ATLANTA – So it turns out that conference championships between two playoff-bound teams still matter a lot…especially if one of those teams looks a lot different after the game than before.
Almost a year ago, the college football world learned that sometimes going undefeated isn’t enough to make the playoffs if you lose your starting quarterback along the way. Georgia isn’t undefeated, not even close, and the Bulldogs also lost Carson Beck, their starting quarterback, in the SEC championship game. How will Beck’s injury affect Georgia’s chances of making the playoffs in the future?
Georgia eliminated any need for a CFP selection committee decision by winning the SEC championship 22-19 in overtime over error-prone Texas. While Georgia is unlikely to fall out of second place thanks to its strong schedule, it is possible. And it’s still an open question how injured Beck is.
Beck was injured on the last play of the first half, a chaotic sack and fumble that nearly resulted in a Texas touchdown. Beck remained face down on the field for several seconds after being captured.
At the end of halftime, three Georgia quarterbacks began warming up on the sideline and none of them were Beck. Substitute Gunner Stockton got the nod and immediately led a motivated Georgia offense to the first touchdown scored by either team of the afternoon. Later in the third quarter, Stockton again led the Bulldogs deep into Texas territory, and Georgia extended its lead to 13-6 with a field goal in the final seconds of the third quarter.
Texas, for its part, faced two enemies on Saturday: Georgia and its own repeated errors and penalties. Texas penalties kept Georgia in the game for the first half, negating two interceptions and a field goal. Texas’ mistakes, including two missed field goals, gave hope to the Georgia bench and motivation to the overwhelmingly pro-Georgia crowd in Atlanta.
And then came the fourth quarter, and these two teams remembered that they were playing for the championship of the powerful Southeastern Conference. Texas struck first, tying the score at 13 on a Quinn Ewers dart to DeAndre Moore for 41 yards and a touchdown.
On its next drive, Georgia executed a pristine and gutsy fake punt on fourth-and-five, catching the Longhorn defense asleep with a final nine-yard run. Twice on the drive, Georgia fumbled and twice recovered its own fumble. Georgia controlled the ball for 9:22 of the fourth quarter, covering 72 yards in 16 plays, but couldn’t hit the ball and had to settle for a go-ahead field goal to make the score 16-13.
So that put the ball in Ewers’ hands with 4:32 left and the SEC championship on the line…and Ewers quickly threw the ball right into the hands of Georgia’s Daylen Everette. That marked Everette’s second Ewers interception of the afternoon and gave Stockton a chance to bleed the clock.
But then Stockton’s inexperience became apparent, with devastating effects. On a broken play, he threw a pass toward the Texas sideline that ended up in the hands of Texas’ Jahdae Barron. That gave Ewers another chance to prove himself. He came out ahead with a key fourth-and-4 conversion with just over a minute left in the game, and his pass in the end zone to Ryan Wingo led to a critical pass interference call on Georgia that put the ball at the 14-yard line. of Georgia with 35. seconds remaining.
Ewers couldn’t get the ball into the end zone, and that meant Texas’ fate would depend on the foot of kicker Bert Auburn, who had already missed twice. His 36-yard attempt went well, tying the game at 16 with 18 seconds left.
In overtime, Texas got the ball first. Ewers missed pass after pass in the end zone, and again the Longhorns had to settle for a field goal attempt. Again, Auburn converted, this time from 27 yards out, to give the Longhorns a 19-16 lead.
That put the ball back in Stockton’s hands. After leading the Bulldogs to the Texas 12-yard line, he took off and ran the ball himself, taking a vicious, helmet-loosening hit from Texas’ Andrew Mukuba at the 4-yard line. One play later, Trevor Etienne made his way to the end zone for a 22-19 Georgia victory. (Beck came onto the field to deliver the ball on the winning play, but was noticeably uncomfortable.)
The question now facing Georgia is how injured Beck is and what effect that might have on the Bulldogs’ perception. Injuries and speculative effects shouldn’t affect a school’s ranking… but as 2023 showed, injuries can undo an entire season’s worth of work in the eyes of the CFP selection committee.
Last year, Florida State finished the regular season undefeated and won the ACC championship even though it lost quarterback Jordan Travis to a season-ending injury along the way. In selecting members of the four-team pool, the College Football Playoff selection committee decided that Travis’ absence made Florida State a materially worse team and instead selected Alabama as the fourth seed.
Georgia didn’t suffer an immediate drop in quality after Beck left the game; in fact, the Bulldogs looked much smarter in the third quarter around Stockton than they did in the entire first half around Beck. But the interception at the end of the fourth quarter was a brutal blow that allowed Texas to tie the game and force overtime. Fortunately for Georgia and Stockton, and unlike last week’s eight-overtime win against Georgia Tech, the Bulldogs only needed one overtime period to erase that mistake and claim the SEC title.