LSU rode a stifling defense, an offense that made the plays that
counted and a couple key bounces, the same formula the Bulldogs used to
win the SEC Championship last year, to beat No. 7 Georgia 17-10 on
Saturday.
A crowd of 92,251, the largest Tiger Stadium history watched
delightedly as Georgia (3-1, 1-1 SEC) fell to 9-1 on an opponent's field
in Coach Mark Richt's tenure. It was also the Bulldogs first loss in
nine games and second 17 on any field.
"Big games like this really come down to who's going to make the big
plays, and they did that," Richt said. "It was just a great football
game, we just lost."
No. 11 LSU improved to 4-0 and 1-0 in the SEC after a dramatic ending
that saw 14 points scored in the final 4:25.
After missing chances, and field goals, all day long, the Bulldogs tied
the game on a 93-yard screen pass from David Greene to running back
Tyson Browning with 4:25 left in the fourth quarter. Billy Bennett, who
missed three field goals in the first half, tied at 10-10 with an extra
point.
However, LSU's Devery Henderson took the ensuing kickoff back 48 yards
to the Tiger's 49-yard line. From there, LSU drove to Georgia's 34,
where it faced third-and-four. The Bulldogs pressured quarterback Matt Mauck, but he scrambled to his right and found Skyler Green for a
34-yard touchdown pass with 1:22 remaining.
The Bulldogs were planning man coverage on the play, and cornerback Tim Jennings appeared to lose Green when Mauck began scrambling to his
right.
"I don't know what happened to him," said defensive coordinator
Brian VanGorder, whose unit held the nation's No. 4 scoring offense to 30
points less than its season average.
Green was supposed to cut his route short and pick whoever was covering
star receiver Michael Clayton, but instead he ran a deep route into the
end zone, LSU quarterback Matt Mauck said.
"It's called the 'What's he doing?, play,'" said Mauck, who was
14 of
29 for 180 yards.
Georgia outgained the Tigers 411 to 285, but VanGorder left the game
discouraged.
"That last drive was a big drive," he said.
The Bulldogs as a whole left the game battered and bruised. Quarterback
David Greene missed two series after hyperextending his right knee. He
returned to the game and said afterward the injury is not considered
major. All-American defensive end David Pollack joined Greene in the
postgame training room after bruising his kneecap, but he is expected to
be fine, Richt said.
The same can't be said necessarily for Georgia's offense.
Although Greene had his first 300-plus yard game since Vanderbilt last year
after
totaling 314 on 20 completions and a career-high 44 attempts, the
Bulldogs failed to capitalize on opportunity after opportunity. Georgia
was inside the Tigers' 30-yard line five times but got only three points
out of it.
"It wasn't a pretty game for us all the time, but you can't fault the
effort, you can't fault the competitive spirit, you can't fault the
three or four stops in the red area by our team and you can't fault the
way the offense came back when it had to," LSU coach Nick Saban said.
Georgia took the lead on a 33-yard Bennett field goal with 6:20 left in
the first quarter but trailed 10-3 at halftime after a 21-yard Shyrone Carey touchdown run and a 47-yard Ryan Gaudet field goal.
"We never quit at Georgia, but today they were a better team,"
said
safety Sean Jones, who intercepted his third pass of the season.
Richt agreed that his team didn't quit and was heartened by that.
"I worry about a team that doesn't have enough heart at the end of
the
game to fight. That's not a problem with us. I worry about a team that
doesn't have the talent to compete. That's not a problem with us. I
worry about a team that doesn't have a coaching staff that has a good
plan. That's not a problem with us," he said. "The problem was it came
down to us not making the plays they made."
Georgia gets a week off to recover from this unaccustomed feeling. The
Bulldogs will return to the field on Oct. 4, when they play Alabama in
Sanford Stadium.
"We've got to get through the pain of this and then get a plan for
Alabama," Richt said. "Alabama is not going to feel sorry for
us."
|