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When No. 13 Alabama travels to Athens on Saturday to take on No. 8 Georgia, it will be a matchup of teams that were preseason picks to meet again in the SEC Championship Game. It will also clearly be a contest featuring two of the nation’s top running backs with Alabama’s Derrick Henry and Georgia’s Nick Chubb each averaging more than 100 yards rushing and combining to reach the end zone 14 times already.
But with Henry and Chubb having the potential to essentially cancel each other out, this premier SEC contest could come down to which team has the most effective passing game. Crimson Tide quarterback Jake Coker is a strong-armed talent who has had his ups and downs this season, while the Bulldogs’ Greyson Lambert possesses less raw talent but has made incredibly good decisions this season. Lambert hasn’t seen a defense as tough as Bama’s thus far, meaning the game might swing on which quarterback has the best stable of targets.
There are some remarkable similarities between the teams’ passing games. Both squads feature backup running backs who have been as effective as receivers thus far as they have been carrying the ball. Georgia’s Sony Michel is the Dawgs’ second-leading receiver with eight catches for 148 yards and three touchdowns. Alabama’s Kenyan Drake has seven catches for 139 yards and a touchdown. The Tide’s longest pass play of the year remains a 69-yard catch and run by Drake caught behind the line of scrimmage.
But when it comes to wide receivers and tight ends, Alabama’s roster features more balance while the Bulldogs have a couple of big playmakers doing most of the damage.
The Crimson Tide has seven players with seven or more catches this season. Four wide receivers plus tight end O.J. Howard have double-digit catches and six pass catchers have more than 100 receiving yards, but Alabama lacks a go-to guy or a true deep threat.
In recent weeks, sophomore Ardarius Stewart has shown signs of developing into that kind of player, but he hasn’t quite crossed that threshold yet. Stewart leads the Tide with 21 catches and is tied for the team lead with two touchdown catches. But he’s also averaging just 8.4 yards per catch and has a season-long of 19 yards.
Stewart leads what might be the nation’s best collection of possession receivers. Senior transfer Richard Mullaney and freshman Calvin Ridley have each increased their production as the season has gone on, but neither has shown a consistent ability to get open further than 20 yards downfield. With Robert Foster out indefinitely with an injury, the most dangerous deep threat on the team might be the tight end, Howard.
Howard has 13 catches for 183 yards and a long of 42 yards. The 6-foot-6, 242-pound junior has speed that makes him a tough cover for a linebacker, and his size is too much for most defensive backs.
Georgia doesn’t have a question when it comes to its go-to guy on the outside. Senior Malcolm Mitchell is off to a fantastic start to the season, racking up 20 catches for 306 yards and three touchdowns. But he and Michel are the only Bulldogs with more than 100 receiving yards and third-leading receiver Isaiah McKenzie is dealing with issues off the field after he was accused of threatening to kill a woman earlier in the week.
McKenzie won’t face charges and is expected to play this weekend, but he comes into the game with just five catches for 89 yards. Still, he poses a threat to make big plays. One of the best return men in college football, McKenzie’s speed and shiftiness in the open field has been on display, but the Bulldogs have been trying to figure out ways to get him the ball in the passing game and put those skills to further use.
Freshman Terry Godwin, who has seven catches for 76 yards, has also shown flashes of ability but still needs to develop consistency.
The question to be answered on Saturday is which passing game proves to be a more effective balance for those proven studs at running back.
Shane Mettlen is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Texas A&M, Missouri and Alabama.
