Rapid Reaction: It wasn't pretty, but Georgia tops Kentucky in final tune-up for Florida
No. 5 Georgia won a low-scoring affair with Kentucky 14-3 Saturday in Lexington.
It was the Bulldogs’ 11th consecutive victory over the Wildcats, stretching their series record to 60-12-2.
Georgia’s early game plan was clear: run the ball and run it often. The Bulldogs held the ball for 12 plays and 86 yards on their opening drive and ran it all 12 times, capped by a 2-yard scoring scramble by Stetson Bennett IV to make it 7-0.
That’s pretty much all the offense Georgia needed, which was good considering the Bulldogs didn’t provide much more.
The Dawgs’ defense held up its end of the bargain, limiting Kentucky to 230 total yards and a single field goal in Joey Gatewood’s first start.
Georgia looked to have designs on a quick score just before the half, but a tipped Bennett pass at the line ended up in the hands of Phil Hoskins with under a minute and a half to go before the break. Despite the Wildcats being forced to punt, the Bulldogs found themselves in field goal range, but a low snap to Jack Podlesny from 54 yards out meant the scoreline remained where it was at halftime.
But Georgia found the end zone to open the 3rd quarter, converting on a 4th-and-1 at the Kentucky 22 as Zamir White burst through the Wildcats’ defense for his 6th touchdown of the season as the Dawgs opened up a 14-3 advantage.
That capped a big day for White, who ran for a career-high 136 yards.
On the ensuing drive, the Wildcats found themselves at the Bulldogs’ 40 before Gatewood was stripped of the ball on a keeper to turn possession back over to the visitors. But the Dawgs failed to take advantage as Bennett threw his 2nd interception of the game to give it right back to Kentucky, who ultimately punted after the drive stalled at its own 46.
Bennett finished with just 131 yards passing on 9-of-13 attempts.
Despite an off-day from Georgia’s highly-touted rushing defense — struggling to contain both Gatewood and running back Chris Rodriguez — Kentucky couldn’t quite get over the hump and put together the plays it needed to pull off what would be a massive upset. Meanwhile, the Dawgs were helped in part by a big day from White, who broke the 100-yard barrier for the first time in his career.
Several key members of the Bulldogs’ defense left at different parts of the game, including Jordan Davis, Julian Rochester, Lewis Cine and Quay Walker, while linebacker Monty Rice, nursing a foot injury, did play. On offense, George Pickens and Kenny McIntosh were unavailable.
A pivotal matchup awaits Georgia in its next game as it meets Florida in Jacksonville, with the winner potentially putting itself in prime position for the SEC East title. Kentucky falls to 2-4 and will host Vanderbilt on Nov. 14.
That kind of play will be a loss against Florida. Just because Bennett practices the best doesn’t mean he’s the best person for the job. If he doesn’t have the tools for the job then he doesn’t have the tools for the job. No amount of coach speak will change that.
What a discouraging game.
1. Bennett playing like…a 4th string 5’10” walk-on. Focusing on one receiver the entire play, rainbow throws, low release points, completely ignoring open 2nd reads.
2. Defense getting bled to death. Davis, Rochester, Cine, and Walker hurt.
So discouraging. Florida is licking their chops.
Kirby has never cared about style points. He’s content with just winning games and playing not to lose.
This works against Kentucky, but I don’t see anything we did today that will help against teams like Florida, Bama, etc. The offense isn’t going to become a world beater in a week even against a bad UF defense.
Kentucky was always a good matchup for our team since their offense is somehow worse than ours. High scoring offenses are going to be killer.
Congratulations to UGA, now go get those Gators!
Thanks, AlltheSEC. So glad to see KY hammer the Vols. Beat of luck the rest of the season.
This wasn’t an overly surprising result, and solidifies even more that the SEC (at least this year) is Bama safely at the top, Vandy safely at the bottom and everyone else just one big heap of pretty good but not great.
Congratulations Bulldogs, you would have definitely won either way, but it sure doesn’t help that we have a department store mannequin as our offensive coordinator.
Hi Bill. Not that I usually speak, or have ever spoke for GA fans, but thank you!
Thanks Bill, our announcers after the game were saying the UK offense looked like they would rather be with a brandy and cigar in the 4th quarter rather than at a football game. Amazing lack of urgency.
Our receivers get zero separation
There are more tiers than that, but Bama is clearly at the top
There may be varying degrees of good but not great. Much like how there are difference between WalMart, Target and BigLots, but they’re all still similar enough to be in the same category. Not as good as Macy’s but better than Dollar General.
Not to get political but is the year 1999? Since when is Macy’s a relevant store, the only reason people register for weddings there is because old people don’t know how to buy from normal stores.
If Im Mathis and Beck Im entering the transfer portal but it is more than obvious is not about playing the best qb . Not sure what is going on in Athens but its clear they have no idea what to do when it comes to the qb position. Im not sure if Mathis is any better he was only given 2 quarters but he cant be worse. Daniels has to still be hurt. This is insane and very frustrating as a fan. Next week is going to be very ugly. Maybe they will have and offense explosion amd score 25, the bad thing is Florida with scorw over 30 easy
I agree Rick. Kirby can’t hold Saban’s jock strap and it shows. Saban is just simply a better coach and has shown he is more that willing to make mid game adjustments, including changes at quarterback. This is simply Richt 2.0 and we are destined for mediocrity…..again. If I were Beck, Mathis, and/or Daniels standing on the sideline, I would be exiting stage left. Sad really.
If Stetson Bennett is actually the best option for UGA at QB right now, then this team is just destined for mediocrity this season. Like I understand he may understand the offense better than the other guys, but he literally just does not have the ability to bring that understanding to fruition for this team. He’ll be the starter for the Florida game and when UGA is losing 14-0 (or worse) at the half, hopefully we can see what the other guys are made of for the rest of the game
Good to see the run game be productive. Two interceptions can cost games, though. Not a good game for Stetson. Kentucky’s defense is good, but the offense should have scored more.
This offense will not beat Florida! The gators offense isn’t Bama good, but if they can run the ball we’re in for a long day.
Don’t worry. Thanks to a combination of Mullen whiffing on ALL the top rb recruits in Florida THREE YEARS IN A ROW and Kyle Trask not being an option QB and can’t run that portion of Mullen’s scheme, UF can’t run the ball. No Lamical Perines this year. UGA will be able to ignore the run and dedicate a safety and LB to blitzing Trask, who will respond with turnovers as usual.
That you Negan?
UGA defense was stifling
I was at the game today. I hate to be negative but the 10 % stadium capacity and mask wearing was depressing. COVID social distancing is ridiculous.
Georgia is a very athletic team especially on Defense.
Was there also, a beautiful day. But hey, the mask wearing and distancing is way better than not being there at all. Our inability to move the ball through the air is what was depressing.
Only 4 teams in the entire league as of now will have a plus score differential for the season.
Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky…Auburn will have a positive diff but LSU will go to negative…shows how crazy the all league schedule is.