Georgia Football: 3 simple defensive keys for Dawgs to shutdown the Gators

Georgia football must halt Gators on third down

Georgia must get the Gators off the field on third down and prevent them from creating long drives.

Florida completes 44.44% of their third-down conversions.

Mullen isn’t afraid to be aggressive on these downs and extend drives, so Georgia must return the grittiness.

The Dawgs opponents convert on third down 31.13% of the time, which is currently the second-best SEC conversion rate.

After the Kentucky game, Georgia needed to go back to the drawing board on third downs and fix some things. The Wildcats converted 9-of-19 against Georgia and only allowed the Dawgs to convert 2-of-7.

As the No.1 defense in the country, that is unacceptable. Georgia allowed an 11-plus minute drive in the fourth quarter because the Wildcats continued to convert.

The Dawgs must fix this on Saturday because if the Gators begin to sustain drives, they will gain confidence. Georgia must keep Florida’s confidence to a minimum so they can jump on them when the Gators make mistakes.

Whoever has a better conversion rate will win this ballgame on Saturday, and if they don’t, it’ll be surprising. The Dawgs had time to regroup and figure it out, or at least we will find out on Saturday if they fixed this issue.

Mullen will know this and try to be the most explosive on third downs, so Georgia better get ready to set the tone early.