Getty Images Justin Fields running the ball against West Virginia.
The battle between the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs has the College Football world buzzing this week as the two top-ten SEC rivals battle on Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida. The No. 7 ranked Bulldogs are coming off of a tough loss as they fell to the LSU Tigers, 36-16.
As the Bulldogs struggled to keep up with the Tigers offensive attack, most of Georgia’s blame got put on their star quarterback, Jake Fromm. As acknowledged by pretty much everybody, Fromm had his worst game to date with the Bulldogs in 2018. He completed only 16 of his 34 attempted passes while averaging a low 6.1 yards-per-pass.
The Bulldogs offense struggled mightily to put up points, and they were also careless with the ball as the turned the ball over three times. Two times of which, being the pair of interceptions that Fromm threw to the other team. Before week eight, Georgia had plans to implement their Freshman quarterback, Justin Fields to bring a spark to the rushing game.
Playing from behind for most of the matchup made them go elsewhere with their plans. With a clean slate on the scoreboard and a new opponent, the Bulldogs are going to try to use Fields once again to create an unstoppable rushing attack on the Gators defense.
More Fields, Less Fromm
ESPN Analyst David Pollack said earlier this week that he expects a heavy dosage of Fields for the Bulldogs on Saturday, and Georgia would be wise to listen. With Fromm in at quarterback, there’s no real threat to the defense for the Bulldogs run game. If a pocket passer quarterback isn’t playing lights out in the passing game, then the offense becomes one-dimensional.
That’s where Georgia’s problems with scoring are coming from. They pose no threat on the ground with Fromm in at quarterback. Just last week, Fromm had six carries, and -19 yards. His longest carry was for two yards. With Fields in under center, the Bulldogs rushing attack becomes dangerous, as they pose a threat in the read-option game.
Last week’s rough start derailed Georgia’s plans for utilizing more of Fields. But this week should be a much different look as they had a week to adjust and clean up some of the mistakes with decisions and execution from the disappointing loss to LSU.