Trailing 41-37 with just over four minutes to play Saturday, Georgia sent its high-powered offense back on the field, 75 yards from a potential game-winning touchdown.
The mood in the huddle?
“We’re cool as a cucumber, man,” wide receiver Justin Scott-Wesley said later, recalling the moment. “We’re not worried about nothing. We know we can make plays.”
They promptly made a string of them: an 11-yard pass from quarterback Aaron Murray to Scott-Wesley, a 9-yard pass to tight end Arthur Lynch, a 2-yard run by tailback Keith Marshall, a 10-yard pass to Lynch, then an 18-yard run by freshman tailback J.J. Green. All of that moved the ball to the LSU 25-yard line.
Then Scott-Wesley made the play that won the game, finding himself wide open near the end zone with a Murray pass coming his way. Scott-Wesley caught the ball and darted into the end zone — a 25-yard touchdown play that gave Georgia a 44-41 lead with 1:47 remaining. That held up as the final score when the defense stopped LSU on its final possession.
“Oh, man, it was similar to the play I scored on in the South Carolina game,” Scott-Wesley said. “Artie (Lynch) ran a good route and occupied the safety. And the cornerback let me go, and the safety didn’t come over, and I was just wide open.”
It was one of many big plays on a day when the Georgia offense amassed 494 yards. It was Murray’s fourth touchdown pass of the game. It was Scott-Wesley’s fourth catch of the game, his first touchdown of the day.
“We feel like we can move the ball pretty much on any defense,” Scott-Wesley said. “When we get moving, it’s hard to stop us.”
Murray said the Georgia offense felt as if it had the game right where it wanted it when it got the ball back after LSU took a 41-37 lead with 4:14 to play.
“‘Let’s go out there and play, boys. This is our time,’” he said, recalling the sentiment in the huddle at the start of the game-winning drive. “We want the ball in our hands as an offense. And we got that. … We knew what we needed to do.”
LSU coach Les Miles said later that he thought Georgia scored too quickly on the drive. “Frankly, I figured we had enough time” to score again, Miles said. But that didn’t happen.
“It was a fun game,” Scott-Wesley said. “It was one of those games you dream of being in. It’s why you come to Georgia. It’s why you play in the SEC — to be in hard-nosed, tough games like this.”
Scott-Wesley said Murray predicted before the game that the offense would have another big day.
“He told me before the game he was going to go off again,” Scott-Wesley said. “He’s our guy, and we are going to ride him to the top.”
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