Carson Beck’s performance against Auburn on Saturday told an entirely different story than last week’s three-interception loss to Alabama on the road.
Beck was effective and decisive in the 31-13 victory over Auburn, completing 23 of his 29 passing attempts (79%) for 240 yards with two touchdowns on an interception-free outing.
He looked back to himself — a quarterback who takes care of the football and manages the game well with a high level of mental processing who can do more when asked of him.
“I was proud of Carson (Beck) today,” head coach Kirby Smart said after the victory. “Stood and there and made some really key throws for us. Made some really good decisions with the ball.”
The Georgia quarterback, who had previously never thrown more than one interception in a single game in his career, made highly uncharacteristic mistakes in that Alabama contest.
But what scouts may have taken away from that performance more than anything was his sheer level of resilience.
Even with the three picks, Beck was a core piece in bringing Georgia back from a 30-7 halftime deficit and finished the game with an otherwise impressive stat line of 27-for-50, passing for 439 yards with three touchdowns and three picks.
Beck isn’t focused on Alabama, though… and he shouldn’t be after this win. What happened with the Crimson Tide is in the rearview mirror.
“We’re not worried about Alabama right now,” Beck said postgame. “We’re 1-0 this week. We’ll focus on next week after we cover the film and move on tomorrow, but I thought we ran the ball really well today, thought we had a really balanced attack.”
He also reflected on what may have gone into those interceptions, and made a fine point about number of attempts and how that can factor in.
“When you throw the ball 50 times, you’re bound to make mistakes, whether it’s my fault or someone else’s fault. I’m always going to take the blame and I’m going to come back and fix it. Be better the next week.”
Smart was asked after the game if he noticed anything different in Beck’s performance in practice that may have helped him to turn things around this Saturday.
“No, nothing different,” Smart responded. “He has a routine he does and he trusts that routine… I also do think he played really well against Alabama at times and he got a lot of confidence in that game… there were a lot of good things he did and he did a lot of good things today.”
And, for the critics, they’re not holding the Georgia football offensive playbook. It is so often that outsiders will criticize a quarterback who is, essentially, doing precisely what he’s being asked to do by the coaches.
Sometimes, that will give them the notoriously wrong and stigmatized “game manager” label.
“Nobody really understands what Carson does in our offense, and you can’t really appreciate it unless you know what’s going on,” Smart said.
Beck and the Bulldogs will look to build upon this victory as they face the visiting Mississippi State Bulldogs on Oct. 12. The game is set for a 4:15 p.m. ET kickoff in Sanford Stadium.
