Game Analysis

Georgia (-6 ½)  34   MISSOURI  26

Missouri was admittedly flat last week in their narrow 26-24 win over Nicholls State and I’ll focus more on how the Bulldogs played in their 33-24 win over North Carolina in their season opener. Georgia pounded UNC on the ground in that game with a steady diet of Nick Chubb, who looked just as great as he was in his first 1 ½ seasons as a main back before getting hurt midway through last season. The Georgia pass attack has been unsteady with freshman Jacob Eason completing a sub-par 59% of his passes, but he should play fine against a Missouri pass defense that has been a bit worse than average so far this season.

Missouri’s frenetically paced offense (3.8 plays per minute) overwhelmed a horrible Eastern Michigan defense last week for 647 yards at 8.3 yards per play but the Tigers averaged only 4.6 yppl against West Virginia in week 1 and inconsistent quarterback Drew Lock is only completing 53% of his passes (up from a pathetic 49% last season). Missouri is once again a horrible running team and Georgia’s pass defense has been very good thus far (4.0 yards per pass play allowed, including just 3.7 yppp to UNC), so I don’t see the Tigers moving the ball consistently in this game. I’ll lean slightly with Georgia but I think the over (54 ½) is the better play given how many possessions each team will have with Missouri playing so quickly.