ATHENS — At this point in the week, the Georgia Bulldogs have moved on from the Alabama loss and are fully focused on Saturday’s task, which is tackling Auburn. But coach Kirby Smart did take a minute after practice Tuesday night to answer one burning question that has lingered since the clock struck double-zeros in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night.
Had the Bulldogs scored on the pass from Carson Beck to Colbie Young in the end zone, would he have kicked the point-after-touchdown with the thought of sending the game into overtime or would he have attempted a two-point conversion to take the lead?
“Very interesting question,” Smart said with sly grin. Unsurprisingly, he did not provide a simple answer.
“We had discussed that. I had talked about it at length on the headphones (to the coaches’ box) at the two-minute mark,” Smart said. “We actually talked about it before the game because, you know, the LSU game (in 2022) with them came down to that and LSU was at home when they decided. So, we had discussed it previously, and I had decided if the clock was under 30 seconds, we would probably go for two. But talking with analytics afterward, they would have suggested not to, to play overtime, to kick it.”
Here’s the catch: There actually were 47 seconds remaining in the game when the ball was snapped to Beck from the Alabama 20-yard line and Young ran a fade route to the goal-line pylon on the left side of the Crimson Tide’s end zone. Alabama cornerback Zabien Brown stepped in front of the slightly underthrown ball for an interception, which he quickly downed for a touchback.
At that point, 43 seconds were on the clock. Had Young caught the ball and Smart stuck to his plan, that would have meant the Bulldogs kicked the extra point and tried to force overtime.
The problem with that strategy is only 85 seconds earlier, Georgia had watched Alabama score a 75-yard touchdown only 13 seconds after the Bulldogs had taken a 34-33 lead. So even overtime wouldn’t be assured in that scenario.
Of this, Smart also was well-aware.
“A lot goes into that,” Smart continued. “When you give a team enough time and they know what they need, meaning it’s not tied, they have more aggression. They would have had three timeouts, they would have needed only a field goal. It possibly would have played out differently.
“We had discussed it, and we were leaning toward going for two if it was under 30 seconds.”
In the 2022 Alabama-LSU game Smart referenced, the Crimson Tide had kicked a field goal with 21 seconds remaining to force overtime at Tiger Stadium. Bama won the coin toss for the opening possession in OT and scored a touchdown. The Tigers answered on the ensuing possession. But rather than kicking an extra point to force another OT, LSU coach Brian Kelly elected to attempt a 2-point conversion. Quarterback Jayden Daniels hit tight end Mason Taylor in the end zone, and it was the Tigers who went on to meet Georgia in the 2022 SEC Championship game.
Last Saturday’s scenario was markedly different in a myriad of ways. Namely, it was played early in the season. It was the SEC opener for Alabama and the second conference game for the Bulldogs. Secondly, with this being the first year of a 12-team College Football Playoff, the difference in victory and defeat was not as paramount.
Because of Georgia’s 34-13 comeback after falling behind 28-0, the Bulldogs fell only three spots from No. 2 to 5 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25. Alabama moved up from fourth to No. 1.
Fans of college football can only hope these two teams meet again with more on the line. That would be either in the SEC Championship game or in the 12-team playoff.
As for the Bulldogs’ final offensive play of the night, it was decidedly plain and lacked much of the dynamic athletic ability that had been on display by both teams most of the night. A timing pattern all the way, Beck quickly flung a pass that was meant for the 6-foot-4 Young to high point toward the boundary. The ball instead came to Young’s inside shoulder and was short. Whether the Miami transfer ever located the ball is unclear because he did not fight Brown for possession.
“I liked the play call,” Smart said. “It had worked previously and (Young’s) a guy who gets on top of people. You throw it over the top, and he gets behind people. You throw it underneath, and he’ll get it at times. Great play by their kid, I’ll say that.”
Had Georgia scored the touchdown, the odds of successfully converting a two-point conversion are not very strong. The Bulldogs already were 1-for-3 on the night. Tight end Lawson Luckie caught a wide-open pass after a third-quarter TD to make the score 30-15, then was unable to connect with Beck after Luckie scored on an 8-yard TD reception with 9:46 play. Once Georgia scored the go-ahead points on Beck’s 67-yard pass to Dillon Bell, the quarterback came up a half-yard short of another two points on a draw play, leaving the Bulldogs with a 34-33 lead.
That sequence became moot when Jalen Milroe connected with Ryan Williams on a 75-yard touchdown pass on the next play. Milroe connected with wideout Germie Bernard for a two-point conversion and the 41-34 lead that would hold up.
