One thing Georgia and Missouri have in common is limiting explosive plays. Neither is particularly great at creating them, either. Check out these stats, via (where else?) cfbstats.com:
- Opponent Long Scrimmage Plays – Games vs. FBS (I-A) Teams Only: plays of 10+ yards — UGA 1st in the SEC, Missouri 2nd; plays of 20+ yards — UGA 1st, Missouri 4th
- Long Scrimmage Plays – Games vs. FBS (I-A) Teams Only: plays of 10+ yards — UGA 7th in the SEC, Missouri 9th; plays of 20+ yards — UGA 11th, Missouri 11th
This one’s shaping up to be as much of a grinder as last week’s game. That probably makes Kirby Smart a happy man.
Get The Picture 
This is one of my big points of curiosity for this weekend. Do we try to build offensively on what we did against UF, opening up the offense and showing creativity? Or do we go back to super conservative and rely on waiting for the other team to make a mistake and/or letting our depth win in the 4th qtr? I’m hoping for the former, and that we come out and put them away early. However, I’m fully expecting the latter.
And I fully understand that the point is to win the game, so even if we go with the latter, as long as we win, it’s mission accomplished. However, we have some teams coming up that we know we’re gonna have to score points to stay in the game and win, so it would be nice to actually practice that ahead of time.
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Amen, Rev! Preach it.
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I think we build on last week. The offense was a whisker and a mistake away from putting up 34 on a good Florida defense, and it’s not as if we abandoned our offensive identity to do so.
A few other reasons I think we keep opening it up…
1) a healthy cager makes a huge difference.
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2) our o-line is clicking on pass protection, hence the role the TEs played in the passing game last week. I haven’t followed Missouri this year, but I don’t think they have the duel pass rush threat we just faced. Control Whiteside and I think we keep Fromm nice and cozy.
3) even though our rushing total wasn’t overly impressive last week, Swift broke some of this longest runs this year. No doubt due to the passing game loosening things up.
I hope to see the 3rd down success from last week translate to earlier downs because of our new found ability to threaten the entire field. On another note, I do think we give up a rushing TD this week. Roundtree looks legit.
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I’m going with the Rev on this one. Georgia will practice its run game!!!!
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Kirby has the team’s attention. The victory against UF has the team believing. It’s a night game in Athens. I have a feeling we will look like a championship caliber team Saturday night. Regardless of how it happens, I think they’ll get the W with their best performance of the year.
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Just win baby.
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Correct, you play the game to win.
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Another 9-6? Outstanding.
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It’s called “Old Man” football when Missouri is involved.
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I would expect a heavy dose of conservative offense late in the game id we have a comfortable lead but feel the staff learned a lesson about better use of formations, personnel, and motion over the past couple of weeks. Not that Coley and staff didn’t know something about that before, but more how much this team needs to play offense with all its weapons. The score isn’t indicative about how well the offense played in JAX, 400 yards against a healthy defense in that game should not go unnoticed. No need to go totally in the shell now; that approach of scheming to free guys up should always be front and center if you want to play in the majors.
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Very well said Mac! These kids have a finite number of times to don the red bonnet and we must assume every position coach is preaching this each week. I personally can’t imagine not being able to get fired up to play in Sanford Stadium on Dooley Field!
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Indeed. Playing in a manner that keeps things close, makes me nervous. You never know when a team might get 4 TOs and beat you if you miss a FG. Not that it would actually happen in real life.
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Just win
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One thing about Saturday I noticed is that a lot of our unsuccessful first down runs went for 4 yards. They were as good as can be without actually being successful per se. And it at least got us in position for an eventual 3rd and medium I guess?
Yeah I got nothing.
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Missouri not great at creating explosive plays? Maybe the QB does matter.
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