Too Close for Comfort
The Dawgs stopped UK again, but offensively the play calling became too conservative. Bennett found Dominick Blaylock for a long gain on a risky throw to get 35 yards. McIntosh had another nice gain before the Dawg stalled out on the 1 yard line. Despite putting in their jumbo package with Jalen Carter, the Dawgs were stuffed on 3rd and 4th and goal. Then, the momentum switched in UK’s favor.Â
QB Will Levis scrambled to get a first down only to be matched by RB Chris Rodriguez moving a pile of defenders for another first down. Then safety Chris Smith got lost in coverage and gave up a big play on a double move by WR Barion Brown. Levis hit his tight end for another first, and the Cats were getting chunk plays every time. Then, the Cats fooled the Georgia secondary again and Brown caught a slant for a touchdown.Â
After stopping the Dawgs, Brown hit the Dawgs on another big play. Chris Smith again was lost in coverage. Then, CB Kamari Lassiter got a PI call against him to move the chains again. Georgia’s defense struggled to get lined up on multiple plays, and looked totally out of sorts. However, the refs gave two controversial calls in UK’s favor.
The first was an incomplete call instead of a fumble. If fumble had been called, Georgia had a scoop and score. Then, Levis had a clear intentional grounding call, which would have turned the ball over to the Dawgs. After calling the penalty, the refs changed their mind, which was utterly confusing. UK ended up missing the field goal attempt after the snap skipped off of the ground and the holder barely wrangled it.Â
Georgia took over, failed to converted 3rd and 1, and gave the ball back. UK moved the ball again before turning it over on downs.
In control but never comfortable, the Dawgs managed a win in Lexington. Coach Smart managed his 7th straight win against UK and continued Georgia’s 13-game winning streak against them.
Things I Liked
Kenny McIntosh had himself a game. He gashed the defense for 5 10+ yard runs throughout the game. The Dawgs ran the ball incredibly effectively except in short yardage situations. UK was pleased to keep two safeties high all game to keep Georgia from taking deep shots. However, the Georgia front was content to keep the passing game short and gash the running game to move the ball.
RB Kendall Milton looked like the player I have hoped he would become as well. Perhaps he is finally getting healthy, as he powered through several tackles on his runs. Despite the Dawgs missing starting RG Tate Ratledge, they got plenty of push.Â
LB Smael Mondon led the team with 11 tackles. He flew all over the field. Any time he came off of the field, there was a drop off in the Georgia defense. Backups Rian Davis and Trezman Marshall just aren’t able to make the same impact despite their experience.Â
Defensively, the Dawgs completely nullified one of the best running backs in the SEC. Chris Rodriguez was unable to make hardly any plays, and the Dawgs did an excellent job rallying to the ball to tackle him. He only managed 3 YPC in the game. ‘
A few freshman had nice games. DL Mykel Williams got pressure early on against Levis. He also beat his man on 4th and 1 to force a TFL to stop UK. LB Jalon Walker is seeing more snaps as the season goes on. He is able to play both inside and outside linebacker, so Georgia is using him on 3rd down packages as a pass rusher mostly. Safety Malaki Starks continues to shine, and had 8 tackles.
There appeared to be no major injuries in the game for the first time all season.Â
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Things I Didn’t Like
Georgia had three situations where they had 3rd or 4th and 1. They failed to convert all of them. The last 9 times that Georgia has run the ball inside the 3 yard line, they have been stopped. Georgia has to diversify the play calling on these short yardage situations because they aren’t punching it in consistently enough.
In the same vein, Georgia’s red zone woes from earlier in the year are back. They scored a touchdown on only 1 of their 5 red zone trips in the game. Georgia is great at moving the ball and at scoring in the red zone, but they settle for field goals way too often.Â
Chris Smith struggled against the deep ball today. Georgia’s defense did an excellent job with stopping Rodriguez. They failed to stop WR Barion Brown, who had 10 catches for 145 yards and 1 touchdown.Â
Georgia’s offense rewound the clock about 3 years in this game. I know it was windy, but Stetson Bennett had the lowest passing attempts of the season in this game. While the run was effective, Georgia could have easily mixed up the play calling, especially inside the red zone.Â
Georgia’s best offensive weapons were infrequently used in the passing game. Stetson did miss a wide open Darnell Washington early in the game, but Brock Bowers also did not get many looks in the game.Â
