Third quarter blog

2:45 left in third quarter, South Carolina up 14-6

Washaun Ealey has to hope he gets another chance to redeem himself today.

The Georgia tailback just fumbled inside the 5, derailing the Bulldogs’ best chance so far to get into the end zone. South Carolina recovered and returned it up to its own 14.

It’s still a one-score game, and the Bulldogs look like they’re getting a better handle on this game. But they are also going to start running out of time.

The one thing really going well for Georgia on offense was that Aaron Murray has had a lot of time to pass the ball. The Bulldogs finally managed to exploit that.

Kris Durham got behind the defense and was wide open. Murray hit him, not quite in stride, but hey he hit him.

Then came a false start penalty, and the Ealey fumble. Two mistakes you can’t make on the road.


5:57 left in third quarter, South Carolina still up 14-6

Georgia needed a turnover. It finally got one, at a great time, and is back in business.

Christian Robinson, playing on the same field his dad Ken starred at for South Carolina, recovered a fumble at the Georgia 24. The Bulldogs' Justin Houston, getting around after a blitz from the outside, stripped Stephen Garcia, who had tried to scramble forward.

That was a huge lift for Georgia, which at a minimum keeps it a one-score game. South Carolina had just completed a 40-yard pass to get into field goal range.

Now the question is if the offense can do something with it.


7:09 left in third quarter, South Carolina up 14-6

Make that all three timeouts burned for Georgia. And it's not making good use of them.

It called a defensive timeout on third down to avoid an illegal substitution penalty - only to get called for offsides after the timeout.

And on the very next play, South Carolina gained 40 yards on a pass play to Alshon Jeffery.

Not good.

8:05 left in third quarter, Georgia now within 14-6

Georgia at least has three more points, and looked better on offense, especially throwing the ball.

But it also used up a lot of time, and burned a couple timeouts. So after all that, it still doesn’t have much momentum back.

Aaron Murray started looking like he could move the ball there, hitting Kris Durham, Orson Charles and Logan Gray for first downs.

Very good for Georgia, since South Carolina started the half looking like it would beg Murray to beat them. Washaun Ealey wasn’t getting the yards up the middle like he was early in the game.

More critically, Murray waited and hit Durham for a third-down conversion down to the 16.

We also saw a bit more trickery that drive, with Branden Smith on offense and Washaun Ealey taking direct snaps. It didn’t result in much, though.

The bad:

On first down with 13:18 left in the third quarter, the Bulldogs burned a timeout. Yikes.

Then later in the drive – again on first down – the Bulldogs burned their second timeout. Double yikes.

Both timeouts were burned on first downs, and were not followed by any wildly successful plays.