Georgia vs Ole Miss Preview: 1 major fix the Bulldogs need to make to beat the Rebels in Week 11
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs (7-1) are headed to Oxford, Mississippi this week to take on Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss Rebels (7-2). Georgia is favored to win by just 2.5 points against a well-balanced team that Smart says should be undefeated right now. "Lane's done an incredible job of getting talented players, big, physical," […]
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs (7-1) are headed to Oxford, Mississippi this week to take on Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss Rebels (7-2).
Georgia is favored to win by just 2.5 points against a well-balanced team that Smart says should be undefeated right now.
"Lane's done an incredible job of getting talented players, big, physical," Smart said this week. "The improvement on defense for them is extremely noticeable. These guys are disruptive, powerful, fast, tons of sacks, tons of tackles for loss.
"I think Jaxson Dart is playing (like) probably one of the best quarterbacks playing in the country in terms of explosive plays. A lot of respect for how he competes. I mean, the guy runs extremely physical, like a SEC running back. He doesn't try to avoid contact — he actually seeks it. You can tell he's got a fiery, competitive attitude, just like his coach does, just like Lane does. So they have a lot of the same personality traits. Tremendous team that really should probably be undefeated."
Ole Miss's losses came against LSU and Kentucky with both being very close.
This game is going to be far from a cakewalk for Georgia as the Rebels are home to the second-best run defense in the country.
"They're big. I mean, they're physical," Smart said. "The only remedy for stopping the run is have big people that are hard to move. I mean, in our history here at Georgia, we've traditionally been pretty good at stopping the run. You go back to the Jordan Davis days, which were probably the best we had, it's a strong physical defensive line, and they have it now. They're physical at the point of attack, and they're good at attacking and stopping the run."
That means the Dawgs are going to need to rely heavily on Carson Beck's arm.
Beck will obviously need to limit turnovers, but Georgia's wide receivers will need to pull their weight as well.
Fans can point fingers at Beck all they want but these stressful games are not entirely his fault.
Georgia has 18 dropped passes this year for an 8.7 percent drop rate in eight games. That's in comparison to Ole Miss's eight dropped passes for a 3.9 percent drop rate through nine games.
Keep in mind that these are routine catches and every time one drops, it starts to break down the wall of trust and confidence between a quarterback and his receiver.
That being said, Georgia's receivers catching anything and everything that comes their way will be key for the Bulldogs on Saturday to overcome this dangerous Rebels defense and head back to Athens with another win.
Georgia Bulldogs get burst of good updates ahead of Week 11 Ole Miss game
The latest on WR Colbie Young.
