Georgia’s offense is a well-oiled machine. Led by senior quarterback Stetson Bennett and sophomore tight end Brock Bowers, the Bulldogs were rolling heading into Saturday night’s contest in Columbia. Georgia had dropped a combined 97 points on Oregon and South Carolina en route to the program’s fifth 4-0 start in the past six seasons.
Bennett looked very comfortable in offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s system through four games; Bowers was scoring touchdowns in seemingly every way, and Georgia’s rushing attack looked especially dangerous against South Carolina and Kent State. The Bulldogs’ offense faced little resistance in the early stages of its title defense heading into its matchup with Missouri on Saturday night.
The well-oiled machine looked rather rusty in Columbia as the Bulldogs’ usually-rhythmic offense looked anything but for most of the game. Bennett finished with the third-lowest completion percentage of his career (54.5) when attempting at least 20 passes. Bowers, who registered over 125 yards from scrimmage and at least one touchdown in each of his last two games, was held to 66 yards and zero scores. Georgia’s two offensive touchdowns scored were its fewest in a game since the Bulldogs’ 10-3 victory over Clemson in last season’s opener. It was also the first time Georgia had been held without a touchdown through three quarters since the 2019 Southeastern Conference Championship.
In fact, until the game clock read 14:09 in the fourth quarter, here’s how all of Georgia’s drives had ended up to that point: Three-and-out, fumble, three-and-out, punt, fumble, field goal, field goal, field goal, field goal.
“Tenacity and effort, that’s what showed tonight,” senior defensive end Isaiah McGuire said after the game. “I’m proud to go to war with these guys.”
How did this happen? Missouri’s defense once again rose to the occasion, this time by taking away the secret sauce to Georgia’s offense: not getting into third-and-long situations. Third-and-long situations greatly limit an offense’s playbook. It also makes playing defense a lot easier knowing that the opposing offense is likely going to have to complete a long pass play to pick up the first down. It’s a little bit like going into a math quiz knowing you’ll quizzed on multiplication; not addition, subtraction or division, making studying all the more manageable
Georgia has shown success at avoiding third-and-long, which we will call eight yards to the first down marker on third down. The Bulldogs are usually able to gain enough yards on early downs to where they’re always ahead of the chains. Monken usually calls plays where he creates a matchup advantage for someone on Georgia, and the Bulldogs’ offensive personnel are good enough to execute most of the time. Not including garbage time, Georgia had faced a combined six third-and-long scenarios in its first four matchups of 2022 and converted only one of them. For context, Missouri had faced 18 of those scenarios in its first four games and converted only three.
Against Missouri alone, Georgia faced seven third-and-long situations, converting on only two of them while punting or settling for a field goal on the other five. The Tigers forced Georgia into unfamiliar situations, the key to keeping an offense out of sync. Up until the fourth quarter, when the Bulldogs started taking control of possession, Georgia could not get much of anything going on the ground or through the air.
Why was Georgia uncharacteristically out of sorts? Just like games prior, all three levels of Missouri’s defense stepped up to the test. The defensive line closed and penetrated gaps in the run game while also providing constant pressure on passing plays. Junior linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper led the linebacker group once again, with his most impactful play – a lethal punch on Georgia junior running back Kendall Milton leading to the first of two Georgia turnovers. The Missouri secondary was blanketing Bulldog receivers all night and made their presence felt in the run game.
Missouri finished the evening with nine tackles for loss, six pass breakups, two sacks and seven quarterback hits by seven different defenders. The Tigers’ leader in tackles for loss on the night with 2.5 was junior Jaylon Carlies, a defensive back. Senior defensive back Martez Manuel and junior defensive back Kris Abrams-Draine both had two pass breakups. Three of Missouri’s four leading tacklers on the night were all defensive backs –– Carlies, Manuel and junior Joseph Charleston.
Georgia was favored by 30 points prior to Saturday night. The game was not supposed to be close. The defending national champions were supposed to steamroll a team that couldn’t seem to get out of their own way. Instead, David made Goliath sweat and grind for every yard until the very end. The 2-3 record may not show it, but the Tigers have already come a long way defensively from last year’s historically bad defense.
Missouri travels to Gainesville, Florida, to take on Florida next Saturday as they look to get back to .500. A win would mark just the third SEC road victory under head coach Eliah Drinkwitz and another step forward for a program that is suddenly trending in the right direction.
Edited by Brandon Haynes | bhaynes@themaneater.com
Copy Chief: Emily Rutledge, erutledge@themaneater.com