The days of trying to figure out whether the Kentucky defense is legit are in the rearview mirror.

The Cats are indeed a force on the defensive side. They’re tied with Clemson for the best scoring defense in the country for a reason. It’s because they have players like Josh Allen and Kash Daniel, who are seemingly everywhere all the time (even Times Square). They’re as good there is in the red zone and they turn each game into a grind-it-out, defensive struggle.

It’s because of those reasons — and Benny Snell of course — that Kentucky earned the right to host a division title game on Saturday against Georgia. The Cats are a win from getting to Atlanta for the first time to put an exclamation point on what has been the program’s best season in 4 decades.

But what they’ll see on Saturday will be a different kind of challenge. Georgia has something that the likes of Florida, Mississippi State and Mizzou don’t. Even Texas A&M, the lone team to take down the Cardiac Cats, doesn’t have this.

Balance.

It’s perhaps every offensive coordinator’s favorite word. Establish it and even the great defenses are on their heels.

It’s been a work in progress all year for Georgia, but heading into Saturday’s all-or-nothing showdown, it appears to have found the balance it needs to present Kentucky with something it hasn’t seen in 2018.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Balance was what doomed Florida against Georgia on Saturday. Unlike 2017, when the Dawgs simply ran over the Gators with their 3-headed rushing attack, the 2018 Cocktail Party was equal parts salty and sweet. Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney concocted the perfect recipe to spoil a confident Florida defense.

The raw numbers show that Georgia was more run-heavy with 41 rushes compared to 24 passes. But if you actually look at the first 54 minutes, which saw the Dawgs get out to a 29-17 lead before they tried to eat up clock down the stretch, the run-pass ratio was actually about 32-25 if you factor in sacks and pass interference calls. By game’s end, Georgia had 240 passing yards and 189 rushing yards.

Despite the fact that Georgia has rarely trailed this season, balance has been the name of the game. On the season, Georgia averages 221.6 rushing yards and 236 passing yards per game.

Compare that to the rest of Kentucky’s SEC opponents so far:

  • Florida (197.8 passing, 193.9 rushing)
  • MSU (180 passing, 223.5 rushing)
  • South Carolina (236.3 passing, 163.7 rushing)
  • Texas A&M (276.1 passing, 186.4 rushing)
  • Vandy (230.6 passing, 153.2 rushing)
  • Mizzou (284 passing, 185.6 rushing)

You’ll notice that Florida was the only team on that list with a closer margin of yardage balance than Georgia. Back in Week 2, though, Feleipe Franks wasn’t exactly providing a balanced attack for Dan Mullen’s offense. At least not in a way that Jake Fromm is capable of.

Fromm has been there, done that against elite defenses. How he handled third down against arguably the best pass-rushing defense in the SEC last week was a reminder that the Georgia quarterback is no game manager. Fromm took over, and he can take over on Saturday if Kentucky sells out to stop D’Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield.

Let’s be clear here. This Georgia offense is a different breed than Mizzou. Unlike Drew Lock, Fromm won’t shut down if his best pass-catching option is taken away (it’s November and Lock has 1 TD pass in SEC play). Georgia has too much depth at the skill positions to falter like Mizzou did all second half against Kentucky.

And for as great as the Wildcats were on Saturday in forcing 8 consecutive 3-and-outs in the second half, their defensive weakness (if there is one) is third downs. They rank 75th in FBS in third down conversion defense. Georgia, meanwhile, is 15th in FBS in converting third downs at 47 percent. That’s despite the fact that before the Florida game, Fromm wasn’t very good in those scenarios:

Could Fromm revert back to that against Kentucky? It’s possible, but that Florida performance felt like he figured out his third-down issues.

In a perfect world for Kentucky, it follows the LSU model. Getting the Georgia offense into predictable third down and distances seems like the only way to slow it down. If the Dawgs can get into an early hole, perhaps Chaney would panic and start relying too much on the passing game like he did at LSU. That’d be a dream scenario for Kentucky.

Chaney got back to Georgia’s bread and butter on Saturday. It almost felt like after hearing about not getting Holyfield and Swift enough touches against LSU, he was determined to make sure nobody would be saying that after the Florida game. Holyfield wasn’t even very effective (71 rushing yards) and he still had a career-high 20 carries. And coming off an ankle injury, it was Swift who did the heavy lifting with his first 100-yard game of the season on 12 carries.

There’s obviously no guarantee that repeats itself against Kentucky. Lord knows the Wildcats defense will be flying off the ball in what’s arguably the program’s biggest game in over 40 years. They’ll have plenty of the “disrespect” ammo with Georgia being a double-digit favorite to win in Lexington.

But there’s a reason the oddsmakers are giving the Georgia offense that kind of love. Saturday won’t be determined by historical relevance of either program. It’ll come down to whether this Kentucky defense can rise up to its toughest challenge yet.

The “B-word” will be out in full force come Saturday afternoon. And if the Cats are on their heels all day, another “B-word” will come to the forefront.

“Blowout.”