Georgia Football: Bulldogs to continue dominance vs. Middle Tennessee
Georgia football has gotten off to a hot start, as expected, in 2018, but the reigning national runner-up will need to continue that vs. Middle Tennessee.
The Georgia Bulldogs have looked better than expected at this point in the season.
A running game that lost not one, not three, but two top three all-time rushers in Sony Michel and Nick Chubb and replaced them with D’Andre Swift, James Cook and Elijah Holyfield who each has 100-plus yards respectively over the first two games.
Defensively, Monty Rice has taken over the hole left by Roquan Smith and is playing well defensively while Natrez Patrick has taken on more of a leadership role now that Smith is gone. Georgia looks to get some experience against a heavy pass attack before they travel to a City named Columbia for the second time this season to take on Drew Lock and the Missouri Tigers.
Middle Tennessee State hasn’t played to the best of its abilities thus far in 2018. Brent Stockstill padded his stats a lot last week against Tennessee-Martin with 396 yards and five touchdowns after a game against Vanderbilt where he threw for 178 yards, a score, and a pick. Defensively, the Blue Raiders have allowed 806 total yards in two games as well as 72 total points to Vanderbilt and Tennessee-Martin.
Can the Blue Raiders muster up enough offense to outscore the Bulldogs on the road?
Date: Saturday, Sept. 15
Time: 12 p.m. ET
Location: Athens, Ga.
Venue: Sanford Stadium
TV: ESPNNews
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Players to Watch
Middle Tennessee
- QB, Brent Stockstill
- WRs, Ty Lee and Brad Anderson
- LB, Darius Harris
- DB, Wesley Bush
- DB/LB, Khalil Brooks
Georgia
- RBs, D’Andre Swift, Elijah Holyfield, and James Cook
- The entire defensive unit
- QB, Jake Fromm
- WRs, Mecole Hardman and Riley Ridley
Keys to Victory
Middle Tennesse isn’t in that bad a spot this weekend. First off, they will need Stockstill to play flawlessly against the 11th-ranked total defense in the FBS. Secondly, the defense will have to step up and simply stop the run enough to make Jake Fromm throw the ball (something that South Carolina was unable to do a week ago).
Lastly, hope that Georgia is looking ahead to next weeks matchup against Missouri and lose focus on the game at hand. All this and the Blue Raiders will be golden.
Georgia’s path to victory is obviously far more simple. Keep the three-headed monster in the backfield going against this atrocious Blue Raider defense that hasn’t been tested at all this season on the ground and you’re off to a good start. Next, make the Blue Raiders run the ball with Chaton Mobley who is averaging less than five yards on 20 carries. Finally, don’t focus too much on the Mizzou game next week and you avoid the upset. Easy as that.
Betting Odds
Courtesy of OddsShark
Points Spread: Georgia -33
Over/Under: 54.5
Next. Top 30 breakout candidates for 2018 season. dark
Prediction
Georgia is going to do what they’ve done for weeks now and dominate. One might argue the letdown factor for the Dawgs this week but Middle Tennessee just hasn’t shown the same moxie that they’ve had over the past several seasons. Georgia wins this one big. In fact, if you’re a betting man I would argue that the over/under isn’t high enough for such a matchup.
Final Score Georgia 51, MTSU 10