Why a late first half timeout by Auburn gave Georgia offense the ‘momentum’ it needed

The situation seemed simple.

With just 1:19 left in the first half and leading 7-0, Kirby Smart wanted to be safe and not do anything foolish. So, he called a run on first down that gained five yards.

Then, Gus Malzahn called a timeout and the entire game changed.

The decision by the Auburn head coach allowed the Bulldogs to embark on a 81-yard scoring drive and take a 14-0 lead into halftime. By extension, Georgia took control of the game en route to a 21-14 victory.

“The end of the game, that probably ended up being the difference,” Smart said. “We were backed up, we wanted to be smart, but once we hit a play, that was big.”

At that point in the game, the Bulldog offense hadn’t done much except for a 51-yard touchdown from quarterback Jake Fromm to Dominick Blaylock. Smart had every reason not to try and push things, particularly with a defense that had been dominating up until then.

So, he called a run on first down. D’Andre Swift went for a gain of five, and then the timeout was called with 1:16 left in the half.

“It’s the age-old you’re never right as the head coach, because you’re danged if you do and danged if you don’t,” Smart said. “The good news is he took it out of my hands, I didn’t have to. So when he did that it made it a lot easier on me because they probably would have been booing me if I didn’t call a timeout.”

Fromm said the timeout, signifying that Auburn didn’t fear Georgia moving the ball, put a chip on the offense’s shoulder. They were motivated that much more to go down and put points on the board.

Coming out of the timeout, Georgia lined up in a customary shotgun formation. But instead of running the ball up the middle, Fromm pitched it left into the waiting arms of Swift who scampered 16 yards for a first down at the Bulldog 40-yard line.

“We knew we were going to try to hit a big play,” left tackle Andrew Thomas said. “We just knew that if we hit a big play, get some momentum going, we could go down and score.”

After two pass completions, a 26-yard run by Swift and a facemask penalty on Auburn, the Bulldogs found themselves with a first down at the Auburn 14 with just over 30 seconds on the clock. Three plays later, Fromm hit running back Brian Herrien on a rollout for his second touchdown pass of the game, extending the lead to 14-0 with just 20 seconds until halftime.

This drive represented one of the few bright spots for the offense. The group was held to just 251 total yards of offense and 3-of-15 on third downs with nine 3-and-outs.

But as Swift said, the Bulldogs were able to sustain focus on that drive late in the first half and get points in a critical situation. Maintaining that high level of focus for longer stretches for the rest of the season will be key for the offense’s success.

“There’s a lot of things we can get better at,” Thomas said. “That’s the perfect time, later in the season, you want to be reaching the best as an offensive unit.”