ATHENS -- Georgia and Auburn renewed the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry for the 127th time in the past 130 years Saturday. Fittingly, perhaps, an old-school football game broke out.
Neither team could throw the football very well, including the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs, who came in as one of the top passing teams in the SEC. So, Georgia reverted to the old form that earned it the reputation as “RBU.” The Bulldogs ran 292 yards and six touchdowns along the way to a 42-10 victory at Sanford Stadium.
Three of those TDs were scored on runs by junior Daijun Edwards, who darn near had a fourth and led Georgia’s running backs with 83 yards on 12 carries. Running backs Kenny McIntosh and Branson Robinson and quarterback Stetson Bennett also recorded rushing touchdowns, with Bennett taking his 64 yards.
“We got back to Georgia football,” Bennett said. “It felt nice. The big guys loved it and, you know, beating somebody physically in the SEC -- especially somebody as physical as Auburn -- that sets the tone for your team.”
The win probably won’t earn back much of the credit Georgia lost with last week’s close call against Missouri, which dropped it from No. 1 in the polls as a result. And Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC) is struggling mightily in Year 3 under beleaguered coach Bryan Harsin, whose continued employment is being debated week-to-week.
Still, it was a cathartic win for the Bulldogs (6-0, 3-0), who never really were threatened in recording their 20th win in the past 21 games. Georgia claimed its sixth consecutive victory over the Tigers, stretching its advantage in the long-played series to 63-56-8. And it did so while answering its most resounding offensive criticism to date. The Bulldogs were 5-for-5 scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
“It was good,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “There were still inconsistencies, some things we missed on. ... But it we played more physical at the line of scrimmage, and I thought we wore them down.”
The best chance Auburn had at making a game of it came at the beginning of the second half. Holding an unimpressive 14-0 lead, the Bulldogs received the second-half kickoff looking to take control of the game. Instead, they lost control of the football.
Bennett was sacked from behind by Auburn’s Marcus Bragg. He fumbled, and Auburn’s Colby Wooden recovered at the Georgia 19.
But as it did all day, the Bulldogs’ defense would not loosen its suffocating grip on the Tigers. Auburn managed only five yards in three plays and had to settle for a 29-yard field goal and an 11-point deficit (14-3) with 11:51 remaining in the third.
“At the end of the day, it was a team effort,” said Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, who led the Bulldogs with five tackles while playing almost every meaningful snap of the game. “(The offense) has our back sometimes; we’ve got their back sometimes. We had their backs right there, but that’s our job, to clean things up.”
Georgia answered the way a top-five team should. It put together its best offensive drive of day, covering 81 yards on nine plays on the ensuing possession and going ahead 21-3 on Edwards’ second 1-yard TD run of the game.
“That was huge,” Smart said. “I was disappointed in the way we started the second half. The big talk in the locker room (at halftime) was what are we going to do and how are we going to execute it and what kind of juice are we going to come out with. But, again, just like Missouri, it feels like teams get tired against us in the second half.”
The contest officially became a blowout when Bennett, who had a tough day throwing the ball, broke loose for his 64-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter. The longest TD run of Bennett’s six-year collegiate career came on a called quarterback draw.
Asked what he saw on the play, Bennett cracked “grass,” then chuckled.
“I started going through there, and then toward the end I started thinking, ‘Good, Lord, I haven’t run this far in a while, and my legs started giving out. But there was nothing but grass, and Ladd (McConkey) gave me a good block on the safety.”
It was a good thing that the Bulldogs could advance the ball on the ground because they weren’t able to do much through the air. Bennett was 14-of-22 passing for 122 yards when he broke off his long TD run. After missing many deep balls to open receivers, Bennett settled in with a big fourth-quarter lead and completed some passes. He finished 22-of-32 for 208 yards.
With Carson Beck closing out the game under center, the Bulldogs finished with exactly 500 yards of total offense. Two hundred, ninety-two of it came on 39 carries. Meanwhile, certainly to Smart’s delight, the Bulldogs were 3-for-3 in the red zone on the afternoon.
Conversely, Auburn was deplorable on offense. With due credit to Georgia’s defense, which was having to play without several key players, the Tigers had only 177 yards of offense heading into the fourth quarter. At that point, quarterback Robby Ashford had twice as many incompletions (22) as completions (11), completing 33% of his passes for 89 yards.
Georgia should have gotten through the game without giving up a touchdown. But Ashford connected with Jarquez Hunter on a simple outlet pass in the flat. But Tykee Smith and two other Georgia defenders failed to bring him down in a four-person collision, and the running back went 62 yards for a mostly meaningless score.
However, Auburn still could not manage 100 yards rushing as a team. It finished with 93, and that shortcoming came in the same week that the Tigers’ starting center, Brandon Council, predicted the Tigers would “demolish” Georgia’s defense with their run game.
“We did take that personal,” junior defensive tackle Zion Logue said. “If you want to come out and demolish us, come show us on Saturday. You don’t have to say it during the week. Just come show us, so that was really big.”
Next up for the Bulldogs is Vanderbilt, which visits at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Auburn stays on the road with a game at Ole Miss.
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