There are a lot of plays that stand out from Georgia football’s heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, but the play that arguably has received the most attention happened didn’t even happen on the field.
Gunner Stockton connected on a huge play down the sideline that put the Bulldogs back in the red zone and on the verge of taking a 7-0 lead. But walk-on Parker Jones was flagged for getting in the sideline officials way on the play.
This penalty pushed Georgia back 15 yards and killed any momentum UGA had on this drive, which ended in Georgia settling for three points. Kirby Smart was asked about this play after the game, and he was obviously very disappointed.
"Yeah, very unfortunate. We had — they said a coach but I think it was a player, from what I've been told — in the white, and the white is reserved for the officials," Smart said via 247sports.com. "That's a safety concern. Most of the time, they'll grant you a warning on that; but it was not a -- it was a situation where it cost us 15 yards. We still had first and ten and didn't take advantage of it. But, again, I call those things undisciplined, self-imposed wounds that you lose momentum on. So, it's just something you can't have happen."
Does Parker Jones deserve blame for this loss?
Jones definitely deserves blame for this loss, but how much blame is the better question.
One could argue that Jones cost Georgia four points because it looked like UGA was a couple plays away from finding the end zone when this incident occurred. But as everyone knows, Georgia lost by 13 points, so a four point swing wouldn’t have changed the outcome. However, the game could have played out completely different had Georgia took a 7-0 lead instead of a 3-0 lead.
But even if that’s the case, it’s unlikely Georgia would have won this game. It was at this point in the first half when Notre Dame began taking control of the game, and their dominant finish to the half and touchdown to start the second half still would have occurred.
So Jones does deserve some blame because of this play, but he doesn’t deserve as much backlash as he has received. So hopefully the fanbase cuts him some slack as Georgia could have done many other things better to win this game.