Missouri vs Georgia: Know Your Enemy, Tigers Best

With Missouri headed into Athens Saturday to take on the Georgia Bulldogs, it's important to know your enemy. Today we take a look at the Tigers best.

With Missouri headed into Athens Saturday to take on the Georgia Bulldogs, it's important to know your enemy. Today we take a look at the Tigers best.

At (5-3) on the season, with Georgia and Florida coming in back to back weekends, the Tigers are in a precarious position. The consecutive losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky are almost inexplicable.  Not to mention the opening season loss to Wyoming. 

Nonetheless, Barry Odom's team provides a handful of challenges for Georgia Saturday, including one of the best defenses in the SEC. 

LB, Nick Bolton has 16.5% of Missouri total tackles

Defense

The play an even front, meaning you'll see four down linemen on the line of scrimmage for the most part. Unlike Georgia, they slant a ton upfront, rarely asking their defenders to match up one on one with a blocker. 

With a slanting team usually comes stunts as well. Expect to see a diverse package of defensive line twists on from the Missouri front. 

The downfall of being a slants and stunts team is the fact that it leaves you perceptible to big plays in the run game if you don't remain gap sound. In other words, you can't send two guys into one gap vacating another. 

Barry Odom is a former defensive coordinator himself and has never left the Missouri football program, even dating back to his grad assistant days back in 2003. Over the years, he's learned to defend the pass tremendously. Missouri's defense is fourth in the country in YPG allowed through the air with just 144.5 per game. 

It's a much different brand of football defensively than most Georgia fans have come to expect on Saturdays, but it's proved to be an efficient and effective one. 

Defensive Players to know: 

• #32 Nick Bolton: Has 73 tackles on the season. (16.5% of teams tackles) 
• #78 Kobie Whiteside: 4.0 Sacks leads the team.
• #1 Jordan Elliot: 7.0 TFLs leads the team. 

Key Injury to note, their starting Mike Linebacker, Cale Garrett is out. 

Offense

Now here's where Missouri has aligned themselves with the majority of college football. You'll see a spread-pass-option look this Saturday from the Tigers. Meaning, you'll see all of the spread tendencies that you are used to looking at these days, and then you'll see a handful of designed runs from the quarterback with option looks off of them. 

Like this: 

I'm watching film of #Mizzou's 34-14 win against South Carolina. Here's a thread of some plays that stood out:

First, an example of how effective run-pass option plays can be with a mobile QB. Kelly Bryant chooses to keeps it, gets a few blocks and goes through a tackle. pic.twitter.com/mdu9HGy87M

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) September 23, 2019

Offensive Players to Know: 

• #7 Kelly Bryant: 2000+ Total yards on the season
• #1 Tyler Badie: EXPLOSIVE, has 74-yard TD Reception on the year. 
• #34 Larry Rountree: Leading rusher, has 2563 career rushing yards.