Humility isn’t a week a way, it is Saturday afternoon. Playing a team with their playoff chances on the line, and our quarterback giving the ball away like WKRP turkeys…What, me worry?
Here’s what I’m NOT worried about when the Bulldogs take the field in Oxford Saturday afternoon:
1. Tempo. If there’s one thing that the Georgia defense has been good at these last few years, it’s handling a fast tempo offense. Where other teams get caught up with bad personnel groupings, confusing assignments, and losing composure, the Bulldogs have typically weathered these onslaughts extremely well. Tennessee, Oregon, Ole Miss… all tried to reset quickly and catch Georgia in a mistake, but all failed.
Lane Kiffin doesn’t have his offense running at warp speed all the time, but they can if they want to. And that’s where Kiffin typically succeeds: by figuring out tendencies and attacking them. Yet he knows if there’s a coach that can prepare for the surprise attack or adapt to a jump into uptempo, it is the one on the opposite sideline.
2. Georgia QB Carson Beck has been abnormally inaccurate, throwing picks, and getting a lot of balls batted down at the LOS. I’d even say there’s some bad body language between Beck and the receivers.
Somehow, some way, this offense forgets all those things. They know how to win, and incredibly forget that they just flashed hands of stone and fists of ham. Beck suddenly sees the passing lanes, and miraculously forms a mind meld with the wideouts, throwing on their breaks and finding the open zones downfield. I don’t know how they do it, but they do it anyway and I truly believe they have enough confidence to realize mistakes don’t doom them.
3. Should we talk about the weather? I’m not a smart man but I know what rain is. And while I wish our ground game had shown better form this season, I think there are enough wrinkles in the playbook and enough strength up front and enough twitch in the backfield to do what might need to be done.
If it does rain, that might be to our benefit. All those loud voices could be muffled up under preppy ponchos, and the road environment could be negated.
Now forgive me, as I was weaned at the nipple of Larry Munson’s scratch so here’s what does worry me about the LandBearRebelSharks:
1. Jaxson Dart is now the top offensive producer in the history of Ole Miss. He surpassed Archie Manning’s single game yardage record. He is only the 2nd QB in the history of the SEC to throw for over 500 yards and 5 touchdowns in a single game.
And that was without the national receiving leader Tre Harris (still 1st in yards/game, 4th in total receiving yards). When Harris went down against LSU, the Rebel offense looked very ordinary. That continued against Oklahoma, but the Sooners aren’t good at the offensive football so it didn’t matter. I don’t know if Arkansas is that bad, or had that bad of a day, but they were anything but ordinary last week. And if they can generate that much offense on an SEC team without their 1st round draft pick, we might be in for a challenge.
2. Ole Miss comes in off their 2nd straight game with at least 8 sacks. We haven’t had 8 sacks in a game all year. They have 8 players with multiple sacks on the season – Georgia has 4. The Rebels also have 3 players with more sacks than the Bulldog sack leader Jalon Walker. And they’re averaging 4.5 sacks a game.
The big uglies for Georgia, banged up in the interior as they may be, have allowed only 10 sacks of Carson Beck through 8 games. Ole Miss has 41 through 9 games. What gives me some hope is that the best offense they’ve faced is LSU, and there were no sacks in that game, and only 3 tackles for loss. I just don’t know if the gaudy numbers or a (mostly) efficient offense will win the day. The last thing Beck needs is to be rushed or have backers in his face.
3. The receivers are something. But let’s talk about the tight ends. Because the TE coach in Oxford is Joe Cox. That’s right, the Ginja Ninja himself, straight outta white suburban Charlotte. We mostly contained Gunnar Helm for Texas, and that was probably the best TE talent we’ve seen. But here’s some numbers that stick out:
Ole Miss tight ends have 35 receptions, with 17 apiece from Caden Prieskom and Dae’Quan Wright (UGA has 28). And these guys are racking up about 15 yards per catch – good enough to move sticks. They have 5 scores on the year too, so Jaxson Dart is finding the matchups in the red area. Georgia has a 15.8% success defending the red zone, better than last season’s 8.25%, but a far cry from 2021 and 2022 when it exceeded 30%.
Call me crazy, just don’t call me late for dinner. Sound off in the comments below what worries you about the Bulldogs of Georgia versus the Rebels of Mississippi. And as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!