Perhaps it’s a new day for Georgia. And it was the same old, same old for Georgia Tech.
The Bulldogs extended their era of domination by defeating the Yellow Jackets 41-34 in double overtime Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Under the direction of first-time starter Hutson Mason, Georgia came back from a 20-0 deficit to score the victory.
The win was the Bulldogs’ fifth in a row over Tech and 12th in 13 seasons under head coach Mark Richt.
Georgia took its first lead of the night on a 25-yard run by Todd Gurley on the first play in the second overtime. It was Gurley’s fourth TD of the night.
Then the Bulldogs executed a goal-line stand to preserve the victory. On fourth-and-five at the Georgia 6, Tech quarterback Vad Lee attempted a pass for Darren Waller on a slant. But Georgia linebacker Ramik Wilson deflected the ball and cornerback Damian Swann batted the ball out of the end zone to make it stand up.
The victory ends Georgia’s regular season at 8-4 and ushers in the era of Mason, who succeeded injured quarterback Aaron Murray to start the first game of his career. After a slow start, the junior from Marietta performed admirably. He finished with 299 yards on 22-of-36 passing for two touchdowns and an interception. He was sacked five times.
But the difference maker for the Bulldogs was their sophomore tailback. Gurley had 122 yards on 20 carries and scored four TDs, three of them rushing and the other on a 9-yard pass from Mason that ended in a highlight reel leap for the end zone. Gurley also scored in the first overtime on a 6-yard run and was the only Bulldog to touch the ball other than Mason in overtime.
The game got off to as poor a start as Georgia could have feared. The Jackets scored 17 unanswered points before the first quarter even ended.
Georgia, which was unable to stop Tech early in the game, made two defensive stops in the fourth quarter before the game-winning play in the fourth quarter. The Jackets otherwise had a big night, with 495 yards offense, including 232 passing.
The Bulldogs scored five touchdowns and two field goals after falling behind 20-0 in the first half.
The Bulldogs won the coin toss but deferred to the second half. So Tech got the football to start and soon faced third-and-eight. The Jackets threw deep for Darren Waller against cornerback Sheldon Dawson, who was starting for the injured Shaq Wiggins. Waller hauled it in for a 68-yard gain to the Georgia 6. Tech’s Vad Lee scored on a 3-yard run two plays later and the Jackets had a 7-0 lead 1:59 into the contest.
After a Georgia punt, Tech exploited the Bulldogs’ pass defense again. This time Lee hit Robert Godhigh with a 33-yard completion down the left sideline. Linebacker Ramik Wilson appeared to have the play well-defended but came off his man when Lee started to run around left end. That set up a 37-yard field goal by Harrison Butker that gave Tech a 10-0 lead with 3:33 still remaining in the first.
The Jackets would get the ball right back after Mason threw a woefully underthrown pass for Chris Conley that was picked off by Jemea Thomas and returned to the Georgia 36. Again, Tech would take advantage of the Bulldogs’ porous secondary. Lee hit a wide-open DeAndre Smelter behind safeties Quincy Mauger and Josh Harvey-Clemons for a 26-yard TD.
So with 1:52 remaining in the first quarter, Tech led 17-0. The Jackets would make it 20-0 after a 15-play, 87-yard drive stalled at the Georgia 5.
The Bulldogs finally got it going at the end of the first half. Taking over at their own 14 with 1:43 after Tech’s first punt of the game, Georgia drove 86 yards in seven plays to score with in just over a minute.
The Bulldogs faced just one second down on the drive and Mason hit Gurley in the flat from the 10-yard line. Doing his best Superman impression , Gurley left the ground near the sideline at the 4-yard line, leaped for the end zone and jutted the ball across the plane just inside the right pylon.
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