Tennessee football falls during Week 9 bye in SEC Power Rankings

Defeated Kentucky Wildcats 14-3

A bye week was supposed to fix the issues the Georgia Bulldogs had after a blowout loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Well, they did get a win off the bye week over the Kentucky Wildcats, and Kirby Smart’s defense finally returned to its usual self. However, the offense continues to have problems that plagued it dating back to the second half of that Alabama loss.

During a bye, the hope was that UGA would be able to avoid the turnover issues with Stetson Bennett at quarterback. Instead, he threw two interceptions and had a fumble that he was lucky enough to recover. One interception was on 1st and goal at the 10-yard line, when you don’t want to make such mistakes. These things made this an ugly win.

Now, to be fair, Kentucky’s style is to make things ugly. They thrive on clock management and forcing turnovers. However, a team like Georgia with so much talent should be good enough to dominate teams that play that way, and the fact that this game was close coming off a bye could be a bit concerning.

How concerning is it? Well, the schedule gets easy down the stretch as they close the year out against the Missouri Tigers, Mississippi State Bulldogs, South Carolina Gamecocks and Vanderbilt Commodores. However, before all of that they have a huge game this week, the SEC East game of the year, against the next team in our power rankings.