Five things you need to know from No. 20 Kentucky’s humbling 51-13 loss to No. 1 Georgia
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Game day: No. 1 Georgia 51, No. 20 Kentucky 13
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Georgia football game at Athens, Georgia.
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Five things you need to know from No. 20 Kentucky’s 51-13 loss to No. 1 Georgia:
1. For UK, unhappy streaks continue. Kentucky has now lost 14 straight games against Georgia.
This was the seventh straight game in which the Bulldogs have beaten the Wildcats by double digits.
Since a 27-24 loss to Georgia in Kirby Smart’s first season (2016) as Dawgs’ coach, Kentucky has fallen by 29, 17, 21, 11, 17, 10 and 38 points, respectively.
This is the third time — 2018, 2021 and 2023 — in the past six seasons that Georgia has beaten Kentucky in a game in which the SEC East lead was on the line.
UK has lost those three games by 17, 17 and 38 points.
Overall, Georgia has now won 23 games in a row. The Bulldogs have won their past 33 regular-season games.
2. Sloppy play catches up with Cats. After five weeks of Georgia hearing that the 2023 Bulldogs were not at the same level of the back-to-back national title teams of 2021 and 2022, the Dawgs certainly played at a championship-level against Kentucky.
However, sloppy play by the Wildcats — a recurrent problem throughout the early part of the UK season — played a major role in the game getting out of hand.
A holding penalty on Jager Burton sabotaged Kentucky’s initial offensive drive after it had reached the Bulldogs’ 40-yard line.
Kentucky’s second drive was inside the Georgia 30 when an unnecessary roughness penalty on Burton stalled the drive.
Down 14-0, UK had Georgia stopped and the Bulldogs were going to have to punt — but an unnecessary roughness penalty on Deone Walker extended the drive.
Given extra downs, the Bulldogs completed a 13-play, 95-yard TD drive to go ahead 21-0.
At halftime, UK coach Mark Stoops lamented the impact Kentucky penalties had on the game’s start. “They are outplaying us, but we keep shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties,” Stoops told UK Radio’s Dick Gabriel. “You can’t do that down here.”
3. Kentucky defense throttled. The Wildcats “D” traveled to Athens standing 19th in the FBS in total defense (surrendering 297.2 yards a game) and 19th in scoring defense (allowing 15.2 points a game).
To a stunning degree, Georgia’s offense dominated the Kentucky defense.
Led by a rapier-sharp passing performance from quarterback Carson Beck, Georgia scored points — four touchdowns, two field goals — on all six of its first-half possessions.
UK tackling, which had been mostly exemplary in 2023’s first five games, was MIA in Athens. The Wildcats repeatedly missed tackles and were gouged for repeated explosive plays.
Georgia finished the game with 608 total yards, 435 through the air.
Beck completed 28 of 35 passes for a career-high 389 yards and four touchdowns. The only blemish on Beck’s performance was a Maxwell Hairston interception that set up Kentucky’s second touchdown.
Georgia star tight end Brock Bowers had seven catches for 132 yards and a touchdown.
4. Ray Davis’ encore. Last week, in Kentucky’s 33-14 dismantling of then-No. 22 Florida, the Wildcats’ running back had the game of a lifetime.
The 5-10, 216-pound San Francisco product ran for 280 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries vs. the Gators and also scored a fourth TD on a 9-yard pass from Devin Leary.
Against Georgia, Kentucky got so far behind, it negated the Wildcats’ ability to use Davis. He finished the game with 59 rushing yards on 15 carries.
Davis also caught two passes for 36 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter.
5. Stoops vs. the SEC East. Georgia remains the one SEC East team Mark Stoops has never beaten as Kentucky head man.
The UK coach’s up-to-date marks vs. all SEC East foes:
Vanderbilt 8-3
Missouri 7-3
South Carolina 7-3
Florida 4-7
Tennessee 2-8
Georgia 0-11
Fashion police
For its sixth game of 2023, Kentucky wore white helmets, white jerseys with blue letters and numbers and white pants.
Since the start of the 2015 season, Kentucky is now 6-7 when it wears all-white.
This story was originally published October 7, 2023 at 10:28 PM.
