Georgia football: Observations of the Bulldogs opponents after week eight

Georgia football got a much needed break this past Saturday. The Bulldogs look to come back stronger than before this Saturday.

The last stretch of the 2017 season is here. Georgia football is 7-0 and a SEC Eastern Division Championship is right in our grasp. But this is the time of year with the biggest challenges.

The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is this Saturday. A solid South Carolina team travels to Athens next week. Then come the SEC West contender Auburn Tigers. After that are the Kentucky Wildcats who shouldn’t be underestimated. And finally, the always annoying Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Lets look at how each of those teams fared this past weekend. Of course, Florida and South Carolina did not play so they’re not on this list.

Auburn bounces back

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Last week, the Tigers were stunned by LSU. But Auburn rebounded with a blowout 52-20 victory over Arkansas. Offensively, this is the Auburn Tiger team we’ve come to expect. Jarrett Stidham threw for 218 yards and rushed for 49. Kamryn Pettway added 90 rushing yards. As a team, the Tigers had 629 yards.

But we all know that Arkansas isn’t a good team and they were playing with backup quarterback Cole Kelly. Still, the Razorbacks scored a respectable 20 points with 334 yards of offense.

This game also featured Auburn’s signature dominant quarter. They outscored Arkansas 28-7 in the third quarter. In each of their wins this year, they’ve had one-quarter where they dominated and pulled away from their opponent. That will be something Georgia should work to avoid when the two teams meet in a few weeks.

Kentucky falls back to Earth

It’s weird to say, but going into Saturday, Kentucky was Georgia’s biggest threat in the SEC East. The Wildcats were 5-1 and 2-1 in the SEC. Plus their one loss was a one-point loss to Florida. But they won all of their five games by less than 12 points.

That made Kentucky a very polarizing team. On one hand, they were winning. On the other hand, they can’t win comfortably, so surely better teams would beat them handily.

Well that’s exactly what happened Saturday as Mississippi State smacked around Kentucky 45-7. Stephen Johnson was not his usual self with only 117 passing yards and two interceptions. And their usual stingy defense allowed Nick Fitzgerald to run and pass all over them.

This was the Kentucky game we were waiting for to see how good they actually are. Safe to say, they failed the test.

Next: Who will commit to the G next?

Georgia Tech wins with a strong second half

What else can you say about the Yellow Jackets? You know what to expect from them at this point. They’re going to run for a ton of yards, even in a loss. And the defense isn’t going to play a perfect four quarters.

Luckily for the Jackets, their defense struggled in the first half and not the second. They trailed Wake Forest 21-13 at halftime before winning the game 38-24. You have to hand it to Georgia Tech though. At least they’re consistent.