These long time rivals are both likely out of the College Football Playoff picture with Auburn's most recent loss at home to Texas A&M where a lack of pass defense, a blocked field goal and two costly fumbles at the end of the game, including one on the Texas A&M three yard line did them in during a 41-38 loss. Georgia's fate was likely sealed the week before with a 38-13 loss to Florida. However, that doesn't mean there still isn't plenty for both of these teams to play for. You've got both teams still gunning for their eighth wins of the season, Georgia looking to even up the all-time series mark at 55 wins apiece, bowl game ramifications and both still have a chance at winning their divisions. Georgia is one loss behind one loss Missouri, but if they can beat Auburn and Missouri loses one of its remaining games, they could still win the SEC East crown. Actually, it's not impossible they could win the SEC East even with a loss to Auburn. They'd just need Missouri to lose two of its remaining games and have Florida lose to South Carolina. Florida losing to Florida State could help them in a tiebreaker situation. Auburn needs a bit more help to win the SEC West. They need to win this one and also beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl, but also need Mississippi State to lose to both Alabama and Ole Miss and it would help a lot if Ole Miss lost to Arkansas. What a mess all this would create!
Speaking of a mess, that's what last year's meeting at Jordan-Hare Stadium turned into at the end as one team coughed up a big lead only to see a miracle turn what looked to be a devastating loss into an improbably victory. Auburn seemed to be on their way to an easy win, leading by 20 early in the 4th quarter. But Georgia had other ideas, scoring 21 straight points to take a 38-37 lead with just under two minutes to play. Then it looked like Georgia would win as Auburn was facing a 4th and 18 in their own territory. However, a prayer thrown by Nick Marshall miraculously bounced off of two Georgia defensive backs and into the arms of an unexpecting Ricardo Louis, who sprinted the rest of the way towards the end zone in what was known as "The Prayer At Jordan-Hare." Auburn would hang on to win from there 43-38 in what turned out to be a classic. Will we have another classic here or will we have more of a ho hum type game/win for one of these teams? I don't know, but we can take a look at the Georgia Bulldogs and what they bring to the table.
It's been somewhat of a strange season for them as in some stretches, they look like a team some people thought could possibly be one of the best teams in college football while at other stretches, in particular the Florida game, they look like they have no business even being called a middle of the road SEC team. It's been more good than bad though as they enter this game with a 7-2 record, a 5-2 mark in SEC play. As was mentioned, one of those two losses came to Florida, a game which annually takes place in Jacksonville. Their other loss came on the road to South Carolina, which was very early in the season. Their home wins are over Clemson, Tennessee, Troy and Vanderbilt while their road wins have come at Missouri, Arkansas and most recently, a 63-31 romp at Kentucky in which they built up a 21-0 lead through one quarter and really never looked back. On offense, Georgia is led by its fantastic running game. Todd Gurley will be back for this game after serving a four game suspension for allegedly accepting payments on autographed merchandise. The Dawgs managed a 3-1 record without him; very much in large part due to true freshman tailback Nick Chubb. In Gurley's absence, Chubb has rushed for at least 143 yards and a touchdown in each of the last four games. On the season, he has rushed for 895 yards and 7 touchdowns on 133 carries. Prior to his suspension, Todd Gurley had rushed for 773 yards and 7 scores on 94 carries. Both these guys are big and fast. Auburn's run defense will need to be considerably better than it was during the Texas A&M game if they have any hope of at least containing these two guys. I see at least containing because I don't think they can be fully stopped.
Some good news for Auburn's secondary is Aaron Murray is no longer the quarterback at Georgia. This is no knock on current Georgia QB Hutson Mason, but Murray broke just about every passing record in Georgia history and put up some great numbers against Auburn during his time in college. He is now a backup QB with the Kansas City Chiefs and ironically enough, is a teammate of ex-Auburn Tiger Dee Ford. Both of whom were part of the Chiefs 2014 draft class. To get back to Hutson Mason, here's a guy who patiently awaited his turn while Aaron Murray was breaking just about every passing record in school history. He started the last two games for Georgia a season ago due to an injury to Murray and did a solid job. This year, he's been more of one of those "game manager" types as some people like to call them while mostly deferring to the great running back duo of Chubb and Gurley. On the year, Mason has thrown for 1515 yards and 15 touchdowns. Those numbers may not scream out greatness on the surface, but he's been very accurate, completing 69 percent of his passes and throwing just three interceptions. Those numbers aren't too unlike what the starting QB for the Kansas City Chiefs (Alex Smith) does. His best, most efficient game just took place in that 63-31 rout over Kentucky. He only completed 13 passes for just 174 yards, but he also had 4 TD passes which was a career high and threw no interceptions on just 16 passes. With Auburn having issues creating a pass rush and having a poor secondary, another solid/steady if not great game may well be in the cards for Mason.
On defense, Georgia doesn't have any one particular guy who is dominant in the fashion Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett might be (Myles Garrett is a freaking animal), but they get a lot of solid, steady contributions from a number of different players. The leader may be sophomore outside linebacker Leonard Floyd. As a true freshman, he contributed 6.5 sacks and 9.5 TFL. At 5 sacks at 6.5 TFL so far this year, those numbers appear to be in reach for a second straight year. Amarlo Herrera, Jordan Jenkins and Lorenzo Carter have also been solid and steady. Herrera has 3 sacks and 8 TFL, Jenkins has 3.5 sacks and 7 TFL while Carter has a 3 sack, 5 TFL year going. The secondary is paced by Damian Swann and Quincy Mauger. Both of them have three interceptions on the year. It could still be a couple years for Floyd, Jenkins, Carter and Mauger, but these guys are all on the radar of NFL teams early in their college careers while senior corner Damian Swann seems to be considered a late third day pick for the 2015 Draft at this time.
For Auburn QB Nick Marshall, this is a homecoming of sorts for him. He actually signed with Georgia out of high school to be a defensive back and was pretty highly regarded as a 4 star guy, but got into trouble along with two other teammates for stealing and was ultimately dismissed. He went to Garden City Community College for a year before choosing to sign with Auburn as part of their 2013 recruiting class. He chose Auburn over Kansas State as he wanted to get a chance to be a starting QB in the SEC; and he's been quite good in his two years at the helm. No doubt he'll be looking to stick it to his old team on their home field. He'll have to do so without the services of D'haquille Williams, who sprained a ligament in his right knee during Auburn's loss to Texas A&M. The door is open for Duke to return before the end of the season, but as I said, it won't happen for this game. Looking at this game, I'm thinking Auburn should be able to run the ball effectively on Georgia's defense given that Florida was able to do it. The question for me is can they get pressure on Hutson Mason? I'm not so sure. If they don't, it'll be another very long day for the defense as even if Mason were terrible, he'd still have Chubb and Gurley to hand the ball off to. Till I see it happen, I just can't think the Tigers will be able to slow anyone with even just a halfway decent passing game down. Maybe this is just me hoping for another reverse jinx like I got with the Ole Miss game when I picked against my own team, but I'm doing it again here. Chubb and Gurley pace the Georgia offense while Mason is solid and steady. And that proves to be just enough.
My Call: Georgia 38, Auburn 35
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