Arkansas State runs into Georgia buzzsaw, 55-0

Third-ranked Georgia sure looks ready for primetime.

Maybe even Sunday primetime.

The Bulldogs hit on big play after big play on offense and limited Arkansas State to short gains all afternoon as Georgia overwhelmed the Red Wolves, 55-0 at Sanford Stadium.

Short of an opening drive first down for stAte, this contest was never in doubt.

The massive Georgia offensive line gave star quarterback Jake Fromm time to find his talented wideouts, throwing for 279 yards and three touchdowns before taking the entire fourth quarter off.

D’Andre Swift proved difficult to contain as well, rushing for 76 yards and taking a 48-yard pass from Fromm to the house.

Four different running backs found the end zone for a very balanced attack on the afternoon. Georgia scored on their first five possessions and took a 34-0 lead into halftime.

The Georgia offense put up 656 yards of total offense.

Georgia defense was no picnic either

On the other wide of the ball, Georgia was just downright impressive.

From the start, the game plan for stAte was to try and have their outside wideouts get short passes and try to break Georgia tackles.

It wasn’t happening.

Jonathan Adams Jr. (seven catches, 85 yards), Omar Bayless (seven catches, 54 yards) Kirk Merritt (six catches, 25 yards) were able to nibble at the Bulldog secondary, but couldn’t get enough separation to make the necessary big plays.

Luke Bonner completed 20 passes, but for only 125 yards. Backup Layne Hatcher, a transfer from Alabama, got some playing time towards the end of the game going 3-for-5 for 53 yards and an INT.

The Georgia defense was able to register four sacks and apply enough pressure, especially as the Red Wolves abandoned the run early after falling behind quickly.

Arkansas State had only six yards on its first 15 plays. And it was 20-0 Georgia by then.

To Arkansas State’s credit, the Red Wolves only had one turnover late in the game and with only two penalties played relatively clean. It just wasn’t highly effective in the long run.

The pink was great

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

In many ways, no matter how the score was going to turn out, see the Georgia red blend into what was easily thousands wearing pink was the real highlight of the day in all of college football.

Many Georgia fans helped organize a “pink out” in honor of Blake Anderson’s wife, Wendy, who passed away in August.

It was obviously an incredibly emotional day for those on the visitors’ side of the field.

Bravo, Athens.

Georgia will now ready their arsenal of weapons for Notre Dame next weekend.

As for Arkansas State, they will return home to prepare for FCS foe Southern Illinois, who already has one FBS victory on its 2019 resume (UMass, so let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here).

It will be the final context before Sun Belt play begins.