Preview: No. 11 Tennessee at No. 25 Georgia
No. 11 Tennessee at No. 25 Georgia
WHERE: Sanford Stadium
WHEN: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
RECORDS: Tennessee (4-0, 1-0), Georgia (3-1, 1-1)
TV/RADIO: CBS (Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Allie LaForce); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Eric Zeier, Chuck Dowdle); ESPN Radio (Bill Rosinsky, David Norrie, Ian Fitzsimmons); SIRIUS/XM 93/190.
About the game
Two teams, two different directions? One could argue that’s how the nation sees Georgia and Tennessee heading into Saturday’s big SEC East matchup at Sanford Stadium. The Bulldogs are struggling, coming off a 45-14 pasting by Ole Miss while Tennessee is certainly feeling confident after using a strong second-half to beat Florida last week in Knoxville. For Georgia, the mission is clear - find a way to slow down quarterback Josh Dobbs, who almost single-handedly beat the Bulldogs last year in Knoxville, win the line of scrimmage and give itself a chance by cutting down on fundamental mistakes like dropped passes. While that may sound like a lot, that’s what Georgia will need to shoot for to come out on top.
Georgia offense vs. Tennessee defense
With Nick Chubb’s status being a game-time decision, it’s going to be very interesting to see how freshmen Brian Herrien and Elijah Holyfield respond to helping out Sony Michel more than we’ve seen the previous four games. It’s also going to be interesting to see how the Bulldogs’ offensive line deals with defensive end Derek Barnett, who is going to have his eyes trained on quarterback Jacob Eason. Otherwise, it’s going to be very important for Georgia to have some success on first down and avoid the kind of second- and third-and-long situations that killed the team against Ole Miss. Of course, there’s more to Georgia has to get right in order to beat the Vols. The Bulldogs haven’t won the line of scrimmage since the opener against North Carolina, and dropped passes have plagued Georgia mightily with at least 12 over the past two games.
Georgia defense vs. Tennessee offense
For the second straight week the Bulldogs have a huge challenge trying to contain the opposing team’s quarterback and Vol QB Josh Dobbs has already shown what he’s a hard man to stop. Running backs Jalen Hurd and Alvin Karmara also promise to be quite the test for a Bulldog front seven who struggled to make tackles against Ole Miss. Tennessee’s big-play potential is also a huge concern. Like Ole Miss, the Vols’ receivers are tall and talented, and with the Bulldogs’ penchant for giving up long plays, this could get ugly if Georgia’s secondary can’t make some adjustments.
Keys for Georgia
More offensive creativity: Assuming Chubb won’t play (which is what we were told on Tuesday), offensive coordinator Jim Chaney will likely need to come up with some different ideas to jump-start an offense which has struggled the past two weeks.
Tackle, tackle, tackle: The lack of tackling in key situations hurt Georgia more than anything last week, and it won’t be any easier with Dobbs and Hurd touching the ball the bulk of the time for the Volunteers.
Catch the ball: Sounds simple, huh? Well, dropped passes have been a big issue the past three weeks, including one stretch against Ole Miss where the Bulldogs dropped three in a row. It’s hard to beat good team making those types of mistakes and Georgia won’t beat Tennessee with the same type of errors on Saturday.
Play with effort, be excited: Tennessee’s going to be fired up to play so the Bulldogs will need to show that same intensity. Bottom line, show some fight as there wasn’t a lot of that to be found after the Bulldogs got down early against Ole Miss.
Injury Update
Chubb is not expected to play after spraining his ankle against Ole Miss and sources tell UGASports.com that he may not return until the Florida game at the end of October. Otherwise, the Bulldogs appear relatively healthy for the contest.
Prediction
Those hoping for a Volunteer letdown, forget about it. Tennessee is going to be ready, meaning the Bulldogs are going to have to somehow put last week's debacle out of their mind to compete with the Volunteers. Can Georgia do it? Sure. But a lot will have to go right, like winning the battle of the line of scrimmage, putting the kybosh on all the dropped passes and playing the entire 60 minutes with the kind of execution and energy that we only really saw in the opening win over North Carolina. I just don't see it happening: Prediction: Tennessee 35, Georgia 21.