Pete Thamel: Brock Bowers injury makes things more 'dicey' for Georgia

The loss of Georgia TE Brock Bowers for the next few weeks was a brutal blow out of Athens. It doesn’t just potentially change the Bulldog’s fate, though, as Pete Thamel believes everything just got more interesting both in the SEC and across the country.

Thamel discussed Bower’s sprained ankle and its impact on the sport on the ‘College GameDay Podcast’ on Monday. He started by going over the specifics of the injury and the surgery with his co-host Rece Davis.

“Georgia announced he is going to be out four to six weeks,” Thamel explained. “He’s having that tightrope surgery, which is the high-ankle sprain surgery. Tua (Tagovailoa) had it famously a couple of years ago.”

At that point, Thamel dove into the domino effect that this could have on Georgia’s season. To be clear, he didn’t say that Bower’s injury would cause the ‘Dawgs to completely fall apart over their final five games, specifically the first four in SEC play. It’s just that, without their star tight end and one of the country’s best players, those matchups might be a little more of a toss-up than some might suspect.

“It’s pretty interesting because Georgia’s offense is good but not great. I think that’s fair to say,” noted Thamel. “It’s not a juggernaut but it works for them.”

“I think taking away Carson Beck’s biggest target, all of a sudden, makes a few of these games? I’m not sitting here proclaiming this is going to be the end of Georgia or they’re going to lose. But you can’t tell me that the Cocktail Party, Missouri at home, Ole Miss? And then at Tennessee – which is then the 18th of November, right in the middle of that range? You can’t tell me those games aren’t going to be a little more snug and a little more dicey without him,” said Thamel. “Just considering how if they don’t have Brock Bowers at Auburn? They lose that game. I think that’s a pretty safe thing to say.”

Thamel closed by saying that Bowers’ injury could also change the race to the College Football Playoff. In a season where we’re splitting hairs with the top teams already, losing a player of Bowers’ caliber only brings Georgia closer to the pack for the back half of the year.

“Taking Brock Bowers off of Georgia for this semi-extended period of time only just continues to crunch together a loaded one to eight, basically,” Thamel said.