Georgia's Balance Offensive Approach Sets Up Another Top-25 Victory
Balance is one way to describe Todd Monken's offense so far in his second season. Monken continues to find ways to win without his starting quarterback JT Daniels being available consistently. Instead, senior quarterback Stetson Bennett led Georgia to its third straight win over a ranked opponent.
Kentucky came into Saturday's matchup the No. 11 team in the country with impressive wins over Florida and LSU in recent weeks. The Wildcats' 6-0 record was the best start to their season in a while. Under head coach Mark Stoops, the Kentucky football program provides Georgia with a history of tough matchups.
Kentucky's physical, ground and pound offense is no longer the face of the Wildcat offense in 2021. Instead, Stoops hired former LA Rams assistant Liam Coen to lead his offense this past offseason; Coen has since brought over many of the same concepts ran at the professional level by head coach Sean McVay with the Rams.
Despite the revamped offense leading Kentucky to an undefeated start, it was not enough to continue the unbeaten run against the Georgia defense. The number one defense in the country right did much more than just beat the Wildcats; they set up the Bulldogs offense with multiple opportunities to score early, keeping Kentucky scoreless until the middle of the second quarter.
After two early punts from Georgia, the defense kept Kentucky off the board and set up Georgia's offense with its first touchdown, creating a short field after Kentucky punted from inside the shadow of its endzone.
After Stetson Bennett completed a pass to James Cook on an angle route for the game's first touchdown, Georgia forced a Kentucky punt on the ensuing possession, allowing the Bulldogs offense to take over. This time it was the run game that sparked a five-play 80-yard touchdown drive.
Kendall Milton's 35-yard run lit a spark under the rest of the Georgia offense on the drive's second play. Bennett ran for 17-yards on a read-option keeper the next play; Cook would then take a run 12-yards before Zamir White finished off the quick drive with a 24-yard touchdown run.
Georgia's run game helped out a struggling first-half passing offense. Those three consecutive explosive runs helped spur the Georgia passing game in the second half.
Stetson Bennett finished off the game throwing for 250 yards and three passing touchdowns. Two of those passing touchdowns were completed to true freshman tight end Brock Bowers. The tight ends continue to be a huge feature of the Georgia offense; the Bulldogs ran multiple plays out of 13 personnel sets (one running back, three tight ends).
The balanced approach from Todd Monken saw Georgia finish with 160 yards rushing en route to a 30-13 win over Kentucky.
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