Georgia 16, Georgia Tech 9: A not so clean, old-fashioned eighth

For the second year in a row the Georgia/Georgia Tech game came down to the last play of the game. Once again the Georgia Bulldogs looked sloppy and out of sorts for much of the day.

“We didn’t play our best football”, Kirby Smart conceded in his postgame interview.

That would be an understatement. Georgia managed an anemic 79 yards of offense in a second half that saw the Jackets claw back into a game that Georgia had a chance to put away on the first drive of the third quarter. Instead Georgia threw the ball three straight plays and punted to start the half. Buster Faulkner was able to scheme up some success in the running game.

Gunner Stockton honestly never looked quite right. He finished 11 of 21 passing for 70 yards, a career low as a starter. He threw one interception and had at least two other balls that easily could have been picked. The Rabun Rambler also never got on track in the rushing game, tallying only 42 yards on 15 attempts, and for the first time this season had no rushes for over 10 yards for only the second time all season.

Some of the offensive struggles in the second half were almost certainly a result of Drew Bobo leaving the game (he finished the evening in street clothes with a boot on his foot, a truly worrying sight). But still and all, this one was an offensive effort Georgia cannot afford to repeat. Stop me if you’ r heard this one before, but thank goodness for Zachariah Branch, whose 53 yards on 5 receptions led the team. He also caught a pair of drive extending third down conversions that helped the Bulldog offense hold the ball just long enough to escape.

The Bulldog defense however played well enough to win, in fact more than well enough. If you’d told me coming into this one that the Athenians would only give up 9 points I would have have raised a victory toast before the game even kicked off. Holding the Georgia Tech offense that had averaged an ACC leading 485.9 yards per game to a miserly 250 yards should have been the reason Georgia romped in this one. Instead it was the reason they were able to hang on.

But hang on they did. Georgia won its eighth straight game over the Gnats for the first time ever, something which is absolutely worth celebrating. Rivalry games like this, against an opponent that circles this particular game on the calendar as soon as the new year’s calendar comes in the mail, are uniquely difficult. But with an effort that was anything butt clean, Georgia made this one much harder than it should have been. Until later,

Go ‘Dawgs!!!