After last year’s game, the anticipated matchup of Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett and the Auburn defense was expected to be a memorable one. Bennett threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-10 victory for the Bulldogs last year at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Early on it was surprisingly the Georgia running game that tested the Auburn defense. The running back room of Georgia, led by senior Kenny McIntosh and junior Kendall Milton, led the Bulldogs to 76 rushing yards through the first quarter of the game.
However, Auburn’s defense, led by the duo of Owen Pappoe and Derick Hall, was able to shut off the Georgia offense from breaking into the endzone. The rest of the defense seemed to be clicking and did an impressive job shutting down Stetson Bennett in the first quarter, holding him to only 17 passing yards.
Georgia was able to hold Auburn to 56 total yards with Robby Ashford going an undesirable 3-of-11 through the first fifteen minutes of the game. Another notable factor for Ashford was the fans. Sanford Stadium was sold out with 92,746 fans in attendance. This was Ashford’s first road against an opposing team and was not easy considering it was rocking with Bulldog fans.
The most notable play that happened in the first quarter came when a questionable fake punt call from Auburn was called. The attempt was unsuccessful and set Georgia up in prime field goal position near midfield.
"That was the look. That was something that we had something happened to us earlier in the year... and it was something that we felt like it was gonna be the right opportunity,” Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin said about the fake punt.
Heading into the second quarter both sides were locked in a battle at zero points apiece. Both sides were showing promise of what this game could be, an all-defensive battle.
Georgia was able to make use of the short field early in the second quarter by putting together a 36-yard drive to set up McIntosh for the 1-yard touchdown with 11:42 left in the second quarter to jump ahead 7-0.
Auburn quickly gave the ball back to Georgia on another short field situation and, once again, Georgia was able to take advantage. This time Daijun Edwards was able to run the ball in from the 1-yard line to put the Bulldogs up 14-0 with 8:45 left of the clock until halftime.
At the end of the half Auburn tried to get some offense going from inside their own 10-yard line. Both Auburn and Georgia called timeouts to sort their respective team's gameplan out, but the drive came to nothing.
Auburn was still in a manageable situation heading into halftime only down 14-0.
Robby Ashford finished with a stat line in the first half of 8-for-23 and 60 yards. The run game did not do much for Auburn either, only 77 yards on 16 rushes; Robby Ashford accounted for 62 of those yards.
Owen Pappoe and Derick Hall highlighted the Auburn defense with 9 tackles between the two of them shutting down anything that came to them.
At the half, Auburn’s Oscar Chapman had more punt yards (226) than Auburn had gained as an offensive whole (121) which was a shock to many considering how close the game was.
On the other sideline, Georgia was hitting their stride accounting for 360 total yards. The running back room continued to dominate with 204 yards with an average rush of eight yards a carry.
Coming out of halftime the Tigers were able to covert on a short field caused by Stetson Bennett turnover. Auburn went three-and-out, but it set up Anders Carlson for the 29-yard field goal.
This is the first time this year Auburn has outscored an opponent in the middle eight. The Tigers scored three points while blanking the Bulldogs.
After that it was all Georgia in the third quarter. The Bulldogs capitalized on a run game that rushed for 111 yards in the first half to punch in their third touchdown of the day. Daijun Edwards was able to rush in from the two-yard line to give Georgia the 21-3 lead with 4:40 left in the quarter.
On the other side, Auburn was only able to rush for 11 yards in the third quarter. As if the Auburn running game could not get any worse, starting lineman Alec Johnson and Alex Troxell both went out with injuries. This was very noticeable as Auburn had an average rush gain of 1.6 throughout the third quarter.
Auburn was only able to add 29 yards of passing to the 11 rushing during the third quarter.
“Well, I wish I had the answer for that. … If I did, we would fix those things,” Harsin said when asked about how to fix the issue.
In the fourth quarter, it was all Georgia.
“It was just too much throughout the game, and some of the big plays they made in the second half, the score got out of hand,” Harsin said.
Possibly the biggest play of the game, and the second half, was when Stetson Bennett showed off his athleticism by running straight through the Auburn defense to score the fourth rushing touchdown of the day for the Bulldogs from 64-yards out.
"I thought the run that Stetson [Bennett] had, that was big," Harsin said. “That was the one that really opened it up.”
They did not let off there as just three minutes later Daijun Edwards punched it in from seven yards out for his third rushing touchdown of the day with 11:10 left on the clock.
Derik Hall suffered an injury during the third quarter and was forced to sit out most of the fourth which fed into the scoring of Georgia. The injury that Hall suffered is unknown as of now – he says he will be “good to go” against Ole Miss next weekend.
The Tigers did get one back off a 62-yard catch and run from Jarquez Hunter. The shifty sophomore was able to catch the screen pass and turn it up a notch to get past the exceptional Bulldog defense.
Once again, Georgia utilized the run game to their advantage by putting together an eleven-play drive to set Branson Robinson up for the sixth rushing touchdown of the day to give put the Bulldogs up 42-10.
Despite the run-favored offense from Georgia, Stetson Bennett was able to make the passes needed against the Auburn defense for 183 yards in the second half to go with the 25 yards in the first half.
Auburn’s offense was unable to get anything going throughout the game. Ashford finished 13-for-30 with one touchdown for 165 yards. Ashford finished with a completion rate of 34.2%, which is the lowest by an Auburn quarterback since 2012. John Samuel Shenker led the offense in receptions with five and Hunter was second with three. Auburn leading wide receiver on the day was Ja’Varrius Johnson with one reception for 20 yards.
The most impressive player on the field very well could have been Auburn punter Oscar Chapman. The Australian finished with nine punts on the day for 402 yards, along with a 44.7 average which will keep the Tigers near the top of the SEC in punt average.
In the end, the Bulldogs’ run game was just too much for the Auburn defense.
"We're too up-and-down throughout games. That's what we have to clean up. That's really the challenge... We have to do a better job coaching, putting guys in the right position to succeed, and then we've got to execute those things,” Harsin said on the struggles today.
The lack of adjustments made at halftime were evident as Georgia added 174 rushing yards in the second half to bring their game total to 292 yards behind a 100-yard game from Branson Robinson.
The Tigers finished with ten penalties for 60 yards on the day, with a number of those being on the offensive line, which put Auburn in a less than ideal position.
“It’s freaking frustrating. It's frustrating as hell,” Harsin said about the penalties.
Auburn will now travel to Ole Miss next Saturday to look to get back on the winning track. Kickoff is set for 11:00 CST and will be broadcasted on ESPN.
