The 2018 Georgia football season begins in 55 days.
There are now less than eight weeks until it’s time to tee it up between the hedges against Austin Peay. Only 55 days stand between us and the start of the 2018 season. This season, Georgia attempts to prove that they aren’t one-hit wonders as they defense their SEC Championship and work their way back to the National Championship Game.
Last season a 55-yard field goal helped Georgia football win the Rose Bowl to earn a spot in the title game. Down 31-14 after a terrible first 29 minutes, Rodrigo Blankenship set a Rose Bowl record with his 55-yard strike right down the middle of the goal posts. That cut the lead to 31-17 at halftime.
A 31-17 margin might now seem too different from 31-14. But the former is just a two-score game while the latter is a three-score disadvantage. Those three, seemingly measly points changed the players attitudes in the locker room. With Blankenship’s boot, the momentum of the game shifted in Georgia’s favor and no one even realized it until the third quarter.
Of course it helped that Georgia deferred the kickoff to the second half. They started the third quarter with possession. Nick Chubb rumbled 50 yards to the end zone to cut the score down to just 31-24. The Bulldogs later tied the game in the third and took their first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter.
That whole comeback began with Blankenship’s record-breaking field goal. But he wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to make that shot without Tae Crowder stopping a squib kick. Or without Jake Fromm hitting Terry Godwin on the sideline to get the ball to the 45-yard line with a frozen clock.
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Football is the ultimate team sport. It’s always interesting to analyze games and find the seemingly small moments that produced a victory. Crowder’s catch and Blankenship’s 55-yard field goal before halftime were minor plays when they happened. Just throw away moments in a lopsided ball game. But the two produced a comeback that led to one of the biggest victories in school history.