Fear and panic in the air! While the Georgia Bulldogs are not as fearful as teams such as the Florida Gators and the Virginia Tech Hokies, who feel like they are one more bad loss away from firing their head coaches, the Dawgs have yet to look the part of a serious national championship contender through two weeks. Admittedly, they have not played anyone of note, but one concern is mounting...
ESPN's Bill Connelly listed Georgia as one of 12 teams that could be feeling some levels of panic on Saturday. He grouped Georgia into a cluster with the Clemson Tigers, the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Arizona State Sun Devils on the premise of "it's time to look like you were supposed to look". Neither the Bulldogs, Tigers, Gamecocks or Sun Devils have played up to their lofty expectations yet.
In the four-paragraph blurb about Georgia, Connelly cited a distinct lack of explosiveness downfield in the passing game for the Bulldogs. Again, they have not played anyone of substance yet, while Tennessee has had no issues emptying the chamber vs. the likes of Syracuse and East Tennessee State. Connelly did applaud Gunner Stockton's short-to-medium accuracy, as well as UGA's defense.
He also pointed out that Tennessee may not be able to run the football effectively vs. Georgia either.
Explosive playmaking will be a point of intrigue in Georgia at Tennessee
What Connelly mentioned in his article is talent-rich teams like Georgia tend to treat the college regular season like high-quality NFL teams do theirs. They can lean on talent alone to win games over lesser opponents, striving to play their best football when it counts later on in December and into January. It seems as though he feels the Dawgs will flip the so-called switch, but they have not so far.
This game up in Knoxville could come down to who connects on more explosive plays within the context of their offenses. Tennessee has seen Joey Aguilar be willing to throw it deep for big gains so far. Then again, he used the run to open up the pass, and Tennessee may not be able to run the ball as easily as it did the previous two weeks vs. Georgia. As for the Bulldogs, what are they still waiting for?
Truth be told, Kirby Smart may try to win this game with great defense and a ball control approach on offense. Stockton will have to make a few plays with his arm and his legs, but he is not expected to be the one to carry the offense like he might in other games. If Georgia plays as one, then the Dawgs could be able to extend their impressive winning streak over the Vols. If not, well, back to square one.
Georgia's lack of explosive plays are on everyone's radar, especially from an analytics standpoint.