On the road in the SEC is tough. That’s what Kirby said before and after the SEC opener on the bluegrass. Saturday night on ABC in prime time against a team who had been blown out at home the previous week by (checks notes) the Palmetto Poultry should be a spot where the Dawgs feasted. Instead, we get into a 4 quarter battle that is a harbinger of the remainder of the season to come.
Here the link to my preview:
Team Stats:
The Georgia defense allowed Kentucky into the red zone once. In today’s game, how does a team only win by 1 point in a situation like that? 102 yards on 30 rushing attempts, 9 penalties resulting in almost 100 yards of lost field position and a greater than 50% 3rd down conversion percentage allowed … that’s how.
Mark Stoops wanted to play manball, and Kirby was more than willing to be a part of it.
Individual Stats:
Maybe this is more about the season overall, and what happened in Indianapolis on Saturday. First, I thought this would be the type of individual stat line we would see from Dom Lovett for most of 2024. 1 or 2 explosive plays sprinkled in with a guy who would keep the chains moving a la a slot receiver from the first Mike Bobo days … Michael Bennett. Second, Lovett probably made himself some money this week at the combine with 2 4.41 40s, and he appeared to be solid in the on-field drills. I don’t understand why we didn’t see more from Lovett in 2024 … I think the answer is more than Bobo sucks.
Something to Consider for 2025:
On offense, I looked for something to talk positively about from the offense for 2025, but I couldn’t find anything. We need more from the tight end position in 2025 than we got for most of 2024. Oscar Delp is a likely Mackey Award watch list candidate this season (also Luckie could be). I didn’t expect Brock Bowers type of production from the tight end position this year, but I also didn’t expect the tight end to disappear for stretches as well.
Are CJ and Raylen the best inside linebacker duo in the conference entering 2025? Without a doubt, they are top 3. With the depth at the position, this might be the deepest group of talent on the team and possibly the best set of inside linebackers in the college game. A strong defense up the middle starts with the DTs at the point of attack allowing these guys to play sideline to sideline. This group is definitely a bright spot for 2025.
I understand kickoff returns are rare in today’s game, but when was the last time we had kick returners who changed the game? Hopefully, Zach Branch and some of the young talented guys can put some fear into teams kicking the ball.
Summary
Winning is like better than losing in the immortal words of this guy:
This game was not good for the Bulldog Nation entering a bye week before heading west to play what many were considering the game of the year.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
I was with my family in PCB for break. It was our first day on the beach, I was buzzing off Pineapple Willys and sun, and walked into the Hungry Howies to grab some pizzas for the kids and saw the first image of this game. It was the first time I saw us with the new ABC score graphics and between the horrible play and that, I was convinced I was had consumed more than just alcohol that day. The whole thing was surreally bad, like someone had told them before the game: you’re not 2022 Georgia. It seems like this is where the yips started, and Stoops always plays us close. They knew from film Bowers and McConkey were gone, Young was half-assing it, and if they sold out on the run that Beck couldn’t beat us alone. They were damn near right. This was the start of some bad psychology.
We should have lost that game. No doubt in my mind past coaches would have. Finding a way to win a game you should lose is makes winners.
“Resilience” entered Kirby’s lexicon after this game and that was the insight to an internal problem. Hungry floor eating hunters don’t resort to Resilience against weaker foes. They dominate. Would love to see what was being said at both the Kentucky halftime and then the Alabama one. Which was the wake-up call?
I’ve wondered if there wasn’t a moment that, when shit hit the fan, that these guys found themselves looking around and wondering – where’s Brock? Where’s Van Pran? Where’s the leaders that step up? And they suddenly realized, oh crap…it’s us. There’s a level of psychological safety there when you have other-worldly talent that you know can bring you out of adversity, it’s another thing altogether when you’re having to build that plane as you fly it.
You just hit the nail on the head, “ when you have other-worldly talent that you know can bring you out of adversity”. Who was the difference maker in 2024? Were there multiple other-worldly talented kids? This squad lacked the high end, elite play makers we have seen over the past few years. There were solid players across the board, but no dudes. Will we see anything different in 2025?
Everyone points at the offense for not having playmakers. Supposedly, we had a QB that was going to raise the game of everyone around him. What was going on the entire offseason when the coaches can’t really do anything with the players to get on the same page?
No one points the finger at the defense. There were dudes as we’ll find out over 3 days in April. They gave up 23(!) first downs to a team that was anemic on offense.
But only gave up 12 points and were kept on the field with all our 3 & outs. Watching dropped passes and stuffed runs had to be frustrating for a D that was protecting the Redzone. Wonder what the relationship between the D and O was? Any tension and the team chemistry starts to break. Then the D gets roasted at Alabama in the first half. That Nick Saban Field locker room halftime is the one I wish we could see.
50%+ on 3rd down defense … sorry but that’s horrible. A defense can bow its neck.
This game was really bad on both sides of the ball.
I’ll review this right after I finish my voluntary IRS tax audit, colonoscopy, and root canal.
If my wife had said “Let’s go to every antique dealer in the metro Atlanta area this weekend,” I may not have gotten this post done.
This past year was a throw back to the MR years. This team had a hard time getting up for certain games. My old dad used to say you can’t just roll your helmet on the field and expect to win. Hope Kirby can light a fire under the 2025 guys for every game.
The best Georgia teams of the post-2000 era have been player led. A coach can get a team ready to come out of the locker room, but player-leaders get them focused throughout the year to be ready for and during the season.
The mfing roughing called on Jalon early clearly changed the momentum. Bullshit weak ass call by a really bad group of officials.
I had forgotten that!
I went back and looked at the drive chart. That possession ended with Vandagriff’s fumble that ended in points for us.
This was the game that made me realize we were going to have very different / rough go with the offense all year long. And i wasnt wrong.
Watched this one with a group of friends, all of which were in various stages of disbelief at how helpless the offense looked. Felt like this game did something to the teams psyche as the same issues continually raised their heads all season.
I hope we never have to play Kentucky after this year while Kirby is our coach. It just seems like he feels he has to out manball Stoops every time we play them. I never really get worried about losing to them, but it’s such ugly football.
We don’t do it in Athens. That’s what so weird about this. He turns the superior athletes loose when we play them at home.
To me it wasn’t some deep psychological issue that was exposed/caused by this game. A lot of it was the fact that Beck got hurt late in the game and I personally don’t think he was healthy the rest of the season. Nobody talks about that but he got slammed on his shoulder late in this game and something seemed off with him the rest of the year. I didn’t take this game as some sort of proof that our offense sucked as Kentucky had a defense loaded with upperclassmen with Pop leading the charge. This game wasnt some sort of moment that exposed the team’s flaws as much as a game where the quarterback got hurt and he never recovered. I’ll be glad when Bobo is gone so people don’t have that to cling to anymore.