15 Thoughts Will Always Take the “W”

The point spread whenever we travel to Lexington should never be more than 1. Trust me.

This was going to be a Maalox game and I knew it. All week long I had this gnawing feeling that Kentucky was going to show up and atone for their disastrous performance against South Carolina and, to their credit, they did from the opening chippy kickoff. I have to wonder if any off the field distractions this week might’ve played a part? Those kinds of things certainly don’t help.

On to some thoughts…

1. History has a way of repeating itself in this sport. Sure, we’ve traveled up to the Commonwealth and blown Kentucky out in their house before with “lesser” teams, but that is the exception rather than the rule lately. This is eye-opening. Pro tip: Take the under up there.

2. Give Kentucky and their entire staff credit. They had their team motivated and ready. I thought Brock Vandagriff played about as well as he possibly could and he hurt us with his legs. The Wildcats weren’t going to pass the ball a ton and when they did, Brock made plays when he wasn’t running for his life. I wish him nothing but the best going forward.

3. In a game like this, a single turnover would’ve certainly been the difference. We won by a single point and that’s all that matters. As Macondawg correctly surmised, Georgia absolutely deserved to lose this game. We aided Kentucky drives with penalties and exhibited poor tackling far too much. But our defense was on the field all night long and some guys had to play more snaps than they should have out of sheer necessity. Kentucky moved the ball on their side of the 50 quite effectively, but once they crossed mid-field the Georgia defense really bowed up. Forcing field goals was the difference and the Dawg “D” hasn’t given up a touchdown all year.

3A. I think when we are healthy we have an elite defense. At the moment, we are not.

4. As Kirby pointed out in his post-game presser, high penalty counts are not unique to Georgia this year, but once again the lack of discipline reared its ugly head far too many times. That’s got to be addressed.

Disaster averted here…

5. Was this a trap game? No conference game (home or away) should ever be considered a trap game, so I don’t buy it for a moment. Are we a better team for this experience? If history is a guide, we will be. That’s no guarantee that we’ll beat Bama in 2 weeks, but the teams that shows up in T-Town will be a different animal than what we witnessed last night. Still, there’s much work to be done. As Carson Beck stated in his post-game interview, “Thank God we have a bye week.”

6. Kentucky put pressure on Beck all night long with linebackers and safeties creeping up out of their zone scheme. That usually means someone in the middle should be open, yet we couldn’t exploit anything with consistency. I’ll have to re-watch to see why our outside guys weren’t getting any separation, but that entire aspect of the game was just “off.” Very little production from our tight ends, too. I’m sure there were plays to be had, but the entire offense was out of sync most of the evening. It seems like receivers weren’t working their way back to Beck when he was in trouble. Maybe I’m off, but that’s my initial thought.

7. We finally got some rhythm in the 3rd quarter by running more between the tackles and when we had to have it – as brief as it was – the line delivered on our only touchdown drive of the night. I still feel like there wasn’t much imagination in our offensive plan. Throwing quick swing passes out on the edges got blown up until we abandoned that. This has to get figured out.

8. Do you realize we only ran 64 offensive plays to Kentucky’s 74? In a compressed game and a running clock, that’s a big gap. Only 262 yards of total offense is no way to open conference play on the road, yet here we are. I thought Trevor Etienne played his heart out despite inconsistent blocking and having a shoulder injury. We had to shuffle the offensive line around all night after the injury to Tate Ratledge.

Kentucky punted here. Should they have?

9. Daylen Everette led the team in total tackles with 8, included 6 solos. He played a very good game once he settled in. The difference maker on defense was Jalon Walker, as has already been noted by many. Kentucky threw the ball for 114 yards on the night, and rarely took deep shots because #11 in white was in their backfield much of the time.

Have a night, #11 (bogus roughing the passer penalty be danged).

10. In 2 weeks will we have a healthy Mykel Williams, Jordan Hall and Warren Brinson back in the rotation, but in what form? Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins played about as gutsy as anyone could last night and got dinged, but came back in (as we all held our collective breath). A lot of youth had to play on the defensive front last night and I saw some poor tackling from many as Kentucky’s stable of backs gave us fits. There is so much to learn from last night. Still, the defense bowed up when it mattered the most.

11. I’ve seen a lot of references to the 2022 Mizzou game, but this game was far more stressful from my perspective. There was just something weird about the entire vibe to me.

12. We only scored 13 points last night. Our upcoming opponents fared a tad bit better.

• Texas scored 56
• Tennessee scored 71 (rushed for 456 yards against Kent State).
• Alabama scored 42
• Ole Miss scored 40

Does this mean anything? I reckon it means I know how to pull up ESPN’s scoreboard. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

13. Someone check on Brett Thorson, please. He punted more last night than he’s probably ever done since coming to Athens. Seriously, though, he was outstanding. Peyton Woodring nailed a couple of had to have ‘em field goals. The only returnable kickoff/punt opportunity of the night by Anthony Evans III was a nice effort that was nullified because of a ticky-tack block in the back penalty. This just won’t do.

14. I thought our linebackers played well in spurts, but there was a lot of inconsistency. Our best safety, Malakai Starks, has played better and will play better. A holding penalty that kept a Kentucky drive alive was so out-of-character for him. Dan Jackson, KJ Bolden and Joenel Aguero played very well. Julian Humphrey’s pass breakup on a key 3rd down was huge and he tackled well all night. I think Kentucky held Chaz Chambliss on more than a few occasions, too, but it went uncalled.

15. I’m sure Bama (and everyone else on our schedule) is licking their chops right about now. We’d better get it together in a hurry. It’ll be a hellish environment in 2 weeks, but it’s not like we haven’t played in high-stakes games like this before. If we can get some key defensive linemen back, I still like our chances. I am concerned about our offense. My feelings this morning are far different than they were immediately after the Clemson game.

Winning a sloppy game like this happens every year. Every team goes through this. Some survive like we did; some fold like a bad hand. Kentucky has a very good defense and provided a teaching moment. Let’s hope the pupils do their collective homework.

I am still very proud of this team. They dug down deep and found a way to win a butt-ugly game where they really had no bid’ness of winning. My high-school friend (hi, Betsy) said we did end up dancing after the dust cleared. Okay, it was dancing like Elaine Benes, but we still danced.

BONUS THOUGHTS:

• South Carolina outplayed LSU yesterday but got hosed by the officials. Not once, not twice but three times late in the game. I’m no fan of the Gamecocks, but that was some craptacular officiating in a conference that deserves so much more.

• It looks like the Florida Board of Trustees are about to make a decision on Billy Napier. Is a contract extension too much to wish for? The details of his buyout are quite eye-opening as they’d be on the hook for 85% of those numbers. Failing upward for the win.
• Will Florida State win 3 games this season? Losing to Memphis State after a bye week to fix some things – at home – might not be their nadir. That locker room is broken.

That’s all I’ve got.

As Always, GO DAWGS!