Georgia’s Greyson Lambert plays mistake-free football in win over Louisiana-Monroe

ATHENS -- Greyson Lambert wasn’t asked to do much in his Georgia debut.

As it did a year ago, No. 9 Georgia used a powerful rushing attack that totaled 243 yards to coast to a 51-14 win over Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday.

Lambert’s performance came with mistakes at a minimum. He tossed two touchdowns -- his first on a 15-yard pass to tight end Jeb Blazevich in the first quarter and the other one on a 28-yard fade in the corner of the right end zone to receiver Malcolm Mitchell in the third quarter. The touchdown to Mitchell put Georgia (1-0) up 44-14, which put the Warhawks (0-1) away for good.

Even though Lambert finished the game 8-of-12 for 141 yards and most importantly zero interceptions, he said it was just as gratifying to watch the offensive line block for his runners, which did most of the heavy lifting.

“What felt just as good was being able to hand the ball off to (Nick) Chubb, Sony (Michel), Keith (Marshall) or Brendan (Douglas) and seeing a hole as wide as a Mack truck and watching them do their thing,” Lambert said. “That’s a lot of fun, too.”

Lambert, named Georgia’s starting quarterback Monday, played the majority of the game with the first team. He had excellent protection throughout the game and didn’t suffer one sack. Two of his incompletions came on batted balls, and another came in the first quarter on a pass to freshman tight end Jackson Harris, who caught the ball but couldn’t get a foot inbounds.

Lambert’s lone mishap was a muffed shotgun snap that Chubb recovered early in the third quarter.

Georgia head coach Mark Richt said it was a positive first performance for the Virginia transfer, who arrived in Athens this summer after spending his first three years with the Cavaliers.

“I think every ball he threw had a good purpose,” Richt said. “He was really pretty accurate when there were people open. I think he made good decisions, good accurate throws. Made some nice checks at the line of scrimmage.”

One of those checks came with the aid of offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, who got a call relayed to him from the coaches’ box. It was in the second quarter, and Schottenheimer yelled at Lambert to switch the play call to a different run.

This turned into a 23-yard touchdown run from Chubb that gave the Bulldogs a 28-0 lead. That score was Chubb’s second of the game, with his first coming on Georgia’s second drive. The sophomore Heisman Trophy contender cut back into a sizeable hole created by the offensive line and trotted 14 yards into the end zone for the game’s first score.

“It was wide open,” Chubb said. “Anyone could have done that.”

On Georgia’s ensuing offensive possession, backup quarterback Brice Ramsey entered the game and converted two timely third-down passes. The first was a 20-yard pass to receiver Terry Godwin on a third-and-17, and the second was a 31-yard screen play for a touchdown to Michel, one that Ramsey held on to until the final second to get the best possible result.

Although the Bulldogs held a 35-0 lead late in the second quarter, they surrendered touchdowns to close the first half and to open the second half -- both on connections from Louisiana-Monroe quarterback Garrett Smith to receiver Rashon Ceasar.

The Bulldogs weren’t pleased with the way the second half opened, which saw the Warhawks make the game a tad interesting after it looked like it would be a definite blowout.

“We just came out flat,” linebacker Leonard Floyd said.

With the Georgia lead cut to 35-14, and with Louisiana-Monroe controlling the ball at its own 14-yard line on a third-and-9, a storm came through and delayed the game for 61 minutes (a second storm ended the game with less than 10 minutes remaining). When play resumed, Smith found Ceasar for the needed first-down yardage, but the Warhawks’ receiver could not come down with the ball.

On the next play, which came after a delay of game penalty, freshman linebacker D’Andre Walker blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety. Four Georgia offensive plays later, Lambert found Mitchell for the 28-yard score.

“(We got) nine points in a very short amount of time,” Richt said.

Lambert had a whirlwind of a week. He woke up Monday not knowing the coaching staff would name him the starter. During the day, Schottenheimer informed the quarterbacks of the decision before Richt told the team following practice.

Richt reiterated that Lambert is the starter and will be.

“I’ve just tried to treat it like any other week,” Lambert said. “I was named the starter and didn’t have much time to think about it because we were planning for Louisiana-Monroe. To put up the points we were able to do came a lot from the defense, punts being blocked -- it was a full team effort.”

No. 9 GEORGIA 51, LOUISIANA-MONROE 14

Louisiana-Monroe 0-7-7-0 -- 14

Georgia 14-21-9-7 -- 51

First Quarter

Geo -- Chubb 14 run (Morgan kick), 10:45.

Geo -- Blazevich 15 pass from Lambert (Morgan kick), 10:25.

Second Quarter

Geo -- Marshall 3 run (Morgan kick), 12:41.

Geo -- Chubb 23 run (Morgan kick), 7:01.

Geo -- Michel 31 pass from Ramsey (Morgan kick), 2:06.

ULM -- Ceaser 22 pass from Smith (C.Ford kick), :20.

Third Quarter

ULM -- Ceaser 29 pass from Smith (C.Ford kick), 11:02.

Geo -- Safety, 8:06.

Geo -- Mitchell 28 pass from Lambert (Morgan kick), 6:40.

Fourth Quarter

Geo -- Marshall 2 run (Morgan kick), 10:58.

A -- 92,746.

ULM Geo

First downs 12 19

Rushes-yards 26-45 38-243

Passing 206 192

Comp-Att-Int 23-29-1 10-14-0

Return Yards 0 63

Punts-Avg. 8-30.0 4-43.8

Fumbles-Lost 4-0 1-0

Penalties-Yards 5-30 4-30

Time of Possession 26:40 23:26

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Louisiana-Monroe, Smith 13-26, Watson 5-11, McNeal 7-6, Ceaser 1-2. Georgia, Chubb 16-120, Marshall 10-73, Michel 6-41, Douglas 3-17, Lambert 1-(minus 1), Team 1-(minus 1), Ramsey 1-(minus 6).

PASSING -- Louisiana-Monroe, Smith 23-29-1-206. Georgia, Lambert 8-12-0-141, Ramsey 2-2-0-51.

RECEIVING -- Louisiana-Monroe, Ceaser 13-153, Holley 3-8, Perrier 2-10, Watson 2-6, Turner 1-17, Scioneaux 1-7, McNeal 1-5. Georgia, Mitchell 3-52, Godwin 3-31, Michel 2-79, Blazevich 1-15, Hicks 1-15.

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Georgia’s Greyson Lambert plays mistake-free football in win over Louisiana-Monroe ."