Georgia football: overreactions after the Dawgs win over Missouri

Georgia football is coming off a 14-point victory over the Missouri Tigers. The Dawgs host Tennessee this Saturday at 3:30 on CBS.

Georgia football continues to roll through the 2018 season. The Dawgs are 4-0 and 2-0 in SEC play following a 43-29 win over Missouri. But for many fans, that win wasn’t good enough. Georgia didn’t dominate. Led by less only one score for most of the first half and only led by 11 late in the ball game.

Despite not allowing a single passing touchdown by Drew Lock and forming a consistent pass rush all game, fans were very bothered by how easily Missouri’s running backs ran throughout the day. The Tigers ran for 172 yards and all four of their touchdowns came on the ground. They ran for 4.6 yards per carry against what is thought of as one of the best defensive front-sevens in the nation.

What happened? Missouri’s run game has concerned many in the Bulldog Nation. If we can’t stop Missouri, what will teams like Florida, LSU, Auburn and Georgia Tech do to us? Missouri isn’t even a run-first team.

Well that’s why you’re overreacting. Missouri, a pass-first, run-second team, lost. Georgia won. The pass-first team failed to score through the air. Yeah, they had some success on the ground, especially in the red-zone. But not enough to score the 44 points needed to beat Georgia.

They had so much success on the ground because they had so little through the air. Murf Baldwin of Top Billin Sports and Rivals.com broke down some of Missouri’s more successful run plays. Most came when Georgia expected the pass. Which is usually a safe bet against Lock and the Tigers offense. Lock throws no-less than 26 passes a game (besides extremely rare instances). And he typically throws around 40 a game. He tossed 48 passes Saturday.

Georgia typically kept just six or seven men in the box, even against two-tight end sets. Because every defense must respect Lock. Baldwin spent a lot of time bragging on J.R. Reed in the video, which Reed deserves because he is, as Baldwin said, the best tackler in the country. But Reed is a safety and a nickel back, he has to help cover the pass. He spent a lot of the game deep. As did Richard LeCounte III.

Missouri didn’t have success on the ground because Georgia has a weak front seven, or wasn’t prepared to stop the run, or any reason your pessimistic mind came up with. Missouri ran well because their coaches decided to take the numbers and block five or six defenders with seven blockers. And Kirby Smart was okay with that.

Georgia allowed Missouri to have success on the ground because they were confident that the Tigers couldn’t beat them with their running game. If Lock had a typical game on top of Missouri’s rushing success, then Georgia would have an issue. The plan was to stop the pass, accept long runs in most scenarios, and stop the run on short yardage plays.

That plan worked. Was it as pretty as the 54-yard performance Georgia had against South Carolina? No, not at all. Then again, Carolina doesn’t have Lock behind the center. Bottom line, Georgia had a clear plan on defense that was meant to keep Missouri from out scoring the Georgia offense. That plan worked. The Dawgs are still undefeated after a road trip to play the best offense on the schedule.

So far, the overreactions have proved to be overreactions, and hopefully they remain that way. When fans complained about Isaac Nauta receiving passes, he had his best game in two years against Middle Tennessee. When pass rushing and getting into the backfield was a concern, the Dawgs sacked Drew Lock twice.