Often in college football it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Fittingly, diminutive receiver Isaiah McKenzie made all the difference for Georgia in the Bulldogs 28-27 victory over Missouri.
McKenzie’s 4th down reception was fairly improbable, for a variety of reasons. For one, he was matched up against Missouri’s top cover corner, Aarion Penton. McKenzie gives up two inches of height and twenty pounds of weight to Penton, who was moved over to shadow him on the final Bulldog drive, and had done so up until this play.
McKenzie lines up tight to the line, and Penton plays him tight. It almost seems as if Penton is thinking about jamming McKenzie on the line.
He never gets a chance to. McKenzie does a great job getting separation off the line. He establishes inside position, blows by Penton, and the larger corner is trailing him from the get-go.
But Eason slightly under throws the ball, as he did for much of the night. McKenzie adjusts to the ball, goes up, and hauls it in anyway.
Another note. Georgia empties the backfield here and Missouri defensive coordinator DeMontie Cross is in a "cover 0" set up with no safety help deep. Instead he shows six players coming on the blitz, and actually rushes five. It almost appears that after Eason went for the end zone on first and second down that Cross expected Jim Chaney to dial up something closer to the ten yard line and a first down. Instead Chaney attacks the deep middle of the field, where a safety might have been. It is the perfect play call for the situation, executed perfectly by two unlikely parties: a true freshman QB who had been just a little off for most of the night, and a 5'8 wide receiver who has little business fighting down the field against a big, physical adversary.
The thing is, Cross knew that Chaney would want to get the ball in the hands of the Human Joystick. It's why he put his best guy on him. In the end, it didn't matter. A Bulldog offense that had executed haltingly all night carried out its job perfectly when it mattered most. And McKenzie once again proved that it's not the size of the 'Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the 'Dawg.