Mizzou football: Bryant questionable, but expected to play

Mizzou football heads to Georgia this weekend to take on the No. 6 Bulldogs in a road night game. The Tigers need their QB to be healthy.

The Mizzou football team squandered away its No. 1 standing over the past two weeks by losing to two of the bottom teams in their division in Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Now, Mizzou heads to Georgia to take on the top team in the East. If Mizzou pulls off the upset, it will have a chance to win the SEC East with three more games remaining on the schedule. A loss ends all hope.

For the Tigers to pull off the upset, they’ll need better quarterback play. Kelly Bryant has not been good the past two games, and part of that is because he hasn’t been healthy. He hurt his hamstring in the first half of last week’s game and the Tigers never recovered.

Heading into this weekend’s game, Bryant is listed at questionable. If he can’t go, the Tigers will turn to backup QB Taylor Powell, a redshirt sophomore who took over in the second half against Kentucky. Powell finished the game 4 of 10 passing for 34 yards. He didn’t have much of a chance to move the offense in a downpour in Lexington while behind two scores.

For now, weather in Saturday’s game at Georgia is expected to be fair with no chance of rain. Even so, it looks more and more likely that Bryant will be in charge of the offense this weekend.

Coach Barry Odom said Wednesday that he expects Bryant to play against Georgia, according to Athens Sports Radio.

"“We just finished up our Wednesday practice, and Kelly took the majority of the snaps with the ones and Taylor (Powell) is working in like he has every other week, the two reps,” Odom said.“Kelly is on track to play, and I think he’ll play well, and Taylor understands that he’s going to prepare like he has every other week, and if his number is called, he can execute the offense and play efficiently.”"

Even though Bryant hasn’t played as well as he did earlier in the season, he went 10 of 19 for 130 yards and a touchdown against Kentucky. Most of that came on a screen pass to Tyler Badie that went for 74 yards, but the threat of Bryant gives Mizzou football more of a chance to beat Georgia.

The Bulldogs currently are 16.5 favorites to beat the Tigers, courtesy of Action Network. Georgia lost to a third-string QB against South Carolina, so it’s not like the Bulldogs have thrived in this situation before. But it’s going to take a lot to take down the Bulldogs. It starts with quality quarterback play.