Say this for these star-crossed Georgia Bulldogs: They nearly won the unwinnable game. Then they contrived to lose the un-losable game. Then they had a chance — a real chance — to win the doggone thing again. Who writes this stuff? Franz Kafka? Agatha Christie?
“This is one of those things we’ll remember for a long time,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said afterward, understating only a hundredfold. Then he said this: “I think we’re in the midst of something special.”
He meant his Tigers, but that description applied to everyone on hand and everyone watching/listening to this one. The Deep South’s oldest rivalry has seen its share of astonishments — David Greene to Michael Johnson on 70-X-Takeoff in 2002, the Devin Aromashodu catch-and-fumble on fourth-and-10 three years later — but all else paled alongside what transpired Saturday.
We cut to the chase: fourth-and-18 at the Auburn 27 with 36 seconds remaining. Georgia had just outscored the Tigers 21-0 in the span of 7:46 to seize an astonishing one-point lead by the width of Aaron Murray’s helmet. (“He’s a great player,” Malzahn said of Murray. “One of the greatest players ever to play in our league.”) And now the Tigers were down to one pass and one prayer, and when Nick Marshall — the quarterback who was once a Bulldogs cornerback — let fly it all seemed a forlorn hope.
The two players closest to the ball when it descended were Georgia safeties Tray Matthews and Josh Harvey-Clemons. Either could have intercepted it. Either could have batted it down. Instead they ran together and succeeded in flicking into the path of Auburn receiver Ricardo Louis, who juggled it and gathered it in and ran into the end zone. Twenty-five seconds remained. Who writes this stuff? Franco Harris? Devery Henderson?
We mention Henderson because it was on Nov. 9, 2002, that the LSU receiver took a similarly batted pass — by the Kentucky Wildcats, who have a history of such wrenching losses — in similar stride to work what became instantly known as the Bluegrass Miracle. This was essentially the same play with much bigger stakes. By winning, Auburn remains alive in the SEC West. By losing, Georgia is eliminated from winning the East.
Back to 70-X-Takeoff: Had Auburn defender Horace Willis jumped and knocked the ball away from Johnson, the SEC would have had two different division winners in 2002. Funny how things work. Who writes this stuff? Steve Martin? Bobcat Goldthwait?
It’s fashionable, if not entirely accurate, after such a game to say, “There were no losers today.” Well, there were — in the end, Georgia lost — but there kind of weren’t. The Bulldogs’ addled defense roused itself in the fourth quarter to give the offense a chance, and the offense performed as it hasn’t since everybody started getting hurt. And Murray, who famously led the Bulldogs to the 5-yard line against Alabama in the 2012 SEC Championship game only to see a deflected pass caught by Chris Conley as time expired, got those 5 yards himself this time. And still his team didn’t win. Who writes this stuff? Shirley Jackson? Edgar Allen Poe?
Georgia didn’t lead until 111 seconds remained, and it takes a lot of doing to play from behind that long against an opponent of this caliber. Once ahead, the Bulldogs were one stop from one of the greatest victories in Red and Black annals, whereupon two safeties ran together, and it all came apart. But Murray, unbelievably, almost put it all together again in 25 seconds.
A team that should have had its heart broken moved from its 25 to the Auburn 25 in 17 seconds. Murray threw into the end zone for Jonathon Rumph on first down, the pass falling incomplete. But the Tigers were offside. Three seconds left, ball on the 20, one final fling.
As had happened on his fourth-and-goal scramble, Murray was beset. Again he stepped forward. This time he stopped to throw, 20 yards being too far to run, and he was slammed from the side by defensive end Dee Ford. The ball fluttered to the turf. Finally it was over. Finally somebody had won this darn thing.
“It was an interesting game,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said, understating a thousandfold. It was way more than that. It was a majestic game between two old foes that featured not one but two epic comebacks — and almost a third. It was a game that should have been won by both sides and shouldn’t have been lost by either. It was a game both schools will remember forever.
Who writes this stuff? Before Saturday, I’m not sure anyone ever had.
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