University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldogs Win 26-23 In Overtime Against Alabama
September 23, 2007 | Football
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. Receiver Mikey Henderson caught a 25-yard touchdown pass in overtime to lift Georgia to a 26-23 victory against Alabama on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Henderson hauled in his game-winning pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford on the Bulldogs’ only play of the extra period. For Henderson, it was his first career touchdown reception.
Alabama had the ball first in overtime and got a 40-yard field goal from Leigh Tiffin for a 23-20 lead.
With the win, the Bulldogs improved to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the SEC. Alabama fell to 3-1 and 2-1.
Alabama scored three times in the fourth quarter to force the overtime. The tying score came on quarterback John Parker Wilson’s touchdown run with 1:09 remaining. Tiffin also booted two fourth-quarter field goals.
Stafford also threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to tailback Thomas Brown in the first quarter. Tailback Knowshon Moreno added a third-quarter touchdown run.
Brown and Moreno each rushed for 74 yards for the Bulldogs. Stafford went 19-of-35 for 224 yards and two touchdowns.
Coutu booted field goals of 45 and 47 for the Bulldogs and was 2-for-2 on extra points.
Cornerback Asher Allen led Georgia with a career-high 11 tackles. Linebackers Marcus Washington and Dannell Ellerbe each contributed eight tackles.
The Bulldogs will return to SEC play on Saturday at Sanford Stadium as they entertain Ole Miss.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford
On the final play... "Coach Bobo had a great play call. We just tried to max it up. We'd been
getting a lot of one-on-one coverage all night. We just tried to give Mikey (Henderson) a chance. He's a speed guy who would just kind of burst by them. I just tried to get him the ball and he ended up making the play for me."
On the Alabama come back...
"We kind of shot ourselves in the foot, missing the protection here, the bad ball that dropped and the penalties, but we battled and we played hard. We had a chance to win it there at the end of regulation and we didn't, but we kept our poise as a young team and we came back and won it."
On the final play...
"I was just hoping that I'd catch it. I dropped the last one and I didn't want to get down on myself for them to come back and call my number. They gave me chance to make a play and I just caught it. It just feels good for us to come out here and make plays."
On the win...
"It makes me feel good. It seemed like a lot of plays slipped out of our hands at South Carolina. There were a lot of plays we just wanted to make and we just didn't. So we came in here this week and we wanted to take it one play at a time. That was our philosophy. If we play each play as hard as we can and we keep stringing those together then something good is going to happen. Today it happened. We came out with a win against a great Alabama team."
Georgia Post-Game Notes: Sept. 22, 2007 at #16 Alabama
Overtime: Georgia (3-1, 1-1 SEC) is now 4-2 all-time in in overtime including 2-0 under coach Richt. Before tonight, the last overtime game came for the Bulldogs was in the 2004 Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla.,, a 34-27 Bulldog win over Purdue. Tonight, Georgia won the toss and deferred. Alabama was held to a field goal while Georgia scored a TD on its first play, a 25-yard pass from Matthew Stafford to Mikey Henderson. It was Henderson’s first career TD catch to go with two punt return TDs in his career. Georgia played the very first OT game in SEC history, a 56-49 win in four OTs at Auburn in 1996.
*Road Success Under Coach Richt: With tonight’s 26-23 win, the Bulldogs under Mark Richt are 23-3 in an opponent’s stadium including 2-0 in Tuscaloosa and 9-2 against ranked foes. In 2002, Georgia won here 27-25. These are Georgia’s only two wins all-time in Tuscaloosa. Overall, the series is now 35-25-4 in favor of Alabama including 7-2 here. Also, this was Georgia’s 12th victory when tied or trailing late under Richt.
*Winning With Richt: Georgia ranks second only to LSU in the SEC in total victories since Mark Richt came to Georgia in 2001. In this span, the Bulldogs are now 64-18 while the Tigers are 66-16.
*Defense: Junior MLB Marcus Washington, making his first career start, tallied a career-high eight tackles. Sophomore SCB Asher Allen set a career-high with a team-best 11 tackles. He had tied his previous best by the first half with a team-best five stops. Georgia came in ranked 3rd in the SEC allowing only 15.3 ppg.
*Thomas Brown: With 74 rushing yards, senior RB Thomas Brown moved up to 9th in Georgia history now with 2,080 yards. Coming in tonight, Brown ranked 12th in school history with 2,006 yards. Tonight, he finished with 181 all-purpose yards, gaining 74 rushing on 20 carries, 39 receiving on five catches including one for a TD and 68 on three kickoff returns.
*Matthew Stafford: Sophomore QB Matthew Stafford finished the night 19-for-35 for 224 yards with 2 TDs and 2 Ints. His last pass was a 25-yard game-winner to Mikey Henderson in overtime. It was Henderson’s first career TD catch. On the opening drive of the game, he was 5-for-6 for 64 yards including 3-for-3 on third downs en route to a TD, capped by a 10-yard strike to Thomas Brown. In the first half, Stafford was 10-for-17 for 112 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. Last year, Stafford had a fine performance in his first visit to the state of Alabama, a 37-15 rout of fifth-ranked Auburn. He completed 14-of-20 passes for 219 yards and one TD. It would be the start of a three-game winning streak over ranked opponents for the Bulldogs as they closed out the year 9-4.
*Knowshon Moreno: Redshirt freshman Knowshon Moreno tied senior Thomas Brown with 74 yards rushing tonight. He did it on 17 carrries plus had two catches for 22 yards. Moreno put Georgia in front 17-10 with a seven-yard TD run with 6:08 left in the third quarter, capping a 9-play, 73-yard drive in 4:07.
*Brandon Coutu: Senior PK Brandon Coutu was 2-for-4 tonight, making a 45-yarder in the 2nd quarter, missed a 50-yarder in the 3rd quarter, made a 47-yarder in the 4th quarter and then missed a 47-yarder at the end of regulation. For his career, Coutu is 42-for-53. Prior to tonight, Coutu in his career was 23-for-25 in the second half with both misses coming in the 2005 loss versus Florida in Jacksonville from 39 and 52 yards. Also, he had never attempted a game-winning field goal until tonight.
*First-Time Starters: Junior Marcus Washington made his first career start at MLB, marking the second straight week that the Bulldogs switched up their starting LBs. Senior Brandon Miller returned as a starter at SLB while junior Dannell Ellerbe moved from MLB to WLB. Ellerbe is the lone Bulldog LB to start all four games. Meanwhile, true freshman Clint Boling made his second straight start, tonight at right guard in place of the injured Scott Haverkamp who did not make the trip. Last week, Boling started at RT.
*Howard With the Call: Tonight marked only the second time in 42+ years that Georgia play-by-play announcer Larry Munson did not call the game for the Bulldogs. This season, he has announced plans to only call the home games and the road date at Georgia Tech. This season, long-time color analyst Scott Howard serves as the play-by-play announcer on the road with former Bulldog All-America quarterback Eric Zeier providing color analysis.
*Looking Ahead: Up next, Georgia (3-1, 1-1 SEC) plays host to Ole Miss (1-3, 0-2 SEC) Saturday at 1 p.m. The Bulldogs have won seven straight in the series and hold a 29-12-1 edge all-time.
