University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldogs Fight Until The End
December 07, 2019 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
ATLANTA — Sometimes, when it's all piling up against you and even giving everything you've got isn't going to be enough to come out on top, the only thing you can do is just keep going. It can be a beautifully noble thing, that, continuing to push the boulder up the mountain even though the darn thing only seems to be getting bigger and heavier.
"I always will fight to the end," a somber Georgia sophomore defensive lineman Jordan Davis said after No. 2 LSU rocketed past the fourth-ranked Bulldogs, 37-10, in the SEC Championship Game.
Facing a mighty, mighty opponent in undefeated LSU on Saturday inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a Tigers team that has dropped some high-explosives on pretty much everyone it has played this season and has one of the best offenses in college football history, Georgia took the field already banged up and shorthanded. Things didn't get any better after the opening kick soared through the back of the end zone.
Georgia at its very best might have beaten LSU on Saturday, but the Bulldogs weren't at their best, not with wideout Lawrence Cager out for the season, wideout George Pickens suspended for the first half following his ejection at Georgia Tech last week and tailback D'Andre Swift less than 100 percent due to a shoulder injury — and the list only got longer as the game progressed.
Pickens returned for the second half Saturday, but by then wideout Dominick Blaylock had been lost to a knee injury after making a big third-down catch down to the LSU 38-yard line during Georgia's third drive. Blaylock, the talented freshman, went down without anyone touching him.
It was only a 7-0 LSU lead at that point, with Georgia driving, but losing Blaylock from an already depleted wideout corps was a big blow. Also in the first half, wideout Kearis Jackson suffered an ankle injury.
In addition, quarterback Jake Fromm left the game briefly before returning with a heavily taped left ankle. On his first drive back, with Georgia down 17-3 and needing to get something going late in the half, Fromm had a couple of nice completions before underthrowing Tyler Simmons on a deep ball to the left side. The pass was intercepted, Fromm's first INT since the South Carolina game.
"They just made more plays than we made," senior running back Brian Herrien said of LSU. "We had a lot of hurt players, too. That played a big part in it as well, but that's part of football — we can't do anything about that."
On the opening kickoff of the third quarter, Georgia kicking to LSU, outside linebacker Walter Grant was hit high by LSU's Tory Carter, a targeting hit that earned Carter an ejection, and Grant was on the ground for a couple of minutes before leaving the field for good. A couple of plays later, Georgia's training staff was back on the field tending to an injured Tyrique Stevenson, the freshman cornerback that's been coming on strong late in the season. Stevenson was eventually driven off the field on a cart.
The injuries mounted, taking their cumulative toll in so many ways, and the boulder Georgia was pushing against kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
In between all of these injuries, Georgia played on, competed and hung around as best it could. The Bulldogs only trailed the Tigers 17-3 at the half. It was still a game on the scoreboard, though LSU had outgained Georgia 255-138. Both teams could have done more offensively but were hampered by dropped passes, something LSU was able to overcome but Georgia wasn't.
LSU drove deep into Georgia territory on the first drive of the second half, after Grant and Stevenson's injuries, and there Georgia was fighting like heck to keep the Tigers out of the end zone. And the Bulldogs did, thanks in part to a sack for a 7-yard loss by Davis on first down at the UGA 3. LSU had to settle for a field goal and it was 20-3.
Still, now down 17 midway through the third quarter, Georgia, still within reach on the scoreboard, kept pushing on that boulder. There was Fromm, bad ankle and all, tucking and running for 14 yards to the LSU 48.
Later, on fourth-and-8, Fromm hit Pickens for an 18-yard gain, complete with a Pickens hop over a defender, down to the Tiger 17. On third down the 20, Fromm threw a great ball up to Matt Landers in traffic in the end zone and the big wideout couldn't come down with the ball. And then kicker Rodrigo Blankenship missed his second attempt of the game, this one from 37 yards.
Soon, it was 34-3 and the fourth quarter was about to begin. Then it was 34-10 after Fromm hit Pickens for a 2-yard score. Too little, too late — for sure, but they were still trying.
On the ensuing LSU drive, there was Davis pounding the turf in frustration after a ballcarrier narrowly escaped a Davis tackle in the backfield.Â
"I'm always a competitor, I'm not going to go down until the fat lady sings," the 6-foot-6 and 330-pound Davis said. "It was just frustrating because I missed the tackle. I play the best that I can, even when the chips are down."
On the next play, there was Devonta Wyatt sacking Burrow for a 5-yard loss. Sure, you could say it didn't matter at that point. But don't try to convince the guys out there working and competing and trying to win every single play that what they were doing, even when down 31, didn't matter.
"I play for the team, our coaches, family, everybody that put in the work with me to get this opportunity that we had today," Herrien said. "Whenever I get the chance to showcase it, I'm going to go out on the field and go hard for the people that have been here with me."
Davis couldn't agree more.
"I'm playing for everybody," he said. "I'm playing for the people back home, I'm playing for the people around, playing for my teammates, for the coaches, just playing."
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
