Georgia Football 2017 Preview: Vanderbilt Commodores

What do they do not so well:

Defend the pass. Seriously, Jacob Eason had one of his best games of the season last year against Vanderbilt. He threw for 346 yards on 27 of 40 passes. If Georgia hadn’t had chronic redzone issues last year, there is no way this game ends the way it does. Georgia was throwing all over the Commodores and that is with a QB who looked shaky for most of the other games they played. If the protection holds up and Georgia’s weapons on the outside are improved, look for a big game out of Eason in 2017.

I also expect Nick Chubb and Sony Michel to find a way to score in this game. This game was a statement for just how shocking our OL was last year. Vanderbilt are decent on the DL and Cunningham was a beast, but the UGA OL couldn’t block anyone in this game last year. This is not Alabama, these weren’t 5-star talents blowing through our line. It was poor play, plain and simple. With even semi decent blocking, look for the two running backs to get to the second level. That is where they will be able to make Vanderbilt pay.

On the other side of the ball, the UGA defense should be able to at least slow down the Commodores. Those last two games of the season were surprising to everyone. For me, it’s just not likely that this has suddenly become a 400+ yard a game offense. They haven’t been anything near that for the past 4 years so to me, those two games look like outliers.. This is a great opportunity for UGA’s defense to totally shut down an opponent and close out a game. I really hope that’s something we get to see.