It was a pretty good day for No. 6 Georgia (8-1, 5-1 SEC). A shutout victory (27-0)over Missouri ( 5-4, 2-3 SEC) has Georgia one game away from playing for the SEC championship for the third consecutive season. But Georgia’s 27-0 victory came at a bit of an injury toll with a handful of Georgia players having to leave the game for various injury concerns.
Georgia wide receiver Lawrence Cager left the game with a shoulder injury late in the first half. At other points in the game, offensive linemen Cade Mays, Trey Hill, and Isaiah Wilson all left the game with injuries.
Jake Fromm threw three touchdown passes in the win, with two going to George Pickens. D’Andre Swift had a slow start to the game against the Tigers defense and ended the game with 83 rushing yards without a touchdown. It may not have been the best Georgia offensive production, but the defense more than took care of things against the Tigers. Mizzou converted just four third-down attempts all night while struggling to get to 189 yards of total offense.
Missouri is now officially eliminated from the SEC East race, as they can do no better than tie with Georgia and would lose on a head-to-head tiebreaker. But Georgia still has to win one more game in conference play to wrap up its third consecutive division crown. Georgia will clinch the division with any combination of a win against Auburn, a win against Texas A&M or a Florida loss to Missouri. Florida will play its SEC finale next week on the road against Missouri at noon eastern. So Georgia could know whether or not they have the division clinched or not by the time they take the field at Auburn (game time to be determined as of this post).
So, simply put, Georgia will clinch the SEC East next week if Florida loses to Missouri or Georgia beats Auburn. If neither one of those things happens next week, then it is on to Georgia’s SEC finale against Texas A&M to determine the fate of the division.
Georgia also picked a good day to win a game. Ranked sixth by the College Football Playoff selection committee, the Bulldogs won on a day that saw No. 4 Penn State lose on the road to No. 17 Minnesota and No. 3 Alabama come up short at home against No. 2 LSU. As far as one-loss teams go, it is a crowded field and Georgia’s loss is the worst any one-loss team has on its record (South Carolina). But Georgia also has a couple of the best wins with victories against Notre Dame and Florida in their pocket. How this all balances out in the eyes of the selection committee will be something to watch. It would not be expected Alabama falls too far given a hard-fought loss to LSU, and it is not a guarantee Penn State takes a massive tumble either (although Minnesota should make a nice jump). No matter what the selection committee says in their second batch of rankings on Tuesday, Georgia remains in a position to leave no doubt, as a one-loss SEC champion would be nearly impossible to leave out. That’s Georgia’s hope right now, at least. Of course, for that scenario to be in play, Georgia must keep hope alive with a win at Auburn next week.
