Georgia looking for less field goals, more touchdowns in road trip to Missouri

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart has found the weakness of the Bulldogs’ offense.

“We hate that we have had to kick as many field goals as we’ve had,” he said. “That’s been the Achilles’ heel of our offense. We may not punt, but we kick a lot of field goals.”

The top-ranked Bulldogs (4-0, 1-0 SEC) will hope Jack Podlesny sticks to kicking extra-points instead of field goals against Missouri (2-2, 0-1) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Columbia, Mo.

If history is any indication, the Bulldogs will be ending drives in the end zone, not outside of it, on Saturday.

In the teams’ past two meetings, Georgia’s offense has produced 12 touchdowns and two field goals against Missouri. Since Smart arrived at Georgia prior to the 2016 season, Georgia has 27 touchdowns and 13 field goals against the Tigers.

Georgia has dominated Missouri, having won eight straight meetings. The Bulldogs are a perfect, 5-0 all-time at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium and 9-1 against the Tigers since they joined the SEC from the Big 12 in 2012.

The Bulldogs have won the past three meetings by an average of 33 points.

Still, Smart said what happened in the past doesn’t impact what happens Saturday, when Bulldogs look to play much better than they did when they committed three turnovers in a 39-22 win over Kent State last week.

While Smart went out of his way to praise the Tigers’ ability to stop the Bulldogs’ running game in Georgia’s 43-6 win last year, the stats indicate otherwise.

Georgia rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries — an average of 5.1 yards per attempt — en route to amassing 505 yards of total offense. The Bulldogs led 40-3 midway through the third quarter.

“Their size up front, their athleticism up front, is really aggressive,” Smart said. “Missouri has always been massive and one of the most physical fronts to play against.”

While Georgia is coming off a win, the Tigers should be, too.

Missouri had numerous chances to beat Auburn last week.

Harrison Mevis missed a 26-yard field goal as time expired in regulation before Missouri held to Auburn to a field goal in overtime. It appeared Missouri was going to pull out a win when Nathaniel Peat took a handoff and sprinted down the sideline. But Peat dropped the ball just before crossing the goal line for the game-winning touchdown, with Auburn’s Cayden Bridges recovering it in the end zone to secure a 17-14 win.

“We’re going to give him the ball again — that’s what we’re going to do,” Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “There’s really no more to say about it. He made his mistake. We all learn from it.”

The Bulldogs are led by quarterback Stetson Bennett, who is completing 74.2 percent of his passes for 1,224 yards with five touchdowns and an interception.

Expect Bennett to continue to get the ball to tight end Brock Bowers, who has wreaked havoc on defenses.

Bowers has touched the ball 18 times and has produced 358 total yards and five touchdowns. He has 15 receptions for 276 yards and two touchdowns, but he’s been even more efficient as a runner, finding the end zone on each of his three carries, averaging 27.3 yards per rush.

On the second play against Kent State, Bowers took a handoff and sprinted down the sideline untouched for a 75-yard touchdown. He added a two-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and caught five passes for 60 yards.

Ladd McConkey, who committed two fumbles last week but finished with six catches for 65 yards, has 16 receptions for 227 yards and a touchdown this season. Running back Kenny McIntosh has a team-high 21 catches for 227 yards, but he’s also rushed for 97 yards and two scores on 39 carries.

Meantime, Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards have filled the void left when Zamir White and James Cook were drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders and Buffalo Bills, respectively, last spring. Milton has rushed for a team-high 208 yards on 37 carries — an average of 5.6 yards per attempt — while Edwards has 153 yards on just 26 carries, an average of nearly six yards an attempt.

“They’ve got a quarterback playing as well as anybody in the country in Stetson Bennett and he’s got a tremendous use of resources with the tight end room,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s a lot made about those guys being so deep with that position. They’re very deep and running back and also at wide receiver.”

Two of Georgia’s three touchdowns allowed this year have come through the air. But the Bulldogs haven’t faced a group of receivers who are as good as Missouri’s.

Tigers’ quarterback Brady Cook is completing 63.3 percent of his passes for 805 yards with four touchdowns largely because he has Dominic Lovett, who has an SEC-leading 376 yards with two touchdowns on 21 receptions.

The Tigers hope to pair him with freshman receiver Luther Burden III. Burden is a five-star recruit who Georgia recruited heavily before the native of St. Louis chose to play closer to home.

Burden has 10 catches for 78 yards and a touchdown, and seven carries for 40 yards and a score. But he came away with an injury in the second quarter against Auburn, which limited him to one 3-yard punt return. He’s questionable for Saturday, as is linebacker Chad Bailey (arm), according to Drinkwitz.

Missouri right tackle Zeke Powell will be replaced by Connor Wood after suffering a season-ending injury against Auburn.

Georgia receivers Arian Smith and AD Mitchell, who have been limited at practice this week, are game-time decisions.

“We’re still hopeful on both,” Smart said.