ATHENS — Georgia recognizes now how much Missouri helped last year’s team.

When the Bulldogs went up to Columbia, Mo., they did so as massive favorites and were cruising through the first month of the season.

Then the Tigers roughed up Georgia for the first three quarters before taking a 22-12 lead in the fourth quarter.

“A lot of adversity in that game we went through against Missouri last year,” defensive back Tykee Smith said. “Definitely a tough environment to play in but I think any road game in the SEC is a tough environment to play in. Just seeing the team come together and not bow our heads. Being able to battle together and come back. When the Ohio State moment came, we definitely lived in that moment when we played Missouri so we knew how to handle it.”

Georgia rallied by scoring two touchdowns on its first two drives of the final quarter before running out the clock to end the game. It was the only SEC game last season that Georgia won by single digits.

This year’s Missouri team seems to be a good bit better than the one that pushed Georgia last season. Even after losing leading receiver Dominic Lovett to Georgia, the Tigers still field an explosive passing attack. Luther Burden is second in the conference in receiving yards and has been even more productive than Lovett was a season ago.

He’s not the only talented Missouri wide receiver but all eyes will be on him when takes the field on Saturday.

“They’ve got good players. Eli (Drinkwitz) would tell you it starts with good players,” Kirby Smart said. “It starts with quarterback play. You look across the league and you say, ‘Man, who’s playing good in the country?’ They’ve got good quarterbacks, and they’ve got a good quarterback. When you’ve got a good quarterback, you’ve got a chance.”

The quarterback Smart is referring to is Brady Cook. This will Cook’s third time playing against Georgia, though he’s had little previous success against the Bulldogs. He threw for only 192 yards on 32 pass attempts a season ago.

But like the entire Missouri outfit, this is a much improved Cook. Sure he’s got better ingredients around him, but all the time and experience in Drinkwitz’s system has made him a better head chef for this Missouri team. He’s completing 70 percent of his passes and has thrown 15 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions.

Defensively, Missouri has cleaned up some of its issues since the LSU game. And as Smart pointed out, the 49 points LSU scored likely says more about them than it does Missouri.

“One thing I can say is that we’re definitely aware of how good those guys are,” center Sedrick Van Pran said. “They’re a tremendous team. Just watching some of the games on TV, you can see some of the havoc and pressure that they’re able to create. They have a bunch of great players, 99, 6, if I’m not mistaken number 90 as well. All of these guys create a lot of havoc and do some great things for them.”

For as much as will be made about Missouri this week, Georgia is playing its best football of late as well. It scored 51 points the last time it was in Sanford Stadium against Kentucky. It ripped off 36 straight points in last week’s win over Florida.

This is a Georgia team that is looking more and like the best team in the country.

Georgia was that a season ago but played far from it against Missouri. If the Bulldogs are going to pick a crucial SEC East win — Missouri still controls its path to Atlanta and sits second in the division — it will have to play much, much better against this Missouri Tigers team.

“I think they’re a great team,” Van Pran said. “When you take away all of the previous accolades and the rest of it, you have to break it down to it’s us versus them. That’s just kind of the bottom line, just understanding your opponent, understanding what they’re trying to do, and having the level of respect for them that they deserve.

“They’ve been a tremendous team this year and they will continue to be a tremendous team because they’re a great team.”