Smart did ok. His defensive gameplan worked well.

His return man set up the early TD by duffing that catch. He schemed the defense to not give up the big play force ND to nickle and dime, protect the young CBs by having them keep play in front of them. Force Book to be perfect. At halftime, he turned the defense loose a bit more and started cheating routes to try to force turnovers or 3 and outs. Brian Kelly was slow to adjust to that. It got Georgia back into the game.

I think both teams played D like they were really afraid of giving up a big play and both play O like they didn't want to try for a big play.