Tennessee Football: Vols Beat Georgia After Consecutive Hail Mary Passes
Tennessee football’s magical season continues. The Volunteers beat the Georgia Bulldogs 34-31 off of a 43-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired in Athens.
Is this Tennessee football team a team of destiny?
Jacob Eason didn’t think he could get outdone after connecting on a Hail Mary pass with 10 seconds to go to give Georgia the lead over Tennessee football 3.
Joshua Dobbs topped him. Dobbs hit Jauan Jennings on a 43-yard touchdown pass with four seconds left to secure a 34-31 victory for the Vols in Athens.
The Hail Mary was in no small part due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that Georgia had after scoring their touchdown. Then they committed an offside penalty on the kickoff. A nice return by Evan Berry on top of that put the Vols on the Georgia 43-yard line.
With the win, Tennessee moves to 5-0 and 2-0 in the SEC, while the Dawgs fall to 3-2 and 1-2 in the conference. The Vols also have key wins over Florida and Georgia and are firmly in control of the SEC East.
The Vols came back from a three-score deficit for the second straight week and from a double-digit deficit for the fourth time in five games.
They fell behind 17-0 in the first half and made it 17-7 at halftime. In the second half, they cut it to 17-14 on the opening drive.
However, Eason’s first touchdown pass of the game extended Georgia’s lead to 24-14. The Vols cut it to 24-21 early in the fourth, but they still had trouble consistently generating offense.
The key in the game happened when Trevor Daniel pinned the Bulldogs inside the five-yard line late in the fourth quarter. Two plays later, Derek Barnett strip-sacked Eason in the end zone, and Corey Vereen recovered it for a touchdown.
That seemed to be the highlight of the day with Tennessee up at that point 28-24. And after Malik Foreman got an interception, they appeared to be in complete control.
But Butch Jones decided to play it safe and let the defense win. With three straight running plays, he gave it back to Georgia with 1:20 left.
And a minute later on that drive, the magic happened when Eason hit Riley Ridley for a 47-yard touchdown. Foreman, who made the interception, completely misread the play.
It was the first time all year that Bob Shoop’s defense began to fold in key moments. But Dobbs had his own magic in what appears to be a magical season for Tennessee football.
The senior quarterback finished 16 of 26 for 230 yards and three touchdowns along with one interception. He also had 11 carries for 26 yards and a touchdown.
Jauan Jennings led the team in receiving with three catches for 71 yards.
Alvin Kamara led the team in rushing with 16 carries for 62 yards, and he added three receptions for 26 yards.
Jalen Hurd, who did not see the field after the first drive of the second half, had 10 carries for 42 yards and three receptions for 50 yards and a touchdown.
Hurd could’ve had another touchdown in the first half, but as he was walking into the end zone after a long reception, he got hit at the one-yard line and fumbled it. Georgia was up 10-0 at the time and immediately drove down the field for a 17-0 lead.
Before Hurd’s fumble, Alvin Kamara had a fumble to spot the Dawgs a field goal. The Vols had three turnovers on the day.