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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
James Morgan

Evaluating Carson Beck’s debut for Georgia football

The Georgia Bulldogs defeated UT Martin 48-7 in quarterback Carson Beck’s first career start.

Beck completed 21 of his 31 pass attempts for 294 passing yards. He finished with two total touchdowns, but could have had a more productive evening. Beck displayed some solid mobility on his rushing touchdown. Still, he is not going to be a major threat in the run game. Beck would have probably not scored against a faster defense.

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Beck and the Bulldog offense looked a little out of sync. Georgia is lucky it was not facing more talented opposition. That is to be expected in Week 1. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was keeping it pretty vanilla against an inferior opponent.

Beck did not have starting receiver Ladd McConkey, who missed the game with a back injury. Overall, the junior quarterback played a sound game and should not be criticized too much despite a few missed opportunities. Not all of it was on Beck. Wide receiver Dominic Lovett dropped a pass in the end zone.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart likes Beck’s decision-making. That’s one of the primary reasons why he won the starting quarterback job at Georgia.

You talk about decision-making, he did exactly what he did all camp.

Carson Beck did not turnover the football against UT Martin. Georgia is going to be very tough to beat if the Bulldogs avoid turnovers. The Bulldogs have a strong defense and should be able to run the ball with success against most teams.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart continued to harp on Beck’s ability to play a clean game.

He didn’t put us in bad situations, he made good decisions, he didn’t throw it to the other team, he didn’t fumble it. He did some really good things.

Beck will need to do more than just take care of the football if Georgia is going to beat teams like Tennessee and make the College Football Playoff. Georgia fans will be keenly watching Carson Beck’s progress in Week 2 against Ball State. We’d like to see Beck connect on a few more explosive plays next week.

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