Georgia football continued its winning ways tonight, taking down Missouri in an intra-conference SEC matchup.
The Bulldogs entered Week 7 as one of only ten undefeated FBS teams, and will exit the week with a pristine 7-0 record. With starting quarterback Jacob Eason going down early with a knee injury, much doubt surrounded Jake Fromm‘s ability to successfully lead this Georgia team. However, he has proved himself as a more than capable replacement up to this point.
Head coach Kirby Smart has turned his defense into one of the best in the nation, and they once again showed flashes of brilliance against Missouri quarterback Drew Lock. There’s little reason to believe that the Bulldogs will be in any danger of missing the playoffs as long as they continue their exceptional play up to this point.
With yet another encouraging win under the belt of an exciting Georgia team, here are three takeaways from tonight’s big win.
3. Georgia’s defense can still be exploited
Let’s face it, Georgia’s defense heading into this week has been absolutely phenomenal. However, as well as they played at times against the Tigers, they were burned a few times on deep passes from Drew Lock. After limiting opposing offenses to an average of ten points a game, Georgia’s defense struggled to contain Missouri’s passing attack.
The complete thrashing of the Tigers by Georgia’s offense will shift the gaze off a suspect performance, but we now know that this defense isn’t as indestructible as many previously thought.
While the Bulldogs held Missouri in check on the ground, there were a few plays in which Tiger receivers found themselves completely wide open on a couple of inexplicably blown coverages. Now is there a good chance that these were fluke plays that Smart will eliminate promptly? Of course. However, their struggles tonight should give opponents more confidence than usual.
With their offense proving more than capable to pick them up in the case of a few miscues, Georgia is still in great position to make a serious playoff run. However, they will need to cut down on these mistakes if they want to compete with the best of the best down the stretch. A strong Week 9 performance against Florida will be a great place to start.