LEXINGTON, Ky. — As Carson Beck wrapped up his postgame press conference Saturday night, a Georgia official signaled for Beck to leave. Reporters retreated, but Beck lingered for a moment and grabbed his water bottle. A friendly photographer patted Beck on the back.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

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

No. 1 Georgia did enough to win a football game Saturday night, and time will tell whether the manner in which they did it, pulling off a 13-12 victory over Kentucky, proved fortunate.

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

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

There is a perception that Georgia will not be very good at scoring points this year. David Pollack, the former ESPN analyst and Georgia linebacker, 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 I don’t see many great ones.

—David Pollack (@davidpollack47) September 15, 2024

Pollack and others may be right. Georgia may be sorely missing Brock Bowers (a first-round pick) and Ladd McConkey (an early second-round pick). When those two were limited in the SEC championship game last year, you saw what happened. That guy may not be on offense this year, which could be the undoing of this team.

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 lit up the stat sheet with throws to a bunch of receivers. After an even slower start against Kentucky, the Bulldogs found enough to score a touchdown. And when it came time to decide the game, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo felt confident enough to call passes on two straight second downs, with Beck connecting with Dominic Lovett and then Oscar Delp for two key first downs.

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

The optimistic case for Georgia’s offense: It’s versatile, led by a skilled and capable quarterback, and has shown the ability to step up when it matters most. And as long as Georgia’s defense is very good, the offense doesn’t need to score 30 points every game.

The pessimistic case: You’ve seen the schedule, right? If Georgia continues to start slow and pressure the defense to buy time to figure things out, it will pay the price in future games, plural. Two games, maybe three.

On Saturday night, Smart was asked if his offense was playing with fire. He understood the question, but saw it differently.

“I wouldn’t call that playing with fire, I wouldn’t call that playing,” Smart said. “I think you’re talking about dangerous, I’m talking about playing with your hair on fire. I think they play hard. I think we’ve got a really good offensive staff, we’ve got a good offense, we’ve got good guys around him and we’ve got a good quarterback. We’ve got to do a good job of going out and executing.”

The offense never really got going in this game, as Smart said. Even when they did get going, scoring 10 points on the first two attacks in the second half, it stalled in the third, allowing Kentucky to stay in the game.

You can’t blame Bobo for making adjustments during the game this year. He went overboard against Clemson when he saw the run game was going to be tough, and it paid off in a big win. Instead of running the ball with under three minutes left against Kentucky, he called a deep shot to Lovett, knowing the run game wasn’t going to cut it.

Maybe you can blame Bobo for the offense starting slowly in both games. Or maybe the offense is still trying to find its identity in the post-Bowers/McConkey world, a 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 stepped up and taken care of the ball well, committing zero turnovers through three games.

Beck was clear that he thought the offense should have played better on Saturday night, but he also pointed out that the team adapted to the circumstances. Those circumstances were a physical Kentucky defense that played well, motivated by all the shots it took in a 31-6 home loss to South Carolina.

“You don’t have to make excuses, we didn’t come here to play our own brand of football,” Beck said. “I mean, big credit to them, they played phenomenal. They challenged us time and time again. It is what it is. But we got the win.”

Yes, they did. But how much more can they get out of a slow start? And will the offensive line, expected to be one of the nation’s best, be more consistent even if they’re without right guard Tate Ratledge for an extended period? (It’s unclear how bad his knee and ankle injuries are, Smart said afterward.)

It’s also possible that this is too focused on offense. If the defense can keep scoring touchdowns — the last team to find the end zone against the Bulldogs was Alabama in last year’s SEC championship — the offense can get by with ball control and well-timed big plays. But no matter how great the defense looks, no one expects it to contain Jalen Milroe, Quinn Ewers, Jaxson Dart and Nico Iamaleava. This is college football. People score points. The best defense is still a good offense.

And that could still happen to Georgia, no matter how ugly things looked on Saturday.

“I think they’ve got a really good defense,” Smart said of Kentucky. “And I think Clemson’s got a really good defense. And I think we’ve got a really good offense. We’ve got to do a better job of starting faster.”

(Photo: Carter Skaggs/Imagn Images)