Having already cut Georgia’s lead from 23-3 to 23-20, Florida was threatening again in the fourth quarter.
“Somebody needed to make a play,” UGA coach Mark Richt said later.
Bulldogs safety Corey Moore did.
With Florida facing a third-and-12 play at the Georgia 43-yard line, UGA defensive coordinator Todd Grantham called for an all-out blitz. Moore came through clean up the middle, sacking Gators quarterback Tyler Murphy for a 14-yard loss. That forced a Florida punt, and the Gators never got the ball back as the Bulldogs’ offense kept it for the game’s final eight minutes and 17 seconds.
“It was gutsy,” Richt said of the blitz call. “I was with (Grantham). I was about to tell him, ‘Go sic ’em,’ you know. But coach Grantham called it before I could even get (the words) out, and I just told him I was with him 100 percent.
“Those type of calls can go the other way, too, obviously. … When you do that, you’re exposed to a lot of things one-on-one. But we got there and got the big loss.”
Grantham succinctly summarized his thinking: “I wanted to end the game. I mean, that’s what I thought. End the game.”
Moore told reporters he was in position to make the play because the rest of the defense did its job, too.
“I know I made the sack,” Moore said, “but without everybody doing what they have to do, I never would have gotten the sack.”
Stopping the Gators at such a critical juncture clearly goes down as a highlight of the season for Georgia’s defense.
“I’m in tears right now,” defensive lineman Garrison Smith said afterward. “I ain’t cried in a long time. These are tears of passion for this game. It means so much to me. … When it counted the most, we came through.”
The Gators’ 17-point rally started with a 14-yard touchdown drive after a Georgia fumble and continued with a safety, a 50-yard touchdown drive and two-point conversion. That Georgia’s defense ultimately was able to halt the Gators’ momentum reflected the unit’s progress, Grantham said.
“In the Tennessee game, we didn’t have enough mental toughness to put the fire out,” Grantham said. “Today the fire started, but we went and put it out and won the game.”
Against Tennessee, Georgia saw a 17-3 halftime lead turn into a 31-24 deficit before the Bulldogs won in overtime.
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