Familiar sick feeling for Georgia’s Maurice Smith

Maurice Smith was nearly inconsolable as he jogged off the field, trying in vain to wipe the tears from his eyes and the pain from his heart as he was ushered by an assistant coach. Unlike his Georgia teammates, Smith, a transfer from Alabama, knew the sickening feeling of losing on the final play of the game.

“This feels like my freshman year at Auburn, losing like that,” Smith said. “It’s heart-breaking. It’s hard.”

That game, of course, was Kick Six, when Auburn stunned Bama on Chris Davis’s 109-yard missed field goal return. No, what happened Saturday at Sanford Stadium wasn’t quite as dramatic and certainly not as historic. It was just your garden variety Hail Mary pass as time expired to give Tennessee a 34-31 win.

It didn’t knock the Bulldogs out of the national championship picture because they weren’t really in it, especially not after losing to Ole Miss 45-14 a week earlier. But it was gut-wrenching nonetheless for a Georgia team trying to regain national respect.

“The thing is, we’ve got to finish,” Smith said. “Now, we’ve just got to get ready for next week and get better.”

“It makes me sick to my stomach,” said Georgia coach Kirby Smart.

Smith was one of six Georgia players in the end zone as Josh Dobbs heaved a desperation pass. Even so, Smith didn’t see exactly what happened right at the moment. There was too much commotion. Too many bodies clustered together. But he knew exactly what happened as he saw Jauan Jennings lying flat on his back in the end zone, cradling the football as his Tennessee teammates rushed the field to celebrate.

Just like that, Georgia lost a game that it had led almost in its entirety. Even after the Vols took their first lead of the day when Corey Vereen recovered Jacob Eason’s fumble in the end zone for a touchdown, the Dogs regained the lead on Eason’s 47-yard touchdown pass to Riley Ridley with 10 seconds to play in the game.

But the Bulldogs’ lack of discipline cost them twice and made the game-winning play much easier. First, they were flagged for excessive celebration after the touchdown. A Georgia player ran from the sideline onto the field with his helmet off.

The 15-yard penalty was enforced on the kickoff, forcing Georgia to kick from its 20. The short kickoff was returned by Evan Berry to the Georgia 48. Then came the second mistake. An offsides penalty on the kickoff gave Tennessee the ball at the 43 with four seconds left.

The Bulldogs spread four players deep to defend the end zone — Lorenzo Carter, Dominic Sanders, Quincy Mauger and Aaron Davis. They had four other defensive backs locked on Tennessee’s four receivers.

It’s the typical do-or-die formations for both offense and defense. The numbers and the odds favor the defense.

“We practice it over and over again,” Smith said. “It’s nothing new. You see it all the time. You see it on ESPN, people losing like that. For us as a team, it’s heart-breaking.”

To Smart, the difference in the game was more than just the final play. The Dogs committed eight penalties and had assignment breakdowns despite outgaining the Vols 392-357 yards in total offense.

“Undisciplined,” Smart lamented. “Undisciplined players, undisciplined decisions will get you beat. We had some undisciplined penalties that cost us and that’s disheartening. The biggest thing that beat us was special teams. They out-competed us. They out-played us in special teams. We knew going into the game that they have the best special teams units that we’ve seen. They compete. They challenge you. They block you. They did just that. I know it will come back to that last play. But for me, a lot of things could have changed that.”

This was Georgia’s chance for redemption. The Dogs proved Saturday that they were a much better team than the one that was embarrassed by Ole Miss. They made strides in running the football, rushing for 181 yards even with Nick Chubb sidelined for all but one play. Eason struggled at times but put up respectable numbers, completing 17 of 28 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns. Seven of those completions and both touchdowns were to a pair highly touted freshmen, Isaac Nauta and Ridley.

Smart acknowledged some of the positive signs from the game but was in no mood to be impressed.

“I am not into moral victories. I’m sick to my stomach for these kids because we deserved to win that game, but we had some undisciplined penalties that cost us the game. When undisciplined players make undisciplined decisions, that’s what happens. So we learned an extremely valuable lesson for a group of young men that are in that room that are sick to their stomach because about 95 percent of them did it right.”

The Dogs’ chances of winning the SEC East are remote. The Volunteers will have to lose three conference games. Even if they fall to Texas A&M and Alabama the next two weeks, that means they would have to lose to South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri or Vanderbilt.

Georgia finds itself in virtually a must-win situation this week going to South Carolina.

“You get up because you have to,” Smart said. “It’s who you are. It defines you.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Familiar sick feeling for Georgia’s Maurice Smith."