ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia played like the No. 1 team in the country and took care of business against a determined No. 11 Kentucky team on the way to a 30-13 victory Saturday afternoon at Sanford Stadium.
The win gave Georgia its first 7-0 start (5-0 SEC) since the 2017 season and puts it in firm control of the SEC’s Eastern Division with five games to play. The Bulldogs now have a week off before playing No. 20 Florida in Jacksonville on Oct. 30. But the Gators likely are out of the conference race after losing to LSU 49-42 on Saturday to fall to 4-3 and 2-3 in league play.
No, it was the Wildcats (6-1, 4-1) who came in and now went out of Week 7 as Georgia’s primary rival for the East championship. And there might be some bad blood going forward.
Kentucky called a timeout with only seconds remaining to try to score, trailing 30-7. The Wildcats got in the end zone on a pass to Wan’Dale Robinson to make the score 30-13. Fittingly, the Bulldogs blocked the extra-point attempt.
But even with the 22-play scoring drive to end the game, Kentucky became the sixth opponent in seven to fail to gain 300 yards against the Bulldogs. It had 249.
Meanwhile there’s no indication Georgia is poised for a slip-up. With quarterback JT Daniels still sidelined with a back injury, Stetson Bennett got his third start in a row and fourth this season. He had a hard day’s work ahead of him, but he and Georgia poured on some passing game in the second half.
It appeared Georgia had broken the game open with a 59-yard touchdown catch and run by tight end Brock Bowers less than two minutes into the second half. But the score was nullified by downfield holding against guard Justin Shaffer. So it was first down at the Kentucky 44 instead.
It didn’t end up being a big deal.
Three plays later, Bennett hit Bowers again, this time on a deep fade to the right, rear corner of the west end zone. That gave the Bulldogs a 21-7 lead just 2:37 into the second half.
Bennett went 4-for-4 passing on Georgia’s next offensive possession. But the 63-yard drive stalled at the Kentucky 9, and the Bulldogs settled for a 26-yard field goal and a 24-7 lead.
The Wildcats answered and had first-and-goal at the Georgia 10. But after and incompletion, a tackle for loss and a chop-block penalty, Devonte Wyatt blocked Kentucky’s field-goal attempt to end the third quarter.
Georgia took that momentum and used it as fuel for a seven-play, 82-yard scoring drive. It ended with another touchdown pass from Bennett to Bowers, this one covering 20 yards. They hooked up five times for 101 yards.
For the game, Bennett finished with 250 yards on an efficient 14-of-20 passing. Zamir White and James Cook each added touchdowns and led the Bulldogs’ 166-yard rushing attack with 97 yards between them.
Kentucky mounted another late drive, but ended up as the sixth team in seven to finish with fewer than 300 yards against the Bulldogs. Linebacker Quay Walker led Georgia with eight tackles, but tackle Jalen Carter was the real defensive star for the Bulldogs. He had a sack and two tackles for loss to go with his six tackles.
Kentucky pulled out all the stops to go into the locker room trailing only 14-7 at halftime.
