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Kentucky Rewind: Dogs avoid maybe most embarrassing loss ever while maybe thinking of Gators too soon

Posted on Oct 21, 2012 by Murray Poole  | 

8 Comments  | 

For Georgia, the news coming out of Gainesville, Fla. in late afternoon was very good. The Florida Gators had run roughshod over South Carolina 44-11 to deal the Gamecocks their second consecutive SEC loss, thus putting the Bulldogs in control of their own destiny heading into Saturday night’s game with Kentucky in Lexington.

But for much of this game, Georgia looked as if it was already glancing past the Wildcats and toward the big battle in Jacksonville next Saturday as a four-touchdown underdog Kentucky team pushed the Bulldogs down to the final few seconds before 11th-ranked Georgia walked away with a 29-24 squeaker over the Cats. It took a diving coverage of Kentucky’s late onside kick with just under four minutes remaining by Bulldog redshirt sophomore Connor Norman before the Bulldogs could finally salt the contest away.

Pretty or not, the fact remains that the Bulldogs did survive the UK upset bid and will enter the 3:30 p.m. game against unbeaten and second-ranked Florida (7-0, 6-0 SEC) with a 6-1 season and 4-1 conference slate with the winner gaining the inside track on the SEC East crown.

On a night when freshman tailbacks Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall and the Georgia running game were stymied for a second consecutive game, it took a record-breaking passing night by junior quarterback Aaron Murray for the Bulldogs to overcome still another disappointing game by a Georgia defense that allowed 206 yards rushing and the 24 points to a team that ranked at the bottom of the SEC in all offensive categories.

Murray (30-for-38, 427 yards, 4 TDs) enjoyed a career night, setting the school career touchdown pass record with 75 while completing a career-high 30 passes for the career-high 427 yards. Also, he set a school record for best completion percentage in a game with at least 30 completions. He had a 78.95 mark, breaking current offensive coordinator Mike Bobo’s mark of 76.92 vs. Ga. Tech in 1997 when he was 30-of-39. And, going further, Murray’s 427 yards passing ranks as the sixth best in school history and most since Eric Zeier had 441 against Vanderbilt in 1994. Murray’s 427 yards ranks as the second best in the SEC this year behind Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel’s 453 against Arkansas.

“It was huge for us offensively to be able to go out there, put some points on the board and have some great drives,” said Murray. “We know we’re a very talented offense and we had one bad game two weeks ago but that’s far behind us. We understand we still have some work to do. (We need to) continue getting better but I thought today was a great day offensively. Our offensive line did another good job and we’ve got a lot of talented playmakers out there. Now we’re going to face a great, undefeated team in Florida and we’ve got to have a good week of practice, get ready to play and see what happens,” said Murray.

“It’s great to be able to go on the road in the SEC and get the win,” said Georgia coach Mark Richt. “I don’t think anybody is thrilled with the way we played for the full 60 minutes but we got the victory and we’re where we want to be after Florida beat South Carolina. You’ve got to give credit to Kentucky and coach (Joker) Phillips for the game they played but we got the job done. It was a big night for Aaron as he set (passing records) but of course Kentucky did have a bunch of freshmen in the secondary, but the bottom line we did throw and catch it well. And it was nice to see Tavarres (King) come out and have a big night also,” Richt added, alluding to King’s career-high nine catches for 188 yards and two touchdowns.

Gashing the Bulldogs with their running attack, the Wildcats received the opening kickoff and drove 84 yards on 13 plays to take a 7-0 lead. Aaron Boyd got the touchdown for Kentucky, on a 4-yard pass from Morgan Newton.

Just prior to the end of the period, the Bulldogs tied the game at 7-7 on a 66-yard strike from Murray to King and Marshall Morgan’s PAT kick. King’s score capped a four-play 97-yard drive for the Bulldogs.

But the Wildcats, undaunted, ran the ensuing kickoff back to their own 42 and then wheeled 58 yards on nine plays with Newton finishing the drive with a 3-yard run. Murray’s passing then took the Bulldogs back down the field with a 48-yard completion to King placing the ball at the UK 5-yard line. After Keith Marshall went four yards to the one, Murray hooked up with King for the 73rd touchdown pass of his career, one better than David Greene’s previous school mark of 72 touchdown passes. But, this time, Morgan missed the PAT kick and with 8:28 left until halftime, the Wildcats remained in the lead at 14-13.

Just before intermission, however, Georgia began a push from its own 29-yard line and hurriedly rode Murray’s passing down to the Kentucky 9-yard stripe before running out of time and having to settle for Morgan’s 27-yard field goal (which struck the bar) at the halftime buzzer. Thus, the Bulldogs clung to a shaky 16-14 lead at the break.

After the Wildcats moved back ahead 17-16 in the third period on a 37-yard McIntosh field goal, Georgia finally wrested the lead for keeps on a 22-yard strike from Murray to Chris Conley. The try-for-two on the PAT failed and the Bulldogs led 22-17 with 5:01 left in the third. Georgia then appeared to finally notch some breathing room when Murray capped an 89-yard drive (which was kept alive by a roughing-the-punter penalty on UK) with a 10-yard pass to tight end Arthur Lynch. Morgan’s kick handed the Dogs a 29-17 advantage with just 7:51 remaining in the game. Still, Kentucky came back once more, driving to a 3-yard touchdown run by Raymond Sanders with 3:59 to go. Then came Kentucky’s onside kick attempt, which Norman beat several Wildcats to and all but saved the Bulldogs’ proverbial skin and prevented what would have been one of the most agonizing defeats in UGA football history.

What Worked
Murray’s stellar passing night and the Georgia receivers stepping up when absolutely nothing else was working is about all you can talk about in a game where the Bulldogs had much to play for and two full weeks to get ready for and still made Kentucky look like one of the toughest teams in the SEC, rather than a team that is now 1-7 on the season and 0-5 in the SEC.

What Didn’t Work
An inability to stop a weak Kentucky offense and a failure to stop the other team’s running game once again almost proved the Bulldogs’ undoing. Costly personal foul penalties (8 total penalties for 70 yards), a somewhat shaky kicking game including punts that were allowed to hit the ground, roll and pin the Bulldogs back and, as mentioned, a running game (77 yards total) that was so potent earlier but has flat out disappeared in the last two games … all of the above has the Bulldog Nation shaking its collective head over how this team has vastly underachieved and could be facing a huge beatdown next Saturday if things don’t improve drastically.

Top Performers
Murray and King had the big nights as did sophomore receiver Malcolm Mitchell, who also showed a career-high nine receptions for 103 yards. Although he picked up one of the costly personal foul penalties, senior safety Bacarri Rambo led the Georgia defense with 11 tackles while Shawn Williams and Alec Ogletree contributed 10 tackles each. Backup junior nose guard Kwame Geathers had his first career sack as well as four tackles.

Mighty Gators Await in Jax
“Our football team better get ready, our coaches better get ready and the Bulldog Nation better get ready because it’s going to take everybody to get the job done,” said Richt. “It will be a heck of a challenge. Florida is playing extremely well; they’re undefeated and are No. 2 in the BCS. It seems they’re getting stronger as the year goes on and also as the game goes on. We’re just thankful this game means as much as we thought it would before the season began.”

Tagged: georgia football, kentucky wildcats, florida gators, aaron murray, mark richt, tavarres king, bacarri rambo, alec ogletree, shawn williams, kwame geathers, murray poole