CJ Allen played one of the best games of his life against Georgia Tech last year, but the Georgia Bulldogs will be without him this week in their Black Friday matchup with the Yellow Jackets. The junior linebacker went down with a knee injury in the Bulldogs’ 35-10 win over Texas that is expected to sideline him for multiple weeks.
Allen made 10 tackles and defended two passes against Georgia Tech last year in Georgia’s wild 44-42 eight-overtime win. His pressure on Haynes King in the eighth overtime helped hurry an incomplete pass and arguably helped save the game for the Bulldogs.
This year, he’s been even better. Allen has recorded 40 tackles, 3.5 sacks and two forced fumbles on his way to being named a Butkus Award finalist.
But the Bulldogs will have to press on without him, meaning the likes of Raylen Wilson, Justin Williams and Chris Cole will be called upon to step up.
Georgia LB's must step up in CJ Allen's absence
Georgia Tech’s run-heavy offense puts a lot of stress on defenses. Quarterback Haynes King adds a major threat on the ground, and Jamal Haynes is one of the best backs in the country. The Jackets use lots of motion and misdirection designed to overwhelm the linebackers and put them in bad spots.
“A lot more challenging this week in terms of vision, eye control, keys,” head coach Kirby Smart said via 247sports.com. “There’s a lot of stuff going on in the backfield. There’s a lot of motion shifts, you’ve got the extra element of the quarterback run. So fitting things properly, being thick on things, keying things, striking and getting off blockers, no one for ones. They’re all things that’ll be important in this game.”
Even with Allen’s heroics, the Yellow Jackets ran it all over Georgia last year. They rushed for 260 yards and three touchdowns with King accounting for 110 yards on the ground.
“He’s definitely physical,” Cole said of King. “They have a great, can we run game, a great offensive line. So just stopping at our main goal this year, which was to stop the run. So that’s been a great opportunity for us.”
Cole has lined up at both off-ball linebacker and edge rusher this year, though it’s reasonable to expect him to pick up more slack at the former. Wilson has had a career year with 23 tackles and 2.5 sacks so far, while Williams played 27 defensive snaps against Charlotte last Saturday, the second-most of any Georgia linebacker besides Cole.
The Bulldogs’ run defense has vastly improved this season, allowing the nation’s fifth-fewest rushing yards per game with 87.6 compared to 129.7 last year. But Allen’s absence is a significant blow, and Georgia will need its talented young linebackers to replace him in the aggregate.
“At the end of the day, they gotta block, we gotta tackle, and somebody’s gotta do it better,” Smart said.