Gene Frenette: Losing TE Bowers makes Georgia more vulnerable, but not enough to lose to Gators
It might not happen in Saturday’s matchup with Florida, but the timing of Georgia losing Brock Bowers for the foreseeable future might well torpedo the Bulldogs’ chances to become the first three-peat national champion.
With Florida being followed by three ranked opponents in successive weeks (Missouri and Ole Miss at home, then at Tennessee), the probability of Georgia going unscathed in the toughest part of its schedule is significantly reduced without the most impactful tight end in college football.
Bowers underwent ankle surgery and the timetable for a return before Thanksgiving doesn’t look promising. That means Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, a Mandarin High product, has a huge challenge trying to keep a 24-game winning streak going through the Bulldogs’ possible return to the SEC Championship game.
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While Georgia still has the third-best offense in the country (509.4 yards per game) and averages 40.1 points, defending the Bulldogs becomes less strenuous for Florida without Beck’s top target on the field.
As one Georgia program insider put it about Bowers’ absence: “Do I think they’ve lost their safety net? Yes, but they’re still good up front. It’s just going to make it harder for the intermediate passing game. Your ability to really pull away from people just took a big hit. But with that defense, it doesn’t mean they still can’t win their remaining games.”
For Beck, losing Bowers amps up the pressure on him to keep the chains moving. Top-ranked Georgia (7-0) has done that with remarkable efficiency as the Bulldogs are converting third downs (57.1 percent) better than anybody in the country except LSU.
Kirby Smart’s team has had two weeks to adjust to Bowers’ absence, but you have to wonder when losing such an invaluable weapon might against some quality SEC teams might prove costly.
The Bulldogs can probably get past Florida (5-2) without him, but they’re going to need injury-prone receiver Ladd McConkey to step up his game. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Gators keep this game close for a lot longer than expected.
Georgia 31, Florida 23.
Ridley due for takeoff
Before the season, Jaguars’ receiver Calvin Ridley declared he was “a 1,400-yard receiver,” but he’s going to have to start catching more balls thrown in his direction for that to happen.
Ridley is averaging four catches and 53 yards per game with two touchdowns, putting him on pace for 68 receptions, 894 yards and five TDs over a 17-game season. That’s substantially behind his last full season with the Atlanta Falcons in 2020 when he had 90 catches for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns.
Some of it is a function of being part of a deeper receiving corps with Christian Kirk and tight end Evan Engram — both of whom have more targets — and there’ll also be more balls going to Zay Jones when he returns from a knee injury. On the upside, Jones should also bolster Ridley's effectiveness when he returns to the lineup.
No doubt, another factor is the attention defenses are giving Ridley and he’s also drawn four pass interference penalties, so the Jaguars’ best deep threat is by no means underachieving. But he can’t be happy about his current numbers, which I suspect will look better as the season moves forward.
Titans fire sale coming?
When the Tennessee Titans traded one of the most durable, dependable players on their defense, safety Kevin Byard, to the Philadelphia Eagles this week, that deal couldn’t have been well received in the locker room.
Trading Byard — a two-time All-Pro who has 27 career interceptions and has never missed a game in eight seasons — for meh safety Terrell Edmunds and two late-round draft picks feels like a precursor to a Titans rebuild. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Derrick Henry, the franchise running back from Yulee High, and receiver DeAndre Hopkins in the on-deck circle as the next trade targets.
It’ll also be interesting to see whether sixth-year head coach Mike Vrabel wants to stick around if second-year GM Ran Carthon is intent on facilitating a significant roster turnover.
FSU less margin for error
When you look at the seven or eight college football teams left with a realistic chance of winning the national title, No. 4-ranked Florida State (7-0) might be the one in greatest danger of missing the College Football Playoff if it fails to stay perfect.
The case for Mike Norvell’s team still getting into the CFP with one loss looks pretty daunting, though beating a much-improved LSU in Week 1 should help their seeding position with the selection committee. With North Carolina falling out of the unbeaten ranks after last week’s embarrassing home defeat to Virginia, it makes the path harder for a one-loss ACC champion to make the playoff.
So anything less than FSU staying unbeaten through the league championship game will likely doom the Seminoles’ national title hopes, while the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 champion could potentially still make the playoffs without a perfect record.
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Quick-hitting nuggets
With the Texas Rangers in the World Series, that means Clay High alumnus and right-handed pitcher Dane Dunning will try to become the ninth Jacksonville area high school product to be on a Series-winning roster. It started with Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Bessent (Lee/Riverside) in 1955, and last happened in 2019 with West Nassau High infielder Howie Kendrick of the Washington Nationals.
The others are P Storm Davis (University Christian) with the Baltimore Orioles in 1983 and Oakland A’s in 1989, 3B Chipper Jones (Bolles School) with the Atlanta Braves in 1995, P Adam Wainwright (Glynn Ga. Academy) with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006, P Jonathan Papelbon (Bishop Kenny) with the Boston Red Sox in 2007, P Brett Myers (Englewood) with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, SS Javier Baez (Arlington Country Day) with the Chicago Cubs in 2016. …
Penn State has a solid coach in James Franklin, now in his 10th season in Happy Valley with an 84-37 overall record (.694) and 52-31 mark (.619) in conference play. Still, he was hired in large part to break the Ohio State-Michigan lock on Big Ten championships, and that part has fallen well short of the desired results. Franklin broke through to win the Big Ten in his third season in 2016, despite the Nittany Lions getting routed 49-10 at Michigan, which lost nail-biters to Iowa and Ohio State to allow Penn State to win the East division. But Franklin’s 4-15 record combined against Ohio State and Michigan isn’t exactly the payoff Penn State should expect for a coach given a 10-year, $75 million contract extension two years ago. …
Trevor Lawrence starting his first 41 regular-season games to begin his NFL career are more than any previous Jaguars quarterback, followed by David Garrard (38), Mark Brunell (24) and Byron Leftwich (17). The longest all-time NFL streak for consecutive starts by a quarterback is 297 by Brett Favre.
World Series pick
An unlikely pairing of wild-card entries, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Rangers should make for an intriguing Series matchup. Both teams got there the hard way, by overcoming a 3-2 deficit in their respective league championship series, winning the final two games on the road.
It’s hard to go against Texas with the 1-2 punch of starting pitchers Jordan Montgomery (3-0, 2.16 ERA) and Nathan Eovaldi (4-0, 2.42 ERA), who have been lights-out this postseason, along with the red-hot bat of outfielder and ALCS MVP Adolis Garcia. He had five home runs in his last four games against the Houston Astros and already has an MLB-record 20 RBI in one postseason. Rangers in 6.
Pigskin forecast
Jaguars over Steelers by 7 (bye week celebrations); Indianapolis Colts over New Orleans Saints by 1 (officiating makeup call); Houston Texans over Carolina Panthers by 3 (C.J. Stroud draft-bypass thank-you notes); Atlanta Falcons over Tennessee Titans by 4 (Arthur Smith paybacks); Florida State over Wake Forest by 17 (Jordan Travis Heisman promotions); Oregon over Utah by 1 (CFP survivor pool). Last week: 3 right, 4 Eagles Tush Pushes.
gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Big missing piece -- Georgia in tough spot without Bowers as go-to weapon
