No. 2 ranked Georgia (1-0) will take on Samford (1-0) in the 2022 season home opener on Saturday. The Dawgs are coming off a 49-3 win over Oregon. Samford is coming off a 27-17 win over Kennesaw State in the opener.
Analyst Trent Smallwood uses Pro Football Focus (PFF) season grades to compare each unit for the upcoming game at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
WHERE DOES GEORGIA HAVE THE ADVANTAGE?
How can Samford slow down Georgia's passing attack? In its first-week matchup, Kennesaw State was only able to pass for 135 yards, but also only attempted 13 total passes with five completions. The issue is Samford allowed 27 yards per catch on those completions. Georgia has numerous play-makers that can hurt you in the open field after the catch. Running back Kenny McIntosh was targeted nine times in the opener over Oregon. He hauled in all nine for 117 yards. Ladd McConkey hauled in five of his six targets for 73 yards and a touchdown. Adonai Mitchell caught four of his five targets for 65 yards. All-American tight end Brock Bowers only had two catches, but expect him to have a huge game sooner than later. Stetson Bennett leads the charge at quarterback where he completed 25-of-31 passes for 368 yards in only two quarters and a half. Bennett was 10-of-10 when Oregon elected to send a blitz. This is a tough match-up for Samford from a defensive standpoint, and I expect Bennett to have another huge day passing the football.
WHERE DOES SAMFORD HAVE THE ADVANTAGE?
I am not sure there's any advantage for Samford when its defense takes the field. If there is one, it's the ability to slow down the run. Kennesaw State did have 193 yards rushing on Saturday, but that was on 62 rushes. Samford has some talented linebackers with Noah Martin (86.1 RDEF Grade), Thomas Neville (74.7 RDEF Grade), and company, so it could have some success in slowing down the rushing attack for Georgia, but it hasn't seen an offensive line like the home team will have on Saturday afternoon. The Dawgs rushed for 132 yards while averaging 5.3 yards per carry and four touchdowns against Oregon in the opener.
WHERE DOES GEORGIA HAVE THE ADVANTAGE?
Georgia lost a lot in its front seven from a year ago, but there's still a lot of talent in that group. I expect the Bulldogs to control the line of scrimmage and the talented young linebackers to make a lot of plays in the backfield. Samford ran the football 32 times for 113 yards, averaging only 3.5 yards per rush in the opener against Kennesaw State. The Georgia defense held Oregon to 140 yards on 31 rushes and no touchdowns. I look for the Bulldogs to rack up numerous tackles for loss and force Samford into a lot of third and longs on Saturday.
WHERE DOES SAMFORD HAVE THE ADVANTAGE?
No doubt about it, Samford should struggle to move the ball consistently on Saturday. With that being said, it does have a talented quarterback in Michael Hiers. Hiers completed 18-of-24 for 289 yards and four touchdowns in the opener. He also completed 4-of-6 attempts for 125 yards that traveled 20-plus yards downfield. Samford was 8-of-11 on third down conversions as well. The Georgia defense struggled to get Oregon off the field at times in those situations this past Saturday. The Bulldogs allowed the Ducks to convert 7-of-15 of those attempts, but the efficiency improved as the game went on. For Samford to have a chance to stay in this game, Hiers will need to have a big game passing as well as hitting on some key third-down conversions to keep that talented Georgia offense on the sidelines.
