By Donny Karr (@donnykarr, @1788sports)

The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has an extra bit of juice that adds a little more excitement this year—playoff implications on both sides. Georgia looks as hungry as ever and has already punched its ticket to play in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta.

Auburn could possibly pull off another miracle season by beating the Dawgs and the Tide, and earn serious playoff consideration in doing so.

College football analysts are going haywire with upset predictions and down-to-the-wire game forecasts. Go ahead and take your blood pressure meds, Dawg fans…you’re going to need them for this game.

Here are 3 reasons why we think Georgia pulls out a win on the road against the Tigers.

Georgia’s Defense if Fully Reloaded

Remember Natrez Patrick, the Georgia linebacker who was suspended for marijuana possession a few weeks ago? It’s almost easy to forget about him the since the Dawgs have not missed a step on defense since his suspension.

Well, he’s back.

Before his suspension, Patrick was tied for third-most in tackles for Georgia. Welcome back, you dope-smoking dawg, you.

Add Patrick to an already loaded linebacker corps, and throw in the fact the Trent Thompson has caused absolute chaos since he’s been back and you can expect these Junkyard Dawgs to be all over the place on Saturday.

Expect Auburn to stretch the field and connect on some big pass plays, though. The Tigers traded blows with Texas A&M until they adjusted their offensive play calling late in the second quarter and started to gash the Aggies defense.

Bulldogs’ Ground and Pound

Georgia’s offense is absolutely beating opponents into submission with its rushing attack. Averaging 279 yards per game, the Dawgs are sure to give Auburn’s defense all it can handle.

The Dawgs will need to control the clock and have some commanding drives downfield if they want to keep the Tigers at bay. Both Sony Michel and Nick Chubb have shown the ability to break away with huge running gains in recent games.

The Georgia offensive line has shown significant improvement over the course of the season. They will need to continue to dominate the line of scrimmage for Georgia to have a shot at coming out of Auburn with a win.

This game will be a slugfest up front. It’s going to come down to who wants it more, and we’re going with the Bulldogs as our pick. Offensive line coach Sam Pittman is starting to show why he’s considered the best O-line coach in the country.

Fromm Proves He Can Throw the Ball (Again)

There’s been some talk from analysts and even defensive players from Florida and South Carolina’s teams that have made the assertion that Jake Fromm can’t throw the football. We can only figure that these folks have been smoking some of Natrez Patrick’s finest, or maybe they’re just flat-out stupid.

We are talking about the Jake Fromm who nearly broke Deshaun Watson’s high school career passing yardage record as a senior. He averaged 391 yards per game his senior year playing in Warner Robbins, Georgia (which has one of the toughest high school football competition in the nation).

Fromm is already one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC, but most are pointing to Georgia’s run game as the main reason for his success. Those of us who have watched every game this season have seen what Fromm is capable of in clutch situations.

Expect him to have to throw some crucial 3rd down passes to keep drives alive in this game. Auburn’s defense will likely come out and close gaps in the Bulldog run game, which will force Fromm to throw.

Prediction

Georgia has owned Auburn over the past decade, with 9 wins and only 3 losses. The Tigers don’t have much to lose, and everything to gain, so expect them to come out swinging and keep this one close from the get-go.

Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham has been one of the most efficient signal callers in the SEC this year. He torched the Aggies in the air, and could give the Bulldog secondary all it can handle.

Normally, this would be a trap game for most teams—road game rivalry, late in the season, freshman quarterback against an adequate defense, etc.

However, we have said it from the start of the season, and we stand by it: this is a different breed of Dawg.

This Georgia team has more fight in them than any since 1980—maybe even before that. This game will probably be too close for comfort, but these Dawgs want to win too much to give this one away.

Final Prediction:

Georgia – 27

Auburn – 24