The No. 25 Missouri
Tigers (5-0, 1-0) embark upon their first ever game between the hedges in
Sanford Stadium this Saturday, as the No. 7 Georgia Bulldogs (4-1, 3-0) hope to
knock off the undefeated Tigers. On paper the Tigers look like a formidable
opponent with five straight wins, but look at who they have played thus far:
Mizzou beat Murray State, Toledo, and Arkansas State in Columbia, and won on
the road against Vandy and Indiana.
That's zero wins against
Top 25 teams. This is without a doubt the biggest game MU will have
played thus far. However, the Bulldogs
have already played and won three conference games this season. Georgia lost their season-opener against non-conference
rival Clemson, but since then they have gone on to win four straight games. UGA
soundly defeated South Carolina and North Texas, and came from behind to win
against both LSU and Tennessee. That gives UGA two more wins against Top
25 opponents than MU has, and if the Dawgs win Saturday the number will
increase to three. The Tigers are going to have a tough time dealing with
the rowdy home fans in Athens.
Reasons why Missouri
will lose:
Georgia’s Passing Attack & Mizzou’s lack of
Pass D
- Out of 123 Div-I teams, Missouri ranks 113th in pass
defense. Look for UGA QB Aaron Murray to easily throw for over 300
yards.
- The aforementioned Aaron. Murray.
This kid is a beast. He leads the SEC with 306.8 passing yards
per game and has thrown for over 1,500 yards so far this season with 14
TDs and only 3 INTs. And, Murray only needs 325 yards to eclipse former University of Florida Heisman
winning QB Tim Tebow's record (yeah, that
Tim Tebow) of 12,232 total yards of offense.
That's a lot for the
Tigers to overcome, but they do have a chance to win against the Bulldogs.
How do they beat Georgia? Play perfectly. The Tigers must
execute a flawless game plan if they hope to keep this contest close. UGA
is banged up at the RB position and have two true Freshmen playing in their
defensive secondary, which could provide MU and James Franklin with some
favorable match ups. However, in the end the firepower of Aaron Murray will
be too much for the Tigers to overcome and #GrownManFootball wins at home 41-24.
*All stats are courtesy
of NCAA.com