When looking at the point spread between No. 5 Ole Miss and No. 9 Georgia, the Dawgs will be laying a whopping 7.5 points. Initially, the line opened up at Georgia laying 6.5 points. Ole Miss may be undefeated, but the Rebels have been skating by the skin of their teeth in recent weeks. Georgia is far from a perfect team, but it is showing an innate ability to win games this team probably should not.
While everyone knows Georgia's bread and butter as a program is to run the football with conviction and play great defense, it has not always been smooth sailing for them. Georgia is averaging 185.5 rushing yards per game, which puts the Dawgs 41st in the country. Ole Miss is slightly better than them on the ground at 204.3 rushing yards per game for the 27th-best mark in all of college football.
Where it does get interesting is how well each team defends the run. Over on Game On Paper, Georgia has the 37th best run defense in the country, while Ole Miss ranks 117th... It may only be eight-percent discrepancy between how well Georgia performs and how much Ole Miss struggles with it, but that is like one play going Georgia's way every dozen or so. That is the margin of victory...
Ole Miss may have an elite pass defense, but Georgia has the potential to win this with ball control.
Georgia needs to win the turnover battle to beat Ole Miss at home
That is the other big thing here for Georgia. Ole Miss does not seem to be a team you can get behind the eight ball with when it comes to the turnover battle. That is not to say Georgia will be a net-negative in this game and will certainly lose. Since this is a home game, the Dawgs can still potentially win if they were down two turnovers to Ole Miss. The problem with that is they are playing with fire.
Ball control and being able to grind it out is how Georgia can get on top, win this game and improve to 6-1 on the season. Again, with the way Georgia's schedule is breaking, they need to beat either Ole Miss or Texas at home, as well as not slip up in Atlanta vs. undefeated Georgia Tech. Ole Miss got the best of the Dawgs last season, but keep in mind that game was played in the elements over in Oxford.
Ultimately, the best way for Georgia to win this game is to keep the ball out of Ole Miss star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss' hands for as long as possible. Being able to run the ball at will on Ole Miss could work in their favor. The best part is Georgia has an incredibly talented dual-threat quarterback in Gunner Stockton. If he does not turn the ball over, Georgia has a great shot in this one.
For now, Georgia cannot afford to take its foot off the gas pedal for one second vs. this top-five team.