Georgia Football: Bulldogs Are a QB Away from Being Serious Contenders

Georgia left Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon with a three-possession SEC win and more doubts about its quarterbacks.

Those two takeaways might seem odd after a quick glance at the scoreboard—the Bulldogs defeated the host Commodores by a score of 31-14.

However, the final scoreline was somewhat deceiving, especially in regard to the Georgia offense. Isaiah McKenzie scored Georgia's first touchdown on a punt return, and Dominick Sanders sealed the victory with a long pick-six in the fourth quarter.

The pair of scores Georgia's offense put on the board both came on the ground as starter Greyson Lambert and backup Brice Ramsey combined for an underwhelming day in Nashville, Tennessee:

Name	Completions	Attempts	Yards	Touchdowns
Greyson Lambert	11	21	116	0
Brice Ramsey	2	4	25	0

To be fair, Lambert and Ramsey cruised in a Week 1 win over UL-Monroe—but they only had a total 14 passing attempts against the Warhawks.

Until Georgia shows consistency at quarterback against a power-conference opponent, it will lag behind the true championship contenders in college football.

"A road win in the SEC is always a valuable commodity, but the Bulldogs couldn’t have liked what their offense accomplished on Saturday," David Ching of ESPN.com wrote. "Entering next week’s game against South Carolina, Georgia is still searching for answers at quarterback...because Saturday made it clear that the Bulldogs’ passing game needs help."

It's no secret Georgia has one of the best rushing attacks in the country. Nick Chubb was at some of his electric best Saturday against the Commodores with 189 yards on 18 carries, and Sony Michel added a rushing touchdown.

Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

But Georgia's offense cannot survive on its loaded running back corps alone, as it showed in glimpses of Saturday's contest.

A much-improved Vanderbilt defense forced Georgia into plenty of 3rd-and-intermediate or 3rd-and-long situations. And on Saturday, Georgia only had four third-down conversions on 13 attempts.

Another highly troubling Lambert statistic for Georgia was his incredibly slow start. He missed on his first seven attempts, and the Bulldogs offense as a whole struggled to get down the field in the first half.

Head coach Mark Richt said afterward that Georgia's offense needed to show more in the passing game, according to Taylor Denman of the Red and Black:

Lambert's second-quarter replacement, Ramsey, failed to impress with a golden opportunity to potentially take over the starting job. After completing his first two passes, he threw back-to-back incompletions and never recorded another attempt.

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

While Lambert recovered to complete 11 of his last 15 attempts, his start put Georgia in a rough spot against Vanderbilt.

"We know if we do our job it'll come, but I've got to do a better job of throwing the football in the first half," Lambert said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).

When the Bulldogs face better opponents in the SEC schedule, they won't be able to afford those kinds of inefficient starts.

Elite defenses will do a better job of loading up the box and slowing down the ground game, while more attacking offenses will make Georgia pay with early leads.

Fortunately for Lambert, Ramsey, Richt and the rest of the Bulldogs, there's still time for improvement at the quarterback position—especially in a conference in which plenty of teams have struggled in some category early in 2015.   

But with South Carolina and No. 2 Alabama coming to Athens in the next few weeks, the clock is ticking.

All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com unless otherwise noted. Recruit rankings courtesy of 247Sports.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.