Georgia
vs.
Missouri
SEC
College Football Pick
9/17/16
It hasn’t been easy or pretty, but Georgia has two wins and has as good of shot as any to win the SEC East. And that road to the Conference title Game starts now with trips to Missouri and Ole Miss followed by Tennessee. In their first true road Game of the season, the Bulldogs are currently a -6.5 point favorite at Missouri.
After winning their opener against North Carolina, Georgia looked like it had everything figured out. Nick Chubb ran for 222 yards and a couple touchdowns, while Jacob Eason did everything fans hoped he would do, coming in for Greyson LAmbert and easily outplaying him. But the next Game against Nicholls State highlighted a number of problems for the Bulldogs. For starters, they won just 26-24 despite being a -52 point favorite. And a week after Chubb went off, he had trouble finding room against a bad FCS school.
That will obviously have to change in this one, now on the road in SEC play. When these teams met last season, it was possibly the worst Game of the year with the Bulldogs winning 9-6 behind an uninspired performance. Neither team could do anything. Both wanted to run the ball, but Missouri finished with 21 yards on 22 carries and Georgia was only at 2.7 yards per carry. It was ugly to say the least, although maybe the addition of Chubb to the Bulldogs offense will change that.
But was the UNC Game just a fluke for this Georgia offensive line, or as seen in the Nicholls State Game, are there some underlying problems? The good news for Chubb is that Missouri hasn’t had that great of a rush defense in its first two Games, which is somewhat of a surprise as the Tigers had one of the best defenses in the Conference last year.
They were scorched for 241 rushing yards against West Virginia in the opener and then in a 40-point win, still allowed 141 yards to lowly Eastern Michigan. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see Chubb get back to 200 yards in this one and Georgia can just chalk up last week’s win as a bad hangover.
But to win this Game by more than a touchdown, it may require Eason to do a little more. The rookie has had his moments, but those have been hit-or-miss in the first two Games. So far, the Tigers have forced at least one interception in each Game and Eason can’t let that happen, especially on the road.
On the other end, Georgia has done just enough to get by, although still allowed a ridiculous 8.4 yards per carry to UNC in the opener. Missouri’s offense has surprisingly took to the air a little more in the early going behind Drew Lock. He completed just 23 passes on 51 attempts in the loss to WVU, but dominated EMU for five touchdowns. It’s more realistic that Lock and the Missouri offense goes back to the levels in the first Game when they scored 11 points.
This will be another low-scoring Game, and the cover will come down to what young quarterback doesn’t make mistakes. So far, Lock has been solid, but now in Conference play, can that continue?
Our Pick – Missouri +6.5