Missouri Is Not the Team to Sleepwalk Against
It appeared that Georgia would have a cake-walk after their second loss of the season to the Florida Gators. At the time, all they had left on their schedule were:
- 2-3 Missouri
- 2-6 South Carolina
- 0-5 Vanderbilt
- 2-4 Mississippi State
The Bulldogs were going to be the clear favorite in the rest of the games unless something traumatic happened. Although Georgia is still the favorite to win in each of its last two games (assuming they play Missouri Saturday and Vanderbilt on Dec. 19), Missouri has caught fire. They have won their previous three games and have pushed themselves into the top 25 in the lates college football playoff rankings.
It is true the Tigers' last three opponents have five wins combined, but Missouri has looked like a different team in the second half of the season. Their offense has started to come to life, averaging 519 yards per game in those three games. A lot of that is because of the play of freshman quarterback Connor Bazelak. Although Bazelak has not been throwing a lot of touchdowns this year, he has been very effective with the ball and doing what his coaches ask of him.
He has only thrown two interceptions all season and has posted a QBR of 78.3, not too bad for a first year-freshman. He's also in the top five in the SEC for passing yards with 2,002. In the last two games, he passed for 318 yards against Vanderbilt and 380 against Arkansas. Bazelak has looked very good recently, but the Georgia defense is a lot different than Arkansas and Vanderbilt. It will be interesting to see how head coach Eli Drinkwitz settles in his freshman quarterback versus Georgia's stout defense.
Running back Larry Rountree III also can't be overlooked. He has been a force to be reckoned with all year and comes in at No. 4 on the current leaderboard for SEC rushing yards with 835 yards in six games. The senior has also found the end zone 11 times, meaning he's scoring a touchdown almost twice a game. He has had a very good career at Missouri, netting at least 700 yards each year he's played for the Tigers. His sophomore year was his most productive, running for 1,216 yards and 5.4 yards per carry.
Rountree has faced the Bulldogs three times in his career. Head Coach Kirby Smart and Co. have done a great job specifically against him each time the Bulldogs have faced Missouri. In his three games versus Georgia, Rountree has run 23 times for only 79 yards. If this trend continues, expect the Dawgs to make Missouri very one-dimensional and put the game in the hands of a freshman quarterback. Georgia cannot allow Missouri to run the ball as it did two years ago against the Bulldogs (172 yards).
All that being said, Georgia should still beat this Missouri team. The Dawgs are light-years ahead of Drinkwitz. The Bulldogs are by far the more talented team and should beat Missouri by two scores or more. This is more of a warning for fans because of how weird this year has already been. Players' emotions have been up and down all season with injuries, cancellations, and other adversities that we may not even know of.
So, we have no idea how this Georgia team will handle this game. It's a noon start. It could be snowing. There are still injuries. Who knows if the Dawgs will be ready to let loose after having last week off. Coach Smart must keep his guys motivated for this game if they want to finish the season with only two losses, or they may be on upset alert going into Columbia on Saturday.
