Sports

No. 4 Georgia survives scare, punches ticket to SEC Championship

Georgia defensive tackle Michael Barnett (bottom right) is the first to arrive for a gang tackle on Auburn running back JaTarvious Whitlow for short yardage during the 2nd quarter in NCAA college football game. Photo: Curtis Compton/Curtis Compton

AUBURN, Ala. — It has often been said defense wins championships. It won Georgia one here on Saturday.

The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs secured their third consecutive SEC Eastern Division title with a 21-14 win over No. 12 Auburn here at Jordan-Hare Stadium. With the victory, Georgia punches its ticket back to Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where it will face the West champion on Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. The opponent is expected to be No. 1 LSU, which was playing Ole Miss Saturday night in Oxford.

The Bulldogs (9-1, 6-1 SEC) become the first team since Florida in the 1990s to make three consecutive trips to the SEC Championship Game. They're 1-1 in their last two trips.

For all practical purposes, Georgia sewed up the East with a 12-play, 88-yard scoring drive that consumed most of the last seven minutes of the third quarter. Helped by a personal foul on Auburn defensive lineman Big Kat Bryant, the 12-play drive was capped with Jake Fromm's 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Eli Wolf.

That gave Georgia a 21-0 lead with 13 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, and seemingly more than required the way the defense had played to that point. Auburn's scoreless third quarter was the 27th logged by the Bulldogs' defense this season.

But the Tigers came alive in the fourth quarter. After not reaching Georgia's red zone the entire game, they penetrated it twice to start the final period and scored touchdowns both times. The second one, a diving two-yard run by quarterback Bo Nix, broke Georgia's national best streak of nine games without allowing a rushing touchdown.

That made it 21-14 with 7:03 to play and put the Bulldogs in position to make something happen on offense. They didn't.

But once again, Georgia's defense did what it had to do.

Auburn reached the Bulldogs' 34 when it faced fourth-and-two with 2:30 to play. Nix ran a well-executed play-action bootleg right, but his pass for running back Harold Joiner in the flat was slightly behind and dropped.

The Bulldogs took over on downs, but again couldn't advance the football. After Jake Camarda's 31-yard punt, they had 70 yards of real estate to defend.

They did it. Freshman Travon Walker sacked Nix on fourth-and-10 at the 30, and there would be on "Prayer at Jordan-Hare" on this night.

While Georgia's offense played impressively in the second half -- the scoring drive to end the third quarter was one for the ages -- the Bulldogs' defense did the heavy lifting on this night. The Tigers (7-3, 4-3) penetrated UGA's red zone only once, and took way too long in doing that. But their score on a three-yard pass from Bo Nix to Eli Stove busted the shutout and got them within two scores with 10:04 to play.

Georgia got the kind of game it wanted in the first half. The Bulldogs outgained Auburn only 175 yards to 147, but they got them on the scoreboard 14-0. With the way the game was going, that might've seemed insurmountable to the Tigers. With the Georgia defense posting two more scoreless quarters, its total for the season was raised to 26.

The Bulldogs' offense was having a tough go of it as well. The difference was being able to hit on one explosive pass play and Fromm's poise and precision running the two-minute drill.

Facing third-and-one at the Auburn 5, Fromm executed perfectedly a play-action bootleg to the right and hit Brian Herrien on the run near the Auburn sideline. Herrien dove inside the pylon for touchdown with 20 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Making the play even more impressive was Georgia lining up in its "jumbo package," with offensive linemen in the backfield, then shifting out of it just before the snap. The play capped seven-play, 81-yard scoring drive that took just 59 seconds.

In between that and a 51-yard touchdown pass from Fromm to freshman Dominick Blaylock at the 5:56 mark of the first quarter was a whole lot of punting. And some very good punting at that. Georgia's Jake Camarda averaged 55 yards on six punts, and Auburn's Arryn Siposs averaged 49 on five.

It was a first half Vince Dooley and Pat Dye would've loved.

Tackle for loss of 13 yards on Whitlow by Georgia's David Marshall on fourth-and-1. Bulldogs take over at 50, 9:05, 2Q.

The Tigers threatened to score only once, missing a 47-yard field goal after reaching the Georgia 29 on their opening possession of the game.

Otherwise, Auburn twice reached Georgia's 37. The first time, UGA's David Marshall stopped Whitlow for a 13-yard loss on fourth-and-one. The other time, Jermaine Johnson forced a fumble that Richard LeCounte recovered at the Bulldogs' 37.