LEXINGTON, Ky. — Carson Beck was just finishing his postgame press conference Saturday night when a Georgia official signaled Beck that he had to leave. The reporters walked away, but Beck stayed a moment longer and reached for his water bottle. A friendly photographer tapped Beck on the shoulder.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

Beck just looked away and let out a long, dramatic sigh. That said enough.

No. 1 Georgia needed all the effort it needed to win a football game on Saturday night, and only time will tell if the way it did it, earning a narrow 13-12 victory at Kentucky, was a fluke.

“I don’t know much about this team, but I found out more tonight than I ever knew before,” coach Kirby Smart said afterward.

So maybe that was good. Maybe it was necessary. But if Georgia wants to compete against tougher opponents — starting with Alabama in two weeks — it needs something else: an offense that stops playing with fire.

There are some opinions that Georgia won’t be as good at scoring points this year. Former ESPN commentator and Georgia linebacker David Pollack made an observation during the game that echoed what others had been whispering.

This is going to be very unpopular with Georgia fans. I see a lot of really good players on offense, but not a lot of great ones.

– David Pollack (@davidpollack47) 15 September 2024

Pollack and others may end up being right. Georgia could sorely miss Brock Bowers (a first-round pick) and Ladd McConkey (an early second-round pick). After all, we saw what happened when those two were limited in the SEC Championship game last year. Not having that guy in this year’s offense could prove to be this team’s undoing.

But there have also been enough moments this season to show that what Georgia has can be good enough. After a slow start against a very good Clemson defense, Beck shined with throws to a bevy of receivers. After an even slower start against Kentucky, the Bulldogs found enough to pull out a touchdown. And when they needed to tie the game, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo felt confident enough to call passes on two consecutive second downs, with Beck getting two key first downs to Dominic Lovett and then Oscar Delp.

True, there doesn’t seem to be a surefire first-round pick among this year’s receivers, tight ends and running backs. But there are no weak spots either. Georgia has five experienced wide receivers who can win in one-on-one coverage and make big catches: Lovett, Dillon Bell, Arian Smith, Colbie Young and London Humphreys. There are at least two tight ends who can do that too: Delp and Lawson Luckie. And tailback Trevor Etienne can make good plays in the passing game.

The optimistic thing about Georgia’s offense is that it is versatile, is led by an experienced and good quarterback, and has shown that it can strike in the decisive moments. And as long as Georgia’s defense is very good, the offense doesn’t have to score 30 points in every game.

The pessimistic case: You’ve seen the game plan, right? If Georgia continues to start slow and put pressure on the defense to buy time to sort things out, it will pay for it in future games. Two games, maybe three.

Smart was asked Saturday night if his offense was playing with fire. He understood the question but gave it a different spin.

“I wouldn’t call that playing with fire, I would call that not playing,” Smart said. “I guess you’re talking about playing dangerously, I’m talking about playing with your hair on fire. I really think they play hard. I think we have a really good offensive team, we have a good offense, we have good people around him and we have a good quarterback. We’ve got to do a good job of going out there and executing our goals.”

The offense never found its rhythm in this game, Smart said, and even when it got going, scoring 10 points on the first two possessions of the second half, it stalled on the third possession, allowing Kentucky to stay in the game.

Bobo can’t be blamed for his mid-game adjustments this year. When he saw the running game was going to be tough, he went for the passing game against Clemson and the result was a clear win. Instead of running the ball with less than three minutes left in the game against Kentucky, he called a deep throw to Lovett even though he knew the running game would not get him to success again.

Maybe you can blame Bobo for the offense getting off to a slow start in both games. Or maybe the offense is still trying to find its identity in the post-Bowers/McConkey world, where there is no clear No. 1 receiver and the No. 1 tailback is new to the team. In the meantime, the offense has worked hard and taken care of the ball, with zero turnovers in three games.

Beck made it clear that he thought the offense should have played better Saturday night, but also emphasized that the team adapted to the circumstances. Those circumstances were a physically strong Kentucky defense that played well, motivated by all the shots it took after a 31-6 home loss to South Carolina.

“They don’t need to make excuses, we didn’t come here to play our football,” said Beck. “I mean, they deserve a lot of credit, they played phenomenally. They kept challenging us. It is what it is. But we got the win.”

Yes, they have. But how many more can they get out of slow starts? And will the offensive line, considered one of the best in the country, be more consistent even if it is without right guard Tate Ratledge for an extended period? (It’s not clear how bad his knee and ankle injuries are, Smart said afterward.)

It’s also possible to focus too much on offense. If the defense keeps preventing touchdowns — the last team to reach the end zone against the Bulldogs was Alabama in the last SEC championship game — the offense can get by with ball control and well-timed big plays. But as great as the defense looks, no one expects it to be able to contain Jalen Milroe, Quinn Ewers, Jaxson Dart and Nico Iamaleava. That’s college football today. People score points. The best defense is still a good offense.

And Georgia could still have that, as ugly as it looked on Saturday.

“I actually think they have a really good defense,” Smart said of Kentucky. “And I think Clemson has a really good defense. And I think we have a really good offense. We need to do a better job of starting faster.”

(Photo: Carter Skaggs/Imagn Images)