It is still a line of scrimmage league –
I don’t know what the hell we did to Alabama’s run game but it may have been a legitimate war crime. They were #1 in the nation in rushing yards per attempt before they faced our defense. Their rush yards per attempt against us ranked #100 in the nation. What we did was more devastating than that because the next week they could only muster 1.07 yards per attempt against Mississippi State. Even after that amazing performance by MSU’s run defense Football Outsiders has the MSU DL ranked #99 against the run. Wait, that’s not all. Alabama’s rushing offense was so good in yards per attempt before they came to Neyland that even with their devastating performances against Tennessee and MSU they are still #1 in the country for rushing yards per attempt on offense.
Maybe they’re still scared and/or dealing with anxiety issues but it could be a case where the good guys hit the bully in the mouth so hard that he’s just run away and don’t want to play no more. Now any normal red-blooded human being might feel some empathy or compassion for the struggles our southern neighbors are enduring but the simple fact is the color of our blood isn’t actually red and I don’t know anyone, especially not the good folks in this thread, that gives a damn about the whole state of Alabama. It is what it is. jmo.
Our offensive line was warned about BJ Ojulari going into Death Valley at LSU. We were doubly warned about Will Anderson when the Crimson Tide rolled into Neyland. With Nolan Smith ruled out at Georgia we’re going to need a new guy to be warned about. I don’t think it’s going to be Jalen Carter. I think Heupel, Golesh, and Hooker may make it a liability for Kirby to have Jalen on the field. Georgia, as was pointed out in the preseason, is very young up front with mostly freshmen and sophomores filling out their rotation. They lost their entire secondary from 2020 to the NFL draft in 2021 so last year their DL carried the entire team. Those guys are gone now. Their secondary this year, mostly back from ’21, was torched by Tennessee more last year than anyone else on their schedule besides Bryce Young and Alabama. Georgia’s pass defense seems to be doing about the same this year as it was last year before they faced Tennessee and Tennessee’s pass offense is light years more formidable this year than last.
As I’ve previous posted with regards to pass rush metrics the EPA for a QBH is 0.41 points and for a sack the EPA is 1.47 points. Based on reported statistics, we lead the conference in terms of pass rush EPA at 7.15 points per game. Georgia is dead last at 2.81 points per game. Alabama is at 5.92 ppg and LSU is at 4.41 ppg.
About our rushing offense, I wrote this on April 5th of this year.
As with the Alabama game I think it’s highly likely that whoever wins the line of scrimmage wins this game. jmo.
