NCAAF Game Recap - Georgia at Kentucky
Sat Nov 3, 2018 3:30 PM EDT

Bama
29
LSU
0
F
Lou
16
Clem
77
F
ND
31
NW
21
F
PSU
7
Mich
42
F
UGA
34
KY
17
F
Okla
51
TxTch
46
F
Neb
31
OSU
36
F
Temp
40
UCF
52
F
Cal
13
WaSt
19
F
WVU
42
Tex
41
F
MIZ
38
Fla
17
F
Utah
20
AzSt
38
F
Hou
31
SMU
45
F
UtSt
56
Hawaii
17
F
Iowa
36
Purd
38
F
Fres
48
UNLV
3
F
LT
3
MissSt
45
F
Syr
41
Wake
24
F
Pitt
23
UVA
13
F
BC
31
VaTec
21
F
TxAM
24
Aub
28
F
MiaOH
42
Buff
51
F
Kent
35
BGSU
28
F
Ball
13
Toled
45
F
Ohio
59
WestMI
14
F
NIU
36
Akr
26
F
W Ky
10
MidTN
29
F
Colo
34
Ariz
42
F
Rut
17
Wisc
31
F
SCar
48
Miss
44
F
IASt
27
Kans
3
F
OkSt
31
Bayl
35
F
MSU
24
MD
3
F
C Mi
7
E Mi
17
F
Mem
59
ECU
41
F
AF
14
Army
17
F
GATec
38
UNC
28
F
JMU
24
UNH
35
F
SJSU
9
Wyo
24
F
TxSt
40
GASt
31
F
UT-M
14
JacSt
21
F
GaSo
25
ULMon
44
F
SoAl
14
ArkSt
38
F
Marsh
24
SMiss
26
F
SamHu
26
(N/A)
43
F
ULLaf
16
Troy
26
F
K St
13
TCU
14
F
UTEP
34
Rice
26
F
MIN
31
Ill
55
F
Tul
41
SoFL
15
F
FlaSt
28
NCSt
47
F
Lib
59
UMass
62
F(2OT)
Navy
0
Cin
42
F
AlcSt
42
NMS
52
F
UNCC
3
Tenn
14
F
App
23
CoCar
7
F
UConn
19
Tuls
49
F
Duke
20
MiaFL
12
F
UCLA
21
Oreg
42
F
UTSA
3
UAB
52
F
FlAtl
49
FLInt
14
F
Stan
23
Wash
27
F
USC
38
OreSt
21
F
SDSU
31
NM
23
F
BYU
16
Boise
21
F
Kent
14
Buff
48
F

Nov 3, 2018, 3:30 PM EDT

Final

1

2

3

4

T

(6) Georgia (8-1)

7

7

14

6

34

(11) Kentucky (7-2)

0

3

7

7

17

No. 6 Georgia tops No. 11 Kentucky 34-17 to clinch SEC East
Sat Nov 3, 2018 8:19 PM

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) Georgia believed it had a point to prove.

Bulldogs running backs D'Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield spent all week hearing about the rushing prowess of Kentucky's Benny Snell Jr. Georgia's defensive players kept fielding questions about their inability to stop the run or rush the passer consistently.

They responded Saturday with a performance that convincingly showed Georgia remains the class of the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division. Swift ran for a career-high 156 yards and two touchdowns as the sixth-ranked Bulldogs defeated No. 11 Kentucky 34-17 to clinch the SEC East title.

"I think people had started doubting us," Swift said. "We just tried to silence the critics."

Swift had an 83-yard breakaway in the third quarter that gave Georgia (8-1, 6-1, No. 6 College Football Playoff) a 28-3 lead. He also had a nifty 20-yard scoring run in the second period when the game was close.

Holyfield ran for a career-high 115 yards on 18 carries, scoring on a 4-yarder in the third quarter. Georgia rushed for a season-high 331 yards to earn a spot in the SEC championship game Dec. 1 in Atlanta.

"It's definitely a point proven," Holyfield said. "There was a lot of talk about them.... and not enough talk about us."

Kentucky (7-2, 5-2, No. 9 CFP) has never reached the SEC championship game, which has been played every year since 1992. The Wildcats entered the weekend with the nation's top scoring defense and hadn't allowed anyone to exceed 20 points all year, but they couldn't slow down Georgia's tandem of Swift and Holyfield.

Before Saturday's game, the only player to rush for as many as 75 yards against Kentucky was Texas A&M's Trayveon Williams, who ran for 138 yards in a 20-14 overtime victory over the Wildcats. Swift and Holyfield were both over the 100-yard mark by the end of the third quarter.

"They did a good job," Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. "They moved us. They made us miss. There's a lot of things we could have done better, but a lot of that has to do with them."

Kentucky dominated time of possession through the first 1 1/2 quarters, but still trailed 7-3. That's when Swift started to give the Bulldogs some breathing room.

With Georgia facing second-and-17, Swift made a move around a defender at the line of scrimmage, made another move between two Wildcats about five yards downfield and shed a tackle inside the 5 to complete a remarkable 20-yard touchdown run.

Swift's touchdown gave Georgia a 14-3 late in the second quarter. Georgia fumbled away a scoring opportunity late in the first half but got the ball to open the second half and extended the lead to 21-3 on Holyfield's touchdown.

On Georgia's next series, Swift raced through a big hole on the left side of the line and didn't appear to get touched on his 83-yard sprint to the end zone. Before that play, Kentucky hadn't allowed a run from scrimmage longer than 34 yards all season.

That touchdown sealed a hard-earned division title for Georgia, last year's College Football Playoff runner-up. After losing 36-16 at LSU two weeks ago, Georgia beat Florida and Kentucky for two straight wins over ranked division foes.

"Give our kids a lot of credit because their backs were against the wall kind of two weeks in a row and they came out fighting," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. "They came out scratching and clawing."

TAKEAWAYS

Georgia: The Bulldogs' fearsome rushing attack was the difference in the game, but Georgia's pass rush also started showing signs of life. Georgia had four sacks Saturday after entering the weekend with an SEC-low 10 sacks all season. Georgia now won't have to play another true road game all season. The Bulldogs have home games with Auburn, Massachusetts and Georgia Tech the next three weeks.

Kentucky: The Wildcats reached Georgia territory on three straight first-half possessions and only had three points to show for it. That proved critical when a defense that had carried Kentucky all season couldn't slow down Georgia's rushing attack. Kentucky got more bad news in the third quarter when safety Darius West drew a targeting penalty that will knock him out for the first half of its game next week at Tennessee.

SLOWING SNELL

Snell ran for 73 yards and one touchdown for the Wildcats to increase his season total to 1,008, becoming the first Kentucky player to rush for 1,000 yards in three seasons. But he needed 20 carries to reach that total, an average of 3.65 yards per attempt.

"People doubt us and say we can't do this and we can't do that," Georgia defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter said. "We'll just do what we do. When they realize that's what we do, we'll just keep pushing."

POLL IMPLICATIONS

Georgia may need some help to get up to the top five, though this victory likely assures the Bulldogs remain in control of their postseason fate. Kentucky figures to drop a few spots in the Top 25 and likely will leave the top 10 in the CFP rankings.

UP NEXT

Georgia hosts Auburn.

Kentucky visits Tennessee.

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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/tag/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25

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Follow Steve Megargee at https://twitter.com/stevemegargee

Passing

UGA Att Cmp % TD-Pa Yds-Pa LgPa Int Rat
J. Fromm 20 14 70.0 1 113 20 0 100.6
KY Att Cmp % TD-Pa Yds-Pa LgPa Int Rat
T. Wilson 29 23 79.3 1 226 31 0 110.6

Rushing

UGA Att Yds-Ru Avg LgRu TDRu
D. Swift 16 156 9.8 83 2
E. Holyfield 18 115 6.4 30 1
KY Att Yds-Ru Avg LgRu TDRu
B. Snell 20 73 3.6 11 1
T. Wilson 12 12 1.0 9 0

Receiving

UGA Rec Yds-Rc Avg LgRc TD-Rc
J. Holloman 4 39 9.8 20 0
R. Ridley 3 37 12.3 17 0
KY Rec Yds-Rc Avg LgRc TD-Rc
A. Rose 4 59 14.8 31 1
L. Bowden Jr. 6 52 8.7 19 0

Fumbles

UGA F FL
J. Fromm 1 1
KY F FL
C. Conrad 1 1
A. Rose 1 1

Returning

UGA KR Avg KRTD LgKR PR Avg TD LgPR
M. Hardman 1 24.0 0 24 1 65.0 0 65
B. Herrien 1 20.0 0 20 0 0 0

Punting

UGA Punt Yds Avg LgPu
J. Camarda 1 55 55.0 55
KY Punt Yds Avg LgPu
M. Duffy 4 194 48.5 56

Takeaways

Team Stats Comparison

UGA KY
Points For 34 17
Total Yards 444 310
Rushing Yards 331 84
Passing Yards 113 226
Passing Completions / Attempts 14/20 23/29
Turnovers 2 2
Interceptions Thrown 0 0
Fumbles - Lost 2/2 2/2
First Downs 25 21
Penalties - Yards 4/45 6/64
Time Of Possession 25:25 35:35
Third Down Conversions/Attempts 7/12 7/13
Fourth Down Conversions/Attempts 0/0 0/1
Punts - Average Yards 1/55 4/48

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter UGA KY
UGA 04:23 TD Isaac Nauta 4 yd pass from Jake Fromm (Rodrigo Blankenship kick) 7 0
2nd Quarter UGA KY
KY 06:37 FG Chance Poore 34 yd FG 7 3
UGA 12:32 TD D'Andre Swift 20 yd run (Rodrigo Blankenship kick) 14 3
3rd Quarter UGA KY
UGA 04:40 TD Elijah Holyfield 4 yd run (Rodrigo Blankenship kick) 21 3
UGA 07:04 TD D'Andre Swift 83 yd run (Rodrigo Blankenship kick) 28 3
KY 11:15 TD Benny Snell 9 yd run (Chance Poore kick) 28 10
4th Quarter UGA KY
UGA 03:16 FG Rodrigo Blankenship 23 yd FG 31 10
KY 05:59 TD Asim Rose 31 yd pass from Terry Wilson (Chance Poore kick) 31 17
UGA 11:28 FG Rodrigo Blankenship 38 yd FG 34 17

Game Information

Stadium: Kroger Field, Lexington, Kentucky
Attendance: 63,543
Game Time:
Weather: