Georgia came out strong Saturday in the latest SEC Championship Game, jumping out to a 21-7 lead and possession of the ball at one point in the game. That gap proved to be insufficient by the time the game ended as the Bulldogs came up short in the end, losing 35-28 to Alabama.

It was Georgia’s second loss in as many seasons to Alabama in a title game — and when you consider Tua Tagovailoa was knocked from the game with the Bulldogs leading, you could argue this was the most painful of the two losses.

Late in the game, Kirby Smart called one of the most bizarre plays we’ve ever seen. Facing a fourth and 11 at midfield with the score tied up at 28 and just over three minutes remaining in the game, Georgia called a fake punt run with backup QB Justin Fields.

It didn’t work.

Fields got two yards on the play and the Bulldogs surrendered the ball near midfield to an Alabama team led by a backup quarterback.

What in the world was Smart thinking with that call? He attempted to explain it during his postgame press conference.

“We have been carrying that, actually carried it last year, thought it was there today,” Smart said. “We were going to snap it, snap the ball quick and it took too long to snap the ball. They didn’t have a guy covered, we had a guy wide open. We took so long to snap it, they ended up recognizing it and got the guy covered late.

“It was 20-30 yards of field position and we tried to win the game. I talked to the guys about it before the game. If we have an opportunity to run it, we are going to run it. It was there, just didn’t get it snapped before they covered a guy.”

ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis called out Smart for his decision, and he certainly wasn’t the only one to do so after the game:

If you missed the play, here’s the replay from the game: