Good luck scoring on Georgia. But UK’s real problem might be how to stop the Bulldogs.

Kentucky is coming off one of its most complete games of the season.

But it’s going to have to be even better than that Saturday.

“Georgia is playing exceptionally well,” Coach Mark Stoops said this week. “We’re going to need to play our best football of the year to compete with Georgia this week.”

Kentucky’s coach doesn’t care that the seventh-ranked Bulldogs are coming off a difficult loss at Auburn. He sees a complete team that’s going to be the most difficult challenge UK will face this season.

Much is made of the Bulldogs’ defensive prowess, holding opponents to just 14.5 points a game, fifth-best in the country. They are fifth-best nationally in rushing defense (giving up just 103.8 yards per game and five touchdowns all season) and in total defense.

But the UK coach is just as impressed with the Georgia special teams units and the balance of their offense.

It all starts with running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, who have combined for 1,625 yards and 19 touchdowns this season. Then there’s speedy complementary back D’Andre Swift.

“Chubb and Sony Michel, they’re both just monster backs,” Stoops said. “Those guys are just really quality players. You’ve got to respect them and the physicality of their team. That’s what they want to do: They want to pound the football.”

In all, Georgia has run for 2,560 yards and 27 touchdowns and boasts the 10th-best rushing offense in the country, averaging 256 yards a game with 27 touchdowns.

Because of guys like Chubb, Michel and Swift, the Bulldogs are tops nationally in the red zone, scoring some 97.5 percent of the time (37 of 38 times with 27 of those being touchdowns).

They’re converting almost half of their third-down tries, sixth best in the nation.

“This is going to be a big-time test not just on physicality, but these backs, if you give them a crack, they take it,” said UK defensive coordinator Matt House, whose defense is No. 4 in the Southeastern Conference at stopping the run.

But pay too much attention to those backs and Georgia can burn defenses from the outside, too, behind the arm of freshman quarterback Jake Fromm.

“Those are always teams that are very difficult to defend,” Stoops said. “When it starts with a physicality of unbelievably talented running backs and physical offensive linemen. And then you load up and they can hurt you outside. Those are tough teams to defend.” Georgia has won seven straight over the Cats.

Fromm will try to find senior wideout Javon Wims, who had five catches for 90 yards in Lexington last season.

“Even when you think you have him covered, you don’t,” Stoops said of the receiver who leads the team with 471 yards and four touchdowns. “You better finish it all the way to the ground because Javon certainly knows how to finish plays, goes up and makes competitive catches all the time,”

So for all the talk of Georgia’s defensive prowess, the Bulldogs are going to be a handful for a UK defense that is allowing more than 400 yards a game this season.

“They’ve got three really good backs, a good passing attack, good receivers, good tight ends,” House said. “They’re a really well-rounded offense.”

Special teams, special challenges

Going against a defense like Georgia’s, Kentucky is going to need any kind of advantage it can get. The Cats are hopeful that the advantages might come on special teams behind freshman Lynn Bowden, who had 192 all-purpose yards last week at Vanderbilt.

Bowden came up just a few yards shy of a kickoff return for a touchdown last week. The Cats have been close to “breaking a big one” for the past couple of weeks, special teams coordinator Dean Hood said.

“Closer than it probably looks from the stands,” Hood said.

UK had last week’s big return blocked up well. “Once we got him started, he just took over and did what he does,” he said of Bowden.

And how does he do that exactly?

“I don’t know,” Hood said, smiling. “Some kids just have a knack for the game of football, just have a great God-given ability to see things other people don’t see and make cuts other people can’t make. He’s just one of them.”

It’s going to be tough running for Bowden, Stoops predicted, with Georgia kicker Rodrigo Blankenship and his impressive hang time on the ball.

“You’re not going to get a ton of opportunities,” Stoops said. “And when you do, they’ve got some dudes running down there. Kickoff return’s going to be a real challenge.”

Georgia is “freaky athletic” on special teams, Hood said, especially sophomore punt and kick returner Mecole Hardman, who had 203 all-purpose yards at Auburn last week.

Hardman leads the league in kickoff returns and is third in punt returns. UK will be especially careful with how it kicks, coaches said.

Hood said of Hardman: “He’s really good and the other guys he’s got around him are really good and then they’re a physical bunch in the return game.”

‘We can’t mope around’

While Bulldogs fans have spent the week dissecting a 40-17 loss at Auburn last weekend, Coach Kirby Smart wasn’t agreeable to doing much of that during his media availabilities this week.

“I will be honest with you — I am worried about Kentucky,” he said. “I really am.”

There were critical mistakes and unnecessary penalties in the Auburn game, which the team says it will clean up, but Smart and his players were looking ahead, not behind.

“We don’t have the luxury of time to sit around and feel bad for ourselves,” tight end Jeb Blazevich said. “It’s something where we can’t mope around, we have work today. I think that’s the main message, it’s get back to work, that’s all we can do.”

Kentucky is the target now, Smart said.

“We have to go out and play our best game because they have a really good football team,” he said.

Before adding: “I know they want nothing more than to come in here and try to prove they are the best team in the East.”

News and notes

Kentucky senior defensive back Kendall Randolph is expected to play despite suffering what looked like a serious injury at Vanderbilt.

• It will be Senior Day on Saturday at Sanford Stadium where the Bulldogs will be sending off some key players including running backs Chubb and Michel. Nearly 20 players in Georgia’s two-deep are listed as seniors or graduates.

• There will be a flyover and a ceremony recognizing Purple Heart recipients in honor of Veterans Day a week ago.

This story was originally published November 17, 2017 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Good luck scoring on Georgia. But UK’s real problem might be how to stop the Bulldogs.."