The Dawgs are coming home. After a 1-1 road trip, which featured a heart-stopping win against Missouri and a beatdown at the hands of Ole Miss, Georgia returns to the Classic City.
Related Story: Week 5 SEC Power Rankings: Georgia plummets
Georgia will surely be glad to get back to the friendly confines of Sanford Stadium; however, in their return they face a difficult opponent. Tennessee, fresh off their 38-28 win against Florida, seems to be brimming with confidence. The Vols sit just outside the top ten in the AP poll and sit undefeated at 4-0.
The Vols enter Sanford Stadium with one of the conference’s best offenses. The production starts with quarterback Josh Dobbs, a dual-threat signal caller that lit up the Georgia defense in Knoxville a season ago.
The Vols also feature two explosive running backs in Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara, who are both experienced backs with success in the SEC. Tennessee’s win on Saturday snapped Florida’s 11-game winning streak in the series. In the second half of Saturday’s game, Tennessee played arguably their best football of the season.
The same cannot be said for the Georgia Bulldogs. Since their impressive victory against North Carolina, Georgia has struggled on both sides of the ball.
However, until last week, Georgia never fully paid for their sins of poor execution. Ole Miss made sure to change all of that.
On offense, Georgia suffered from dropped passes, a lack of run game and missed opportunities. As Georgia’s offense struggled to keep up, or even score for that matter, the Rebels’ offense put on a show.
Chad Kelly and his talented corps of receivers dismantled the Georgia secondary. By the time Georgia decided to put points on the board, the game was well out of reach.
Now, Georgia enters the most important game of its season with more question marks than ever. While losing to Tennessee would not completely dash Georgia’s SEC East chances, falling to the Vols would put the Bulldogs behind the eight ball.
Winning Saturday would seemingly put Georgia in the driver’s seat to play in Atlanta. With Tennessee’s schedule still including Alabama and Texas A&M, more losses are certainly possible.
Georgia’s schedule is much more manageable. The toughest remaining games include only Florida and a home meeting with Auburn. Even if Georgia loses one of those games, their SEC East dreams would still be alive.
In one of the week’s most interesting storylines, Georgia may be facing another challenge. Star tailback Nick Chubb has missed practices early in the week while dealing with a sprained ankle.
The injury comes at a particularly unfortunate time for Chubb. This game, which was supposed to be a sort of redemption game for the star tailback, may be without his presence.
More from Dawn of the Dawg
- Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
- Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
- Nick Chubb is America’s running back, and he will return
- Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
- Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina
Chubb suffered a major knee injury last season on the first offensive play from scrimmage against the Volunteers. The injury has not officially benched Chubb for the week, but if the Bulldogs go without Chubb, it would make for even more of a challenge against the Vol defense.
Although many see Vols as the favorite in the game, the matchup between Georgia and Tennessee is generally competitive. Tennessee narrowly leads the series 22-21-2. Over the last five years, the margin of victory has been a combined 28 points.
For Georgia to win, the Dawgs will have to find some consistency on offense. Wide receivers and tight ends will need to do a better job bringing down the football. In addition, Georgia will need to continue to improve their running game, which saw some second-half success against Ole Miss.
The improved running game will continue to aid the development of freshman quarterback Jacob Eason. On defense, Georgia’s secondary must improve from their showing in Oxford. In addition, pass rushers such as Lorenzo Carter must disrupt the quarterback.
Georgia’s front seven must make sacks when they get the opportunity. If one thing is for sure, we should expect to see an interesting game when Georgia takes on Tennessee on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. eastern time on CBS.