the competitive tension of a hayride.

More than the score, these Bulldogs are judged on how they arrive at their latest double-digit victory. Have the Bulldogs played fully up to their “standard,” whatever that is. It’s no longer just how many. It’s very much how.

Judging sunsets. Reviewing a film with subtitles. Wine tasting. Watching a Bulldogs game. All similar kind of activities these days, filled as they are with subtlety and context.

And so it goes until someone – say LSU, maybe, in a couple weeks – actually challenges Georgia on the scoreboard. So it goes until simply winning a game in any form or fashion is a relief rather than an expectation.

In the meantime, feel free to pick at the warts that may pop up on a game day, no matter that the record contains fewer blemishes than a Victoria’s Secret catalogue. In fact, Kirby Smart would greatly appreciate it if you did. He’s tired of carrying that burden alone.

For instance, take Saturday’s 38-12 victory over the team formerly known as Tennessee.

It was safe and comfortable win, but somehow unfulfilling on an artistic level. What, Georgia didn’t break the 40-point barrier? The defense yielded two long scoring plays? Beating Tennessee any time in any fashion should feel better than this, shouldn’t it?

As expected, the Vols provided little more than the canvas upon which the Bulldogs could paint whatever they wished. How a program of such majesty as Tennessee could fall into such a state is almost unfathomable. To see them now is like visiting the ruins of the Roman Forum. You have to really use your imagination to see the glory that used to be.

OK, so, Georgia’s first score of the day was the product of a terrific individual effort. Tight end Isaac Nauta scoops up the ball after quarterback Jake Fromm was hit and stripped, and runs 40 yards for a touchdown. But can that be called a good play, by Georgia standards? There was a big breakdown and a fumble involved, after all. So, is this a net positive or negative in the bigger of scheme of what Georgia intends to be?

The Bulldogs led 17-0 at halftime, but. . .

What about the Fromm’s little overthrow of Riley Ridley in endzone from 32 yards out in the Bulldogs first possession?

What about that D’Andre Swift drop of a third-down screen pass that otherwise was going to go for miles?

What about trying to run the ol’ strip-sack-for-a-touchdown play again later in the half? Only this time it was just an ugly fumble.

Come the second half, those who thought nothing less than another shutout of Tennessee (a la last year’s 41-0 game) were in for a disappointment. Wide receiver Josh Palmer got behind the Bulldogs secondary for a 37-yard, third-quarter touchdown reception and the scoreless streak was snapped. Moments later, running back Ty Chandler transformed a short pass into a 35-yard scoring play.

Georgia even turned a PAT into an adventure. A bad snap forced kicker Rodrigo Blankenship to come to a dead stop in his approach – like a golfer stopping in his backswing – and stand around to wait for the ball to be set upright. He still made it, though, somehow, just barely, adding to his folklore.

These are the little imperfections that ultimately had no effect on the outcome, but are the ones that someday may really matter, so they keep saying.

One of the quirks in this new Georgia paradigm is trying to get a clear handle on the quarterback play. Fromm is introducing all kinds of new efficiencies, in fact, leading the nation in passing efficiency as well as threatening the Georgia season record for pass completion percentage. Yet has anyone really appreciated this? Given the ease of victory thus far this season, there has yet to be a moment when he’s had to make that one essential, difference-making play.

By this time a year ago, the freshman Fromm already had a coming-of-age moment against Notre Dame. There would be other defining instances in the postseason.

Thus far, five games in, it’s a big story when Fromm just appears in the fourth quarter. He did Saturday, for the second time this season.

And don’t even try figuring out how Smart is going to manage juggling Fromm’s playing time with that of Justin Fields. Ask Alabama and Clemson. Trying to keep two accomplished quarterbacks happy is a ticklish chore. But now, I won’t even pretend to understand Smart’s plan. Not after he inserted Fields for one drive in the second quarter Saturday, but removed him midway on a third-and-one situation. The only explanation is that he has been huddling with Phillies manager Gabe Kapler on turning substitution patterns into a Sudoku puzzle.

Saturday was a day Georgia pulled out all the stops in what it put on the field – trotting out both Herschel Walker and former ‘rassler Ric Flair. As far as the team itself, that’s another story.

Imaging ever daring to suggest beating Tennessee under any circumstances is in any way a disappointing thing. Yet the Bulldogs have put themselves in a position where anything less than cold, cruel domination – and anything short of covering the 31-point spread – is beneath them.

No one has supplied a specific blueprint for what the Georgia “standard” is, but there was just the sense that it’s still something better than Saturday.

That’s just weird.

And good in a way, because only a team playing to the highest of expectations could evoke such feelings.

This article was written by Steve Hummer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cox Media Group