Georgia Three Keys: Tennessee

Three-keys-Georgia

Georgia hosts Tennessee in Athens on Saturday in a game where the Bulldogs are heavy favorites to win. Tennessee has enough pieces to keep this game interesting – and in a couple of seasons they will be a solid team – but the No. 2 squad in the country should have too much for the Vols in 2018.

By Steve Wright

Here are the three keys:

Play a cleaner game

This Georgia team has been interesting to watch in 2018. The Bulldogs are getting it done with relative ease, yet it doesn’t feel like there has been a single game when all three phases have been in sync and firing on all cylinders.

The Missouri game was a great example of this. The defense and special teams were lights out, with the offense playing very well without feeling like that was the case. Rushing for 185 yards and seeing your quarterback throw for 260 and three touchdowns would be a high watermark for many teams in 2018. For Georgia though, it still feels like there is so much more to come.

This is the day when that potential needs to begin to materialize into production.

Carry the ball into the freaking end zone

From the outside this doesn’t seem like a particularly difficult concept to grasp, but Georgia has been guilty twice in three games of not carrying the ball safely into the end zone when under no pressure at all to do so.

There was a time where this wasn’t a thing. Where taking care of the ball when crossing the line was more important than showboating with teammates after a big play. J.J. Holloman got away with one on Saturday when the video replay didn’t offer conclusive evidence he had dropped the ball before the goal line, but should such a rudimentary aspect of the game ever have to go to video review?

If I was Kirby Smart I would simply insist that in this game I wanted the ball to be handed to me by the scoring player after every touchdown. Anything else would result in the player being sat for the next series.

Go get the ball back

Tennessee had a nightmare keeping the ball in its possession last week against Florida. The Vols committed six turnovers – throwing in a safety for good measure – as they allowed the Gators to dominate the game with its defense. Turnover problems are often the sign of a young team in rebuild mode, so Georgia needs to make the most of this particular mismatch and force Tennessee into making mistakes with the football.

Georgia is +5 on the year in the giveaway/takeaway column, an impressive mark given that the pass rush has been so-so at best. This needs to be the game where the pass rushers start to show their worth hassling the rattled Jarrett Guarantano into more mistakes.

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