Kirby Smart’s Georgia football team nearly had it on Saturday. After seeing Alabama up 30-7 at the half, the Bulldogs came back to take the lead with 2:31 left after a Carson Beck deep touchdown pass.
Then, the Crimson Tide finished the job. Jalen Milroe hit Ryan Williams for a remarkable 75-yard touchdown, Zabien Brown picked off Beck in the end zone and Kalen DeBoer got his first SEC win.
Afterward, Smart praised the true freshman wide receiver who made the catch that beat his team.
“The play he made was actually in press coverage there late,” Smart said. “And that’s okay to give that up. That’s hard, but we caught that ball on them, but you gotta tackle him. Gotta get him on the ground, make them snap it again, and if we had momentum, make them drive it through. We didn’t get him on the ground and that’s the biggest fatal flaw of that play.”
Smart said Milroe’s unique talent makes Williams even more dangerous. It’s difficult to double the talented freshman, when the quarterback’s running ability means teams must account for an extra number in the run game.
Milroe went for 374 yards and two touchdowns through the air on Saturday. He also led the Tide in rushing with 117 yards and another two scores.
“We had our best player on him on fourth-and-one, and he outran him to the sideline,” Smart said. “And he turned up and scored. He ran outside of a blitz defense were we got more people than they can block in there, and he ran what we call a moon sweep outside. He’s a really good football player. He’s a really good football player. If you could just stop him and not worry about him throwing it, I think you could do it. But when he’s throwing it well and they’re catching it well, really hard to stop.”
Smart took the blame himself for the Bulldogs not being prepared to start the game. He said at halftime that they had to get stops, something UGA did much better in the latter two quarters.
The coach said he told the players as they left the field how much he appreciated their response to adversity. He also praised what Kalen DeBoer has already built at Alabama through his first four games in Tuscaloosa after taking over for Nick Saban.
“I think they got really good players,” Smart said. “They’ve got a great program. I’ve got immense respect for them. They do a great job. Nick’s recruited good players, Kalen’s gotten good players in here, and it’s a tough battle.”
Next up, the Bulldogs face Auburn in Athens. That game is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff on ABC.
