Ricky Dimon
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The Georgia Bulldogs are not #1 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season; they are second behind Ohio State. Of course, that hardly matters at this stage of the 2023 campaign. If the Bulldogs continue to win, they will have every chance to secure a third consecutive national title. For now they have to focus on the Missouri Tigers, who are paying a visit to Athens on Saturday afternoon. Missouri is 7-1 overall (3-1 SEC) and can make the SEC East race interesting if it pulls off a huge upset of UGA.
Here is my Same Game Parlay for the festivities, which will be televised starting at 3:30 pm ET on CBS. Also be sure to check out our full Missouri vs Georgia predictions.
Georgia -9.5 alternate spread (-205)
Daijun Edwards to record 80+ rushing yards (-144)
Brady Cook to record 300+ passing yards (+290)
Parlay odds: +1028
One of the benefits of Same Game Parlays, of course, is that you can correlate the plays. That is some of the plan here, as Georgia running Daijun Edwards racking up his fair share of rushing yards would obviously work well with a convincing win for the Bulldogs. At the same time, plays that aren’t correlated drive up the overall payout of the parlay. That is the case with backing Missouri quarterback Brady Cook to have a big day through the air. But even if that happens, there is no reason why the Dawgs can’t get the job done. Let’s break down each of the 3 legs.
Georgia -9.5 alternate spread (-205)
Missouri is no joke this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Thus I feel better about playing the spread down to -9.5 (from -15.5.) and still get a sizable +1028 payout on this parlay when combined with the 2 props. Georgia should at least be able to win by double-digits despite the respectability of its opponent. The Bulldogs were already missing star tight end Brock Bowers against Florida last weekend but they still looked like a well-oiled machine on offense throughout a 43-20 romp. Head coach Kirby Smart’s squad has won all but 1 of its 8 games by double-digits, including the last 3 by 38, 17 and 23. The Dawgs beat then-#20 Kentucky 51-13 in early October. Again, this Missouri team is good; you have to be great to seriously compete with Georgia.
Daijun Edwards to record 80+ rushing yards (-144)
Bowers is still sidelined, giving Georgia more of a reason to keep the ball on the ground a fair amount. If the Bulldogs have the lead the whole time, that will also make their decision easy to showcase a steady diet of the running game. Kendall Milton also gets a handful of carries, but there should still be enough for Edwards – who is clearly RB1 – to get close to 20 and turn those chances into at least 80 yards. Even 100 is probably well within each. The senior carried 15 times for 96 yards against Florida, 2 weeks after going for 146 on 20 attempts at Vanderbilt’s expense. Missouri’s run defense is solid but nothing special, so Edwards should be in line for more success.
Brady Cook to record 300+ passing yards (+290)
As the odds indicate, this is the longshot play of the bunch. However, I think it has a good chance to hit and it really doesn’t conflict at all with backing Georgia to win by at least 10 points. After all, if Missouri is playing from behind then it will have to take to the air early and often in hopes of extending the game as long as possible. The Tigers like to air it out, anyway. Last season Missouri’s calling card was a stifling defense but when head coach Eli Drinkwitz was hired he was supposed to be an offensive mastermind. This season we are starting to see some of that promise bear fruit. The Tigers can usually move the ball at will, especially in the passing department thanks to Cook. They should be able to hit at least a few big plays down the field against a UGA defense that is always stout but isn’t quite as elite as the 2021 and 2022 units. Cook has passed for at least 341 yards in 4 of the last 6 games.
