It was the biggest kick of Woodring’s Georgia career. The Bulldogs up 27-21 in the fourth quarter and were
But the offensive drive stalled out and Kirby Smart had a decision to make. Instead of attempting a fourth and five, Smart placed his trust in his freshman kicker.
He delivered, booting home a 48-yard field goal. It was the longest make of his career and gave Georgia the winning margin.
“You’ve got to have confidence in the rest of your team they can stop them,” Smart said. “We got about half of that third down back, and there was a consideration there on fourth-and-5 to go for it, but because of Peyton and what he’s been able to do we kicked it.”
Good morning to everybody but ESPECIALLY to Nazir Stackhouse and Peyton Woodring. #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/BLGlfteVhm
— 960 The Ref (@960theref) November 5, 2023
Perhaps no player has improved more over the course of the season for Georgia than Woodring. He made just 4 of his first 7 field goal attempts, including missing two kicks of just 28 yards.
But he’s now connected on 13 field goals in a row. Smart isn’t the only one confident in the exciting freshman kicker. His wingman/holder Carson Beck raved about his teammate.
“I was hyped, you look at the film I was super energetic,” Beck said. “I called him the Ice Man every time he stepped out there in the past couple games he has nailed those field goals and obviously today he came up huge tonight.”
Georgia’s defense held up strong on Saturday. The secondary was more than up to the task of slowing the Missouri offense, while the Bulldogs finished with 3.0 sacks and 2 interceptions.
But the reason the defense is a loser here is because the Bulldogs lost their voice. Jamon Dumas-Johnson suffered a forearm injury on the final play of the third quarter. Smart said after the game Dumas-Johnson had a fracture, while the junior inside linebacker was in a sling for the fourth quarter.
Dumas-Johnson is Georgia’s vocal leader at the center of its defense. He was having a strong game on Saturday, as he had a team-high 7 tackles at the time of his injury.
Georgia does still have Smael Mondon at the position. The Bulldogs will lean on him even more now with his running mate dealing with an injury.
Replacing Dumas-Johnson will be freshmen CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson. Dumas-Johnson has started the previous 24 games for the Bulldogs and his absence will be felt. It was on Saturday, as Missouri running back Cody Schrader became the first running back this season to rush for over 100 yards.
