The Trifecta: Three reasons Georgia defeated Kentucky

Georgia defeated Kentucky 35-14 on Saturday afternoon at Sanford Stadium. Here are three reasons the Bulldogs defeated the Wildcats.

Finally a fast start

Georgia started slowly in each of its first two SEC contests. It did not make that same mistake against Kentucky.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. The offense managed a pair of touchdown drives in the opening period, with the second being a 96-yard venture. Both drives ended in touchdown runs by quarterback Gunner Stockton.

“I was excited about our guys getting a fast start today,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “I think that was the goal. It’s the goal every game, but to start early and start fast, I thought we had good energy on offense.”

Overall, Georgia outgained Kentucky 165-64 in the opening period.

“There’s nothing we did at practice to start faster,” Smart said. “If we did, we’d do it every game. We can’t control that. So we talked about it, we wanted to start fast, we wanted to bring our own juice. We say (fire, passion, and energy) doesn’t come in a pill. FPE doesn’t come by way of an audience. It’s a decision you make, and our guys made the decision today to have it.” 

Third-down efficiency

After struggling on third downs on both sides of the ball last week, the Bulldogs found early success against Kentucky.

Georgia converted all five of its third-down attempts on its opening two drives, including a third-down scramble for a touchdown by Stockton. For the game, Georgia succeeded on 8-of-12 third-down attempts.

Defensively, Georgia limited Kentucky to just 3-of-11 on third down.

The first fumble

Georgia had a season first on Saturday.

The Bulldogs led 21-7 at halftime. On the first drive of the second half, linebacker CJ Allen forced and recovered a Kentucky fumble at the Wildcat 38. That was the first fumble the Bulldogs had forced (and by extension recovered) this season.

Georgia cashed in on the turnover, scoring a touchdown to seize full control of the game with a 28-7 lead.

“I can’t tell you how hard (defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann) and the defensive staff have worked,” Smart said. “I mean, we sacrificed 10, 20, 30 — like 30-40 practice minutes, which are like golden nuggets. I mean, to y’all, 30-40 minutes is nothing, but 30-40 minutes out of a week to nothing but attempts and strip outs and targeting balls and punching balls is really big. I didn’t see it, but it looks like he used one of the tools that we had to punch it.”