Georgia football: Top performers from the Bulldogs win over Oklahoma

Honorable mentions

of course many other Bulldogs are to thank for the win Monday night so here’s a quick run through of those players.

Rodrigo Blankenship

What a night for the former walk-on. After an early missed field goal, Blankenship was the player of the game. First was the field goal as time expired to end the first half. He kicked both a career long and a Rose Bowl record 55-yard field goal through the uprights.

Then after halftime, he abandoned the easy touchbacks for high kicks that gave the coverage team a chance to make plays. And they sure made those plays. With the height of the kicks and the placement around the goal line and not around the 10 or 15, Georgia’s coverage team had an easy time stopping Oklahoma’s Jeff Badet before he could reach the 25-yard line.

Oklahoma’s starting field position in the second half was their own 17-yard line. The field position battle certainly helped Georgia come back in the second half. The defense played with a lot of grass behind. And that led to the offense taking over with a short field.

Cameron Nizialek

Of course we can’t talk about field position just mention Blankenship, Nizialek played his part as well. Like Blankenship, his day began with a bad kick. Late in the first half, he fired a bad punt that gave Oklahoma great field position. After that, he was near perfect. His very next punt was downed at the 10-yard line.

His first two punts of the second half placed Oklahoma at the two and 12-yard lines. His last sailed out-of-bounds at the 23. His punting provided a big boost for Georgia’s defense.

Tae Crowder

Yes, Crowder is one here for just one play. But the importance of that play cannot be overstated. Oklahoma kicked a squib kick with six seconds left in the first half after scoring a touchdown to take a 31-14 lead.

Everyone wants to talk about how dumb of a decision it was to kick the squib . But No one wants to praise Crowder for making an unbelievable stop and then falling on the ball to give Georgia possession at the 48-yard line with five seconds left. Just enough time for a quick pass and a field goal.

Next: Keys to victory in the National Championship Game

That play was unbelievable because that ball had to be going fast in the air and he caught it. Besides that, he’s expecting a normal kickoff, so his first reaction as the ball leaves the foot is to start blocking. But he made such a quick reaction to make the catch. And if he doesn’t catch it, it’s a live ball and Oklahoma can recover. Plus, he then fell down instead of running to preserve time for the offense.

It was the play of the game after just one half. That one, seemingly insignificant play ended up being the moment that the momentum turned to Georgia’s favor. And it all happened because of the quick reflexes and awareness of one player.