Georgia Tech couldn’t afford too many missteps against top-ranked Georgia at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday night. But the Yellow Jackets definitely missed more opportunities to seize upset by the horns in a 31-23 loss.
To their credit, the Bulldogs (12-0) took care of their business, thanks to 262 rushing yards on offense and holding Tech’s offense in check for much of the evening. Georgia led 31-13 at one point after trailing 10-7 and now moves on to the SEC Championship game to play Alabama.
Tech ended its season at 6-6 and lost a sixth consecutive game to its bitter rival. But despite what could have been Saturday, the Jackets gave themselves a chance late.
Down 31-16 with time getting thin, K.J. Wallace picked off a Carson Beck pass in the end zone to keep Tech hopes alive. The Jackets took the ball 80 yards the other way and scored on quarterback Haynes King’s 5-yard run with 3:46 to go, getting within 31-23.
Georgia recovered the ensuing onside kick and picked up a couple of first downs to run out the clock.
“Any time you don’t come out winning a football game, there’s usually reasons in there why,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “There’s a lot of missed opportunities when you win football games. That’s our job as coaches to make sure, whether you win or you lose, is to point out the missed opportunities that you and make sure that we make them correctable moments and emphasize the things you done well and continue to do those things well.
“But yeah, there was missed opportunities. We were 2-of-11 on third down. Those are big. And then we scored in the red (zone), but came away with a lot of field goals as opposed to touchdowns.
Kendall Milton rushed for a career-high 156 yards and scored twice on the ground for Georgia. Beck threw for 175 yards as the Bulldogs won for the 12th consecutive time at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
King led Tech with two rushing touchdowns and 158 yards passing. Jamal Haynes rushed for 81 yards for the Jackets.
Tech had its chances in the first half, but found itself down 21-13 after two quarters, and the Jackets had to be kicking themselves inside the locker room.
After King’s 9-yard rushing touchdown put Tech up 7-0 (that score coming moments after Kenan Johnson recovered a fumble that Kyle Efford and D’Quan Douse caused), the Jackets nearly caught another break when a Beck passed caromed off Dominic Lovett’s foot, off of Efford and into the hands of LaMiles Brooks – or so it seemed.
That play was overturned by video review, and Beck threw a 29-yard touchdown to Lovett on the next play.
The Jackets stormed right back and had all sorts of offensive momentum as they faced with a fourth-and-1 at the 8. But Tech elected to attempt a field goal instead, and Aidan Birr’s kick from 25 yards was good giving the Jackets a lead of 10-7 – a lead that perhaps could have been 14-7.
“That was the game plan going into the game. In the first quarter it was to take points, keep it within a one-score game,” Key said. “When you’re looking to play a game like that and play a four-quarter game, you’re trying to keep it within a one-possession or no more than two-possession game. So points right there was critical.
“As we moved into the second quarter, the plan of attack was open it up and become more aggressive. We stuck to the plan. That was the thing, we challenged the kids all week to stick to the plan.”
Georgia went up 14-10 on Milton’s 2-yard run in the second quarter. Once again Tech put itself in position to answer, but on third-and-short the Jackets were called for holding on what would have been a first-down gain. King lost a fumble, which he recovered, and Tech settled for a 45-yard field goal from Birr to get within 14-13.
Just before the half, now trailing 21-13, the Jackets drove to the 27. But with 15 seconds left King was sacked on first down, and Birr missed a 49-yard shot at a field goal, breaking a streak of 10 made kicks in a row, to keep the score at 21-13 after 30 minutes.
Georgia got a 39-yard field goal from Peyton Woodring and a 4-yard rushing score from Milton to take a 31-13 lead into the final period. The latter score came after Tech opted to go for it on fourth down from the UGA 39, but King’s pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and went for an incompletion. The Bulldogs scored five plays later.
Eric Singleton got the Jackets a big play to start the fourth quarter, a 57-yard run to the UGA 13. But Tech couldn’t get any closer than the 10, and King was sacked on third down, forcing Birr to make a 40-yard field goal that made the score 31-16.
King’s rushing touchdown late in the fourth gave Tech its most points against UGA since scoring 28 in a one-point victory in 2016.
“At the end of the day, we’re not coming here to play a good game. We’re not coming here to play well. There’s no moral victories,” Key said. “I said the day I was hired our goal is to beat (Georgia). That still is our goal. That’s what we’ll work to do every day, and we came up short today. That will not stop the work, that will not stop us continuing to make progress and to get that done.”
About the Author
