I’ll be the voice of optimism in this thread.
I think we match up well against Georgia. Our strength so far this season is clearly our passing game. The jury’s still out, but Ty has had a remarkable last two games. Like unbelievable two games. In the first game against FSU, he was getting chased and pressured all game long. And we have probably top two receiver rooms in the country (Ohio state is arguably better… maybe).
Georgia’s weakness this year seems, oddly enough, to be defense. They just haven’t done well defensively this year, especially in pass defense, ranking 81st in the country in passing yards per game allowed. And they’re not putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. So ty should have time back there to slice and dice.
We should be able to score at will through the air. I’d love it if we had a strong running game to go along with it, but I just don’t think that’s yet part of CKD’s coaching philosophy (maybe after a few years in the SEC, he’ll start to put more emphasis there). But on passing game alone, our strength is their weakness, and I just don’t see how we don’t score at least 35 on Georgia.
On the other side of the ball, they may have some limited success through the air, but that won’t be their bread and butter - our secondary is too solid for that. If they’re going to win this game, they’re going to have to grind it out on the ground, which they may actually be able to do. Our front seven hasn’t shown me that they are up to traditional bama standards there.
I’m not a fan of this “lighter, quicker” defensive front seven philosophy in the SEC. You’ve got to have the beef on the defensive line. Side note: we need to get a little lighter and quicker along the offensive line, particularly at the tackle position. Even though Georgia’s not really equipped to take advantage of it, we’re getting beat far too regularly along the offensive line, particularly on the edges.
In any case, I’m looking for the over, with both teams finding scoring success. Difference will be we do it quickly through the air, while they grind it with long drives, which creates more opportunities for mistakes, ie turnovers. We win the turnover battle, winning the game 38-31.