ATHENS, Ga. — Three takeaways from No. 9 Georgia’s 43–35 win over No. 5 Mississippi between the hedges at Sanford Stadium on Saturday.

1. Georgia’s defense is not what it used to be

Whatever picture you have in your mind of a tough, physical Kirby Smart defense filled with first-round NFL draft picks all over the place … it might be time to throw that image out. The Bulldogs are fully mortal on the side of the ball they’ve built a dynasty on. It doesn’t appear, for all the highly recruited talent they have on hand, that’s going to be changing the rest of this season.

Georgia allowed long touchdown drives of 65, 65, 75, 75 and 75 yards to open the game and didn’t get a third-down stop at all until 7:10 left in the third quarter (neither team even punted until 12:44 in the fourth quarter). That’s the first time a Smart defense has given up five consecutive touchdown drives. 

The silver lining to those woes, if there are any, is that at least Mike Bobo’s offense was able to carry the team with an impressive 6.4 yards per play on Saturday. QB Gunner Stockton went 26 of 31 for 289 yards and five total touchdowns to pace the effort.

2. Austin Simmons has been fully Wally Pipp’d

By all indications, Ole Miss quarterback Austin Simmons was fully available to play on Saturday afternoon after practicing this week. He even warmed up before kickoff and was throwing at nearly every opportunity when there was a potential break in the action.

That might be all the highly touted signal-caller will have left to do the rest of this season as Saturday’s game seemed to firmly cement Division II transfer Trinidad Chambliss as the starter going forward following a 305-yard, three-touchdown effort on the road. 

Chambliss accounted for 60 of 65 yards on the Rebels’ opening drive (which ended with him scrambling for a touchdown) and didn’t look back from there. He was calm, composed and flung passes all over the field with ease. You would have never guessed that he was brought to Oxford, Miss., as a backup because he’s firmly in the mix to earn an invite to New York if he continues to play like he did against Georgia the rest of the season.

3. Ole Miss’s CFP path is still fine, Georgia can now start to eye a trip to Atlanta

Coming into the day, both the Rebels and Bulldogs could be considered safely into the College Football Playoff field. By the end of the day? The case could be made that they’re also just fine in that department.

This was, at least on paper, the toughest game that Ole Miss had on its schedule all season. The Rebels have to go to Norman, Okla., to play a feisty Oklahoma next weekend, but that’s it in terms of ranked opponents—providing a pretty clear postseason path if they win out and potentially a trip to Atlanta for the SEC championship game. The downside is their win over LSU looks devalued following the Tigers’ loss at Vanderbilt earlier in the day, and the Sooners could represent their only Top 25 victory on the résumé if they return home with a win.

As for Georgia, beating Ole Miss gave the Bulldogs a second quality top 15 victory for the résumé (their shootout over Tennessee being the other) and further helped cement their case as the second-best team in the SEC behind Alabama. Further, they have a pair of upcoming games against Texas (in Athens) and against Georgia Tech that could further pad the résumé. 

Given the carnage elsewhere in college football and based on what we’ve seen of the team so far, even a 10–2 or 10–3 Bulldogs side is likely to make the field.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fischer’s Instant Takeaways from Georgia-Mississippi: Tracking CFP Path For Both Teams.