Keys to the Game

I know my comments about Tennessee this week have been lacking. For that, I apologize. But, I guess its just I've been nervous about the game all week. If you read the Georgia Sports Blog, you've seen all of the poor mouthing going on from Vols fans. This makes me a little uneasy. I definitely prefer to have people telling us we can't win, rather than telling us we can't lose.

But anyway, on to the keys to the game. On offense, continue to run the ball and use that to set up the play action pass. Tennessee's defensive woes have been well documented. They are 11th in pass defense and 9th in rushing defense. Yikes! It will be just our luck they will pull it all together after having last week off.

As bad as Tennessee's defense has been, their passing offense has been just as good. They rank first in passing offense; however, they rank 11th in rushing offense. It's amazing to me they've been able to pass so well with no semblance of a running game. Again, we need to make sure this is not the week their ground game takes off. Imagine how good their passing game could be if the defense truly has to respect the play action?

What really scares me about defending their offense is the line play. While Tennessee's line is not as big as Mississippi's, it is much more talented. With as good as Tennessee's passing game has been, our secondary could really use the help of a good pass rush from the defensive line.

Finally on special teams, I think people are putting too much stock into this area. Yes, Tennessee gave up a punt return TD against both Cal and Florida. However, we returned a punt and kickoff for a TD last year, and look what happened. I think this is an element where we have an edge, but it isn't enough on its own.

In the end I think this game may come down to the play of our defensive line and linebackers. Let's hope Brandon Miller looks like he did last week. Go Dawgs!

All stats quoted above came from SECSports.com.