Georgia football vs. Missouri: Scouting report, prediction
Georgia football is beating opponents by an average of 25.8 points per game, but so far seven of those eight opponents were unranked and the other, then No. 20 Kentucky, is no longer ranked.
Missouri, No. 14 in both major polls and No. 12 in the first CFP rankings, is the first of three ranked opponents ahead in the next three weeks for the Bulldogs, No. 1 in the polls but No. 2 in the CFP.
Here are five things to know about this matchup with major implications on the SEC East race between the first place Bulldogs (8-0, 5-0) and second place Tigers (7-1, 3-1).
Remember when: Georgia football survived Missouri in 2022
No team on Georgia’s 2022 schedule played the eventual national champion tougher than Missouri.
Georgia trailed by 13 in the first half and by 10 in the fourth quarter before getting a go-ahead Daijun Edwards 1-yard touchdown run with 4:03 to play.
The Bulldogs were a 29½ point favorite but won 26-22.
“They kept us off-balanced offensively and kind of dominated the line of scrimmage defensively,” Smart said. “So, what are you going to do to answer that? You have to impose your will. You got to be able to run the ball, play-action. You have got to be efficient. You can't waste down and distances.”
Georgia harkened back on how it rallied when it needed to do the same against Ohio State and this season against South Carolina.
“We didn't play very well until the fourth quarter, and a lot of that had to do with them,” Smart said. “And give them credit for the way they played. But, yeah, last year's team, retrospect, it helped build the resiliency of that team.”
Said defensive back Tykee Smith: “Seeing the team come together, not bow our heads, being able to battle together and come back. When the Ohio State moment came, we definitely lived in that moment when we played Missouri, so we knew how to handle it."
Playing Georgia close doesn’t have any bearing on this year’s game, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said.
“I don’t really take anything from last year’s game,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re two totally different teams. They have a lot of different players on both sides of the ball. We have a lot of different players and different identities on both sides of the ball. This is a new matchup.”
Another big game for Georgia Bulldogs and Carson Beck
Carson Beck is making some believers out of those that watch Georgia football.
“They can win games because of Carson Beck,” ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer said on air Saturday night after the Bulldogs and Beck took it to Florida 43-20.
Two of Beck’s best games from a quarterback efficiency perspective have come in the last three games. He threw for 389 yards and 4 touchdowns against Kentucky and 315 yards and two touchdowns against Florida.
Drinkwitz lauded the job Mike Bobo is doing in his first season back as offensive coordinator.
“He has his quarterback playing at a very high level,” he said. “I mean if you didn’t know any better you would think he was playing with Matthew Stafford or Aaron Murray again. It reminds me of when Coach Bobo early in the 2000s there.”
Young pups emerging on Georgia football defense
Georgia’s frontline defensive players made their usual contributions in holding Florida to 339 total yards and just one touchdown until the fourth quarter last Saturday.
Some talented backups also stepped up with big plays as the Bulldogs went on a 36-0 run.
Outside linebacker Marvin Jones snuffed out a double reverse for a tackle for loss. Edge rusher Jalon Walker had a sack that forced a fumble. Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins knocked the ball away on a sack that Jones recovered. Outside linebacker Damon Wilson teamed up with Mykel Williams on a sack.
“It brings energy to us,” Walker said. “Seeing our brother eat is a great feeling."
Ingram-Dawkins, a redshirt sophomore from Gaffney, S.C., had 10 tackles last season but missed six games after foot surgery this season.
“I don't think he was in very good shape, but he was an added boost for us, just morale-wise, to get a guy back that we think could've had one of the best years, and he hasn't been able to,” Smart said.
Walker, a sophomore from Salisbury, N.C., is fourth on the team with 11 quarterback pressures and has 1 ½ sacks.
"My mindset against Florida, I had a mission,” Walker said. “Our mission was to go out there and dominate.”
Georgia Bulldog Dominic Lovett, Missouri's Luther Burden in spotlight
Missouri’s leading receiver from last season will go up against the Tigers.
Dominic Lovett had 56 catches for 846 yards and three touchdowns last year.
The Tigers aren’t exactly hurting at wideout.
Luther Burden, the former five-star recruit, leads the SEC with 61 catches for 905 yards and has six touchdowns.
“He looks like a running back,” Smart said of a player listed at 5-11 and 208 pounds. “I mean, he's explosive, fast. He's different. They put him in the slot; they move him around. They do a great job using his skill set.”
Burden beat two South Carolina defenders deep on a 42-yard touchdown in the Tigers’ last game.
Oklahoma transfer Theo Wease had 36 catches for 440 yards and 5 touchdowns. Mookie Cooper has 28 catches for 359 yards.
Lovett, who like Burden hails from East St. Louis High School, is second for Georgia in receptions with 35 for 365 yards. He had his longest catch of the season against Florida for 55 yards and has led Georgia in receiving in three games this season.
“I’m sure he wants to play well in this game with this being his old team,” center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger said. “Winning the game is more important to him than anything. If he has to play the game and he get zero receptions, zero targets or whatever it may be but we win the game, 6 will be happy.”
Georgia football pass rush aims to affect Brady Cook
Georgia is coming off a season-high 4 sacks — all in the first half — against Florida.
A big reason for that is the amount of time Graham Mertz stood in the pocket to make throws.
“Drop-back pass, you get a chance to,” Smart said. “We don't get a lot of opportunities for that in earlier games. The more people drop back and pass, the more we'll be able to get to them.”
Missouri allows the third fewest sacks in the SEC with 13 so Georgia may be hard-pressed to get to Brady Cook in similar fashion.
“We are going to have to affect him in different ways,” Williams said. “Whether that be hits or battered balls, we have to get him off the spot."
Georgia sacked Cook twice last season.
“He's very bright, sharp, athletic, gets the ball out in something like 2.3 seconds, 2.2 seconds,” Smart said. “I mean, he knows where he's going with the ball. He understands coverages."
Cook can make plays with his feet. He’s the Tigers third-leading rusher with 134 yards and has scored 5 touchdowns.
Drinkwitz said Georgia’s defense still has match principles it had under former coordinator Dan Lanning and added more simulated pressures with inside linebackers creating run blitzes “to try to cut the defense in half,” and then dropping a cornerback into coverage.
“I think Glenn Schumann has created his own identity over there and created some havoc plays on defense,” Drinkwitz said. “They do a really nice job of disguising what they’re going to do."
Georgia football vs. Missouri prediction
Georgia 38, Missouri 20
Missouri gave the Bulldogs all they could handle in Columbia last year, but the Bulldogs feed off their crowd at home where they can tie their program record with a 24th straight win in Sanford Stadium. Missouri’s SEC wins have come against South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, teams ranked eighth, 10th and 13th in the league in total offense. It lost 49-39 to the league’s top offensive team, LSU. Georgia is second at 506.5 yards per game.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Here are five things to know for Georgia football vs. Missouri
