Midweek thoughts on Georgia & Alabama

The closer the kick to Saturday night's game gets, the better I feel. It's going to be a slugfest. Don't get me wrong. But I think we bow up and take their punches before dealing our own.

For that reason, I like Brooks' keys to the victory for Georgia Saturday night. Milroe and his offense is explosive and they will undoubtedly make some big plays, but I think we can both minimize them in both frequency and explosiveness.

And the best way to do that is to maintaining rush lane integrity. Don't let Milroe out of the pocket easily. Brooks calls it a "dirty pocket". Meaning, contained havoc. Brock Vandergriff broke containment a few times up in Lexington. I've said before, Milroe can turn those yards into touchdowns.

It's always important to protect the football, especially on the road. At night. On national TV. But I hope we see Beck take some shots. If he and Bobo can stretch this defense, we can pound them. They're riding high after their drubbing of Wisconsin. Not only is our team much better, but we're deeper and more experienced for big time national games.

Maybe it's off base to type this, but I look at our opening win against Clemson as a much bigger deal. I think we're a team with a chip on our shoulders. Let's tee it up and see if Bama can knock it off.