ATHENS — Carson Beck took his final kneel-down, the seconds ticked off down to zero, the crowd thundered ... and a manager wanted the ball.
The ball in the crook of his left arm, the Georgia quarterback appeared to resist at first before eventually handing the ball over.
There’s no question his ball-security habits have gotten much better.
His play criticized, his confidence seemingly teetering and his team’s College Football Playoff hopes in jeopardy, Beck wrote a defining and brilliant chapter in his journey as Georgia’s starting quarterback Saturday night.
He was a difference maker for the No. 12 Bulldogs in their 31-17 win over No. 7 Tennessee at Sanford Stadium, saving his best performance of the season for his team’s most critical and desperate moment.
Against a Volunteers defense that has punished quarterbacks and covered receivers tightly, Beck shined. He completed 25 of 40 passes for 347 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. By 50 yards, it was the most passing yards recorded against Tennessee this season and the second highest passer rating (151.7). Ten Bulldogs caught passes from Beck.
This from the quarterback who had thrown nine interceptions against five touchdown passes in Georgia’s past four games, performance that had placed him under the microscope.
Coach Kirby Smart had strongly backed Beck as the interceptions mounted, saying that he was making good decisions as he ran Georgia’s offense, getting the Bulldogs into the right plays and out of the wrong ones. It was just the costly decisions that led to the interceptions that he had to avoid.
And with the game on the line, Smart showed his confidence in Beck far more demonstratively than any quote could convey. With Georgia protecting a 24-17 lead with 8:47 left in the game and the Bulldogs pinned deep on their own 8-yard line, Smart let Beck cut it loose.
Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo called for a pass on the first play of the drive, not the sort of decision you make if you’re worried about your quarterback freezing and forcing a pass into coverage. Off play-action, Beck found tight end Ben Yurosek for a 21-yard completion. The third play and fourth plays, still well inside Georgia territory, were passes. The latter was a third-and-2 completion in which Beck drilled a pass in tight coverage to receiver London Humphreys for 28 yards.
When a substitution penalty backed the Bulldogs up from second-and-8 on the Tennessee 13 to second-and-13, Beck was unfazed. He found Yurosek again for a 16-yard gain to the 2. Running back Nate Frazier’s touchdown run on first-and-goal effectively put the game in cement. On the drive, when Georgia was trying to keep the clock moving and stop-clocking incompletions would have been doubly costly, Bobo had Beck throw five times. He completed all five for 77 yards, four of them for first downs.
To Smart, it was not the risk it might have appeared from the outside, which doesn’t see Beck at practice or have a full understanding of his play.
“He gets judged (externally) on outcomes and stats, but we don’t judge based on that,” Smart said. “We judge based internally, based on what gives us the best chance to win.”
It wasn’t only his arm. With running back depth thinned, Smart and Bobo broke from their norms by inserting designed quarterback runs into the game plan.
Said Smart, “Sometimes, you’ve got to man up.”
Smart said he had texted Beck earlier in the week to make sure he’d be willing to run the ball against the Volunteers. Smart said Beck’s response was “I’m going to get it, Coach. Just get me the ball.”
One of the biggest plays of the game was a 14-yard run early in the second quarter in which he fought for every yard to pick up a second-and-10. The conversion led to a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Oscar Delp on a tightly fit delivery in the back of the end zone for Georgia’s first score.
On national television, with ESPN’s “College GameDay” on campus, a blackout crowd in the stands and a top-10 opponent on the opposing sideline, Beck scarcely could have been better.
“It’s definitely going to be one (game) you’re going to remember the rest of your life,” he said.
It was as much a victory for Georgia’s offensive line as for Beck. A unit that has been hit hard by injuries and resulting inconsistency, the line was up against one of the top defensive lines in the SEC. Tennessee had 13 sacks in its previous four games.
On 40 attempts, Beck most often had ample time to throw and was not sacked once. Moreover, Beck was playing without starting running back Trevor Etienne and backup Cash Jones limited. And, for good measure, wide receiver Dillon Bell left the game in the second quarter with an injury.
In what likely was his final SEC regular-season game — he actually could come back next season if he chose — Beck bore the burden of leadership of a team trying to stay alive in the CFP chase as he was trying to play his way out of a disappointing season. The preciousness of the moment did not escape him.
Beck said he told teammates at the beginning of the week to “take practice like it’s your last one ever, because we don’t know when our last game is going to come and when our last game in this stadium is going to come.”
And then the game could not have started much worse for Beck or his team. On the first play from scrimmage, Beck threw deep to wide receiver Arian Smith for what would have been a nearly 50-yard gain, but Smith dropped it. Georgia punted, setting up Tennessee to practically sprint its way for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
Another drop, this one by receiver Dominic Lovett, thwarted the next drive.
By the end of Georgia’s third drive, Beck was 3-for-9 passing for 14 yards with at least two drops and an attempt batted down at the line of scrimmage.
The night ended far better than it began. Georgia’s chase for a CFP berth will continue. The possibility for a first-ever home playoff game remains. And a quarterback who has taken ample heat but was at his best when his team needed it most is there for all of it.
“I think we’ve shown this the whole entire year, but I think the word that really defines us is resilient,” Beck said.
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