Georgia weathers ‘unfortunate’ overturned call to beat No. 1 Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — Georgia coach Kirby Smart had been waiting for his team to put together a complete performance.

It finally arrived in the No. 5 Bulldogs’ 30-15 upset of No. 1 Texas at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.

“Nobody gave us a chance,” Smart told ESPN. “Your own network doubted us. And then they tried to rob us with calls in this place. These guys are so resilient.”

Three weeks after Georgia fell behind by four touchdowns in the first half of a 41-34 loss at Alabama, the Bulldogs flipped the script and grabbed a 23-0 lead at halftime against the Longhorns.

Georgia’s defense sacked Texas’ quarterbacks seven times and had 10 tackles for loss. The Longhorns finished with 259 yards of offense, including 29 rushing. Texas went 2-for-15 on third down and 1-for-5 on fourth.

Georgia, playing at Texas for the first time since 1958, handed the Longhorns their first loss of the season. Texas was the last remaining unbeaten team in the SEC. According to ESPN Research, it’s the first time since 2007 that every SEC team lost before the end of October.

Georgia’s 15-point victory tied for the third-most lopsided road win against an AP No. 1 team all time and was the biggest since  Notre Dame defeated  Pittsburgh 31-16 in 1982.

In a city that prides itself on keeping things weird, a crazy sequence of events nearly helped the Longhorns get back in the game.

With Texas trailing 23-8 with three minutes left in the third quarter, Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck threw down the left sideline for wide receiver Arian Smith on third-and-10 from the Georgia 31-yard line. Longhorns safety Jahdae Barron stepped in front of Smith and intercepted the pass. He returned it 36 yards to the Georgia 9.

That’s when things got strange.

Initially, officials penalized Barron for pass interference, giving the ball back to the Bulldogs. Referee Matt Loeffler announced the call to the crowd and walked off the 15-yard penalty.

Texas fans booed the call while watching replays on the stadium’s jumbotron. Some threw debris into the north end zone, stopping play for a few minutes. While staff members and security cleaned up the bottles, officials conferred again and reversed the call.

When Loeffler told Smart about the reversal on the sideline, the Georgia coach told him, “You can’t do that! You can’t do that! … That’s bulls—!”

“Now we’ve set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes that you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed,” Smart said. “And that’s unfortunate because, to me, that’s dangerous. That’s not what we want, and that’s not criticizing officials. That’s what happened.”

Smart said Loeffler suggested to him that the penalty was called on the wrong player — that it should have been offensive pass interference against Smith.

“It took him a long time to realize that,” Smart said.

In a statement released early Sunday morning, the SEC said officials “gathered to discuss the play, which is permitted to ensure the proper penalty is enforced.”

At that time, according to the league, “the calling official reported that he erred, and a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference. Consequently, Texas was awarded the ball at the [Georgia] 9-yard line.”

“While the original evaluation and assessment of the penalty was not properly executed, it is unacceptable to have debris thrown on the field at any time,” the SEC said.

The league said it would review fan conduct related to its sportsmanship policies and procedures.

“I understand the frustration,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We were all frustrated in the moment, but all of us, the Longhorn Nation, I know we can be better than that.”

Sarkisian said officials didn’t explain to him why the call was reversed.

Barron told reporters that the delay in cleaning up the bottles on the field “most likely” helped in officials changing the call.

“It was crazy,” Barron said. “I thought it was a bad call, so it was good that it changed.”

Despite Smart’s protest, Texas took over at the Bulldogs’ 9. Following a first-down sack, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers threw a 17-yard touchdown to Jaydon Blue over the middle. The point-after kick made it 23-15. Suddenly, the Longhorns had life after doing very little in the first half.

But Georgia’s offense answered with a long touchdown drive of its own. A 43-yard pass on a flea-flicker to tight end Oscar Delp moved the Bulldogs to Texas’ 25-yard line. On first-and-goal, Beck ran for 5 yards to the 1. After two straight stops by the Longhorns, Georgia tailback Trevor Etienne ran into the end zone on fourth-and-goal, pushing the lead to 30-15 with 12:04 to play.

Etienne finished with 87 yards on 19 rushes with three touchdowns.

After trailing 23-0, Texas finally got on the scoreboard after it recovered Georgia’s onside kick attempt to start the second half. Ewers, who was benched to end the half, started the third quarter. Following a pass interference penalty against Bulldogs safety KJ Bolden in the end zone, Ewers threw a 2-yard touchdown and the ensuing 2-point pass to Isaiah Bond to cut Georgia’s lead to 23-8.

Beck threw two interceptions early, the second coming on a tipped pass to Barron at Texas’ 5-yard line with 3:34 left in the first quarter.

Georgia’s defense didn’t allow the Longhorns to get much of anything going, however, after surrendering two first downs on Texas’ opening possession.

Following Beck’s second interception, Georgia cornerback Daylen Everette blitzed from Ewers’ blind side on third-and-6 from Texas’ 27-yard line. Everette’s jarring tackle caused Ewers to fumble, and Everette recovered the ball at the 13-yard line.

Four plays later, Etienne scored a 2-yard touchdown on a toss sweep to the left for a 7-0 lead with six seconds left in the first quarter.

Texas’ offense went three-and-out on each of its next three possessions.

On third-and-7 from the Longhorns’ 11-yard line, Bulldogs linebacker Jalon Walker dropped Ewers for a 9-yard sack. After returning the ensuing punt, Georgia took over at Texas’ 28-yard line and  Peyton Woodring kicked a 33-yard field goal for a 10-0 advantage with 10:46 remaining in the first half.

It would only get worse for the Longhorns. On the next series, Everette intercepted Ewers’ pass to wideout  Matthew Golden at Texas’ 34-yard line. That set up Etienne’s 15-yard touchdown run up the middle, giving the Bulldogs a 17-0 lead with 8:30 to go in the half.

Georgia made it 20-0 on a 48-yard field goal with 4:43 remaining.

Sarkisian benched Ewers and replaced him with redshirt freshman Arch Manning on the next possession.

Ewers was 6-for-12 passing for 17 yards with one interception in the half. He was sacked three times and lost a fumble. The Longhorns had just 15 yards on 23 plays when Manning came into the game.

Manning, the nephew of former NFL quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning, didn’t do much better. Texas punted on his first drive, then Manning was sacked by linebacker  Damon Wilson II and fumbled on the second drive. Walker recovered the ball at Texas’ 30-yard line.

Woodring booted a 44-yard field goal on the final play of the half to put Georgia ahead 23-0.

Walker, a junior from Salisbury, North Carolina, had seven tackles and three sacks in the first half. He is the first player to do so in a game against an AP No. 1-ranked team in the past 20 years, according to ESPN Research.

Smart collected his 100th victory in 117 games as his alma mater’s coach, which ranks fifth fastest to 100 wins with Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne and Chris Petersen, who did it at  Boise State and  Washington.