The Georgia defense boogeyman? It's dead. Offense bails Dawgs out in win over Ole Miss Matt Hayes, USA TODAY October 19, 2025 at 1:06 AM 0 ATHENS, Ga. – It's their own dang fault. They've set the bar so high, there's only one way this could unfold. With the end of the boogeyman.
- - The Georgia defense boogeyman? It's dead. Offense bails Dawgs out in win over Ole Miss
Matt Hayes, USA TODAY October 19, 2025 at 1:06 AM
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ATHENS, Ga. – It's their own dang fault. They've set the bar so high, there's only one way this could unfold.
With the end of the boogeyman.
Structurally speaking, of course. Because even No. 7 Georgia's 43-35 thrill-a-minute victory over No. 5 Ole Miss can't hide the hideous truth.
Georgia, college football's big, bad defensive monster, is now the best Big 12 team in the SEC. And that's not the crazy part.
Were it not for Georgia's typical meltdown last month against nemesis Alabama, the Bulldogs and their ungodly example of defense would be unbeaten. Think about that.
The defense that gave up five straight touchdowns on Ole Miss' first five drives, that last month gave up 41 points in a win over Tennessee, is still in position to play for the SEC championship and potentially earn a top-four seed in the College Football Playoff.
With a defense that fits perfectly in the old Western Athletic Conference.
The one saving grace for Georgia: Ole Miss still can't stop any legitimate offense in a big game — especially away from Oxford. So you get what we got on a perfect, sun-splashed day in the deep south.
Points and touchdowns. All over the joint.
Were it not for Georgia finally figuring it out defensively on the final three drives of the game for Ole Miss — or more to the point, Ole Miss simply missing plays that were there for the taking — the official end of Georgia's defensive dominance would've included a devastating loss.
Remember, this is the same Ole Miss team that last week struggled to score 24 points on lowly Washington State. Then the Georgia defense stepped on the field, and it may as well have been one of those Mark Richt era Todd Grantham defenses of long ago, helpless to stop anything and anyone.
The Rebels scored on their first five drives of the game, and because Georgia did, too, this game went deep into the fourth quarter desperate for either team to break serve. Then Georgia did, and quarterback Gunner Stockton responded with a touchdown pass, and some critical, drive-extending runs on the next series that ended in a field goal.
Ole Miss failed to score on the final drive of the game, a three-and-out (three drives, no scores) of the worst kind.
Nothing about this Georgia defense remotely resembles past iterations under Kirby Smart, defenses that controlled the front with four down linemen, played two safeties high and dared you to throw the ball.
Defenses that set the tone by eliminating the run game, pressuring the quarterback and forcing turnovers. Defenses that made Georgia the boogeyman of college football.
The Bulldogs had eight sacks in six games before Ole Miss rolled into town, which is sort of like saying Lake Burton, the 2,800 acre playpen of the rich and famous (and Nick Saban) 90 minutes north of here, suddenly went dry.
Or maybe it's just Georgia's recruiting and development. Gone are the days of Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, Nolan Smith and Travon Walker, Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker.
The Dawgs simply don't have game-dictating players on defense, which forces the offense — already limited with the overachieving, try-hard Stockton — to be nearly perfect. Or play a defense worse than their defense (see: Ole Miss).
When Georgia isn't perfect offensively, Tennessee blows a chance to beat the Dawgs for the first time since 2016. Alabama stops a bleed-out by beating Georgia (again), and Georgia needs some funky officiating to beat an Auburn team with a truly pitiful offense.
Georgia had forced six turnovers, opponents were converting a whopping 40% on third down and the Dawgs had given up 17 plays of 20-plus yards. Ole Miss only made those numbers worse.
That is, until Georgia finally found itself in the fourth quarter. Or until Ole Miss finally ran out of big plays.
Either way, the boogeyman is dead. Long live, the Georgia offense.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia vs Ole Miss score: Bulldogs offense bails out offense vs Rebels
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