LEXINGTON, Kent. — Georgia got away without playing its best football on Saturday. The Bulldogs still beat Kentucky and walked out of Kroger Field with a win despite the poor performance.

DawgsHQ has you covered with our own thoughts on the game and plenty of postgame analysis. Below, you’ll find a pair of interviews with Georgia players (QB Carson Beck, LB Damon Wilson) afterwards, and select quotes from each.

CARSON BECK | QB | NO. 15

On the adjustments needed to pull off a win… Yeah, no, like you said, it’s not easy, especially on the road. I think you go back and you look at two first road SEC games the past two years, Missouri 2022, dogfight. Last year, Auburn, dogfight. This year, dogfight. We knew that it was going to be a dogfight coming in. We knew that it was going to have to be blow by blow. Obviously, there’s things I think we can fix. Got to watch the film and try to improve on those, but, I mean, they’re a physical team and there’s a lot of respect there, but we were able to pull it out.

On the conversation at halftime… Yeah kind of what I just said earlier: that we knew that it was going to be a physical battle. And they were playing pissed off. They were playing angry, and we knew that we were gonna have to come in here and try to be physical. We were able to do that in the second half and squeak it out. So a win is a win, and obviously I’m really proud of the guys.

On how his shoulder is and how big the bye week is… Yeah, thankfully, we have a bye week, so we’ll see. No, I’ll be fine, but no, we’ll see.

On the areas where Georgia needs to improve the most before Alabama… I mean, I got to watch the film, you know? I think just being able to run the ball in that first half, be physical. I think that their defense just really came out strong. They were pressuring us pretty well. They had some better looks. I could have checked into some different things, maybe made some different decisions. But, no, I mean, I’m proud of the guys and how we were able to respond in the second half and pull it out.

On what it was about the Kentucky defense that gave Georgia so much trouble… I mean, they’re physical. Look at their front seven. I mean, they’ve got good linebackers, good, good D-line. They got big dudes, you know? I mean, they’re built like our defense, their structure. They’re going to get in there. They’re going to challenge you, and they’re going to try to run the ball. And they play physical, you know? So, you know, a lot of props to them. I mean, they have a great team.

DAMON WILSON | LB | NO. 10

On Georgia’s second half adjustments… I think our run game got better. I mean, Kentucky did a good job on the run game, but I feel like we fought and fought and just stayed in it. I feel like that’s just what we can only do at the end of the day.

On big day for him and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins… I think execution, our preparation from before, watching film. I mean, we kind of knew the tendencies. A lot of times tackle had a different stance that you could just tell, pass. So I think those little keys were able to help us get off the ball faster, recognize stuff.

On postgame message from Coach Smart… Get better, only can get better from here. What areas do you think you guys need to get better? Everything, that’s all it can be. Anything in particular heading into the bye week that you think the team overall should work on? Stop and run, pass rush. The whole defense needs to go from here to here. That’s the only answer.

On lessons learned playing on the road… One, everybody’s gonna give us our best shot. And two, we can’t take anyone light. No matter if it’s from Kentucky to Bama to anybody, you gotta take everyone serious because everybody’s gonna give you their best game. So at the end of the day, you gotta give it 100%. That other person on the other field, they’re gonna try to give 100% too. Can’t take it off.

On red zone defensive approach… Strike, we got a strike, we got a fight. I mean, we can get to the red zone, I think in the sheet with 92% run. We knew they were gonna run the ball. So it was no other thing besides run, run, run. Put our big boys in, they got a strike.

For more from DawgsHQ, be sure to check out our YouTube channel where Kirby Smart’s postgame press conference, plus our instant reactions show, can be found!

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