Kirby Smart seething over Georgia mistakes in loss to Auburn

ATHENS — Humility arrived for Kirby Smart’s Georgia football team, just as the head coach had cautioned his players and fans that it could.

The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs (6-1, 4-1 SEC) lost to unranked Auburn (4-2, 2-2) by a 27-24 score when Tigers’ kicker Alex McPherson hit a 34-yard field goal as time expired.

Georgia appeared to be driving for the game-winning score when Gunner Stockton (22 of 34, 272 yards, 2 TDs, 2 interceptions) fumbled the ball away at the Auburn 44, his third turnover of the day after suffering the first multi-interception game of his career.

“We like to say the Dawgs don’t beat the Dawgs, but they beat themselves today,” Smart said. “We helped them, we gave them three turnovers and some really critical, undisciplined penalties.”

The Bulldogs opened the game with two touchdown drives, taking a 14-0 lead and looking very much like the 20.5-point favorites they were.

But Auburn, fresh off an open date with an extra week to prepare, scored the next 24 points on a UGA defense missing All-American safety KJ Bolden (calf injury) to carry a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.

“Their quarterback is really hard to tackle, we knew that coming in,” Smart said of Byrum Brown, who, in addition to completing 15 of 26 passes for 150 yards, ran the ball 26 times for a team-high 115 yards and a touchdown.

“He did a tremendous job of yards after contact, getting out of sacks, keeping them in good down and distance.”

Smart acknowledged Auburn won the line of scrimmage for much of the day, outrushing Georgia 192 yards to 113 yards, but he pointed to Georgia’s mistakes as the difference in the game.

“Like I say, humility is a week away,” said Smart, who has repeated that phrase each week in his Monday news conferences. “Auburn played better than us today, executed better than us today, didn’t turn the ball over and hit their red (zone) plays.

“And we had some really, really untimely, needless, undisciplined, uncharacteristic penalties.”

Georgia committed only four penalties for 60 yards, but to Smart’s point, they were very costly.

The most obvious — and perhaps most pivotal — came with 15 seconds left when Gabe Harris Jr. was called for a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty.

Auburn had a first-and-10 at the Georgia 34, on the fringe of field goal range, when Brown threw incomplete but was roughed by Harris, moving the ball to the Georgia 19.

Brown took the next snap and ran to his right for 3 yards, setting up McPherson’s game-winning field goal.

The first of UGA’s four penalties occurred with 9:46 left in the second quarter when outside linebacker Khamari Brooks was called for a personal foul, a late hit on Brown after the Auburn quarterback had slid after a 2-yard gain on a second-and-12 from the Auburn 48.

The penalty gave the Tigers a first down at the UGA 35, and eight plays later Auburn cashed in for a touchdown when Brown hit Chas Nimrod for a 9-yard touchdown that tied the game at 14-14.

The second penalty occurred in the third quarter when Georgia defensive tackle Josh Horton was called for roughing the passer after Brown threw incomplete on a second-and-9 at the UGA 39.

Instead of a third-and-long, the Tigers had a first-and-10 at the UGA 20.