1. This game was always going to come down to how much Georgia wanted to be here. Well, the Bulldogs (at least) matched Missouri’s energy and effort. As a result, it was a mismatch. With the exception of two drives in the first half, Georgia did pretty much whatever it wanted offensively. Missouri couldn’t stop the Bulldogs on the ground and couldn’t cover its pass-catchers one on one. On the other side of the ball, Georgia’s nasty run defense stuffed Mizzou on the ground, which allowed their pass-rushers to pretty much tee off on Connor Bazelak. He got hit a lot today and had no time to try and throw downfield. The stats might actually make it look more ugly than the final score. Total yards: Georgia 615, Missouri 200. Rush yards: Georgia 316, Missouri 22. First downs: Georgia 28, Missouri 11. Yards per play: Georgia 8.4, Missouri 3.7. That’s a beatdown.
2. Missouri’s defense can’t only chalk this one up to Georgia being more talented. Based on the past two weeks, you have to be concerned about Ryan Walters’ unit. The defense has now allowed nearly 1,000 total yards and 97 points across the past two weeks. It has given up 608 yards on the ground during that span. It allowed Arkansas to score touchdowns on four straight drives last week and Georgia to score on five straight this week. Not having Jarvis Ware hurt, as without him nobody could cover George Pickens one-on-one (which Missouri had to try to do in order to have enough bodies in the box to slow down the run), and it didn’t have Kobie Whiteside, either. But certainly injuries were far from the only issues.
3. The biggest problem for the Missouri defense: Third downs. Georgia converted eight of its first 11 third downs. Three of those conversions went for long touchdowns — a 37-yard catch by James Cook, a 31-yard catch by Pickens, a 43-yard run by Zamir White. The Cook and Pickens scores both came on third and more than eight. When you’re playing against a more talented team, you absolutely have to take advantage of third down and long situations and get off the field.
4. Missouri pretty much couldn’t do anything on offense. First of all, you have to credit Georgia. The Bulldog defense is elite. It might be the most talented in the country, especially with Jordan Davis back on the defensive line. Georgia entered this game second-best in the country in opponent’s yards per rush and might be first after today. Missouri gained 22 yards on 22 carries. And once Missouri’s offense became one-dimensional, it had no chance. As mentioned above, Georgia hit Bazelak nearly every time he took more than a three-step drop. A couple things on the offense. First, I wonder if Bazelak was hurting more than he let on after he exited the game. He kept looking at his right hand. That might have been bothering him. Now, he wasn’t great even before getting hurt (the interception on the first series was a bad decision and might have been the most damaging play of the game for Missouri because it gave Georgia a shot of adrenaline right off the bat), but that could have been a factor in this being his worst game as a starter. Second, Missouri continues to really struggle to push the ball downfield. I thought that would be a key for the Tigers today, because it would open up the running game and a lot of the short, timing patterns Bazelak likes to throw. Well, Mizzou completed just two deep passes, and one of them was thrown by wide receiver Keke Chism. Part of that certainly had to do with protection, but the lack of big plays in the passing game is becoming a slightly concerning trend for Bazelak and the offense.
5. Overall, I’m not too concerned by this loss. Obviously you don’t want to get blown out like that. You’d like to see a little more fight by the defense, not giving up five straight touchdown drives. But I knew coming in this was possible. I learned my lesson from the Florida loss that the top of the SEC is in a different class than even the middle tier. Beating the likes of Kentucky and Arkansas, even consistently, doesn’t mean you can compete with the Georgias and Floridas and Alabamas of the league. Mizzou is now 0-3 against teams with winning records, 5-1 against teams that have a combined record of 14-39 (entering today). That’s not to disparage what Missouri has done so far this season. The Tigers have still absolutely exceeded my expectations. But it shows there’s still a long way to go to even be in the discussion for a division title. And that’s okay. This is Drinkwitz’s first year. Now, how do you close that gap? Recruiting. Those team rankings do mean something. Georgia signed 18 five-star players and 58 four-stars in its past four classes. Missouri had four four-stars and that’s it. But the good news is Drinnkwitz has five four-stars committed in the 2021 class and looks like he could sign the program’s highest-ranked class since Rivals started keeping track. This is why you should get excited about things like Dominic Lovett and Isaac Thompson committing. Drinkwitz has shown he can beat teams with similar, maybe even a tad more, talent. If he can close the recruiting gap a bit between the teams at the top of the league, I think the future is very bright.
2. Missouri’s defense can’t only chalk this one up to Georgia being more talented. Based on the past two weeks, you have to be concerned about Ryan Walters’ unit. The defense has now allowed nearly 1,000 total yards and 97 points across the past two weeks. It has given up 608 yards on the ground during that span. It allowed Arkansas to score touchdowns on four straight drives last week and Georgia to score on five straight this week. Not having Jarvis Ware hurt, as without him nobody could cover George Pickens one-on-one (which Missouri had to try to do in order to have enough bodies in the box to slow down the run), and it didn’t have Kobie Whiteside, either. But certainly injuries were far from the only issues.
3. The biggest problem for the Missouri defense: Third downs. Georgia converted eight of its first 11 third downs. Three of those conversions went for long touchdowns — a 37-yard catch by James Cook, a 31-yard catch by Pickens, a 43-yard run by Zamir White. The Cook and Pickens scores both came on third and more than eight. When you’re playing against a more talented team, you absolutely have to take advantage of third down and long situations and get off the field.
4. Missouri pretty much couldn’t do anything on offense. First of all, you have to credit Georgia. The Bulldog defense is elite. It might be the most talented in the country, especially with Jordan Davis back on the defensive line. Georgia entered this game second-best in the country in opponent’s yards per rush and might be first after today. Missouri gained 22 yards on 22 carries. And once Missouri’s offense became one-dimensional, it had no chance. As mentioned above, Georgia hit Bazelak nearly every time he took more than a three-step drop. A couple things on the offense. First, I wonder if Bazelak was hurting more than he let on after he exited the game. He kept looking at his right hand. That might have been bothering him. Now, he wasn’t great even before getting hurt (the interception on the first series was a bad decision and might have been the most damaging play of the game for Missouri because it gave Georgia a shot of adrenaline right off the bat), but that could have been a factor in this being his worst game as a starter. Second, Missouri continues to really struggle to push the ball downfield. I thought that would be a key for the Tigers today, because it would open up the running game and a lot of the short, timing patterns Bazelak likes to throw. Well, Mizzou completed just two deep passes, and one of them was thrown by wide receiver Keke Chism. Part of that certainly had to do with protection, but the lack of big plays in the passing game is becoming a slightly concerning trend for Bazelak and the offense.
5. Overall, I’m not too concerned by this loss. Obviously you don’t want to get blown out like that. You’d like to see a little more fight by the defense, not giving up five straight touchdown drives. But I knew coming in this was possible. I learned my lesson from the Florida loss that the top of the SEC is in a different class than even the middle tier. Beating the likes of Kentucky and Arkansas, even consistently, doesn’t mean you can compete with the Georgias and Floridas and Alabamas of the league. Mizzou is now 0-3 against teams with winning records, 5-1 against teams that have a combined record of 14-39 (entering today). That’s not to disparage what Missouri has done so far this season. The Tigers have still absolutely exceeded my expectations. But it shows there’s still a long way to go to even be in the discussion for a division title. And that’s okay. This is Drinkwitz’s first year. Now, how do you close that gap? Recruiting. Those team rankings do mean something. Georgia signed 18 five-star players and 58 four-stars in its past four classes. Missouri had four four-stars and that’s it. But the good news is Drinnkwitz has five four-stars committed in the 2021 class and looks like he could sign the program’s highest-ranked class since Rivals started keeping track. This is why you should get excited about things like Dominic Lovett and Isaac Thompson committing. Drinkwitz has shown he can beat teams with similar, maybe even a tad more, talent. If he can close the recruiting gap a bit between the teams at the top of the league, I think the future is very bright.
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