For much of the season, the success of Georgia’s run defense wasn’t ever in question.
The Bulldogs possessed the conference’s second-best run defense allowing just over 100 yards per game, but that reality came crashing down a few weeks ago when Georgia surrendered 418 rushing yards to the Florida Gators.
Last week, Georgia jumped out to enough of a lead against Kentucky that the Wildcats had to rely heavily on the passing game in order to try and climb back into the game. And the Cats still racked up 214 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
This week, Georgia’s run defense faces arguably its toughest challenge of the season when Auburn comes into Sanford Stadium. If the Bulldogs plan on stopping Auburn’s rushing attack, that means containing the SEC’s leading rusher in Cameron Artis-Payne
Artis-Payne is 5-foot-11, 210-pounds, but the Tigers’ senior leader packs a big punch. Within Auburn’s hurry-up, no huddle spread option offense, Artis-Payne has thrived, rushing for 1,190 yards and nine touchdowns. No other running back has eclipsed 1,000 yards on the season.
Compared to Auburn’s running back last year, Tre Mason, he’s 269 yards ahead of what the Heisman Trophy finalist was at by this point of the season in 2013. And Georgia struggled to contain Mason and the rest of Auburn’s rushing attack as the Tigers racked up 323 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ‘Dawgs.
“Artis-Payne is a very physical back. He’s the work horse for them,” UGA head coach Mark Richt said. “He’s No. 1 in the league in all-purpose yards, very physical back that can carry the load.”
Auburn not only runs the ball well with Artis-Payne at an SEC-leading 286.4 yards per game, but the Tigers run more than nearly any other SEC team. Behind only LSU, Auburn’s 435 attempts ranks 15th nationally. If you thought Georgia runs a ton behind Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb and the others, the ‘Dawgs have ran 61 less attempts than Auburn.
“Their style of offense, with the way they run the ball, they get it going and it’s hard to stop,” Richt added later in the week to GeorgiaDogs.com. “They can get long drives, they can get time-consuming drives, even though they like to go fast, they’re still pretty methodical about how they move it down the field, just constantly trying to pound away till the dam breaks and a big run hits.”
Auburn’s offense is no secret. Gus Malzahn will run the ball play after play after play and dare Georgia to stop it.
Recent weeks would tell you that the Bulldogs are in for a beating in terms of containing the run game, but in a rivalry game as heated and as meaningful as this matchup, expect the unexpected.
Drew Laing will be providing analysis and insight on Florida, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina.
