LEXINGTON, Ky.—Whenever Kentucky shows up on the Georgia football schedule, Kirby Smart sounds sort of like a broken record.

It’s usually the most physical game Georgia plays every year. Going on the road to play the Wildcats is about as much fun as a root canal.

That was the case again this past weekend, even with the No. 1 Bulldogs more than a three-touchdown favorite.

Smart sat in a cramped interview room late Saturday night in the bowels of Kroger Field after the Bulldogs edged Kentucky 13-12. The same Wildcats team that got boat-raced by South Carolina 31-6 a week prior on the same field.

“I tried to tell everybody all week, nobody would listen to me,” Smart said. “I know what this team is made out of. I know how tough he coaches. … When they get disrespected like they did last week and they listen to it for a week, they come out ready to play.”

Smart said he thinks his players bought into how good he thought Kentucky is, but that playing in Lexington is a tough environment even though the Wildcats lost for the seventh time in the last eight home games.

Georgia won on its last trip here in 2022, 16-6, and has won by an average of 8.4 points in Lexington in five trips under Smart.

“They play really well against us,” Smart said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Mark (Stoops) and the defense. They do a great job. … I think people looked a lot at last year’s game (a 51-13 Georgia win) and a lot of things happened bad for them early. It kind of snowballed and got away from that. I know playing up here, that can happen, too.”

He felt that happening to Georgia, too, this time.

“There were moments that it was starting to slide, right, for us,” Smart said. “Penalties, things happen. We responded to it. A true sign of a great fighter is not how hard you punch, but what punches can you take.”

Smart brought up other tougher-than-expected road wins in recent years — 26-22 at Missouri in 2022 and 27-20 at Auburn last season.

“A lot of teams look at Georgia and think we’re going to beat everybody,” said wide receiver Dominic Lovett who led the Bulldogs with six catches for 89 yards after having just 18 yards receiving in the first half. “You’ve got to understand other teams have good players too, and they’re physical too.”

Georgia, the nation’s No. 1 team going into the contest, was firing blanks on offense in the first half with a slow start.

“Got to block em. Shock,” coach Kirby Smart told radio sideline reporter D.J. Shockley after the Bulldogs had just 63 first half yards and trailed 6-3. “We ain't blocking them. … They’ve been the aggressor.”

Quarterback Carson Beck closed the game completing 10 of his last 12 passes and finished 15 of 24 for 160 yards passing.

“We’re not going to bow down to a battle,” Beck said.

Cornerback Julian Humphrey mentioned fighting “blow-by-blow,” which seemed to be a theme in the Georgia locker room.

“We thought this would be a blow-by-blow game,” Smart said. “We said the first chop of the tree doesn’t chop the tree down. It takes sometimes 272 axe chops, and it took every single one tonight to get the job done.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Why Kentucky once again was too close for comfort for Georgia football