Lorenzo Carter's blocked field goal in Rose Bowl paves way for Georgia win

Lorenzo Carter normally doesn't get the chance to block a field goal. His responsibility is to guard the tight end, to make sure he doesn't leak out of the formation in the event the opposition runs a fake.

On the final two field goals Oklahoma attempted in overtime in Georgia's 54-48 win in Monday's Rose Bowl, the tight end Carter would normally be assigned to was ineligible for a route. That gave Carter the chance to go rush the place-kicker.

Carter nearly got to the kick the first time but missed. Instead, place-kicker Austin Seibert was able to tie the game up at 48. On the next field goal try in double overtime, Carter pushed through some space, jumped high into the air and got his hand on the ball. The field goal try then fell short and gave Georgia the chance to win the game. The Bulldogs did just that with a Sony Michel 27-yard rushing touchdown.

Carter said the play happened swiftly. With the bang-bang nature of the play, Carter wasn't even sure what just occurred. But it didn't take long to know something special had just taken place.

"It happened so fast," Carter said. "I just got through there and tried to make a play."

Each of the field goal tries were similar. Georgia got pressure on the first attempt but just couldn't get a hand on the ball. The mistake Oklahoma made, in hindsight, was not accounting for Carter's 6-foot-6 frame to block the kick. Carter said he had a strong will to get to the second attempt after nearly coming up with a block on the first overtime try.

"I tried to dive through it and I almost got through there. But I didn't get quite to the ball ," Carter said. "The last one I knew I had to go all out and I tried to jump through, and got through there."

After the game, outside linebacker Davin Bellamy, Carter's close friend and teammate, expressed his happiness in the huge play that helped Georgia defeat the Sooners and reach its first true national championship game since the 1982 season.

But Bellamy noted that the Georgia outside linebackers have been making plays for a long time. So he doesn't think it shouldn't be much of a surprise to see Carter come up with such a big play.

"That's what we do in the Wolfpack, man," Bellamy said. "Y'all should be used to this. You had Jordan (Jenkins), you had (Leonard Floyd). It's a standard set. You're supposed to make a play."

This story was originally published January 1, 2018 at 11:58 PM with the headline "Lorenzo Carter's blocked field goal in Rose Bowl paves way for Georgia win."