What Went Wrong Against Kentucky?
Photo by Michael Clubb
Georgia moves onto rivalry week to prepare to meet the Florida Gators in Jacksonville, Florida, to likely decide who will represent the SEC East in the SEC Championship game.
Before Georgia heads down to Jacksonville and takes on the Gator, they have some things to fix if they want to win the fourth game in a row against the Gators.
Stetson Bennett’s Ball Security
Stetson Bennett’s play has plunged well below the expectations of dawgnation. The Alabama game was a flashback to reality for the Georgia Football program and many of the fans. Alabama’s underperforming defense made Stetson Bennett look like a quarterback who was once the fourth string.
Bennett’s height is an issue that everyone knew about going into the last two games. It seems like Nick Saban and the Tide defense exposed a flaw in Bennett’s play, which is his height. Alabama and Kentucky were able to take advantage of their big defensive linemen and seal off passing lanes.
These cut off passing lanes and blocked Bennett’s vision have caused five interceptions to be thrown in the last two games. Two of those five interceptions were a product of a batted ball by a defensive lineman getting in the way of Bennett delivering the mail.
We saw Bennett thrown an interception early on in the redzone this past weekend against Kentucky because of a defensive lineman batting the ball. The second interception was thrown downfield in the area of Marcus Rosemy, but the product was not placed in the area of Rosemy. Bennett later explained that he was trying to throw the ball away but failed to get it out of play.
Ball security is an issue for Stetson as turnovers are the last thing Georgia needs. Efficiency is lacking in the passing between these last two games, and improvements need to be made if Georgia wants to compete for a National Championship.
No Imminent Threat at Receiver Without Pickens
George Pickens was one of two surprises scratched from Saturday’s road game against Kentucky. The sophomore receiver did not even make the trip to Lexington, Kentucky, after dealing with an upper-body injury throughout the week in practice.
Pickens is by far Georgia’s most lethal downfield receiver. Without Pickens, there isn’t much of a replacement for the skills he brings as a deep ball option. With a struggling quarterback, the last thing you want is losing your best receiver.
Georgia Rush Defense
Kentucky runs a very similar offense to what Georgia is used to running. The Wildcats are a run-first football team with an excellent offensive line and good running backs in the backfield. The strength at the running back position was evident in their performance against Georgia.
Georgia is known as one of the best defenses in the country, if not the best. One of the reasons that make the Georgia defense so good is their ability to stop the run. Great early season performances against Auburn and Tennessee added fuel to the fire about Georgia’s defense.
Since Monty Rice got banged up with a foot injury, it seems like Georgia has struggled to stop the run effectively. Alabama put up the most rushing yards on the Georgia defense we’ve seen in almost two seasons.
Kentucky followed up the Crimson Tide’s performance with another reliable performance on the ground against the Dawgs.
While injuries could be a reason for the regression in run defense on Saturday for Georgia, it is a cause for concern if the trend continues.
Injuries Piled Up
The injury report coming out Saturday’s game was massive. Georgia will now be battling attrition once again throughout the roster due to the massive amounts of injuries suffered from Saturday.
With Pickens and McIntosh grounded in Athens over the weekend, Georgia didn’t want to come home with more wounds right before Florida.
Georgia’s luck with getting out of Kentucky with not too many wounds ran out. Georgia left Kentucky Saturday with 7 players injured as they left the games with injuries. An eight-player was added to the list of injuries in an off-field accident.
This pile of injuries could not have come at the worst time for Georgia as they approach the last game of the “gauntlet” Georgia has run since week two, playing the toughest teams on the schedule in the first half of the season.