Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s agonizing 13-12 loss to No. 1 Georgia

Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s excruciating 13-12 loss to No. 1 Georgia:

1. The Kentucky defense was stout . A season ago, Georgia had 33 first downs, 608 total yards and 51 points in a 51-13 strafing of the UK “D.”

On Saturday night, Kentucky held the Bulldogs to 262 yards, 12 first downs and 13 points.

Alas, with what appears to be a limited UK offense, that was still not enough to win.

Nevertheless, if the Kentucky defense plays anywhere close the rest of the season to how it played Saturday against the best team and the best quarterback, Carson Beck, in college football; and if the Wildcats offense can just show even modest progression, there is at least hope for the Cats to extend their bowl streak to eight seasons.

2. Alex Raynor had a night . The Kentucky field goal kicker, a product of Kennesaw, Georgia, supplied all of Kentucky’s points.

Raynor hit from 55, 32, 40 and 50 yards.

The 55-yard kick was a University of Kentucky record, eclipsing the 54-yard field goal Austin MacGinnis hit at Tennessee in 2014.

Raynor also became the first UK place-kicker to make two field goals of at least 50 yards since Joe Bryant did it against Georgia in 1977.

3. The Kentucky offense has work to do . A week after South Carolina held the Kentucky attack to 187 total yards, only 44 via the air, and recorded 11 tackles for loss, five quarterback sacks and intercepted two passes, UK was better against the Dawgs.

The Wildcats gave up only three sacks and five tackles for loss. The Cats had only one turnover.

Kentucky running backs Demi Sumo-Karngbaye (98 yards on 22 carries) and Jamarion Wilcox (43 yards on nine attempts) ran hard and well between the tackles.

The Cats actually outgained the Dawgs 284-262.

UK still struggled to pass protect, however. In addition to Georgia’s three sacks, the Bulldogs also had four QB hurries.

Under ample pressure in the pocket against his former team, Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff was 14-of-27 passing for 114 yards.

As Mark Stoops told the UK Sports Network’s Dick Gabriel at halftime, it was going to take some big offensive plays for the Wildcats to upset No. 1.

As the game played out, one big play would have probably done it.

Kentucky was unable to produce that big play.

The Wildcats have now gone two straight games without scoring a touchdown.

Meanwhile, the Georgia defense has now held foes without a touchdown in four straight games dating back to last season’s Orange Bowl

4 . Another long UK football losing skid rolls on . Kentucky threw off the yoke of a 26-game losing streak vs. Tennessee in 2011 and snapped a 31-game skid vs. Florida in 2018.

Well, don’t look now, but Georgia has beaten Kentucky in 15 straight games. The Wildcats have not beaten the Bulldogs since Randall Cobb, Derrick Locke, Corey Peters and Co. did the trick, 34-27, in Athens in 2009.

College football is not set up like the NFL, where the rules are designed to create parity. Georgia has major inherent advantages as a football program that Kentucky lacks.

Still, we in Kentucky know, from painful experience, that long losing streaks to a league foe weigh down a program in ways both quantifiable and intangible.

5 . SEC home woes continue . With its defeat, Kentucky is now 2-9 in the last 11 SEC games played at Kroger Field.

Fashion police

To face the No. 1 team in the country, Kentucky wore blue helmets, gray uniforms with blue letters and numbers and gray pants.

Since the start of the 2015 season, UK is now 1-3 when it wears gray jerseys (not counting games played in anthracite jerseys).

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