Georgia Leaves College Football Fans in Awe as Title Defense Opens with Oregon Rout (2024)

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The Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Oregon Ducks 49-3 on Saturday in their season opener, and it was a highly impressive performance from the reigning national champions that lost 15 players to the NFL last year.

Bulldogs quarterback Stetson Bennett was dominant, completing 25 of 31 passes for 368 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for eight yards and one touchdown. Carson Beck replaced him in the third quarter and completed 5 of 6 passes for 71 yards and one touchdown.

Kenny McIntosh lead receivers with nine catches for 117 yards, while running back Kendall Milton led on the ground with 50 yards and one touchdown. McIntosh also ran for 18 yards and a score, and Milton also caught a touchdown pass.

Ladd McConkey and Adonai Mitchell also recorded touchdowns.

As for Oregon, Saturday's game was highly disappointing for new head coach Dan Lanning, who took over after Mario Cristobal was hired as the next head coach of the Miami Hurricanes.

Quarterback Bo Nix completed just 21 of 37 passes for 173 yards and two interceptions.

Georgia looks just as good as it did in 2021, and its performance Saturday had many talking about how it looks like the Bulldogs haven't lost a step this year. If they continue to compete at a high level, they'll surely earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Field Yates @FieldYates
Georgia had the number 1 overall pick, the second most players taken in the first round ever (5) and the most players ever taken in a single NFL Draft with 15 picks and this is what they’re leftover with.

Marcus Mosher @Marcus_Mosher
Georgia lost 15 players to the NFL last year and they are boatracing Oregon right now.

Joel D. Anderson @byjoelanderson
Don't know how to explain it but there's a level of invincibility and inevitablity to Georgia that I didn't finally feel until, like, kickoff today. They're so overwhelming that messing around and losing to an inferior opponent doesn't even seem possible.
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Geoff Schwartz @geoffschwartz
Just physically not in the same realm as Georgia.

Mina Kimes @minakimes
Gotta be so dispiriting to play Georgia the year after their entire defense goes to the NFL and see that it doesn't matter lol

Brandon Sudge @brandonsudge
Let’s go ahead and fast forward to Georgia-Alabama.

Adam Gorney @adamgorney
Georgia looks like Georgia and Oregon looks like they’ve never seen anything like this before.

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
Georgia fans watching their defense ball out vs. Dan Lanning <a href="https://t.co/UtosXxCDEo">pic.twitter.com/UtosXxCDEo</a>

Alex Kirshner @alex_kirshner
Georgia's defense is going to regress from "No. 1 in the country" to "slightly less terrifying but still No. 1 in the country"

Brett Kollmann @BrettKollmann
There’s like two…MAYBE three teams that can physically hang with Georgia and I don’t think Oregon is one of them. <a href="https://t.co/1E24EWcuZY">https://t.co/1E24EWcuZY</a>

Pulse of The Heartland @HeartlandPulse
Literally Georgia right now manhandling Oregon <a href="https://t.co/FTUiHOnHXv">pic.twitter.com/FTUiHOnHXv</a>

Jon Tweets Sports @jontweetssports
My analysis of the first half of the Georgia vs Oregon game: <a href="https://t.co/YnRGRPSVlk">pic.twitter.com/YnRGRPSVlk</a>

Stringer Dell @d3ll478
Bo Nix went all the way to Oregon just to keep getting embarrassed by Georgia 😂😂😂😂

Clay Travis @ClayTravis
Georgia with complete and total destruction of Oregon in that first half. Hard to see how Georgia and Alabama aren’t both in playoff again this year.

Logan Booker @LoganMBooker
The haters aren't going to like it, but Georgia is still pretty good at tackle football. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoDawgs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoDawgs</a>

Baxter Street Boys @baxstboys
Not hearing much out of the “Georgia lost too much” crowd Wonder what happened? 🤔

Derek Mountain @DerekMountain
Georgia lost 5 first rounders on defense, 8 in total and they're humming. Bama-esque to be this dominant

Starling @StarlingFN
Oregon trying to stop Georgia from scoring <a href="https://t.co/Ix7LKUQgIn">pic.twitter.com/Ix7LKUQgIn</a>

Brandon Walker @BFW
So Georgia’s just an 800-LB rolling ball of chainsaws again. Fantastic.

Tierney Staley @honey5badger
Georgia to Oregon right now <a href="https://t.co/4kPNw1k6Jl">pic.twitter.com/4kPNw1k6Jl</a>

RonDawg 🔴⚫️⚪️ 🏆 @RonDawgTweets
Not only does Georgia have a defense, but we have an offense now. Ohhhhh, this will be fun boys and girls.

Dan Rubenstein @DanRubenstein
Georgia is a much better team than Oregon. They were yesterday, they are today, they will be tomorrow. Not much more to it. I don't blame players or coaches in game one of a new tenure against an opponent like this. Dawgs should be fun this year.

Mr. Ohio @MrOH1O
Georgia looks great. Had a feeling they would win this game easily, but they are still elite even after losing a ton of talent to the draft. Georgia is going to be a problem for years to come

The Bulldogs are now 1-0 and it has become clear that they still have what it takes to compete for another national title in 2022.

As for the Ducks, they're a ways away from contending, and they have some work to do entering Week 2.

Georgia will face Samford next Saturday and look to improve to 2-0. Oregon, meanwhile, will face Eastern Washington and hope to get its first win of the season and first under Lanning.