Which just so happens to coincide with the softening of their schedule. Not blaming JP. Georgia needs much better and tougher players on that side of the ball.
Not really. This is stretching facts to fit a theory.
Look over UGA's schedule and see what points they gave up. Three opponents all year long scored more than 20 points against them - Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida.
Now simply look at the games.
Alabama scored 38, but the defense only gave up 24 because one touchdown was Minkah Fitzpatrick's blocked put and another was Eddie Jackson's pick six. You can't blame those on the defense. Furthermore, Georgia turned the ball over four times. So UGA's defense gave up 24 points to a team that averaged 31.2 ppg against REAL opponents (deducting the inflated scores like 55-0 over CSU).
Against Tennessee, the Bulldogs tore out to a 24-3 lead despite losing star RB Nick Chubb for the year on his first carry. The game flipped when UGA fumbled a kickoff and gave Tenn a short field and another easy quick TD to get them back into it.
That said - Tennessee did gash them in the second half.
In the Florida game, UGA had five turnovers. 20 of Florida's 27 points were the direct result of turnovers, including one deep in UGA's own red zone. Even Alabama is going to have trouble winning games when the Tide makes five turnovers.
But a look at some of their performances suggests they were pretty good:
Ga Southern 36.5 ppg (UGA gave up: 17)
Ga Tech 29.3 (7)
Auburn 27.5 (13, same total Alabama held them)
UK 24.7 (3)
Penn St 23.2 (17)
ULM 21.9 (14)
Mizzou 13.6 (6)
Given that Mark Richt recruited those players and Pruitt only got a partial say one year - I think those results are pretty good. A good defense, not a great one. If they didn't have a good defense then they wouldn't have been holding even 'not as good as Alabama' teams well below their PPG average.