There pretty much isn’t a down and distance when Georgia Southern won’t run the football.
Tendencies
1st Down: GSU has run the football on over 85 percent of first downs this season. But both of The Eagles’ touchdown passes on the year have come on first down.
2nd Down: No matter the distance, second down is a run-heavy down across the board for Georgia Southern. Second and long (seven or more yards) is actually a heavier run down than second and medium (four to six yards).
3rd Down: GSU even runs the football more than it passes it on third and long. All downs and distances are run-heavy.
Sagarin has GSU ranked as the 65th best team in the country. For context, that’s about on par with South Carolina and better than Kentucky and Vanderbilt. (Quick: what’s the common element between Georgia and those three teams?) The Eagles’ strength of schedule, ranked 121st, is about what you’d expect from a Sun Belt team playing in its tenth game of the season, and both of its losses came against teams ranked higher by Sagarin.
All in all, no surprises there.
Get The Picture 
Absolutely. Pruitt will try and make their Qb beat us throwing the ball, they are last in pass yards, complete only 42%, and have thrown 8 interceptions to only 2 touchdowns.
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Only 2 TD passes all year is pretty staggering. WVU and AppSt. are the only teams with a pulse they’ve played and they were shutout, and held to 12 points in those two contests. Their offense should not have great success.
As for our offense vs. their defense…well, that’s a different story. But they do have a bigger front 7 than Tech.
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Breida will get his yards….dude can play. Look for at least one long TD from him. Still not Georgia can score enough Saturday.
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If WVA could hold him to no TDs, so should we.
I don’t think we’ve given up any really long TDs or runs on the ground all season (now the occasional long pass after 20 runs in a row? That does worry me.)
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It’s a bit deceiving. Georgia Southern had five turnovers- four of those were by interceptions. They ranked last in their conference in passing. If you hold him to under 80 yards you’ll win. 😉
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And GSU was playing its backup QB…
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Watched Southern against App State only and their OLine looked awful that night against App State’s quickness. Got to force Southern to run wide and not gash the middle. Lots of smoke and mirror faking like Auburn with a bigger QB run threat.
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Just like the guys from favored teams that we have played, the watchword here is that they put on their pants just like we do and like anyone else we would play. I don’t think they have ever been intimidated by us and will give us their best game (Second!).
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It’s just too bad we don’t play tech first, so we could get some practice against the triple option before this game.
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Well done, sir.
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+1,000
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“on par with South Carolina and better than Kentucky and Vanderbilt”..in other words this one could be a nail biter.
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How do you come to that, since UGa smacked around those three teams?
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We were only up by about 7 at halftime against both Vandy and Kentucky. Hardly what I consider smacking them around.
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GSU has never had a decent pass defense for the same reasons teams have trouble facing the option offense, they never see it in practice because they don’t recruit the talent to emulate it in practice so they are prepared. UGA should pass the ball and have a game plan similar to what we had against SC. Following the same game plan we ran against KY and AU would only keep the game close. Not to mention we need to show some passing offense to satisfy WR and TE recruits that we have abandoned the pass. Our OL is capable of getting a push against GS’ front group. This, along with the loss of Chubb, is why we have looked so inept offensively this season.
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Georgia Southern scores at least 24…if not more. We need to get up on them early..
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What makes you so confident they will gash our D? They managed 12 against App St. Do you think App St. Defense is better/more talented than ours?
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GT moved the ball on UGA last yr. A strong run defense does not always translate to a strong triple option defense. In 2011 Southern rushed for 302 against Bama. I’m not saying they get 20+ on UGA but at the same time we don’t know. App. State does have the advantage of playing GSU every yr, ask prior Oregon teams how that goes (Stanford)
I’m not a Lambert fan but… I don’t see GSU getting the pass rush needed to hurry him. If Lambert isn’t hurried he can be very good.
Virtually nothing would surprise me in this game.
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Georgia Southern sounds like Auburn all over again.
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Only both their corners are 5’9. If the passing game can’t get going vs that, it won’t get going again period this season.
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If Richt can win this one 3 – 0 he’ll take it. I expect we’ll throw more if it’s there, but not at the expense of TO’s and TOP. The game plan will continue to be grind it out on the ground, control field position and see if the D can stuff them. 4th & 3 inside the 20 is going to be a FG attempt, not a run between the tackles from the shotgun…which is probably a good thing given how this season has unfolded.
Game could be so fast your fried chicken will still be warm when you get back to the tailgate.
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I’ve seen Southern play several times this year. They cannot consistently pass the ball. If you stop their run game, they are toast. They have to fast backs in Breida and Fields, but both need open spaces to be effective. Watch for a little bend-back trap they like to run. Both QBs are ok runners, not great runners. The have a very good defense but are susceptible to the long pass. WV threw over the top a lot and was successful. If I could bet on the game, I’d go under the 50.5 points. I’m thinking 27-13 or somewhere around there.
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