12/1/17 10:00am

SEC Championship Preview and Prediction

After last Saturday’s “Iron Bowl” win, the Auburn Tigers sent all of college football into a frenzy to get their hands on the highly anticipated rematch tickets with Georgia in the SEC Championship.

With the rematch of the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” taking place in Atlanta, the Georgia Bulldogs and Auburn Tigers both are looking for a SEC title and a spot in the College Football Playoff.

As this is the 1st time Georgia and Auburn have met in a SEC Championship game, the average ticket prices have exceeded any of the previous Championship games. With the average ticket price to attend the event at a staggering $725, fans must fork out the big dollars if they are wanting to cheer on their team.

Photo: ticketcity.com

In the last meeting between the two teams on November 11th, Auburn completely manhandled Georgia both on the OL and DL which resulted in a 40-17 loss for Georgia. Following the loss, multiple UGA players voiced their displeasure and stated that they wanted a do-over so to speak if Auburn was able to make it to the SEC Championship. Now 3 weeks after the 1st meeting, the Tigers and Bulldogs will face off yet again with Georgia looking to avenge their only loss of the season.

In Auburn’s “Iron Bowl” victory, one of the headlines became the health of their star RB, Kerryon Johnson, who looked to have injured his shoulder late in the 4th quarter. With Johnson being a key part of Auburn’s victory over Georgia earlier (32 carries for 167 yards), the Bulldogs will need to prepare like he is playing in the game since he is a game-time decision.

Georgia’s offensive line and defensive lines must show up if they are going to win this game. Following their worst showing of the year in Auburn, the OL was unable to create holes for the running game which made the offense unable to get in a rhythm. Auburn knowing that they had the upper-hand in the last game will now look to continue to stop the run, in doing so the Bulldogs must respond with allowing Jake Fromm to throw the ball more on 1st down and keep the defense honest. After calling rush, rush, pass sequences in the previous game, Jim Chaney must change it up in order to become unpredictable.

Watching film on the LSU and Alabama games, one thing that stood out was the jet-sweep. LSU and Alabama were both able to get big gains in the rushing attack by catching the Auburn LB’s sleeping and getting their fast players the ball in space. In the last meeting Georgia didn’t use D’Andre Swift nearly enough. A key to victory for Georgia is to get those LB’s running side to side trying to stop the jet-sweep, in doing so it will open up the play action pass and HB draws.

Jim Chaney must throw in some QB rollouts for Fromm that will make Auburn aware that he is a threat in tucking the ball and running. But most of all, Georgia must beat the man in front of them. Each Bulldog must outplay their opponent in one-on-one situations, whether it be an offensive lineman, a wide receiver, or a defensive lineman, they must not get dominated. They need to inflict their will on their man and stick to their assignments. If they are able to do that they have a good shot at victory.

Prediction:  In the highly anticipated rematch, I don’t see a blowout occurring this time around. I believe this will be a somewhat low scoring game with Georgia riding the crowd excitement to victory in a thriller. Georgia 27 Auburn 24

Game set for 4:00pm on Saturday December 2nd at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta

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