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Texas A&M will get a chance to play spoiler on the road against Georgia. The Bulldogs pulled off an impressive road win a week ago against Auburn but must raise their level of offense. Over the past five games in the SEC, the Bulldogs have averaged just 22 points. Expect the defense to continue to aide the offense as Georgia pushes past the double-digit number.
The Georgia defense is what's driving this number down, but this is the perfect spot for a letdown. The Aggies can run in a variety of ways, with quarterback Kellen Mond and running back Isaiah Spiller, and the Bulldogs will want to open things up a bit.
The Aggies piled up 319 rushing yards against South Carolina last week, but they won't find Georgia's third-ranked rush defense quite as forgiving. But veteran QB Kellen Mond should be able to use the short passing game to give them some success on offense. The Bulldogs are coming off the latest in a series of high-stakes SEC games as they withstood a late Auburn rally to secure a crucial road win. They should prevail again Saturday, but not without a fight from a Texas A&M club that has been a problem for highly ranked opponents.
One of the diseases caused by the College Football Playoff is Respectable Loss Syndrome. It leads to people inflating the value of a team based on who it has lost to rather than how it has played. A&M is a strong case for this, as everyone will point to all its losses being against top 15 teams. What interests me, however, is how A&M played in those losses, and it held its own. It's not a team that is capable of beating the elite, but is good enough to provide a fight. I think we see the same thing here in what should be a lower-scoring affair.