Is Georgia playing with fire? Maybe, but this elite resiliency is impossible to ignore
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At this point, you can set your watch to the Georgia comeback. Assume it’s happening. Maybe it’ll take a favorable review or 2 to go the way of the Dawgs, but just assume that it’s coming.
The only time it didn’t come this year was against Alabama, though that’s debatable because Georgia had a true freshman receiver drop what would’ve been a go-ahead touchdown pass that would’ve erased a 14-point deficit. That doesn’t make that loss any easier to stomach, but it’s a reminder that when this team needs to dial up that all-important play, it’s somehow always there.
On Saturday in Jacksonville, you could see it coming from a mile away. Once a banged-up Georgia defense shut down a 4th-down attempt by Florida, erasing that 3-point deficit became inevitable. Never mind the fact that the Dawgs had barely possessed the ball in the second half. Up until Chauncey Bowens got a carry at the Florida 36-yard line, UGA had just 9 carries for 1 yard in the second half.
And right on time, Georgia did a Georgia thing. The UGA offensive line cleared a bath for Bowens to cut back, and he delivered a 36-yard dagger right through the hearts of Florida fans.
Sure, Georgia needed another favorable ruling on a controversial deep pass to an inexplicably wide-open J. Michael Sturdivant to hold on and avoid a go-ahead touchdown drive for Florida, but would you expect anything less?
This is Georgia. That is, the team who hasn’t led at the break in 5 of 6 SEC games, yet has won 5 of 6 SEC games. Make that 3 4th-quarter comebacks for the Dawgs.
No big deal. Even Gunner Stockton’s game-sealing run — wherein he took a knee before scoring the walk-in touchdown that would’ve cashed Georgia -7.5 tickets — was no big deal.
Call it poise, call it casual, call it whatever — Georgia is winning the way SEC games have to be won now
It didn’t matter that this was a Florida team who was in its first game with an interim coach (Billy Gonzales) who had a first-time play-caller in Ryan O’Hara. The Gators showed up like a team with nothing to lose. It was easy to forget that the Gators hadn’t beaten a ranked Power Conference foe away from home since the 2020 Cocktail Party. And it was also easy to forget that Georgia hadn’t lost to an unranked team since the 2019 South Carolina debacle.
Shoot, it’s been easy to forget that this season. We all saw the Auburn game. Georgia basically arrived to Jordan-Hare Stadium once officials made the polarizing call that Jackson Arnold didn’t cross the plane in a 10-0 game. This team is still feeding off that energy.
Would it be nice if Georgia could put its foot on the gas and play a 60-minute game against a non-Kentucky SEC team? Sure. You know what’s a nice thing to have in your back pocket come Playoff time? A coach with multiple rings and a team that won’t panic down a score or 2 in the second half.
Florida’s aforementioned chance to make it a 2-score game came on that 4th-down run in a 20-17 game. A conversion there and Florida is either looking at a 23-17 lead or a 27-17 lead with just under 8 minutes to play. Georgia got that key stuff from Raylen Wilson and true freshman Elijah Griffin, but at this point, the question is worth asking — are we sure Georgia wouldn’t have found a way even if it didn’t get that 4th-down stop?
That’s where we’re at.
Imperfect, Georgia is not. It feels different than an imperfect Georgia team that won last year’s SEC Championship Game. Time will tell how that race will shake out. UGA lost control of its destiny when it lost to Alabama and ended the nation’s longest home win streak.
But much like Ohio State last year, Georgia can do the thing that plucky Playoff underdogs fear. The Dawgs can be the ridiculously talented team who makes the field without having played its best football yet.
All the ingredients are there, even if it’s not the prevailing takeaway from a 4-point win against a 3-win Florida squad. Times have changed. So has Georgia. It has morphed into a team who can trust its quarterback in late-game situations, and know that its defense won’t break. What more do you want in this era of college football?
On Halloween weekend, Georgia once again did its best Michael Myers imitation. It’s becoming one of the scariest sights in America to see Georgia in the second half. Perhaps another Alabama will come along and stand up to the haunting villain that the Dawgs have become among SEC fans.
But I wouldn’t set my watch to that.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
