NO. 22 GEORGIA TECH 45, NO. 11 GEORGIA 42: STREAK DOGGONE

Athens —- If seven was heaven, can one be as fun?

Ask Georgia Tech, which on a raw Saturday afternoon at Sanford Stadium brought down one of Georgia’s most historic stretches of domination with some history of its own in a raucous 45-42 victory before 92,746 wet people.

Riding a thunderous 26-point third quarter, the Jackets came from 16 down to terminate Georgia’s seven-year win streak with a 409-yard rushing performance —- A-back Roddy Jones went for 214 by himself —- and then held on against Georgia’s air game.

The Jackets still haven’t covered Bulldogs split end Mohamed Massaquoi (11 catches for 180 yards), and quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for a career-high 407 yards and tied the school record with five touchdown passes.

But after UGA closed to within three points on Stafford’s last touchdown throw to A.J. Green with 4:04 to play, Tech salted it away with seven last sloughs into the Bulldogs line to kill the clock. Georgia, which yielded 35 points or more for the fifth time this season, watched Tech’s option spring a pair of 100-yard performers. B-back Jonathan Dwyer joined Jones with an additional 144 of his own.

“You can’t do that with this offense,” Tech coach Paul Johnson cracked, parroting the frequent criticism of his offense. “It’s 3 yards and a cloud of dust.”

Nevertheless, Johnson became Tech’s first coach to win nine games his first year, and while the Jackets (9-3) were simultaneously eliminated from the ACC championship game with Virginia Tech’s 17-14 win over Virginia, his team has several postseason options, perhaps the most obvious one the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Dec. 31 in the Georgia Dome.

“We had our chance” Johnson said of the ACC title, “and we didn’t get it done.”

The Bulldogs, also 9-3, appear headed to the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando, but they could use a break after this one. A 7 1/2 point favorite, Georgia was all over Tech in a 28-12 first half, after which it was blown away.

“Most streaks must end,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “I’m sorry this one ended today.”

“We have guys who a lot of Division I football factories wouldn’t even look at,” said Tech defensive tackle Darryl Richard, a sprig of Georgia’s sacred hedge hanging from his right ear. “[But] on the field, you don’t have to go to a football factory to have success.

“We just had success against one of the biggest football factories in the country, picked No. 1 in the preseason.”

Johnson’s message at halftime was as blunt as he has typically been in his first year in town. Tech had been outgained 318 yards to 142, and without rover Morgan Burnett’s 35-yard interception return for a touchdown late in the first quarter, it might have been a run-out.

“I just said, ‘Hey, it’s 60 minutes. Anybody who came over here and didn’t think it’s going to be that kind of game, don’t come back out,’ ” Johnson said. “We talked about we’re going to get the ball first [to open the second half] and we’re going to go down and score.

“I didn’t know it’d be on one play.”

Dwyer went 60 yards for a touchdown on Tech’s first snap, and, as Jackets quarterback Josh Nesbitt said, “It opened up everything.”

Tech scored three touchdowns in nearly seven minutes and then used a long lateral pass to tackle Austin Barrick for 11 yards to set up a Scott Blair field goal for a 38-28 lead with 1:14 left in the third.

“Ten guys are doing it right and one guy might let it go, and that cost us the game right there,” Georgia linebacker Rennie Curran said of Tech’s onslaught. “With this offense, one guy makes a little mistake and it gets blown out the gates. That’s pretty much what happened.”

The clincher came after the Bulldogs closed to 38-35 when Knowshon Moreno, who finished with 94 ground yards and an additional 74 receiving, went 32 yards for a touchdown with 10:23 left. Tech answered just six plays later, Jones going 54 yards down the Georgia sideline to restore the lead to 10 points.

“I’m just hurtin’ ,” Georgia defensive end Jarius Wynn said. “We’re not supposed to be going out like this.”

If this was his initiation to the Georgia rivalry, Johnson would take it. While Richt lamented that Tech’s offense is “going to be tough for anyone that plays them,” Johnson was asked about his first experience in the state series.

“I imagine it’ll be fun next year,” he said. “It was fun today.”