LEXINGTON, Ky. — There weren’t many style points to be had Saturday, so the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs had only a bright, shiny undefeated record to show off in forging a 16-6 win over Kentucky here at Kroger Field.
The Bulldogs (11-0, 8-0 SEC) finished undefeated in conference play for the second consecutive season. But this game will be remembered not for what Georgia did well, but for what it did to keep its opponent in the game.
With brisk winds and low temperatures playing their part, Georgia’s defense withstood a couple of legitimate scoring threats by quarterback Will Levis and the Wildcats early in the game. Then Georgia coach Kirby Smart again let confidence in his defense get in the way of sound decision-making.
Facing fourth-and-goal at the Kentucky 1 and leading 16-0 as the third quarter ended, Smart told his offense to go for it. On the first play of the fourth quarter Kendall Milton was stuffed at right guard by defensive tackle Jamarius Dinkins and linebacker Jordan Wright.
Smart surely was thinking that the Wildcats, bottled up all game, couldn’t go 99 yards against his defense. He was wrong.
Not only did Kentucky do it, it took only five minutes to do so. Getting 10 yards from Levis on a quarterback keeper on second down. The Wildcats quarterback mostly used his arm to get his team the rest of the way.
A 42-yard completion to wide receiver Barlon Brown got Kentucky into Georgia territory. The Wildcats faced fourth-and-2 at the Bulldogs 9 when Levis hit Brown on a slant for a touchdown. Suddenly, the blue-clad crowd that had gotten so quiet in the third quarter was up on its feet and fully engaged.
They quickly would have more to cheer about as Georgia was forced to punt after four plays on its next possession. And after a 49-yard punt, the Wildcats were back in business.
Taking over at the Kentucky 10, Levis completed another long pass to Brown — this one for 47 yards — to get right back into Georgia territory. The Wildcats would reach the Bulldogs’ 16 before going backward.
Levis was sacked by Javon Bulland and Robert Beal, then had to throw the ball away on a third-down play on which the Wildcats wanted an interference call on Georgia. Instead, they were whistled for intentional grounding, but then the call was overruled by review.
Finally, Kentucky lined up for a 36-yard field goal. A low snap contributed to a badly missed kick left by kick Mark Ruffalo.
A 17-yard run by Stetson Bennett helped get Georgia out to midfield on the ensuing possession. But as had been the case most of the game, the Bulldogs couldn’t get one yard when they needed it. Bennett was stopped for no gain on a quarterback sneak at the Georgia 47.
Kentucky called its final timeout then to preserve as much clock as it could to score twice. It couldn’t manage once, and the game ended as most of the others have, with the Bulldogs taking a knee on offense in the opponents’ territory.
Instead of a recording a shocking upset over the nation’s No. 1 team, Kentucky instead fell to 6-5 overall and 3-5 in conference play. It was the Bulldogs’ 13th consecutive victory over the Wildcats.
Bennett managed only 116 yards passing and threw another interception. What got the job done for the Bulldogs for once was running the football. With a career-best 143 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown, Kenny McIntosh led a Georgia running back corps that ran for 247 of the 363 yards total offense.
For the Bulldogs, it was eighth time they finished with an undefeated SEC slate, including last year’s 8-0 mark. Georgia is in the midst of a 19-game win streak against SEC regular-season opponents.
They play host to Georgia Tech in the regular-season finale at noon Saturday.
