After his defense put in an outstanding 57 minutes against No. 1 Georgia on Saturday night, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops may have trusted his unit a little too much to get another stop.

With 2:58 left in the fourth quarter and the Wildcats trailing 13-12, Stoops decided to punt from the Kentucky 48-yard line to pin Georgia deep and get the ball back. Wilson Berry’s punt pushed Georgia back to the 15-yard line. But the Wildcats’ defense couldn’t stop the ball it needed.

Carson Beck caught Dominic Lovett for a 33-yard gain and a first down at the Georgia 49-yard line to secure a 13-12 victory in a defensive battle at Lexington’s Kroger Field. It was a tough road to get there, but the Bulldogs extended their regular-season winning streak to 42 games and won their 28th consecutive SEC game.

Branson Robinson scored the game’s only touchdown on a 3-yard run early in the fourth quarter to give Georgia its first lead after trailing through the first three quarters, when both teams had traded field goals in a major defensive battle.

Beck finished with 160 yards passing and no touchdowns. Trevor Etienne led the Bulldogs with 79 rushing yards on 19 carries.

As a team, however, Georgia managed just 102 yards and was held in check by a fast, ferocious Wildcats defense that frequently hit ball carriers at the line of scrimmage. Georgia especially struggled running outside, with Kentucky’s safeties and cornerbacks reaching the running backs before they could turn the corner or gain any yards.

Kentucky almost had a 10-0 lead at the beginning

As the final score shows, Kentucky didn’t fare much better on offense, scoring no touchdowns. Quarterback Brock Vandagriff threw for 114 yards and ran for another 26. Demie Sumo-Karngbaye led the Wildcats with 98 rushing yards, and Kentucky only managed 170 total yards.

Kentucky had what appeared to be a defensive touchdown in the second quarter that was disallowed on replay. Lovett appeared to deflect the ball after it rolled in the air to catch it, but the Wildcats’ Zion Childress grabbed it and ran back for a score that would have given Kentucky a 10-0 lead.

However, upon review, the ball hit the ground before Lovett could catch it, and the play was ruled an incomplete pass. Georgia punted on fourth down.

Kentucky had one more chance for a game-winning field goal after forcing Georgia to punt. After a touchback, Vandagriff threw the ball to tight end Jordan Dingle for a 12-yard gain to the Kentucky 32-yard line, but couldn’t get into field goal range before time expired.

“I’m not sure our guys listened to the message all week because (Kentucky) is a good football team,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart told ESPN’s Molly McGrath after the game. “You don’t judge SEC football teams on one week.”

Smart was referring to Kentucky’s 31-6 home loss to South Carolina last week, even though the team was considered the favorite by 8.5 points.

As Beck mentioned with relief to McGrath, Georgia (3-0) has next week off before traveling to No. 4 Alabama (3-0) for a prime-time SEC game on Sept. 28. Kentucky (1-2) will try to absorb the game, which got away with a non-conference home game against Ohio (2-1).