Georgia’s first loss of the season came Saturday to one of its biggest rivals: Auburn.

And it came in dominant fashion as the Tigers rolled to a 40-17 win. Georgia fell to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the SEC, while Auburn improved to 8-2 and 6-1.

The teams could meet again in the SEC Championship Game in December in Atlanta. The Bulldogs clinched the SEC East title last week, while the Tigers are in the hunt for the West title.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart wasn’t looking ahead to a possible rematch after his team’s loss Saturday:

Smart on the loss: “Lessons were learned that they have a good football team. They whipped us up front, they whipped us on the back end, and they whipped us on the edges. They were more physical than us on both lines of scrimmages. We did some dumb things, and we helped them. You can’t help good football teams. We gave them two or three extra possessions, which you can’t do.”

Smart on what’s next after the loss: “It’s life. Life’s that way. Life’s going to knock you down and you’ve got to get up and go fight. These guys have to understand that. They’ve got to be able to get up and go fight. It’s going to be like that all their life. They’re going to have situations they don’t like, or don’t do well, and they’re going to come back and fight.”

Smart on the team’s penalties: “It was out of character. Almost [like], ‘I’m in a hostile environment, and I resort to things I don’t normally do.’ That’s the disappointing part. But that wasn’t what won or lost the game. It was the line of scrimmage. That won the game. But what made it so lopsided was the undisciplined penalties.”

Smart on the team’s sloppy play: “I’m the one in charge. … It was a momentum game and we certainly lost the momentum there with some really, really uncharacteristic, dumb penalties. Between the penalties and the fact that they were more physical than us on both lines of scrimmage. That’s on me. We’ve got to get up and go get better.”

Smart on next week’s game with Kentucky: “This team will be defined by how they respond, not by what they did [Saturday]. Kentucky’s not going to feel sorry for us. We can’t let Auburn beat us twice.”