It’s hard to kick field goals instead of scoring touchdowns and win on the road in the SEC.
It’s hard to commit unforced penalties on the road and win in the SEC.
It’s hard to allow the home crowd to stay in the game late and win on the road in the SEC.
It’s hard to allow the home crowd to stay in the game late and win on the road in the SEC.
And it’s hard to commit turnovers in the fourth quarter and win on the road in the SEC.
Georgia did all of these things on Saturday afternoon, and somehow, some way
still won a game on the road in the SEC.
The Bulldogs played well enough to win in the second quarter after steadying the ship from a tough start. And they played almost well enough to take control in the third quarter. But this one almost got away down the stretch as the Red and Black offense went tepid and the defense likewise couldn’t get the stops it needed. Georgia very nearly fell to the Tennessee Volunteers for the first time since 2016, and it felt like the first of several times we may see this movie this season.
Gunner Stockton played a gutsy football game, and there’s good reason to be optimistic about him going forward. He finished the day 23 of 31 passing for 304 yards and 2 touchdowns, adding 38 yards and a touchdown on the ground. More importantly he had no interceptions. Perhaps most importantly, he hit London Humphreys on 4th and long for a touchdown and Zachariah Branch on a perfectly thrown two point conversion with the game on the line and 104,000 rabid hillbillies yelling at him. The moment was not too big for Gunner Stockton, and that is a big deal in and of itself.
The Bulldogs also showed some ability to line up and run the football, a welcome sight after 2024. The 8:00 plus drive to open the second half was a thing of absolute beauty, and the Dawgs piled up 198 yards on the ground in total. Five different Bulldogs ran the ball at least five times on the day, and Nate Frazier’s 14 carries for 73 yards were a solid, fumble-free effort. Chauncey Bowen’s and Josh McCray also ran tough when needed. That’s a great sign for Mike Bobo, who is almost certainly going to be asked to eat up clock and yards again before this season ends.
That may be because Monroe Freeling and Michael Uini are just not up to the job in obvious passing downs. At the moment we don’t have anyone healthy and reliable to replace them, and frankly that’s on Stacy Searels. I am not only the President of the Searels Anti-Fan Club, I am also the Treasurer and acting chair of the decorating committee:
Defensively the Athenians played generally solid football except for a few deep balls that just weren’t played well. They created 2 turnovers, Joey Aguilar’s first two interceptions of the season. I found myself scratching my head at the puzzling lack of pressure from Glenn Schumann’s defense on Tennessee’s last drive in regulation. But all in all, this was about three Aguilar deep balls that landed on target rather than falling incomplete away from being a defensive gem. While they surrendered 502 yards of offense, 128 of them came on a pair of Aguilar touchdown passes to Chris Brazzell.
Georgia is a good enough football team to win this kind of game. But Georgia is also capable of losing this kind of football game against a team that doesn’t give them just enough assistance to pull it out of the fire.
That’s frustrating because this is but the first of several eminently losable football games this season. Alabama looks explosive on offense, Georgia Tech looks as pesky as they’ve been in years, and Texas continues to round itself into shape.
But for the moment the Bulldogs have shown the guts and maturity to win on the road in a tough atmosphere against what could well be a playoff caliber football team. As someone whose college years span the late 1990s, who was tormented by Fat Phil and Peyton Manning and their creamsicle kinsmen, I will never fail to celebrate a win over the Vols.
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
