Quarterback This is a classic example of why we don't do these at half time. Aaron Murray had a poor first half, but in his defense, he also got very little help. The Georgia signal-caller was off target in the first half, but a couple of drops and a third down completion called back due to a false start penalty didn't help. The first-half interception was a poor decision and throw that I'm sure Murray would like to have back, but the third year starter rebounded in the second half. Murray caught fire on the Bulldogs second drive of the third quarter, and led the Bulldogs on one of the biggest drives of his career to tie the game. At that point, his body language changed, and Murray entered his comfort zone. Again, the primary job of the quarterback is to win, and he did that. He also made some big plays to help his team win. Murray completed almost 63 percent of his passes for 242 yards and three scores. If not for at least four other dropped passes, those numbers would be much better and the outcome of the game could have been much more lopsided. Grade: B+ Running backs
This group, as a whole, had a very underrated game. Todd Gurley came up big again as the teams leading rusher with 10 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown. Ken Malcome had a couple of strong runs and one ended up going for a touchdown. Keith Marshall continues to show that he can be a physical presence at the running back position and threw a key block to set the edge on UGA's successful two-point conversion attempt. Throw in the fact that fullback Merritt Hall had an excellent game blocking, and Richard Samuel had arguably the biggest play of the game when he stopped a fake punt in the second half, and it is hard to find anything that the running backs did wrong. Their pass protection was improved, did a great job in red zone situations, and did things on special teams to help the team win. Grade: A
Wide receivers The performance for this position group is a bit of a mixed bag. Marlon Brown had a huge game with eight catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Tavarres King also had a couple of huge catches. One of those catches set up the lone Bulldog touchdown in the first half. The group, as a whole, blocked extremely well to boot. The Bulldogs second leading receiver, Michael Bennett, had an up and down night. Bennett had eight catches for 79 yards, but he also had three uncharacteristic drops at crucial times in the game. Rantavious Wooten also had a pass go through his hands that he could have pulled in as well. The Bulldogs were able to play through those mistakes, but those were all passes that should be caught in the future. Grade: B Offensive line If we simply graded the offensive line on their fourth quarter-performance, it would be excellent. The entire unit, however, had it's fair share of struggles throughout the game. You have to give credit to the Bulldog front five for playing a physical brand of football all night. They missed assignments, drew penalties, and got beat in pass protection at times, but they wore down the Mizzou defensive front and started having their way in the fourth quarter. Left tackle Kenarious Gates had the most consistent night, and did some good things in the run game. Dallas Lee played better than last week against Buffalo, but still has to get more consistent. David Andrews missed more assignments than he did in Game One, but still showed that he has what it takes to hold up in the run game. Chris Burnette was consistently solid in picking his assignments, but again struggled to get movement in the run game. John Theus, however, had easily the toughest of his two games. Theus had three false start penaltiesand really struggled in pass protection. He improved as the game went on, but it was clear that his sprained ankle was hampering his ability to set in pass protection. Grade: B- Defensive line One thing that Georgia needed in this game was for the defensive line to take control of Mizzou's offensive line. While it wasn't a wire-to-wire dominant performance, the Georgia defensive front did a great job all night. Anchored by John Jenkins, the Georgia defensive line led an attack that held the Mizzou running game in check all night. The Tigers had almost all of their success in the running game late in the fourth quarter after the game was in hand, and a lot of that had to do with Jenkins', Abry Jones' and Cornelius Washington's ability to penetrate and play in the backfield. The defensive line did an excellent job of staying in their rush lanes, and didn't try to do too much in regards to making plays. They definitely improved on their performance in week one, and eventually word down the Mizzou offensive line. Grade: A Outside linebackers Jarvis Jones, again, stole the show. The star outside linebacker had multiple pressures, a sack, a forced fumble, and an interception that he almost returned for a touchdown. Jones was all over the field all night, and played with a relentless motor. In the first half, Mizzou quarterback James Franklin barely had time to stand in the pocket and throw because of Jones. Once they started sliding the protection to Jones, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham started moving his star pass rusher around, and it paid off. On top of Jones performance, freshman Jordan Jenkins also saw some action and held his own very well. Jenkins recovered Jones' forced fumble, and played with excellent energy when called upon. Grade: A+ Secondary The performance of the secondary is very similar to the performance of the wide receivers. As a group, they had a good night, but there were a few different plays that keep it from being perfect. Damian Swann had another huge night and really started to play a step ahead of Franklin and the Missouri passing attack in the fourth quarter. Malcolm Mitchell, in his first game at cornerback, looked excellent in coverage but did miss a few tackles. He will need to clean that up to become an all around great at the position. Branden Smith turned in another strong night with solid tackling and good coverage. Safeties Shawn Williams and Connor Norman played with a great deal of physicality, and did a great job of sticking their nose in the run game and the perimeter passing game. Norman, however, was caught out of position on one of Mizzou's touchdown passes, and misplayed a deep ball before the half that almost resulted in a score. He is much stronger when the ball is in front and he can drive on the football and make plays. He still needs to improve on going back on the ball. Cornerback Devin Bowman also misplayed his man in man coverage in the third quarter and that resulted in an easy throw, catch, and score. The Bulldogs will need to clean up the little mistakes, but overall the group did plenty to help the team win. Score: B Special teams The coverage units were very strong. The kick off team allowed very little yardage, and the punt teams allowed almost nothing on Saturday. Collin Barber had a fair night punting as he averaged almost 37 yards per kick, but did pin the Tigers inside their own 20 and pooch punter Adam Erickson pinned Mizzou inside its own 20 once as well. Kicker Marshall Morgan hit two big field goals from 52 and 41 yards, but did miss an extra point. He also looked shaky on a couple of others and he is fortunate that it didn't factor into the outcome. Mitchell also had a fumble on a punt return that resulted in a Missouri score. The biggest play of the night, however, was when Samuel stopped the second half fake punt. That play gave the Bulldogs momentum that they never relinquished. Grade: B+
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