ESPN's Matt Barrie calls out Georgia for 'playing with their food' vs. Kentucky
ESPN’s Matt Barrie uses every Sunday morning to recap what happened on Saturday in college football.
This Sunday was no different as Barrie and Paul Finebaum got together to discuss a wild Week 3. One of the topics on the menu was the close game between No. 2 Georgia and Kentucky.
After the Bulldogs only beat the Wildcats by 1 point, Barrie criticized the team for “playing with their food.”
“They love playing with their food, don’t they?” Barrie asked about Georgia. “They do,” Finebaum declared.
Finebaum mentioned a close game against Missouri in 2022 and a game against Auburn in 2023 as proof that the Bulldogs have a bad habit of playing down to their competition at least once a season.
“I think players buy into what they saw last week,” Finebaum said. “They (Georgia) looked at Kentucky and they were terrible and weren’t physical.”
Well, the Wildcats looked physical in Week 3.
The team held Carson Beck to under 200 passing yards and picked up 3 tackles for loss. The Bulldogs trailed 6-3 at halftime and looked lethargic for much of the game.
Eventually, the Bulldogs did just enough to pull out a 13-12 victory and maintain a perfect record. The tight game did, however, move the Bulldogs off the No. 1 ranking, with Texas now holding that spot.
Barrie also mentioned that the bye week is coming at a perfect time for the Bulldogs. The team will be off in Week 4 to prepare for a matchup against No. 4 Alabama in Week 5. It will be interesting to see if the Bulldogs can bounce back and look like their old selves against the Crimson Tide.
Watching Kirby’s interview on the field after the game, he wasn’t answering her questions so much as he was sitting across the table from the playoff committee explaining/begging.
poor voltrain….so desperate
“We choke. Three years ago, we got to Missouri, and we choked at night on the road. Played at Auburn last year…First game of the year on the road. Choked that game.” That’s virtually verbatim I think maybe.
UGA wins all their remaining games by 1 point they will be in the playoff with a bye and UT fans will be pleading they only lost to UGA by 1.
What do you call TN losing to Billy in 2023? Puking?
Choking is when you gave up 63 points to SC. Chew on that!
Kirby Dumb should have these talks with his players beforehand, then he wouldn’t have to explain it in public to the playoff committee via on-field interviews.
Maybe you guys will be ranked number one coming to Athens again- maybe you won’t choke again?
Just for fun look at score the last three times UGA has played in Lexington. 13-12, 16-6, 14-3.
Barrie is so off base with his take on this game. Kentucky usually plays us tough in Lexington and why are some people reluctant to give them credit for how they dominated both lines of scrimmage? Much respect Wildcats. See you in Athens next year.
Thank you KBP- I didn’t think this was a sloppy game at all. In fact, it was pretty clean, physical, etc… Georgia didn’t flinch and executed when they had to. I understand the frustration from fans not going for it on 4th and 8, but I’ll be honest, every yard Kentucky was able to get was hard earned and there certainly wasn’t anyone who thought there was a good chance to convert that play. The game in Austin will be a tough one for the Dawgs, but I think they handle business the rest of the way… Good luck the rest of the season!
I live in Athens, and I was listening to the chatter about what to expect in this game. Kirby was definitely looking ahead and already resting players for Bama. It was being reported that they had been prepping for depth chart guys for larger roles against Kentucky. I knew from what was being said by the local “Uga insider” saturday morning this was game to take Kentucky with the points. UGA basically thought they could walk off the bus and could handle Kentucky with little to no extra effort. That almost bit them. I don’t believe this was a game to take too much of a notion that UGA isn’t as strong as everyone thought they are, because they weren’t prepping to present their best effort on the field. Now if they lay an egg against Bama, that could mean cracks are starting to form and UGA should be very concerned about their season, because they will have Texas and Tennessee still to play and a real possibility of missing the playoff could happen.
volzdeep22. I agree and I think it’s a smart approach. When you consider GA has three road games against top- 10 (at least) SEC teams, and a home game against a top-10 UT, it’s one of the hardest schedules in CFB.
Kirby’s trying to pace his team and build depth. I told everyone that GA wouldn’t cover against Kentucky. I just hope they get at least two of the injured DL starters back for Bama. If they don’t it may be a long night.
Mike Bobo’s play calling was very vanilla and predictable. Trying to keep running up the middle. What ever happened to trying other elements of play calling, a flea flicker, an end around/jet sweep with Arian Smith/Anthony Evans, more play action fakes/passes, or how about more throws to the tight ends crew that we had so much stock in—pass across the middle or flat?!??
Just something thrown in there to break up the boring monotony of plays Bobo called.
doubledeuce33 I agree. I think they were avoiding showing Bama anything that they didn’t have to. Continuing to run up the middle was not working. Looked like KY had a 360 pounder lined up there. If memory serves, they finally did a toss sweep or two on the final drive.
I do think they were sandbagging.
I only hope you’re right about “not showing our hand” so to speak to upcoming on the road to T-Town battle ahead of us.
volzdeep22. I agree and I think it’s a smart approach. When you consider GA has three road games against top- 10 (at least) SEC teams, and a home game against a top-10 UT, it’s one of the hardest schedules in CFB.
Kirby’s trying to pace his team and build depth. I told everyone that GA wouldn’t cover against Kentucky. I just hope they get at least two of the injured DL starters back for Bama. If they don’t it may be a long night.
It was brutal to watch but a blowout in Lexington is rare. The last five times we have played there, we have won by a total of 42 points. That is an average of just over 8 points per game.
KY has always caused us grief and many fans can remember Lorenzen torching us for 300 yards every time he played us with two linemen hanging off him half the time and him throwing completions behind his back. He was a beast against GA.
I remember him, “Hefty Lefty” as they called Lorenzen. God rest his soul.
Hope the SEC refs will have the guts to actually make calls against UGA as Kirby will cry and beg as he tries to push the limits and grab, hold and push Ryan Williams around next Saturday night in Tuscaloosa……. UK has nowhere near the offensive weapons as Alabama
Winning doesn’t matter anymore- if you have to win in an unsportsmanlike way. Run away from this kids- it’s not fun, it’s not a game.
In the end, it looks like both lost. UK lost the game and Georgia was dropped from Number 1. When was the last time a team dropped from Number 1 after winning a game? Our apologies.