Georgia Football Three Keys: Auburn

Here we go again. Georgia was a 30-point favorite against Missouri. Now the Dawgs are 30-point favorites against Auburn.

By Matt Zemek
Follow @14powerscom

Being a 30-point favorite against a bunch of Tigers didn’t really mean much for Kirby Smart’s team last week. Let’s see if it can play like a heavyweight again.

There is reason to be concerned when a team drifts through two straight games after establishing a championship standard for more than a full season. Georgia suffocated its 2021 opponents (other than Alabama) and started this season by hammering Oregon, Samford, and South Carolina. When the Dawgs allowed 22 points to Kent State, it seemed like a one-off occurrence and nothing to be worried about. Surely the Dawgs would get things right against a Missouri team which just lost to a not-very-good Auburn team.

That did not happen.

Georgia did get out of Columbia with a win, but barely. Stetson Bennett and the rest of a sputtering offense managed only two touchdowns and played soft for much of the first two and a half quarters of the game. Georgia looked – and played – like a team which expected that it could just roll the ball out on the field and win. Missouri played with total desperation and Super Bowl-level passion, as college football underdogs often will against a top opponent. Georgia was not ready to match Missouri’s intensity. It took a long time for Georgia to stabilize and perform the way it expects to play. It never dominated, but it did make the plays it absolutely had to make. Now UGA needs to make sure it returns to that championship standard against Auburn.

1 – Start to Finish

From the first snap to the last, the energy and focus need to be there. Georgia has taken two weekends off, and it almost cost the Dawgs against Mizzou. Who will stand up in the locker room and make sure this team competes the way it is supposed to? It’s time to return to Georgia football, which means playing forceful football on every snap and not allowing opponents to breathe.

2 – Strong with the ball

Georgia players did not secure the ball against Missouri’s physicality and energy in the early stages of last Saturday’s game. Toughness was missing from the equation for Georgia, which started that game timid and tentative and on its heels. Georgia is very good at setting a physical tone at the start of games. That has abruptly ceased to exist the past two weeks. It’s time to reclaim that trait and apply it against Auburn.

3 – Pay the price

Georgia can’t allow itself to think – as it seemed to do after it moved to 3-0 with a lopsided win over South Carolina – that winning a national title will be easy. It wasn’t last year, but UGA won its first three games of 2022 so easily that players might have subconsciously allowed themselves to coast on their talent instead of paying the price. That has to end. Invest in excellence and make the full effort on every play. It’s that simple.