No. 13 Georgia (5-1, 3-1 SEC) is going to play for the SEC Championship. Most likely. The Bulldogs put together what may be the most impressive performance of the season we have seen from Georgia, a 34-0 drubbing of No. 23 Missouri (4-2, 1-1 SEC) on the road. They did so without their best player, running back Todd Gurley, and made it look incredibly easy.
On Saturday Georgia proved there is much more to this team than Gurley, who is now indefinitely suspended while under NCAA investigation. Hutson Mason was not Aaron Murray, but he was incredibly efficient with his passing and avoided forcing plays and risking a bad play. Without Gurley, Nick Chubbs stepped in and carried the football 37 times for 143 rushing yards and a touchdown. Brendan Douglas chipped in as well as Georgia dug deep on the roster to make do. Douglas rushed for 36 yards and had a flip into the end zone. Mason had a touchdown run as well.
Georgia’s defense was awesome too. There is no other way to say it. Missouri had five turnovers in the game, including four interceptions thrown by Maty Mauk (who was also 9-of-20 for 97 yards). Missouri was held to 147 yards of offense and went 0-for-7 on third-down conversion attempts.
Georgia and Missouri have now played three times, starting when Missouri joined the SEC. So far, the road team has won each time.
Georgia’s next few games are not exactly automatic wins, but if Georgia plays the way they did Saturday afternoon in Columbia then it should be safe to assume they will be in a good position heading into a mid-November SEC finale against Auburn. Georgia travels to Arkansas next week, and that is followed by a pair of home games against Florida and Kentucky. So there is still work to be done before Georgia fans start making plans for a trip to Atlanta, but it looks as though Georgia has the best all-around team in the division at this point in the season.
Missouri will hit the road next week with a trip to Florida. Florida should have quarterback Treon Harris available to play by then. Harris was reinstated by the team on Friday but is not expected to play against LSU open Saturday. Treon Harris available to play by then. Harris was reinstated by the team on Friday but is not expected to play against LSU open Saturday. Missouri is certainly not out of the mix just yet in the SEC East. One slip by Georgia could sway the pendulum back in Missouri’s favor.