Georgia @ Vanderbilt preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 22, 2012 ) Vanderbilt 3, Georgia 48

No. 16 Georgia will look to bounce back from a tough loss and stay in the hunt to reach the SEC Championship Game when it travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday. The Bulldogs are coming off a 41-25 to Missouri that dropped them a game behind the Tigers in the SEC East, but know they still have a shot to reach their third consecutive conference title game if they win out. "We feel like if we take care of business and we win the rest of our games — Missouri has a very tough schedule left — then who knows what happens," quarterback Aaron Murray said at a news conference Tuesday.

Vanderbilt is coming out of its bye week after being outscored 125-88 in its three SEC games. Things likely won't get any better with Georgia in town, as the Bulldogs have won 10 in a row at Vanderbilt Stadium and 17 of the last 18 meetings overall in the series. "You don't want to reinvent the wheel over the bye week and you just want to tweak some things that are simple adjustments for you, but give a different appearance to the defense, and that's all we are trying to do," Commodores coach James Franklin said.

TV: Noon ET, CBS. LINE: Georgia -7.5.

ABOUT GEORGIA (4-2, 3-1 SEC): Murray, who has thrown for 1,824 yards and 17 touchdowns this season, has been the steadying force on a team plagued by a rash of injuries. The Bulldogs played Missouri without their top two runners and three of their top receivers. They might get leading rusher Todd Gurley (450 yards rushing, four TDs in four games) back this week from a sprained left ankle, but coach Mark Richt didn't tip his hand, saying, "Whenever he looks healthy enough and feels healthy enough, we'll play him."

ABOUT VANDERBILT (3-3, 0-3 SEC): Quarterback Austyn Carta-Sameuls (1,561 yards, 10 TDs) leads a passing attack that is ranked fourth in the conference at 272 yards per game. His main target is Jordan Matthews, who has 47 catches for 709 yards and five scores this season and is just 103 yards shy of breaking the SEC career receiving yardage record of 3,093 held by Georgia's Terrence Edwards (1999-2002). An area where the Commodores need to improve is their red zone defense, which has given up scores 19 times in 20 chances and is ranked last in the SEC and 117th overall in the FBS.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Murray, the conference's all-time leader in passing yards, needs 30 yards to break Tim Tebow's SEC record of 12,232 total yards and is three TD passes away from topping Danny Wuerffel's conference mark of 114.

2. Matthews, Vanderbilt's career leader in touchdown receptions (22) and 100-yard receiving games (15), is 40 catches shy of breaking former Commodores star Earl Bennett's SEC career record of 236.

3. Georgia has allowed an average of 37.7 points in its past three games.

PREDICTION: Georgia 35, Vanderbilt 27