Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Georgia solid late
Stetson bennett threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, and no. 3 Georgia dominated the final 30 minutes to beat the 14th-ranked Volunteers 44-21.
NO. 3 GEORGIA 44, NO. 14 TENNESSEE 21
ATHENS, Ga. — Tennessee charged off the field at halftime, seemingly holding all the momentum.
But there were still two quarters to go.
That time belongs to Georgia.
Bouncing back from a goal-line stand at the end of the the first half, the No. 3 Bulldogs dominated the final 30 minutes to beat the No. 14 Volunteers 44-21 Saturday.
Stetson Bennett threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, while the defense forced three turnovers — returning one of them for a TD — and held Tennessee to just 71 yards of total offense in the second half.
“We know we’re a second-half team,” said linebacker Azeez Ojulari, who got the turnover ball rolling.
The Bulldogs (3-0) defeated a ranked SEC team for the second week in a row, shaking off a 21-17 deficit to become the first team in 10 years to win two games in a season by at least 20 points after trailing at halftime.
Georgia also trailed midway through the season opener at Arkansas, but romped to a 37-10 victory.
This was essentially a repeat.
“We didn’t blink,” Coach Kirby Smart said. “We’ve got a very emotional team. In the locker room, a lot of emotions were shown.”
Georgia took out that emotion on Tennessee (2-1), which showed it’s not ready to compete with the league’s top programs.
“They really outplayed us in the second half,” Coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “You can’t turn the ball over three times against anybody and expect to win.”
Bennett ran for a 10-yard touchdown in the first half, hooked up with Kearis Jackson on a 21-yard scoring pass in the final minute of the third quarter, and sealed the victory with a 1-yard TD flip to 305-pound nose tackle Jalen Carter, who was suppos- edly in the game as an extra blocker.
For good measure, Monty Rice stripped the ball away from quarterback Tennessee quarterback Justin Guarantano, scooped up the loose ball and ran 20 yards for a fitting epitaph to Georgia’s defensive dominance as darkness fell over Athens.
Fittingly, Guarantano was sacked on the final play of the game.
Bennett, the former walkon making his second consecutive start for the Bulldogs, completed 16 of 27 for 238 yards. Jackson hauled in four passes for 91 yards. Zamir White added a 1-yard scoring run.