At this point it’s a safe bet to say Georgia will leave Missouri with another tick in the win column, but that leads us to wondering just what that win will look like?

All week Coach Kirby Smart has warned us about the Missouri Tiger’s stout defensive front and how it may cause problems for the Dawg’s running game. He’s said that “they’re really physical and big up front,” and described that group as “really aggressive.”

Now all of this can easily sound like a formality. Listening to Smart say that about an unranked team who honestly hasn’t appeared to have done much with their season so far could just be coachspeak. But the last time Smart was adamant about a team being better than the public perceived, the world was shocked when the Bulldogs only wound up beating the Kent State Golden Flashes by a measly 17 points.

I’m not saying the Missouri Tigers will be like Kent State, but I’m not one to just shrug off what Kirby Smart has to say.

Last week against Auburn, Missouri held Tank Bigsby, who ranked as a top-40 player coming out of highschool, to 2.3 yards per carry and Auburn as a team to 1.8 yards per carry. 

If Missouri’s run defense proves true against Georgia, I don’t expect it to be at the extremes that it was against Auburn, but it could definitely cost the Dawgs some points in the red zone. 

Scoring in the red zone was an issue against Samford a couple weeks ago and led to a final score that was good, but not the standard at which Georgia watns to play. 

In preparation for that Smart says the team needs to get more “effective at running the ball at heavy boxes,” but that’s easier said than done. If the Dawgs are going to run up the score tomorrow they need to run well in the red area, but if they can’t, relying on Stetson Bennett and the passgame is not a bad alternative.