Rapid Reaction: Jack Podlesny kicks Cincinnati to curb with game-winning FG in Peach Bowl
Georgia kicked all of its 2020 troubles to the curb Friday.
Jack Podlensy drilled a 53-yard game-winning field goal to rally the Bulldogs to an improbable 24-21 victory over previously-undefeated Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl.
Everything about the drive seemed unlikely.
Opt-outs certainly impacted Georgia’s execution, and especially its running game, but excuses are for the losing team. Fortunately, Georgia doesn’t have to use them.
JT Daniels threw for 392 yards and a TD. George Pickens had another 100-yard day, and the TD catch. So Georgia’s offense made plays even without some of its stars.
Georgia’s defense got a critical stop in the final 2 minutes to give the offense one last chance. Daniels drove the Dawgs into position, and Podlesny delivered a game-winning kick.
Icewater. Meet veins.#GoDawgs #CFAPeachBowl pic.twitter.com/9V4HljQgFv
— Saturday Down South (@SDS) January 1, 2021
It was a struggle all day.
The Bearcats scored first with just over 4 and a half minutes to go in the 1st quarter. They took advantage of a short field following a shanked punt by Jake Camarda as a short drive was capped by a Desmond Ridder scoring pass to Alec Pierce to make it 7-0.
Georgia appeared to be on its way to striking back immediately after a terrific diving catch by George Pickens and a run by Zamir White to push it to the red zone, but an end-zone interception by JT Daniels eventually saw the Bearcats take over at the 1-yard line. The Dawgs, though, forced a 3-and-out, and after being handed great field position themselves, Daniels connected with Darnell Washington to get them in striking range before he found Pickens on back-to-back plays as Georgia pulled level late in the 1st.
With less than 7 minutes remaining before halftime, Cincinnati looked to take a 10-7 lead as a 10-play drive fizzled out at the Georgia 15. But a Cole Smith field goal was tipped at the line by Jordan Davis and the score remained tied.
Daniels connected with Arian Smith to start the ensuing UGA drive with a 55-yard strike to the Bearcats’ 25, but a holding call ultimately meant the Dawgs had to settle for a Jack Podlesny field goal as they took a 10-7 lead with under 4 minutes to go in the half.
Cincinnati, though, built a sustained drive to end the half. And Ridder showed his dynamic skillset to find Josh Whyle with 6 seconds left as the tight end dove to make a pretty catch in the end zone, and the Bearcats took a 14-10 lead into the locker room.
Trailing at the half with the Bearcats getting the ball to start the 3rd, the Dawgs defense needed to set an early tone. But on the 2nd play of scrimmage, Jerome Ford took it 79 yards to the house as Georgia suddenly faced a 21-10 deficit.
Cincinnati had a few chances to land a final damaging blow in this one, but Georgia held firm after giving up the big Ford touchdown run to open the half by forcing back-to-back punts. Its offense, though, failed to answer the bell itself, but a Ridder fumble early in the 4th quarter put the Dawgs in business as the Bearcats 25. Two plays later, White was in the end zone, but the ensuing 2-point conversion failed as the Bearcats lead shrunk to 21-16 with just under 13 and a half minutes remaining in regulation.
Georgia found itself in striking distance of the end zone again on its next drive but was forced to settle for a field goal to pull within 21-19 with less than 7 minutes left.
It wasn’t pretty. But the Dawgs found a way to celebrate in the end.
Heck of a game to watch.. Cinci played hard..
I give them props, they came to plat. Good D
Don’t say this often but go out there and beat the Irish
play ^^
I really enjoyed the real excitement by UGA. Thanks for the well wishes.
It was a hail of a game, great to see the passion from both teams. Go get em Tide! Roll
Good luck tonight BTime..send the pseudo ACC team packing.
Great comeback win for our Dawgs! Auburn is losing, so go take care of business Bama!
The Dawgs had me worried all game. Where are the gator fans that said the Dawgs would lose. Lol. It wasn’t pretty but they got the job done.
Wait don’t talk about opt outs….Struggle Win!
Unlike the gators, UGA overcame their opt outs and injuries. 4 loses and 3 loses in a row to end the season. I said after the SEC championship game that UGA was going to finish ranked higher than mullet and florida. Lol.
We don’t have to dump on anyone else at the moment to celebrate our win Dirty. Dawgs beat the unbeaten and move into 2021!
Go away Dirty. No reason to pile on the gators.
Unlike the Gators UGA played a G5 team with 3 stars everywhere.
Much tougher than TN. That’s for sure.
Kiss my @$$ JTF. There’s ALWAYS reason to pile on the gators. If the Dawgs had lost gator fans would have been all over this comment thread.
You Gaturds make me laugh. The Dawgs get a “struggle” win over a top 10 team while the Gaturds get completely blown out giving up more than half a hundred and lose by 5 TDs. This was supposed to be your year. And your HC continues to embarrass your school with his on field and off field behavior. LMAO.
Struggle win? UGA beat an undefeated, top-10 team in a NY6 bowl.
Also, Florida lost by 5 TDs so I’m not sure what footing you think you have to throw shade at UGA’s victory.
He’s frustrated. This was their year and they lost 4 games.
C’mon man. Cincinnati has one win over a ranked team in Tulsa. Are you really spouting off about a last second win w a field goal over Cincinnati?
Not spouting off at all. Just saying it’s a quality win. UGA didn’t play well, but it’s not a “struggle win” cause Cincinnati was a worthy opponent.
Lol…the Gators have gone from playoff contender to dumpster fire in 3 games and here you are talking smack about other teams wins.
I have no fingernails or cuss words left but love that movie script ending!
Good game! Cinci deserved that number 9 spot, played their hearts out!
We will disagree on that. Cincinnati played a good game and had a great year. I do not see them as the 9th best team in the country. Notice that all of the undefeated G-5 teams lost their bowls, and they were not playing the best teams in the country. Just more proof they have no place in the playoffs.
My Tide friend, I’ve got to disagree with you on this one. I think that they probably are a top-ten team . . . this year. When you look at 11 through 15, I can’t find anyone better . . . this year. I’m not sure that there’s an awful lot of difference between 10 and 20 . . . this year. In a typical year, Cincy maybe/possibly/probably wouldn’t be a top ten team, but this year, I think they just might be.
They’re what an old coach of men used to call “the prettiest girl in the ugly contest”.
“mine” . . . Sorry!
Newsflash: #9 is not a playoff ranking
Great game Dawgs! Thank you God for not borning me in Florida!
That safety changed a lot of UGA losers to a push. A lot of saved money on that one, supposedly, unimportant play.
The spread opened at 7 and went to 9.5.
Who pushed at 3?
Anyone that teased it might have been impacted but not with the actual spread
I dunno if anyone lets you buy more than 3 points but even then, it couldn’t have been lots of people
My bad. I got the line mixed up with another game. My error.
I thought UGA would play them much harder than that. Can’t believe it came down to a field goal. lol Maybe it was attrition. I’m not sure how many UGA players were out of the game.
No such thing as a bad win.
I think it was a combination of UGA being down some players, Cincinnati wanted to prove something, and they are a pretty good team. They are just not playoff good. Not a flame but UGA was the 4th best team in the SEC.
It was 11 or 12 players out. Most of them starters. Cincinnati highly motivated at full strength, we’ve seen this story before.
Auburn getting ass whipped by Northwestern. No wonder you’re posting about UGA
Actually when he made the post, they weren’t.
This comment doesn’t even make sense. The games were on at the same time. I merely said I was surprised it was so close. With as much as people make of UGA’s next-level recruiting, you’d imagine even the scout team would blow out a Go5 team.
Auburn wasn’t getting beaten badly by Northwestern when I made that comment, but nice try. LOL If you think any dig at Auburn (a team playing without multiple star players and a head coach) is going to land right now, think again.
So when should someone try to “dig” at Auburn, after they win the national title?
Auburn sucks, that’s why you’re without a coach.
@Class of 98 How about not making a dig at all? That’s the point here. It’s totally random and has nothing to do with the post, which is about how close UGA played it with a Go5 team.
So the lesson we learned is that an undefeated generational G5 team that demands a spot in the playoffs is almost as good as an also-ran 7-2 SEC team that hasn’t had a settled quarterback for the entire season?
Was that the lesson we were supposed to learn yet again?
All of the undefeated G-5 teams lost their bowls, and none of them, though they were put forth as possible playoff teams, played great competition. As good as UGA is, they are 4th best in the SEC this year.
I posted it on another thread, but Cincinnati should have been playing Notre Dame.
Had a settle QB last four games when he was healthy. Nice try trash.
Yes, +1. That’s why I wrote “that hasn’t had a settled quarterback for the entire season”
Thanks for your help.
UGA was down 10 starters as well. Don’t forget that.
Oof. Great point.
Whew! All respect to Cincy; they wanted it and played with a lot of heart.
I’m sure Funny Maine will call it a struggle win, but I’ll take it!
And Podlensy is now officially Hot Pod.
Nice! Hot Pod…
That’s a good one BC. That was a clutch kick. But let’s give kudos to the Dawgs defense in the second half. Outside of the one break down play for the long run they completely shut down the Bearcats in the second half. Azeez Ojulari is a DGD!!!!
The D pretty much shut Cinci down in the second half except for that long run to start the 2nd half.
And that was the unit most hit with injuries/opt outs.
New guys stepped up.
Except? And I’m sure you said Bama outplayed Clemson all through the second half until Hunter Renfroe caught that game winning TD to beat us. You can’t ‘except’ any play out of a game. I know in golf you want a mulligan but there’s no do over in football.
This should be good reading.
Good game, great win over a very good Cinn team. They are legit.
Somebody buy that kicker a car. I take back every expletive aimed at UGA during the game. Way to go.
(looks to see how #14 Northwestern is doing against unranked #30+ coachless Auburn)
this is on smart not to be so stubborn in the next year
stop running up the middle for one yard
the toss sweep works but smart did not get the point
daniels has a big arm but i wonder about his accuracy
we need smart to take some lessons from saban how not to get our georgia fans heartburns and stop making mistakes
georgia should have been 21 points more than cincinnati and frankly if we do not improve next year we will not be able to beat florida as bad as their coach is at making stupid remarks
Really Bronco? Cincinnati is a damm good football team. Admittedly Daniels had an off day today compared to his previous games. He missed some throws that were there but still he came through when the game was on the line and led them to the game winning field goal. A great win over a damm good team.
Struggle Win vs P5. although you are used to getting owned in Atlanta this was a nice change for the dawg lovers.
I’ll take a struggle win over a beat down like your gators took. 3 loses in row to end the season. Don’t forget.
Says the fan of a team that lost 4 games. Including their bowl in spectacular fashion.
Gators took it on chin and got their sh*t rocked. Looks like they are going to be terrible next year losing all that talent. Just remember it took a once in lifetime worldwide pandemic, opt outs, several starters out, and playing UGA’s 4th string QB for Florida to beat UGA. Not a good foundation to build on.
And ranked ahead of UF as usual.
How was that struggle win against a losing record LSU team? Oh wait you LOST.
Georgia has an MO under Kirby, Play Alabama tough for a half, and has a bad loss every year (16 Vandy and GT,17 AU, 18 LSU, 19 SC). Wonder which of our two losses was the “bad” loss this year?
Gator fan talking trash. Dont know whats more funny your name being so fitting or the fact you tried talking trash at all.
Two takeaways from the game…
– I thought the defense was really good considering we were missing our 2 best back end players in Stokes and LeCounte and then others who missed also. Other than the long TD to start the second half I thought it wasn’t bad. 21 points to a top 10 team is pretty good especially considering personnel.
– Still not sold on Daniels. UGA receivers seemed to have run by the Cincy defenders all night and he underthrew a few or missed all together. He held on to the ball way too long and took sacks that he could have gotten rid of. OL was make shift with injuries and opt outs so running game was ok, I thought it got better later. Best part was JT did make a late drive of smart plays so I’ll give him that
Still, almost 400 yards on his arm. Very promising for Monken’s offense next year.
Yea I definitely saw a lot from him him in only a few starts. And he just got to campus in August. I think a whole offseason with Monken definitely will help. I’m just not drinking the koolaid of a heisman trophy just yet lol!
Don’t need a Heisman – just a balanced offense that can keep the box thin and the secondary pulling their hair out ;-)
He was under a lot of pressure. The rebuilt offensive line was pushed around.
Nice start to the new year, and good freakin’ riddance to 2020. Kudos to Cincy – they played hard and deserved that ranking. Hope Auburn can pull it out against NW, and good luck to the Tide, Cats, Rebs and Aggs. I’ve already seen the one SEC bowl loss this season I could tolerate. . .
What a crazy game. 2 head scratching decisions made by the head coaches at the end. One was Kirby calling the timeout and then punting it followed by Cincy throwing it on 3rd and 2.
Yeah Kirby needs to do some self evaluation on that timeout and punt.
self evaluation is correct
smart should have gone for it with 3 minutes left when we had 4th and 3 to go
the odds were not good we would get the ball back
ask anyone who has done analetics on the odds
Yeah I couldn’t believe he didn’t go for it. As far as the odds of getting the ball back I though we would given that the defense had been playing so well in the second half. But I thought by going for it on 4th down there we gave ourselves two chances to score and at worst one chance.
It had to be a situation where they called a fake, had a bad look, and had to burn the TO. All’s well that ends well
Good game bearcats. Didn’t want to see UGA on that list of losing to a group of five team in a New Year’s six bowl game. Cincinnati didn’t have much on offense, but i knew Uga wpuld adjust after half and shut their little five yard pass down they were using to move the chain. It wasn’t pretty ,but ill take it.
UGA had some players out but let’s not forget so did Cincinnati, including their first-string RB. That sorely hurt the Bearcats offense.
In the immortal words of Les Miles…I’m so proud of those men. How fricking easy it would have been to say it was their night. How [expletive] easy. Excuse my language. Spectacular group of men. You go find Pod, you throw your arms around Pod, you give Pod a big ol kiss on the mouth … if you’re a girl.”
I’m just thankful I can delete all my gator fan excuses , HAPPY NEW Year Humper fans
Wow! Georgie down the entire game and wins at the end vs P5. Struggle Win for sure!
A struggle win better than a half a hundred beat down.
That seems to be all he knows to type today. Leaves out his own team’s “struggle” though
Better than a blowout loss!
Remind me how Sideshow Dan the Clown and FU did in their bowl game, you ‘turd?
They could have quit half way through the game, but what a bad look that would be for a Football Team.
The gators got their @$$e$ handed to them and the Dawgs got the W yet you think it’s a good look to be talking trash. Lol.
I guess that’s why they have so many of the “Florida Man/Woman” articles on the internet – no limit to the nitwits down there!
Lol you aren’t too ashamed to show your face around here?
Dawgs beat a team ranked ahead of them, Gators got curb-stomped – and I mean annihilated and embarrassed -by a team ranked behind them. Both our teams were missing a slew of starters.
I’ll take our win, but you keep telling yourself whatever helps you sleep at night.
Georgie down the entire game and wins at the end vs G5.
There fixed it for you.
Hahahaha that’s one of Les’ top 3 moments…thanks for the memory humper!
Played like crap and completely out-coached by Luke Fickel and his staff for almost the entire game right up until the moment where Fickel let his OC call a pass on 3rd and 2 with 1:30-something remaining and the Dawgs have no timeouts.
We underachieved this season, I’m not happy about this win, and I want to get ready for 2021 as soon as possible.
Let’s face it. That Cincinnati team was jacked out of their minds for this game. That had so much to prove. For their coaching staff and players, it was the biggest game of their lives. Georgia was down several starters and not real motivated given the situation. Dawgs could have layed down at half time and let them have it but the defense came out and played their hearts out. Azeez Ozulari played his a$$ off. Come on man. Give the Dawgs some credit.
We don’t deserve it. Move beyond this crap year and into next season. Take the good with you into the future, learn lessons from what you did wrong, and leave the bad in the past.
Wait. Isn’t it the coaches responsibility to get a team motivated for every game? So, you’re saying Kirby didn’t do his job?
agreed out coached but what about this genius off coordinator where was he in this
If I remember the rules correctly, this means Cincinnati is this year’s National Champion.
Yeah. With all the other G-5 teams that were undefeated and lost their bowls.
JT Daniels in the college ranks is like a Matt Stafford/Jacob Eason type. I don’t think anyone is going to see who he truly is as a QB until he gets a chance at the pros. He’s good, but I don’t think we’ll see elite play out of him.
Elite play in college*** but also possibly won’t see it in the NFL
He’s started 4 games for UGA after 18 months of not playing. Geez.
For some reason people react to good like it’s an insult. Elite is tough to reach in the college ranks.
I wouldn’t have said Justin Herbert was elite at Oregon and look at him now. Daniels is cut from a similar cloth that translates in pro ball if you can hone it, but tends to be a shade under elite in college.
I see what you’re saying. I hope you’re wrong though. I think 2 out of the 4 games he’s played for UGA he played on an elite level. We shall see what a complete off season of preparation as a starter does for him. I think he will improve as will the young receiving corp.
Much respect for a Cindy team that had a heck of a year.
Cincy
Kirby if you were the one holding Azeez’s leash could you please let go of it before the 4th quarter. If he comes back? Big If.
Azeez was going against their number 1 LT for much of the game and got to feast on the backup. It’s not a coincidence.
I’m going to miss that guy though, should be a well regarded draft pick this year.
Kinda illustrates the predicament the better P-5 teams have. Here and in MSU’s game with Tulsa, both AAC conference teams looked well coached and overall executed well, though I did miss a bit of this one flipping back to the AU game. Bottom line, the much better athletes were finally woke up and started playing in this one.
Agree totally that the much better athletes made the difference. I thought the UGA dbacks really stepped it up in the 2nd half.
Good win UGA.
Thx. Kudos to Cincy, I think their DC just became a very hot commodity…
Agreed, he knows his guys and called a great game.
This team could have folded in the 3rd and said “we don’t wanna be here” but they kept fighting. Glad to see it.
Nice job, Georgia. Played the 4th quarter like an SEC defense should against a G5 team.
Is that…hmmm… sounds like a left-handed compliment. Yes, bayou?
Not really. I think they were caught off guard by Cincinnati, and it took a while for them to recover.
Apparently your the only prick on here.
I think bayoutiger was saying that Georgia’s defense FINALLY started to dominate Cincy (like they should be doing) in the 4th qtr, after being surprised by them and taking a long time to recover.
Wasn’t talking to bayou.
sorry that was meant for the Bama poster. Glad y’all pulled it out today
Thanks.
Cincinnati played very hard. I was impressed with their defense and how the schemed Georgia.
Great win for UGA, very glad to go into the offseason with a win.
I hate seeing Georgia fans boasting and all happy. Congrats, you beat a team of all 3-stars with your team of all purchased 5-stars and 4-stars. Yippy, we won. You haven’t been winners in 41 years.
Lol threads like this show who really are the butthurt losers in life and sports. So mad about their embarrassing loss they try *keyword there* to bring other fans down with them. Just pathetic and sad.
We just added another win over a top 10 team. You’re team got beat down by Northwestern and embarrassed the SEC. You just paid $21M to get rid of your coach, had to take you’re 6th or 7th choice for a new head coach and you’re recruiting class this year looks like you guys will be lucky to win 8 or 9 a year in the next 3 to 4 years. Run along Dawg hater.
Make that 7 or 8 a year.
Auburn was playing without multiple star players and their head coach. News broke during the game that interim head coach and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele wasn’t being retained. I’m not sure that Auburn losing to Northwestern (a team that took Ohio State to the wire) is any sort of embarrassment. Also not sure that Harsin was the 6th or 7th choice. Kudos to UGA for not pulling what we did versus UCF, but the game was surprisingly close.
Georgia also played without multiple starters this game. Excuses are lame. Auburn was garbage this year. Stetson beat them by 3 scores.
NW lost by two scores to OSU, hardly down to the wire. Not sure you watched the full game. Losing by two scores to Northwestern isn’t the most embarrassing loss of the season, that would be the South Carolina loss. It’s certainly not one to be proud of.
Cincinnati was a good team and probably should’ve won but anyone who thought UGA was going to casually dominate was wrong from the get go.
Yes, excuses are lame, but that’s irrelevant. Here’s the point, since you don’t seem to be able to read context: the person I commented back to said that Auburn embarrassed the SEC. I simply stated the fact that, given the situation, that’s not an embarrassment. I’m not quite sure where you get “excuses” out of that, but, hey, you do you. You seem to be one of the more cerebral UGA fans on this site, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you missing the obvious was just an oversight and not just you being unintelligent.
They played the team that trounced Clemson close for three quarters. Further proof that a loss to them isn’t an embarrassment to the conference. Again, not sure how you’re missing all of this. lol No one is proud of any loss, so not sure where that comment came from. Also, 20-17. Bad games happen.
Question; if you are a grad, shouldn’t you have learned the difference between ‘you’re’ and ‘your’?
We get it, you got an A in English in 6th grade. Congrats.
There’s autocorrect and typo’s all over everything. There’s no editing posts on this site.
There are grammatical errors in your comment too.
Hbobo, your attack on 57939 is pointless.
Box, his point is valid. With no edit button it is impossible to correct mistakes.
Valid point, absolutely. Snark and aggression, not so much.
I do know the difference. Just a typo. At least I was consistent.
Won’t have to worry about you boasting will we?
Not this year, obviously. Moving forward, who knows?
Yes, your future looks awesome
I’m sure you thought the same thing in 2009 and 2012. You don’t know what’s going to happen more than anyone else. Hence, “who knows?”
Good luck.
FYI, the Tigers got rolled by an academic team . . . the Vandy of the B1G!
Yep, except for the fact that Northwestern is leagues better than Vandy on the field.
True, Pat Fitzgerald’s not exactly a household name in the South, but he’s an excellent coach. I heard him a couple of times at coaching clinics a few years back and he’s fundamentally sound. Runs schemes that allow his guys to be successful.
Great game with a greater ending!
Biggest takeaway from this:
Cincinnati > Ohio State > Notre Dame
Is that the math they teach in Tenn-uh-see?
DieselNova is a Florida fan living in Georgia that uses a Tennessee logo to comment on SDS. Pay her no attention.
Great game. Give CIncy credit, they gave UGA all they wanted.
Very frustrated by our inability to run the ball. And I thought we again were too soft in pass defense. However, a good gutsy win. Very nice to see us fight to the end and send the team into the off season on a big high note! Go Dawgs!
“kicks Cincinnati to curb”
Lol ok…