Much has been made—and rightfully so—of Georgia’s defensive concerns when it comes to stopping the run.

The Bulldogs gave up 158 yards to Middle Tennessee and 172 last week to Missouri, numbers the Bulldogs know can’t continue as they move forward in SEC play.

Senior linebacker Natrez Patrick said Georgia’s defense has heard the talk.

“Oh man, but honestly, it’s just feeding fuel to the fire,” Patrick said after practice on Tuesday. “We knew how we played, we knew how much better we can be at stopping the run so we took it as a chip on our shoulder.”

Patrick said the defense hopes to make a different kind of statement Saturday against Tennessee (3:30, CBS).

The Vols (2-2, 0-1) come in averaging 229 yards rushing per game, and Patrick knows it’s going to be important to get back on track.

“Because the defense was not proud of the performance, guys have been ready to get after it this week,” said Patrick, who said although the team was able to move to 4-0 and stay unbeaten in SEC play by beating Missouri, it didn’t feel like a win.

“Games come down to wins and losses, so last week it was a good job getting a W. But at the end of the day, as far as the standard goes, it definitely felt like a loss,” he said. “It definitely felt like a loss.”

Head coach Kirby Smart said stopping the run has definitely been the focus at practice this week.

“There are a lot of good defenses that can rush the passer and stop the run. I think that's a good quality to have,” Smart said. “For us it's to stop the run first, given the choice of the two. Certainly, I want to be good at both. But moving forward I'm not really concerned about who we're playing coming up. I'm worried about who we're playing right now. The biggest, most important thing to me is stopping the run.”

Patrick could not agree more.

“I take it very personally, and this defense takes it very personally, when other teams run on us,” Patrick said. “That’s something we pride ourselves on, stopping the run. It’s the No. 1 priority. Those guys had more yards than we would have liked, and definitely something we’ve put an emphasis on.”