Why Kirby Smart says playing defensive line is like playing the Battleship board game (Battleship)

Georgia is coming off one of THOSE performances.

A stand-on-business, we-have-not-gone-anywhere victory at Texas last Saturday.

Of particular note was the Bulldogs' overall dominance along their defensive front, which helped stymie then-No. 1 Texas and its previously high-octane offense.

The Longhorns were limited to 29 net rushing yards on 27 official tries, held to three-for-20 on third- and fourth-down conversion attempts and sacked seven times as part of Georgia's 10-TFL effort.

The Bulldogs routinely shifted their defensive front in the final seconds before the Texas offense snapped the ball.

Though Georgia coach Kirby Smart said movement up front has been a part of the game for "hundreds of years," he did also reveal why shifting that first line of defense is key to the Bulldogs' defensive philosophy.

"That's called stemming and it's been going on for hundreds of years," Smart said Wednesday on the SEC's weekly coaches' Zoom. "You don't want to sit in one place.

"They motion and they move people around offensively to try to gain leverage and gain an advantage. It's like Battleship: if you leave your stuff in the same spot all the time, they eventually blow you up. 

"So, we're just trying to make sure that we aren't always sitting still in the same spot."

Needless to say, there was no point Saturday night where Georgia had to hear anyone from Texas exclaim, "You sunk my battleship."

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