For the third straight week, Georgia football shut down a ranked opponent as the Dawgs beat Kentucky 30-13.
Now, give Kentucky credit because they were the most physical and gave the Dawgs a challenge among the last three teams Georgia played.
However, because Georgia beat them the way they did, critics will say Kentucky was overrated and wasn’t as good as the media said they were.
At this point, that commentary comes every week, so it won’t be a surprise when it happens.
When you look at the numbers, Arkansas averaged 36 points before the Georgia game, and the Dawgs gave up zero points. Auburn scored 40 points on average before the Dawgs went into their house and held them to 10.
And for the Dawgs’ latest victim, Kentucky averaged 31 points a game, and Georgia held them to 13. There is a trend there, but of course, because it’s Georgia, they don’t play anyone.
Kentucky gave Georgia a challenge, but they didn’t have enough in the tank to get the win and tied South Carolina for scoring the most points on the Dawgs all year.
Kentucky was able to score that many because of a guy named Will Levis and their passing game. Levis went 32-of-42 for 193 yards and two touchdowns, and he is the story of their offense. Their offensive line held the Dawgs defensive front long enough to get the ball off and make plays.
However, they had to depend on Levis when they usually depend on their running back, Chris Rodrigez Jr. who averaged 6.4 yards a touch before Saturday.
Well, like they have done all year, Georgia completely shut down their rush attack holding Kentucky to just 51 yards on the ground and 1.9 yards a touch.
Rodrigez Jr. had seven carries for seven yards, and Kavosiey Smoke led the team with five carries for 14 yards.
Give it to Kentucky, Bob Stoops had his squad prepared, but they aren’t on the same level as the Dawgs.
The offense, defense and special teams came to play for the Dawgs.
Then the special teams had two blocked kicks as Jordan Davis, Devonte Wyatt blocked the first one, and Jalen Carter and Davis blocked the extra point at the end of the game.
*pew pew pew* pic.twitter.com/z0k89xJVJi
— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) October 16, 2021
Offensively Stetson Bennett led the team to an impressive 30 point game, and the Dawgs were able to run the ball with success, but as a whole, it was a pretty balanced effort for Georgia, who collected 416 yards of total offense.
He was on fire today despite having a slow start. Bennett went 14-of-20 for 250 yards and three touchdowns. He completed 70% of his passes, averaged 12.5 yards a pass, and found Brock Bowers for two of his scores.
Regardless of how anyone feels about Bennett, he did his job and did it well. To have a 70% completion rate against a stout pass defense that averaged 193.7 a game through the air and the second-most pass breakups at 23 is quite the accomplishment.
Bowers led the team with five catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns. He has two 100-plus yard receiving games on the year, and he is just a true freshman.
On the ground, Georgia had 166 yards on 27 carries, averaging 6.1 yards a touch.
James Cook led the team with six carries for 51 yards, but Zamir White collected the lone rushing score for the Dawgs. He had 12 carries for 46 yards, and Kendall Milton had four carries for 33 yards.
Two backs averaged over eight yards a carry, so your rushing attack is doing something right when that happens.
Georgia’s defense didn’t do a great job on third down, but we should give Kentucky credit, and they were able to find success through the air and keep drives going. The only thing the Wildcats won on Saturday was the time of possession battle, as they kept it a whopping 37:47 minutes.
Kentucky’s 22-play 75-yard 11:23 drive helped that possession number out, but it didn’t matter because they only found the endzone twice.
Georgia heads into their bye week after seven straight games, and they deserve a break. They have done something through the first half of the season that very few teams have accomplished.
The Dawgs control their destiny and the East. Now they just have to rest, get as healthy as they can and win.