Georgia grinds out yet another ugly W over Texas A&M

This recap honestly felt like one that you could write before the game even started using just general ideas and themes, and then come back in and fill in the details later. While I didn’t do that, I most certainly could have as Georgia and Texas A&M played out the script perfectly on a nice Saturday evening in Athens. The Dawgs offense sputtered about for most of the night but did enough to get job done behind a ever dominant defense while A&M, as usual, put up a better fight than most against a top team, but would not quite be able to get over the hump and win.

This one was ugly from the get-go. The first 10 drives of the game went as follows: 0 yards, -9, 23, 0, -17, 28, 5, 15, 22, -8. Somehow, thanks to a couple good kick returns by Georgia and magnificent punting by A&M’s Braden Mann, that sequence of drives resulted in three field goals, with Georgia holding the 6-3 edge. After the Bulldog defense forced the Aggies into their second backwards drive of the day, Jake Fromm would provide with the first eventful drive of the day, a 7 play, 65 yard romp into the endzone where all the yardage came from 3 Fromm passes of 27, 22, and 16 yards. The final pass to George Pickens would provide Georgia their only touchdown of the day to make it 13-3. Fromm would recover from a horrid start to end up going 11-23 for 163 yards and the one touchdown in yet another performance that does not inspire confidence in Fromm’s ability to keep up with Joe Burrow in the SEC Championship Game. Pickens was leading receiver with 2 catches for 57 yards while D’Andre Swift was the MVP of the offense, rushing for 103 yards and hauling in 4 passes for 29. As usual, Rodrigo Blakenship was there to clean up the mess from Georgia’s offense, hitting all 4 of his field goals on the day.

Coming out of halftime, it certainly didn’t look like the Aggies were ready to make it a game when Jalen Wydermyer fumbled a Kellen Mond pass right back to Georgia. Of course UGA went 1 yard in 4 plays and promptly kicked a field goal to make in 16-3. However, out of nowhere, the next 3 Aggie drives would all go deep into Bulldog territory. The first two would result in a turnover on downs and a field goal but on the third drive Kellen Mond and co. finally found the endzone on a 19-yard pass from Mond to Jhamon Ausbon to cut the score to 19-13. Mond used a good second half to end with 275 yards for the game, with the one touchdown and no interceptions. Ausbon had 9 catches for 96 yards to go with his TD catch. A&M needed every single one of Mond’s passing yards, as they ran for a grand total of -1 yard.

The game would be decided when Jimbo Fisher decided to punt on 4th & 11 from the Georgia 43-yard line with 4:26 remaining. Georgia would run 10 plays and run out the clock, sealing the win. Next up for Georgia(10-1, 7-1) is Clean, Old Fashioned Hate vs Georgia Tech in Atlanta, while Texas A&M(7-4, 4-3) gets yet another shot to take down a top team, as they play #1 LSU in Baton Rouge.