Georgia-Florida Prediction

It's game-day folks. The game that will likely determine the SEC East is finally here. This time it's the 5th ranked Bulldogs trying to take down the 8th ranked Gators for the 4th straight year in a row. Georgia has dominated the series as of late and that has a lot to do with head coach Kirby Smart. Smart has a 3-1 record as the Georgia football head coach against the Gators. Part of this comes from Kirby's continual success against Dan Mullen. As mentioned in my last article, Smart is 9-1 versus Mullen. Mullen's offense has never scored more than 20 points on a Kirby Smart-led defense. It seems Smart is always one step ahead of Mullen for some reason.

In my opinion, this game could be a lot different. Mullen has one of his most effective offenses at hand. The Gators know how to score points and they know how to score a lot of them. They average 42 points a game and 476.5 yards of offense per game as well. Quarterback Kyle Trask has a lot to do with that success. He is on track to be in New York for the Heisman if he keeps it up at this pace. He has thrown for 18 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions. You add the list of threats he has on the offensive side of the ball with guys like Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Jacob Copeland and it makes sense this offense is so prolific.

On the other side of things, this Georgia defense is nothing to mess with. Everybody and their momma knows that the Dawgs defense is elite. Only giving up 16 points per game, (only higher because of the anomaly of the Bama game) this Dawgs defense is scary. In my opinion, this is one of the fastest, most deep defenses that I have ever seen. Around 22 guys get solid reps. That's a ridiculous amount of guys to have playing significant chunks of the game. I'd say there is very few teams in the nation that can do what Georgia does defensively, but that depth is going to be put to put to the test today against the Gators. The Bulldogs could be down 6 starters today, which means we are going to see some guys we have never seen before on the field. Add that against a prolific offense in Florida and it could bring some problems.

So what do I expect to see today in about an hour? It's more than likely going to be a very close game. Kirby knows his advantages lie in how physical his team can play. He's going to run the ball a lot today. The Bulldogs do not have a great pass game, we all know that. That probably isn't going to change today with quarterback Stetson Bennett starting. Kirby is going to run the ball A LOT. It really depends if the Gators defense is up to the challenge of shutting down the Bulldogs prolific run game. Looking at the numbers I discussed in my last post, I really do not think they will be able to shut down the run completely That could mean it's going to be a long day for Todd Grantham and his defense. If they can't get off the field, it will be tough to get a lot of points for Trask and company.

In my opinion though, the Gators are going to get enough stops because of Stetson's inability to make clutch third down throws. It's going to come down to the wire but I think Mullen will finally be able to get over the 20 point mark versus Kirby's defense. I don' think the Dawgs will be able to move the ball effectively because the Gators are going to stack the box and put Stetson in long third down throws. The Bulldogs defense will do as much as it can but the offense will take away from that. I got:

Dawgs: 17

Gators: 23

Michael Woods/AP