ATHENS — Two teams supposedly at a crossroads in their respective seasons met at Sanford Stadium on Saturday. The Georgia Bulldogs plowed through the intersection while Mississippi State couldn’t get past the stop sign.
Georgia used yet another stellar performance from its defense and another 100-yard game from freshman tailback Isaiah Crowell to dispatch Mississippi State 24-10 in a crucial SEC contest for both teams. The victory was the third in a row for Georgia (3-2, 2-1 SEC) and sets them up for yet another big game Saturday at Tennessee.
Mississippi State (2-3) falls to 0-3 in conference play.
“It was a great victory,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “I’m proud of our entire football team, but I’m especially proud of how the defense played.”
Defense was indeed the story for the Bulldogs. Coach Todd Grantham’s unit, which gave up only three points Saturday, has allowed one touchdown in the past 12 quarters.
With its offense struggling — quarterback Aaron Murray threw three interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown — Georgia allowed 98 yards and no points in the second half and 213 yards in the game.
The Bulldogs sacked State quarterbacks five times and forced two interceptions and a fumble. Chris Relf, who knifed them for 109 yards rushing and two touchdown passes a year ago, managed only 31 yards rushing and was picked off twice.
“We knew we were a little slow on offense in the second half,” linebacker Christian Robinson said. “But if we don’t let them score, they don’t win. That’s our motto.”
It’s a far cry from the team that was picked apart by Boise State’s Kellen Moore in Game 1.
“The improvement we’ve made from that first game until now is incredible,” Robinson said. “When you look at it, the points we gave up early on were communication errors. We really ironed those things out after those first two games, and nobody has been able to do much against us since.
“We’re starting to get a pass rush now and people can’t run on us, and it’s really changing the way people play us.”
If Georgia didn’t have the motivational edge entering the game, it got it just a few minutes before kickoff. Mississippi State gathered as a team at midfield at the end of pregame warmups and began jumping up and down in the vicinity of the big Georgia “G.” The Bulldogs deemed that as “disrespectful” and coaches and officials had to hold back players from both teams as they postured and taunted each other at midfield.
“This is our field,” Georgia center Ben Jones said. “We take pride between the hedges. We want to let everybody know, we protect our field. This is our place and we don’t like anybody disrespecting our ‘G.’”
“That’s disrespect,” safety Bacarri Rambo said. “You don’t do that. We were glad the defense got to get on the field first because we were ready to destroy them after that.”
It showed. Mississippi State got 11 yards on a quick pass out of the gate, but was in retreat mode thereafter. Cornelius Washington sacked Relf for a 7-yard loss on third down, and the Maroon Dogs were forced to punt.
Brandon Boykin returned the ensuing punt 30 yards and, one minute later, Murray hit Orson Charles in stride up the middle for a 21-yard touchdown pass. The tone was effectively set.
“An official told me that’s not exactly what happened,” Richt said of the pregame standoff. “But the end result is our guys’ blood got hot, and it helped us start fast. You can’t say much more about how we came out.”
Georgia likewise was impressive on offense in the early going. Crowell gained 90 of his 104 yards rushing in the first half as the Bulldogs leapt ahead 21-3. Crowell now has recorded three consecutive games of 100-plus yards.
But after the Bulldogs rolled up 237 yards in the first two quarters, they managed 78 the rest of the way.
Murray had one of his poorer outings at Georgia. He finished with 160 yards passing and two touchdowns, but threw three interceptions and was sacked twice.
Didn’t matter. Georgia’s defense made sure it would stand up.
“The defense did a great job today,” Murray said. “They bailed us out of a couple of situations. It’s a great feeling the way our defense is playing right now.”
