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Georgia Football: What Dawgs can expect from Vanderbilt

By Alistair Penny

ATHENS, GA - NOVEMBER 21: Uga X is officially 'collared' prior to the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Georgia Southern Eagles at Sanford Stadium on November 21, 2015 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA - NOVEMBER 21: Uga X is officially 'collared' prior to the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Georgia Southern Eagles at Sanford Stadium on November 21, 2015 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images) /
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Georgia Football goes into another game this week facing a team that defeated it last season. So what can the Dawgs expect from Vanderbilt this weekend?

Georgia Football goes into its week 6 game knowing that it has another opportunity for revenge. We looked at how that revenge might affect the dawgs mindset yesterday, so now, we’re going to look at what to expect from the Commodores:

They were supposed to have a good defense:

Going into the season, Vanderbilt was expected to have a solid defensive line. That seemed to be the case when they stopped Kansas State in week three however it broke down over the past 2 weeks. Granted, it’s pretty hard to stop Alabama when they’re angry and boy did Vandy make them angry…

Florida, on the other hand, was another matter. They were a team that had struggled on offense all year before they faced Vandy. They allowed a true freshman in Malik David to run all over them and were unable to stop Feleipe Franks after he comes in due to an injury. As we saw against Tennessee, that’s not a very good offense and if they were a good defense, they should have been able to stop them.

So far, this has been a middle of the road defense and that plays out in the rankings. They currently sit 47th in the nation on defense and that sounds about right. They are more than capable of stopping some offenses, but they should struggle against top-flight weapons, the likes of which Georgia should have.

A struggling offense.

If the defense has been middling, the offense has struggled. I mean really struggled. Kyle Shurmer has passed for just under 1000 yards and 11 TD’s which is not bad and shows that there is life in their passing game. He’s playing the best football of his career so far but he often takes a while to get warmed up. Against Florida, it took nearly a full quarter before he was started to complete passes. That’s not necessarily a good thing going up against this Georgia pass rush.

The real issue this team has on offense, however, is on the ground. In our early season preview, we talked about Ralph Webb who was a weapon for the team last season. Right now, however, the ground game is really struggling and that is in part due to a weak offensive line. Webb is only averaging 2.6 yards a carry and I don’t see that getting any better against this Georgia defense.

If UGA brings the same mentality they have had the past few weeks, I don’t see how Vandy will be able to score points. This is certainly a worse offense than we saw in Mississippi State and probably even Tennessee.

This is a solid but very beatable football team.

In short, this is not a game the Bulldogs should fear. Vanderbilt are well coached and a disciplined team. This is a good team but I’d be shocked if we saw a repeat of 2016. They simply don’t have the talent to keep up with a Georgia team that seems to be fully focused this year.

Next: Looking at UGA's upcoming opponents

That does not mean that this is a team that Georgia should take lightly. Derek Mason will have this team ready to play and they will be well coached and disciplined. That being said, this game is more about Georgia than it is Vanderbilt. If they show up and play the way they can, there is no reason for them not to go to 6-0.

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