Georgia handles Kentucky; Awaits Florida

For the third consecutive week the Georgia Bulldogs have looked more like the team we thought they would be than the team that lost 4 straight. Georgia went on the road to play a dangerous Kentucky team and jumped on them 28-3 and Georgia put it in cruise control to pick up their first road victory of the season. The story of this game was Georgia's defense causing early turnovers and the offense capitalizing on them. Now that Georgia has discarded the SEC East also-rans of Kentucky, Tennessee and Vandy it looks to a much bigger fish, the University of Florida. Florida has long been a thorn in the side of the Georgia Bulldogs and Mark Richt. Believe it or not Georgia actually hold the lead in the all-time series 46-39-2. Despite their lead in the series, Florida has dominated recently and is 2-7 against Mark Richt with Georgia only winning in 2004 (31-24 behind David Greene's 3 TD passes) and 2007 (42-30 behind Knowshon Moreno's 188 rushing yards and 6 sacks of Tim Tebow).

This will be a different Georgia/Florida game than usual. It's been 31 years since these two teams met on the field and both were unranked. The momentum is in Georgia's corner as they are playing their best football of the year and things seem like they are coming together in Athens. The rest and preparation is in Florida's corner as they have had an off week for Urban to re-vamp the offense and get some players healthy and back with the team. Right now I'm leaning towards Georgia taking this one but I think this one could come down to the wire since both teams are truly fighting with their backs against the wall.

Georgia Notes:
- UGAXIII is now 2-0 since his debut against Vandy.
- Justin Houston picked up 2.5 sacks against Vandy and is leading the SEC with 9.5 sacks. Kentucky coach Joker Phillips said about Georgia "It's the best pass rush team we've seen, no question about that."
- Washaun Ealey ran for 157 yards and 5 TD against Kentucky (tying a Georgia record). Georgia's rushing attack is coming on as they've had a 100-yd rusher in the last 3 of the last 4 games.
- Aaron Murray continues to be one of the most impressive Freshman QBs in the land (not as jaw dropping as Tayler Martinez) but the most impressive thing is his TD to INT ratio. He has 12 passing TDs to just 3 INTs (it should also be noted that he has rushed for 4 TD on the year).
- Kicker Blair Walsh has struggled lately. He's going to need to hit some kicks in Jacksonville for the Dawgs to come out victorious.
- Branden Smith will play for the first time in 4 games. I like the combination Brandon Boykin and Sanders Commings at corner so hopefully Smith will fit in nicely at nickel as we've had trouble covering on 3rd down and long (not sure if it's the LBs playing too shallow or the Safeties playing too deep but we have to tighten down on 3rd down). Look for AJ Green to still get some shots at punt returns despite Smith being back in the line-up.

I will have more thoughts later in the week as the game approaches.