Georgia run defense faced with challenge, opportunity for redemption

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s run defense this past Saturday was shaky to say the least. The Bulldogs gave up 219 yards on the ground, the first time they’ve allowed over 200 since 2018. While 61 of that was picked up on a single play and it was Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne that led all ball carriers, you won’t hear anybody in Athens making excuses.

‘We all need to do a better job,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart put it simply, although he did add that after watching the tape, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed initially.

“We struck blockers and played the run well at times. We didn’t fit some plays well that they did,” Smart said. “Give them credit. And we probably didn’t work some of those plays enough out of the formations they did it. They did a nice job scheming that up. So we got to do a better job of that, make no mistake about it. But we have good run defenders.”

That claim of having good run defenders certainly will be put to the test this weekend with No. 20 Kentucky coming to town. The Wildcats are 5-0 and entering Athens off of a big win over a previously-ranked Florida squad. Running back Ray Davis earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance on Saturday, carrying it 26 times for 280 yards and a trio of touchdowns.

“He’s an exceptional back. As good a back I’ve seen in a long time,” Smart said of Davis. “This guy’s smooth, explosive. He pass protects really well. He protects the ball. He’s aggressive in the way he runs. It reminds me of Swift, he’s just a little bigger. But he has a lot of the same cuts. One-cut runner. And they do a tremendous job, now, blocking for him. So it’s not all him. I mean, he has a run game — it seems like Kentucky’s always had a back, right? They had Benny (Snell) — and he was unbelievable. And then they had a kid from Georgia (Chris Rodriguez) the last couple of years. Their backs run really physical, and they are committed to running the ball. They do a great job at the point of attack.”

Auburn entered last Saturday with the SEC’s second-best rushing attack. While Kentucky’s isn’t quite as highly ranked, coming in at No. 5 in the league, it’s on Georgia to match what the Wildcats do at the point of attack with an opportunity to redeem itself on the line.

So, who does that mean must have a good game? It’s easy to say everybody must be better. After all, there were missed tackles and mistakes made at every level of the defense. However, pressure is on for the likes of LB Smael Mondon – who was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week – and UGA’s other linebackers, along with the defensive line, to make an impact.

“Yeah, I don’t think the defensive line impacts the inside linebacker position by not having a disrupter. If you have people that strike blocks and occupy blocks, then it frees the linebackers up. Sometimes a disrupter’s worse for an inside linebacker because the offensive line’s free,” Smart said on Monday. “It’s hot and cold. We’ve played good for a while. We’ve had a few mental busts. We miskeyed a few things they did that they did a nice job of QB run misdirection. I mean, that’s what people do now in football. They pull a guy here, take a guy here and you got to figure out which way the guy’s going. We did that well some and didn’t do that well some. So we got to do a better job .. As far as the defensive line part, I never felt like we had — we had a lot of the same defensive linemen this year that we had last year, outside of Jalen, who really didn’t play most of the year. So we got plenty of D-linemen good enough to do things and execute. Just don’t have disruptive people. So you got to find other ways to do things defensively to try to get people negative plays.”

“I feel like we could have played better. There’s some stuff we were having problems with. But I feel like that’s some easy stuff to iron out in practice and get fixed,” Mondon, who also said that he and the rest of the defense were excited about the matchup against Davis and the Wildcats, added. “We definitely misfit a couple runs that hurt us. I think just having good eyes and just focusing on your keys, doing your job … It was kind of like some misdirection. They had some plays, and then the quarterback being able to run the ball too was kind of an effect because you’ve got to factor in him. With the quarterback being in the run game, that’s like an extra hat. It kind of goes with doing your job. Sometimes they had two plays going in different directions at the same time. Some people have got to play this play and some people have got to play that one. I just felt like sometimes, we weren’t all on the same page.”

Kickoff time against Kentucky is set for 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN) at Sanford Stadium. Oddsmakers in Las Vegas consider Georgia to be 14.5-point favorites at the time of publication.