What occurred on Tennessee's desperation pass, which Smart called a 'sick way to end the game'

Every Thursday, Georgia practices the defensive play it ran at the end of Saturday’s gut-wrenching 34-31 defeat to Tennessee.

“Odd four deep check jump last play” is the name of it.

Basically, Georgia has four defensive backs cover the four receivers the opposition has running deep down the field. At least two jumpers are back to knock the ball down.

In this instance, one of the jumpers is outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter, who’s 6-foot-5 and can leap high with the theory that he'll be able to make first contact on the football in the air.

In practice, the play has been executed the way it’s supposed to be. Every receiver is covered, boxed out and the ball is knocked down. Against the Volunteers, the worst-case scenario occurred. While the other three receivers were accounted for as the ball was coming down, there wasn’t a body on receiver Jauan Jennings.

And Jennings was able to go up and out-jump the Georgia defense to come up with the game-winning touchdown with no time remaining.

“Sick way to end the game, obviously,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said.

Shortly after the game concluded, Georgia’s defenders on the play still weren’t sure what went wrong.

Defensive back Maurice Smith appeared to be responsible for tight end Jason Croom. Smith was on his defender and essentially shoved him out of the area to be able to make a play on the ball. Smith was in front of Croom and never really had a vantage point of the catch.

“I was in there. I just did my job and was hoping and praying my other teammates did theirs,” Smith said. “We’ll watch the film and get it cleaned up. I still don’t know what happened.”

Defensive back Aaron Davis was on the other side of the field guarding Josh Malone. By the time Malone and Davis got near the scrum, the ball was coming down.

Davis, like Smith, looked up and saw Jennings catching the ball with no one in front of him.

“I’m still in shock now that it happened,” Davis said. “I’ll never know if I’ll ever forget this, for the rest of my life. We’ll still talk about what could have been or what happened in this game. You just never know. The future is so far off. You never know.”

Inside linebacker Roquan Smith was tasked with guarding receiver Josh Smith and had him boxed out of the play.

Running with Jennings down the field was cornerback Deandre Baker, who made his first start of the season. When the two reached the end zone, Jennings cut inside and had Baker on his back. Safety Quincy Mauger was also in the vicinity and inadvertently knocked Baker backward and away from the ball. Baker ended up behind Croom as a result of the bump.

With Jennings cutting in and Baker pushed away, it created enough space for Jennings to gain position to try and come down with the game-winning touchdown.

Jennings was able to get in front of both Mauger and safety Dominick Sanders, who were converging on the ball and happened to step in front of Carter, who was initially lined up toward the back of the end zone.

Having Carter, the 6-foot-5 option to high-point the ball and knock it down, behind two safeties and Jennings turned into a death sentence for Georgia. Carter never had a chance to make a play on the ball.

Clearly, the combination of knocking Baker out of the play, having two safeties step in front of Carter and ultimately allowing Jennings to win position on a ball with no time was left wasn’t intended. But it’s something the Bulldogs have to live with, and will, for a long, long time.

“It hurts but we’ll get back to work hard to fix everything we did wrong, correct everything we did wrong,” Baker said. “We’ll fight hard this week in practice. We’ve got another game next week so we’ll get ready for that.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 11:05 PM with the headline "What occurred on Tennessee's desperation pass, which Smart called a 'sick way to end the game'."