Georgia giving up long passes

Smart is concerned about Gators’ wideouts, strong-armed QB.

ATHENS — It’s one of the worst feelings in football and one of the inherent risks of playing defensive back.

Your job is to make sure, above all else, that these fleet-footed wide receivers don’t get behind the defense.

That happened twice to the Georgia Bulldogs in their previous game. Each time, Missouri’s Emanuel Hall cruised untouched into the end zone with UGA’s defensive backs chasing helplessly behind. He had two 63-yard touchdowns in the first half against Georgia. As a result, the score was tied at 21 midway through the second quarter.

Senior cornerback Aaron Davis was left to chase after Hall on the first one. That does not, however, mean that the touchdown was his fault.

“It was just a communication issue between us three, me, (nickel back) Tyrique (McGhee) and (safety) J.R. Reed,” Davis said Monday. “So, it’s just something we’ve got to clean up and make sure we’re all on the same page so those kinds of things don’t happen again.”

That will be especially important Saturday in Jacksonville. The No. 3-ranked Bulldogs (7-0, 4-0 SEC) face the Florida Gators (3-3, 3-2) in their annual rivalry game.

While Florida’s offense has often found itself the butt of many jokes this season — after

it ranked in the bottom half of the league the past two seasons — one thing the Gators have shown is the ability to make at least some significant plays in the passing game.

Entering the game Saturday at EverBank Field, Florida has recorded 14 plays pass plays of 20 or more yards (which ranks 13th in the SEC), including four of more than 40 yards (ninth in SEC). You may remember one of them. Redshirt freshman quarterback Feleipe Franks connected with Tyrie Cleveland for a 63-yard touchdown pass as time expired to beat Tennessee 26-20 on Sept. 16.

Including all plays, scoring or otherwise, the Gators have gained 20 or more yards 24 times. Georgia’s defenders label those as “explosive plays.” And giving up those plays is the supreme no-no on any defense.

“They have tremendous wideouts,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Monday. “They’ve probably got the best wideout group we’ve faced, combined with the fact that their quarterback has one of the strongest arms I’ve ever seen. I knew Feleipe well in high school. I recruited him, so I know the arm talent that he has. I mean, they have tape. They saw the Missouri game.”

Georgia has spent a lot of

time going over that videotape as well. While the Tigers’ two deep balls look incredibly similar, the breakdowns weren’t the same. In the first instance, the Bulldogs were in a two-deep zone, and Davis thought he had help over the top. But Reed, a firstyear starter, was slow getting outside the hash marks after being drawn to a post route

that was already double-covered over the middle.

On the second, Georgia was in “thirds coverage.” McGhee was simply blown past in a 1-on-1 matchup, and safety Dominick Sanders did not get over in time to help.

Those are scenarios the Bulldogs have gone over and over in the days since.

“That’s something we go

over every game; Florida’s no different,” said Davis, a senior with 37 career starts. “We just know that they’ve had a lot of big plays this year as far as explosive passes. It’s something they stress in their offense, something they look for and count on every single game. So that’s something that we have to pay attention to.”

JOHN BAZEMORE / AP Missouri wide receiver Emanuel Hall beats Georgia safety J.R. Reed for one of his two 63-yard touchdown catches against the Bulldogs on Oct. 14.