Georgia Pulls Away from Vanderbilt with 17 Straight Second-half Points
Georgia 21, Vanderbilt 14. That was the score at halftime, and it was a game. Then Georgia scored the next 17 points and finished 38-14, running its record to 5-0 while Vanderbilt dropped to 3-2.
The Bulldogs struck first on a 2-yard pass from Gunner Stockton to Landon Roldan, and Vanderbilt tied it at 7 with 12 seconds left in the first quarter when Blaze Berlowitz hit Junior Sherrill for 60 yards. Georgia added a Chauncey Bowens run and a Jaden Reddell run to lead 21-7, and Sedrick Alexander got Vanderbilt back within a touchdown with 0:31 left in the half. That was the last time Vanderbilt scored. Georgia was never behind, and Vanderbilt never got closer than seven after the early tie.
The second half belonged to Stockton and the Georgia passing game. Elyiss Williams caught a 1-yard touchdown in the third quarter, Peyton Woodring kicked a 39-yard field goal early in the fourth, and Dwight Phillips Jr. finished it with a 12-yard touchdown catch at 6:02. Count it up: 17 unanswered points after Vanderbilt's last score.
The totals agree. Georgia gained 473 yards to Vanderbilt's 293, threw for 295 without an interception and ran for 178. Vanderbilt threw one pick and managed 85 yards on 26 carries, so the offense that scored twice in the first half had little left after the break.
Fantasy owners who held Stockton got what they paid for, 32 points. Sherrill gave Vanderbilt owners a nice 23.7 in a losing effort, and Phillips turned five carries and five catches into his best game of the year.