Evan Grant, The Dallas Morning News
ATLANTA -- Five takeaways from the SEC championship where the old guard refuses to give up its grip on the league. Georgia, behind riding a backup quarterback, the momentum from a daring fake punt and a wave of Texas penalties held off the Longhorns, 22-19, to win the championship.
Georgia will get the SEC's bye and likely be the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff bracket when it is released on Sunday. It will be interesting to see where Texas falls. Do Texas and Georgia merely swap spots in the rankings with Georgia going to the No. 2 seed and Texas falling to sixth or seventh (depending on the outcome of the Big Ten championship)?
Either way, Texas is likely to remain in the Nos. 5-8 group and will host one of the bottom four seeds in Austin on Dec. 20-21.
Stockton steps up for Beck
Georgia's Gunner Stockton, who replaced injured Carson Beck, led the Bulldogs on a touchdown drive in the third quarter and had a key 8-yard quarterback draw in overtime before Trevor Etienne bulldozed his way into the end zone for the game-winner.
Texas had scored first in the overtime on a Bert Auburn 32-yard field goal, his fourth of the game.
Longhorns tricked
Georgia caught Texas by surprise -- when it shouldn't have -- on a critical fake punt in the fourth quarter from its own 30. Georgia had lost punter Brett Thorson to an injury on a tackle along the sidelines in the third quarter. Thorson has attempted every punt for the Bulldogs this year.
So, with backup Charlie Ham deep for the snap, Georgia instead snapped the ball to backup offensive lineman Drew Bobo, son of offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, who tossed it to receiver Arian Smith coming around the end. Though Smith had a couple of drops on passes, he caught the toss and raced nine yards for a first down that extended the drive and led to the Bulldogs' 21-yard go-ahead field goal by Peyton Woodring with 4:30 left.
Momentum swings
The game seemed to swing wildly in the crazy final seconds of the first half. Ultimately, not the way Texas saw it. On consecutive plays, Texas intercepted Carson Beck, but both plays were nullified by penalties. On both plays, Texas' Colin Simmons was offside. On the first play, Texas threw in a pass interference as well. On the second, picked off by Anthony Hill, he eventually lateraled to Barryn Sorrell along the sidelines, who then tried to lateral to anybody else as the clock wound down to zero. Georgia's Dylan Fairchild, however, intercepted the lateral. But with the penalty, there remained :01 left on the clock and time for Georgia to attempt one more play.
On the play, the usually cautious Bulldogs attempted a home run ball, but Beck held it waiting for something to develop and when he started to finally unleash a throw, he was hit by Trey Moore around the right biceps. Texas fell on the ball to end the half, but Beck remained on the ground for a couple of minutes. Georgia personnel attended to him. When the second half began, he was on the sidelines without his helmet, an ice bag on his elbow and was ruled out for the game.
It forced Georgia to turn the game over to Stockton. It changed everything for a Bulldogs offense that got nothing going in the first half.
A different story for Ewers
To some surprise, Texas did not come out trying to flex the muscles it showed in its running game the last few weeks. Then again, the way Quinn Ewers played, maybe it was not a surprise. Texas dropped back to throw on its first five plays and Ewers delivered one sharp ball after another. It was quite a contrast from the first meeting.
In Austin, after completing his first four passes, Ewers completed just one more pass to his own team in the first half and was benched for the final half of the second quarter for Arch Manning. He finished the half with just 17 yards. On Saturday, it was a completely different story. Though Ewers did have a ball intercepted after being deflected, he went 16 for 25 for 228 yards. He made play after play.
Sloppy play dooms Longhorns
Funny thing about the passing game: It takes more than just good throws by the quarterbacks. The Longhorns receivers might have been the only thing keeping them from running away with things in the first half. There were too many critical penalties and sloppy drops.
Isaiah Bond twice drew penalties for offensive pass interference and a hold on first-down plays from inside the Georgia 25. On both occasions, the penalties stalled the drives and Texas had to settle for Bert Auburn field goals.
But Matthew Golden, Ryan Wingo and Gunnar Helm all had egregious drops. It made Ewers' 228 first-half passing yards stand out that much more.
We should also point out that Bond hardly stood out on the penalty front. Texas was penalized eight times for 80 yards (and there were a couple of more negated because they were either part of offsetting fouls or were declined). Put it this way: Texas had more yards in penalties in the first half than Georgia had in actual yards (54). And while Bond's penalties may have turned potential touchdown drives into field goal drives, Malik Agbo's false start on an Auburn 37-yard field goal pushed Texas back five yards and made Auburn go at it again. The second time around, he was wide left.
The penalties clearly frustrated Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, who, in his halftime walk-off interview said: "Well, hopefully they call them for a hold one of these times too."
Georgia was called for two penalties in the first half. Texas' first-half penalty yardage was its second most for an entire game this season. The Longhorns had 10 for 107 yards at Vanderbilt.