Stidham’s accuracy poses challenge for Georgia defense

At quarterback, Auburn endured the growing pains of a quarterback transition early in the year.

But now that the end of the regular season is over, Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham has asserted himself as one of the best at the position in the entire SEC.

That has become evident with his play over the last five games of the regular season. Since a 27-23 loss to LSU, which saw him complete only nine of 26 passes for 165 yards, Stidham has not missed much when throwing the ball.

In each of the past five games, Stidham has been 68 percent or better as a passer. Competing against Georgia on Nov. 11, in a 40-17 victory, Stidham completed 16 of his 23 passes for 214 yards and three touchdowns.

“He's been a big shot in the arm, there's no doubt with that,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said. “You've seen a guy that's really gotten better each game before our eyes, and of course, last night he was very good running the football and really got some key first downs running. He was diving forward and just showing a lot of courage.”

Judging by how Stidham’s season started, it would have been difficult to see this end-stretch coming. In Auburn’s second game of the season against Clemson, Stidham was sacked 11 times while completing only 54.1 percent of his throws.

Over time, Stidham has improved and offered great balance to Auburn’s offense.

“Believe it or not, I actually felt pretty comfortable in the Clemson game, regardless of what happened that night,” Stidham said. “Just kind of being back out there, being comfortable and that kind of thing, I actually felt like I was on the way to having success. But really, I think after that Clemson game is when it started to hit for myself personally. I've just tried to work as hard as possible and get better every week.”

Stidham was sacked twice against the Bulldogs but otherwise had a fairly clean pocket when asked to throw. Stidham’s highlight of the game was tossing a deep 42-yard touchdown to receiver Darius Slayton in the second quarter.

Auburn’s offense was the most balanced Georgia faced all season long. In every other game, the Bulldogs were able to take away one facet of the opposing team’s offense. With Stidham getting good protection and having a strong rushing attack to play off of, he was able to keep Georgia guessing at times. He will certainly be a focal point for the Georgia defense Saturday.

“We have to try and get him off his spot,” outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter said. “He’s comfortable in the pocket, he’s comfortable moving around. The whole thing with that is making the quarterback uncomfortable.”

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said the Bulldogs will need to mix up their coverages while applying pressure on Stidham in order to slow his ability to hit some big plays in the passing game. But that can be difficult because Auburn will max protect with seven or eight blockers at times.

Defensive back Aaron Davis said it will be important for Georgia to confuse Stidham before the snap.

“We have to make it tough on him, as far as disguising and getting some pressure on him,” Davis said.

Stidham has done a good job at taking care of the football over these past five games, throwing eight touchdowns to only two interceptions. But limiting Stidham’s ability to move Auburn’s offense is a challenge Georgia appears ready for.

“He's a really good quarterback who, I think, has gotten the greatest amount of improvement during the year of any player that I've seen,” Smart said.

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Stidham’s accuracy poses challenge for Georgia defense."