Auburn 40, Georgia 17, final score. The Tigers’ attack to become the first-ever two-loss Playoff aggregation is actual alive. Auburn aloof ashamed the No. 1 aggregation and saw the two teams it’s absent to, Clemson and LSU, win. Abutting up is ULM, followed by the SEC West appellation bold adjoin Alabama. Win that, and it’s a rematch with UGA, about absolutely for a cruise to the Sugar Bowl semifinal.
Let’s brawl (to the song that Georgia danced to while assault Auburn absolutely 10 years ago).
Auburn 40, Georgia 10, 6:13. Kerryon Johnson already had 167 yards rushing. He aloof tacked on a 55-yard touchdown to absolutely ice it. The Iron Bowl will be the SEC West championship. It’s at Auburn.
Auburn 33, Georgia 10, 9:25. A Georgia drive went three-and-out amidst a bouncing Auburn canyon rush? Why, I never!
Auburn 33, Georgia 10, 10:15. Auburn barreled bottomward the acreage afresh and chewed up seven minutes, but a fumbled breeze dead progress. The guy who recovered it was already Auburn’s hero: Kerryon Johnson. Bang good.
Auburn 30, Georgia 10, end of quarter. The Tigers accept apprenticed out of the crisis atom and face third-and-1. Kerryon Johnson has 23 totes for 118 yards, about bristles times as abounding hasty yards as the Dawgs accept gone for.
Auburn 30, Georgia 10, 2:14. Ah right, UGA can’t absolutely canyon today. Yet addition blimp Nick Chubb run and two incompletions were followed by a COFFIN CORNER PUNT by Cameron Nizialek. Not the greatest account for the Dawgs, but could force a abbreviate drive and nice acreage position.
Auburn 30, Georgia 10, 3:10. Auburn should be entering clock-burning approach appropriate about now, but a apocryphal alpha and sack dead a drive that started well. The punt alone alcove UGA’s 45 afore activity out of bounds. Hmmmmm ...
Auburn 30, Georgia 10, 5:28. Acknowledgment to a 38-yard third-down about-face to a advanced accessible Javon Wims, UGA takes it from a three-touchdown bold (with two-pointers) to a accustomed three-touchdown game.
Auburn 30, Georgia 7, 8:12. And with that abbreviate field, Ryan Davis took a awning a ambagious 32 yards. It’s time to alpha envisioning an Iron Bowl to adjudge the SEC West. You acquaint me how UGA’s breach produces 24 credibility in the abutting 23 minutes.
Auburn 23, Georgia 7, 8:59. Tired of banishment three-and-outs, Auburn affected two three-and-outs on one drive. The aboriginal was negated by an offside penalty, while the additional concluded up at fourth-and-22 afterwards a sack and apocryphal start. Puuunt, axis into a big Auburn punt acknowledgment and a claimed abhorrent on Sony Michel.
Auburn 23, Georgia 7, 11:57. Georgia affected Auburn’s third punt of the day ... and afresh Mecole Hardman, who’d been UGA’s best impactful ball-mover so far, muffed it. Afterwards a brace Kerryon Johnson gains, Jarrett Stidham ran in the six on a area apprehend keeper.
Auburn 16, Georgia 7. UGA arch drillmaster Kirby Smart accepted to CBS that the Dawgs should’ve been a little added advancing at the end of the half. Auburn gets brawl next, and the Tigers are assault the Dawgs in every band of the box account so far. UGA’s approved alone 12 passes, consistent in three sacks and four incompletions, while Jarrett Stidham’s battled through an aboriginal canyon blitz storm to affix on 12 of 18 for 125. Auburn’s Kerryon Johnson has 76 on the ground, about four times as abounding as all the Dawgs combined.
Auburn 16, Georgia 7, halftime. Mecole Hardman is UGA’s abhorrent MVP so far ... via appropriate teams. A big punt return, his additional ample runback of the day, set up a chargeless acreage ambition (with some added abandoned run calls forth the way, for some reason), which UGA absent advanced right. UPSET ALERT siren is blaring.
Auburn 16, Georgia 7, 1:37. Five! Bristles Georgia punts! A ha ha! UGA’s boss active bold has 18 yards on 20 carries, with a continued of 7. The Tigers are averaging 4.3.
Auburn 16, Georgia 7, 4:09. We argued afore the bold that Auburn should booty abysmal shots, and hey! Here’s one!
That’s Jarrett Stidham award Darius Slayton for a 42-yarder on a penalty-aided drive that put the Tigers up by added than a abounding score. The Dawgs are on active for the aboriginal time in two abounding months.
Auburn 9, Georgia 7, 8:08. UGA assuredly affected a bang that wasn’t a acreage goal! A D’Andre Walker sack of Jarrett Stidham was the culprit.
Auburn 9, Georgia 7, 10:25. UGA’s latest drive ventured all of negative-11 yards, acknowledgment to a accumulation sack that followed yet addition blimp run. Punt.
Auburn 9, Georgia 7, 12:03. Yet addition appropriate Auburn drive — now featuring a 17-yard pass! — that concluded with a Daniel Carlson. acreage goal.
Georgia 7, Auburn 6, 1:36. A big Mecole Hardman alpha acknowledgment set UGA up at midfield, but the Tigers affected addition three-and-out, including addition blimp run.
Georgia 7, Auburn 6, 1:23. Hey, Auburn’s authoritative the arena bold so far. Bristles appropriate assets by Kerryon Johnson or Jarrett Stidham on this drive, and Auburn’s averaging 7 per carry. Casual was beneath benign here, with Dawgs all throughout the backfield again.
Georgia 7, Auburn 3, 5:17. The Tigers affected a third-and-long again, snuffing two beeline Sony Michel runs, and this time, Jake Fromm got sacked by brilliant rusher Jeff Holland. Punt.
Georgia 7, Auburn 3, 8:29. Auburn’s better anguish advancing in, as usual: alienated sacks. A able aperture drive petered out as Jarrett Stidham danced about in the abridged amidst pressure, but Daniel Carlson ablaze the 54-yard acreage goal.
Georgia 7, Auburn 0, 11:21. The better catechism advancing in: could Auburn force the Dawgs to pass? They did, but UGA handled it. Jake Fromm responded to a third-and-7 with two 25-plus-yard completions, and Nick Chubb punched it in on the ambition band from the Wildcat.
On a weekend with three top-10 amateur and four added ranked amateur (and the Pac-12 apparently actuality agape out of the Playoff afore Saturday alike began), the best important bold ability be this age-old rivalry. With a win at No. 10 Auburn, No. 1 Georgia moves a brace added wins abroad from absolutely possibly absolute a Playoff bid behindhand of the SEC Championship’s result, while Auburn can booty one huge footfall through an absurd gauntlet and possibly booty the first-ever two-loss Playoff trip.
So yeah! Big deal!
The S&P bang for Georgia's cruise to Auburn — No. 1 Dawgs 26, No. 10 Tigers 24 — makes a acceptable bulk of sense. It's about altogether accumbent with the Vegas band (Georgia -2.5), and back the civic scoring boilerplate is afterpiece to 28 credibility or so, it gives a slight all-embracing bend to the defenses.
One problem: Auburn doesn’t absolutely do mid-20s.
In 48 amateur back the alpha of the 2014 season, Gus Malzahn’s Plainsmen accept denticulate amid 21 and 28 credibility aloof seven times. They’ve been captivated to 13 or beneath credibility eight times, and they’ve denticulate 38 or added 21 times. Back the alpha of 2015, they accept averaged 39.9 credibility per bold in wins and 16.7 per bold in losses. (The blow boilerplate sinks to 14.3 per bold if you booty out the agrarian 54-46 blow to Arkansas in 2015.)
There is little average for Auburn’s offense. Either aggregate works, or annihilation works.
Still, UGA plays at one of the slower tempos in the country, and Auburn should accomplish abundant stops to accumulate the Dawgs at 31 or lower.
The question: is this one of Auburn’s amateur in the 30s or one of Auburn’s amateur in the teens?
The Abysmal South’s Oldest Animosity has featured its allotment of absurd drama, from Fran Tarkenton's last-second touchdown canyon to allowance Georgia's SEC appellation in 1959, to Michael Johnson's jump-ball bolt in 2002 (which beatific UGA to the SEC appellation game), to, of course, Ricardo Louis' phenomenon bolt in 2013.
Just remember, Auburn: those were all big passes. You've got the golden-armed quarterback. Time to see what he can do.
1. It’s got abysmal history.
Auburn-Georgia did not get the moniker of the Abysmal South’s Oldest Animosity by accident. The teams aboriginal played in 1892 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta in a bold that was declared as “the amusing accident of the year.” (And you admiration why Southerners dress up for academy football games.)
North Carolina-Virginia has the appellation of “the South’s Oldest Rivalry” admitting blame off after in 1892. It’s been played hardly added frequently than Auburn-UGA, which best afresh took a year off during World War II.
Still, entering the 121st meeting, Bulldogs-Tigers is one of the bristles most-played FBS rivalries, casual the abeyant Missouri-Kansas this year.
2. It’s familial.
Auburn is a stone’s bandy from the Georgia border. The abutting above burghal to Auburn is Columbus, Georgia. Over 10 percent of Auburn’s acceptance appear from Georgia, alert as abounding as any added accompaniment (save for Alabama itself). There are added Auburn graduates in Atlanta than any added city, including Birmingham and Auburn itself.
Auburn plays on Pat Dye Field. Dye is a Georgia built-in and 1960 UGA graduate. Georgia’s able-bodied campus is called the Vince Dooley Able-bodied Complex. Mobile’s Dooley is a 1954 alum of Auburn.
Auburn and Georgia admirers bang up adjoin one addition on a connected basis. They assignment with one another, go to abbey with one another, cut one addition off in traffic, and occasionally band and carbon together. That amusing activating agency that this game, er, aloof agency more.
3. It’s chaotic.
In the aftermost 25 meetings, the home aggregation has won alone 10 times. Home acreage advantage is declared to be account three or four credibility in academy football. In the Auburn-Georgia rivalry, it appears to be a accountability rather than a benefit.
And four added affidavit in there.
