Breaking Down the Bulldogs will examine different matchups in the upcoming Rose Bowl. Look for a post each day until the big game!

All the talk surrounding the Rose Bowl has centered on Oklahoma’s offense versus Georgia’s defense. Neither unit has played against a unit comparable to their upcoming opposition, but they’ve both played good teams that run some similar concepts.

The Ohio State game is probably the best proxy to judge Oklahoma by. The Auburn games are that for Georgia. This series is going to take a look at how Georgia has played in these games in order to evaluate their performance and look for how their strengths and weaknesses matchup with Oklahoma’s.

I watched all of Georgia’s defensive possessions from the Notre Dame game as well as both Auburn games to see just how good this defense really is. Here’s what I saw on the tape:

Oklahoma is going to have trouble running the ball up the middle

This is the biggest strength of the Georgia defense and where all their success begins. They typically line up in a 4-3 with a line that expertly eats up blocks leaving one of the top linebacking units in college football to clean up any loose backs.

I watched 12 quarters of Georgia defense and the offenses they opposed only made real headway attacking the middle of the defense at the end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter of the first Auburn game. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first big run up the middle came when Georgia was down 30-10 with not enough time left to make up the difference.

They only gave up the middle of the field when the players had given up.

With that being said, both Auburn and Notre Dame run much more run focused offenses than Oklahoma’s air raid. OU and Auburn both use a lot of spread concepts but exploit these mismatches in different ways. Subsequently, Georgia’s defense will likely focus on shutting down different things, but the talent in the front seven is still going to be tough to overcome.

Oklahoma loves to press the middle of the field early to help open up passing lanes. Even against mediocre teams it can get frustrating to watch Rodney Anderson or Abdul Adams go for short gains repeatedly that don’t force the defense to adjust.

I don’t think this will be an issue. And as we’ll get into later this week, this defense definitely has soft spots that I expect this offense to take full advantage of.

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