With 16 to 18 mile per hour winds, gusts of 25 and freezing temperatures it wasn’t hard to see that these were not the best conditions for college football, but the game was played nevertheless.
Contrary to popular belief, this go ‘round the final score does a good job telling the story of the game.The conditions were the name of the game yesterday. They dictated how the game was played and were a key factor in the less than desirable scoreline. Winds were blowing and affecting kicking and throwing trajectories. Temps made the game so unbearable you couldn’t even have benchwarmers; it was so cold. Everyone was cold, and everyone wanted to go home. The result of all of this was both teams turning to the ground game for answers.
Physicality was a big theme coming in, and it proved to reign true once the guys got their cleats in the dirt. You could especially see it on the defensive side of the ball.
Both defenses proved stout, especially in the first half. Kentucky held Georgia to just 87 yards in the first two quarters, but once the half hit you could see Georgia’s depth takeover the game.
The fact of the matter is the Dawgs have one of the deepest rosters in the country. Guys are bound to get tired playing this sport and when they do, they get subbed out. A lot of the time the guy coming off the bench is a decent dropoff from the guy he’s replacing. That’s just not the case in Kirby Smart’s world.
Rotating in offensive and defensive lineman allowed Georgia to maintain a hold of the run game on both sides of the ball. Push on both ends had RBU running for 247 yards and kept Kentucky to only 89.
Georgia’s rushing attack really opened up in the second half, running for 113 in the third quarter alone to the first half’s 87 total rushing yards.
Those numbers led to a career day for senior back Kenny McIntosh. He had hit the century mark for the first time in his four years at Georgia. Numbers-wise he went for 143 total rushing yards and 7.5 yards per carry. Quite a way to cap off what is most likely to be his final SEC game before he heads to the NFL.
After beating Kentucky, Georgia is now one of only three teams in SEC history to go undefeated in conference play in back-to-back seasons. It was another hard-fought win on the road in the SEC as Smart would say. Though it may not have been the way many of us were expecting it to go, a win’s a win.
The Dawgs move onto in-state rival Georgia Tech who’s hot off a road win against ranked North Carolina. It’s time to get focused on clean, old-fashioned hate.